2.3) Manipulation of Traditional Narrative Structure Pt. 2.pptx

1. Year 12 Media

2. Do all stories need to have
a point, or a moral?
Why, or why not? Focus Question

3. What are
narrative and
why do we like
them?
 Narratives are a basic way of making sense of our experience.
But stories and narratives are something more than this sequence
of events. It is very normal to ask: What’s the point of this story?
OrWhat's the moral of this story?The ideas of stories having a
moral, a point, or a lesson to teach goes back to biblical and
mythological stories, however, they are just as relevant in today’s
media narratives.
 These stories can be considered the means by which societies talk
to themselves. Often, they will look at certain human issues and
questions and by the end of the narrative, a solution, resolution or
overall message has been presented.

4. How does
narrative
structure
determine
meanings?
Narrative Patterns
 There is a basic structural pattern to narratives. Cultural theorist
TzvetanTodorov, stated that all narratives move between two
equilibriums:
 At the start of the narrative there is always a stable situation … something
occurs which introduces a disequilibrium, a disturbance to this situation…
At the end of the story the equilibrium is then re-established but is no
longer that of the beginning.
 The equilibriums at the end is a form of resolution of the questions,
enigmas and desires that have been introduced by the disturbance.
 The disturbing incident at the beginning of the story catalyses
changes for the main characters and often also sets up a goal or
objective that the protagonist strives to attain.This creates a
narrative question in the audience’s mind that draws us to the story:
we continually wonder how the protagonist will deal with the trial
and tribulations they face.
 These dramas need to be overcome before a new equilibrium can be
attained, and before the audience can feel a sense of narrative
closure.

5. How does
narrative
structure
determine
meanings?
Narrative Patterns
 There are several important consequences of the basic narrative
structure.
What falsities does the traditional
narrative structure presume about life,
or real stories?

6. How does
narrative
structure
determine
meanings?
Narrative Patterns
 There are several important consequences of the basic narrative
structure.
 First, it suggests that all problems disruptions must have a
resolution, an answer, which means that narrative as a formal
structure is reassuring and comforting structure: even if the ending is
potentially unhappy, at least it is resolved. (eg. Protagonists dying at
the end of a film American Beauty)
 Narrative serve to put a reassuring frame on the way we see and
structure life.
 Secondly, because there is closure to the story, audiences are invited
to do nothing more than feel an emotional response.The closure
suggests finality, which means that the audience is not invited to act,
to do something in response, even if it is a confronting story.
 This is an issue that some storytellers have wanted to challenge by
creating stories that do not have closed narrative structures.

7. How does
narrative
structure
determine
meanings?
Narrative Patterns
 There are several important consequences of the basic narrative
structure.
 Third, the way stories are told suggests an inevitability about the
outcome – there are no other possible solutions, it had to end that
way.
 But it is possible to produce narratives that suggest a range of
different outcomes and narrative possibilities. Such narratives are
rare in film and television, a branching narrative structure that
invites audience’s interaction and participation by offering
choices among multiple pathways, setting and character traits is
increasingly common in computer games, interactive television,
and other variants of computer mediated communication.
 This can draw audience’s attention to the fact that narrative are
constructed, and not inevitable outcomes.
Can you think of a film, show or media narrative that falls into this category?

8. Black Mirror
Bandersnatch
 In late 2018, Netflix dropped a new episode of BLACK MIRROR—
or a Black Mirror film, if you want to look at it that way.
 Set in 1984, it’s titled BANDERSNATCH and it’s about a young
programmer (FionnWhitehead) who finds his grasp on reality
slipping away after he begins work on a new video game.
 But what sets Bandersnatch apart from previous instalments
of Black Mirror is that it’s a choose-your-own-adventure edition,
with many decisions for viewers to make and many possible paths
for the story to take. As you watch, the episode logs your choices
to shape how “your” reality unfolds.
Manipulation of Narrative Structure

9. How does
narrative
structure
determine
meanings?
Narrative Patterns
 Narratives are essentially driven by questions and answers that hook
the audience into the narrative – we want to know what happens
next. All narratives are set up by key questions or puzzles.
 The way audiences are involved in film are:
 The viewer is prompted to ask questions – for example,Who dunnit?Who
is this mysterious?Will they fall in love?
 Audiences watch on, confident of getting an answer eventually
 The film, meanwhile, lays down the viewers path a series of false trails
dead ends, and delays, keeping us from the answer – just yet,
 The film introduces smaller questions that get answered quickly.
 The film also leaves ‘lying around’ certain clues, hints, and tantalizing
revelations about the original ‘big question’.These lure viewers onwards.
 The viewers predicts, from time to time, answers to questions and then
adjusts these predictions according to new evidence and re-predicts until
she/she reaches the conclusion with a start of surprise or satisfaction of
expected fulfillment.

10. Memento
Let’s talk!!!!

11. Memento
Let’s talk!!!!
This ongoing process of asking and answering questions leaves us both
satisfied and wanting more: we become involved viewers, emotionally,
imaginatively, and intellectually engaged with the story world rather than
distanced from it. It encourages us to question the institute of cinema and
the dream-like stories it offers.