This document provides an overview of narrative theory and conventions. It discusses how narratives generally follow a three-act structure of setup, confrontation, and resolution. It also describes several theorists' models for analyzing narratives, including Propp's character archetypes, Barthes' five codes, and Levi-Strauss' concept of binary oppositions. Finally, it notes that postmodern narratives are more playful, self-reflexive, and use techniques like intertextuality, pastiche and temporal distortion.

1. Audience Theory
General conventions of storytelling:
■ Remember that your story should have some sort of conflict.
■ Conflict = something that the main protagonist should have to
overcome
■ Conflicts can be both internal (in the characters mind) or
external (culture, parents, friend, the law etc), good stories
have both
■ Most narratives following a basic structure:
■ Act 1: Introduces the main characters and sets up the conflict.
Something significant happens that changes the course of the
story
■ Act 2: Explorers the consequences of the significant moment.
What complications does this cause for the characters? What
are the possible outcomes?
■ Act 3: Resolves the conflict/story and tells us the new outcome.
It ties up loose ends to ensure the audience has understood the
story.
Definitions of Narrative:
■ Narrative is defined as “a chain of events in a cause-effect
relationship occurring in time” (Bordwell & Thompson).
■ Narrative is ‘a way of organising spatial and temporal events
into a cause-effect chain of events with a beginning, a middle,
and end that embodies a judgement about the nature of
events’ (Brannigan).

2. Narrative Theory:
■ Narrative theory analyses the way in which media texts
communicate meaning about events.
■ Narrative theory can be applied to range of different media
including film, TV. Photographs, and magazines.
■ Narrative analysis of internet based media is more problematic,
though may still be relevant. For example, you could consider
how someone’s Facebook profile creates a narrative about
their life.
Edward Branigan (1992):
 Branigan argues that narrative is ‘a way of organising spatial
and temporal data into a cause-effect chain of events with a
beginning, a middle and end that embodies a judgement about
the nature of events.’
 Branigan’s key point is that the narrative will embody a
judgement – ideology and narrative
Vladimir Propp (1928):
■ Propp was a Russian theorist who suggests that there are a
limited number of character types that share a function.
■ When an audience reads a media text it deploys its knowledge
of these character types in order to decode the meaning of the
text.
■ 1. The villain
■ 2. The hero, or character who seeks something
■ 3. The donor, who provides an object with some magic
property.

3. ■ 4. The helper, who aids the hero.
■ 5. The princess, reward for the hero, and object of the villain’s
schemes (can be male)
■ 6. Her father, who rewards the hero.
■ 7. The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way.
■ 8. The false hero, the character who also lays claim to the
princess but is unsuitable and causes complications.
Tzvetan Todorov (1969):

4. Roland Barthes (1960s):
■ Roland Barthes' narrative theory claims that a narrative can be
broken down into five codes or sets of rules to help the reader
make sense of it.
■ He emphasises the active role of readers in creating meaning,
and their ‘culturally formed expectations’.
■ The 5 codes:
1. Action code which refers to the events taking place through
action e.g. a fight or a chase
2. Referential code which refers to the information and
explanation
3. Semantic code which refers to the characters and
characterisation
4. Enigma code which is a narrative device that teases the
audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. Works
to delay the story’s ending pleasurably.
5. Symbolic code which refers to the connotations of signs
Claude Levi-Strauss (1972):
■ Social Anthropologist.
■ Studied myths of tribal cultures.
■ Examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs
and myths of a culture.
■ These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions.
■ His research has been adapted by theorists to reveal underlying
themes and symbolic oppositions in texts.
■ A conflict between two qualities or terms.

5. The Good The Bad
Christian (kings queens etc) pagan (witches)
domestic savage
weak princesses strong wrong doers
safe castles dark wilderness forests
pretty ugly
innocent devious
Allan Cameron- Modular Narratives (2008):
Since the early 1990s there has been a trend towards narrative
complexity within popular cinema.
Anachronic:
Modified flashbacks/flashforwards
No clear dominance between narrative threads
Forking-Path:
Alternative versions of the story
Outcomes that might result from slight changes
Episodic:
Collection of stories joined by a common theme
Split Screen:
Spatial rather than temporal lines
Postmodern Narratives:
■ Some theorists suggest that postmodern narratives are
different from previous narrative structures.
■ Characteristics of postmodern narratives include:

6. – Irony, playfulness, and black humour
– Intertextuality
– Pastiche
– Metanarratives
– Extreme self-reflexivity/self-awareness
– Temporal distortion
– Hyperreality
Narrative Analysis:
■ Narrative analysis involves considering how a range of
elements (including mise-en-scene, editing, camerawork,
sound, as well as events) create meaning for the audience.
■ Narrative analysis focuses on how the meanings made by the
audience are constructed.
■ It is useful for you to be aware of narrative theory as it may
help inform the construction of your short film.