The document discusses key concepts in narrative film including: - Narrative, which is a story or account of events with a beginning, middle, and end. - Cinematography, which refers to the visual elements that make up a scene like lighting, actors, sets, and camera work. - Mise-en-scene, which is everything the viewer sees on screen including props, actors, and lighting to set the scene. - Genre conventions allow viewers to identify if a film is a romance, horror, or other genre. - Theories of narrative structure from scholars like Todorov, Kuleshov, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, and Propp that analyze elements

1. By Hollie-Jade Higgins Narrative

2. What is a Narrative?... Narrative - A story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. Narrative has also been defined by Bordwell and Thompson (1991) as a chain of events in cause- which effect relationship occurring in time and space. Brannigan E. Narrative Comprehension and film also defined narrative as… “ a way of organising spatial and temporal data into a cause and effect chain of events with a beginning, middle and end that embodies a judgement about the nature of the events as well as demonstrates how it is possible to know, and hence to narrate, the events.”

3. Cinematography: Cinematography is derived from the Greek- “Kinema “movement” and “Graphein” to record.” Cinematography is about what makes a scene- this includes, lighting, actors, set, camera, camera angle and any special effects. Mise en scene: Mise en scene literally refers to everything that that the viewer sees, from props and actors to lighting. The Mise en Scene sets the scene and gives the viewer an idea of what might happen next. Genre associations: Genre associations are the codes and conventions of a genre, this is to allow the viewer to instantaneously know if a film is a romance, horror or action film. An example of this would be the colour red which is often associated with horror movies.

4. Todorov Equalibrium Non-Equalibrium Re-Equalibrium Todorov uses the term book endings to establish a pace to the text… Where the start is calm, the middle is disrupted and the end is once again calm.

5. Lev Kuleshov was a Russian psychologist, he placed the same image (the image on the right) next to a different image, Kuleshov found that despite each picture being the same, the audience thought it was different, this proves that the viewer bring their own emotional feelings into a film to give it a meaning. The Kuleshov Effect Viewers thought that the man looking at the soup was hungry Viewers thought that the man looking at the dead person was grieving Viewers thought that the man looking at the woman was romantically intrigued

6. Levi Strauss Levi Strauss looks at binary opposites, a few examples of binary opposites include the following; Good Looking/ Ugly Witty/ Humourless Wealth/ Poverty Male/ Female Straight/ Gay Young/ Old Hot/ Cold Binary opposites can help give the viewer greater understanding of what’s occurring, binary opposites can help alert the viewer to the ‘big picture’

7. Roland Barthes Roland Barthes also looked at binary oppositions comparing them to psychological symbols that the audience decodes. Barthes also looks at enigma codes- these are questions that are set up in order to be answered at a later date, an example of this is “Who is the Killer?” Enigma Codes are used as a hook to keep the viewer intrigued.

8. Vladimir Propp Propp believes that characters have a narrative function and provide structure to a text. Rewards the hero for his efforts. The Princess’s Father Is seen as the reward to the hero The Princess Aids the hero The Helper Makes false claims to disrupt the heroes success The False Hero Sends the hero on his/ her quest The Dispatcher Provides objects with magical powers The Donor Actively opposes the heroes quest The Villain This character seeks something The Hero