Narrative refers to how a story is told or presented, rather than just the plot. There are several theories about narrative structure and how meaning is created for audiences. Todorov's theory proposed that narratives follow a structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium, and new equilibrium. Kuleshov's theory, demonstrated through experiments, showed that editing creates meaning through the association of images and manipulation of aspects like rhythm, time, and pace. More recent theorist Cameron proposed modular narratives, where time is not presented in a straightforward linear way. Editing is an important way of telling stories and creating intended perceptions through techniques like those explored by Kuleshov nearly 100 years ago.
3. What is narrative?
• It is NOT the plot or the story
• It’s how the story is told/presented to an
audience to create meaning to an audience
• Remember the narrative theory and structure
changes because the way we tell stories
changes (think of films 20 years ago compared
to today)
5. The basic theories (a bit dated )
Theorist Their theory explained
Todorov Narrative structure = equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium
Strauss Binary opposites = binary opposition forms a fundamental way to
understanding narrative (opposition offers structure or a premise to a
text)
Barthes Codes – narrative is all about anticipation and expectation. His codes
encourage explanations of how audiences seek clues and answers to
predict possible outcomes
Enigma code*
Action code*
Semantic code*
Symbolic code
Cultural code
*know these at minimum
Propp Character types – narratives always have certain character types who
perform certain roles/actions (7 character types are: hero, villain, dispatcher,
donor, helper, heroine, false hero)
6. Other theorists (more recent)
Theorist Their theory explained
Kuleshov
effect
(Lev
Kuleshov)
The power of editing to create meaning on audience (editing is a way
to tell a story or the way to create an intended perception of a story)
Image (assembly/connection between images)
Rhythm (pace)
Space (where things are)
Time (over what period of time? Example – transitions)
Cameron Modular narratives – contemporary cinema has modular (segmental)
narrative structures where sense of time is manipulated (it’s not
presented straight-forwardly)
Forking path
Episodic
Anachronic
Split Screen
Cook Hollywood narrative – these films include structures that are ‘linear’
“linear narrative with cause and effect within overall narrative of
enigma resolution and a high degree of narrative closure”
Similar to todorov
7. Do 1 old, 1 new
•
• Such as:
old=Todorov (but make links to cook)
new= Kuleshov ?
8. Other useful narrative terms
• Diegesis
• Narrative Range: unrestricted / restrictive narrative
• Narrative depth: objective character identification (POV) /
subjective character identification
9. Kuleshov
• editing creates meaning
• Background: history of editing – there wasn’t any before! All meaning came from MES, think of
how editing creates so many meanings to audiences………remember best editing is invisible!
• Around the time soon after came about he held an experiment to measure audience response
which suggested how important context was (because you can easily lead people to believe
anything)
• Even Alfred Hitchcock considers this theory!
• Editing creates meaning of the following things:
Images Assembly – association of images
Rhythm Pace – establish sense of pace (linked to time)
Time Temporal – how long? When?
10. Kuleshov examples
• Original video (2 experiments)
• Alfred hitchcock video
• Charlie brooker wipe
• Scary Mary
http://ocrmediaconference2014.weebly.com/workshops.html
Scroll down to MICHAEL PARKES prezi on ‘editing’
11. Kuleshov examples
Original video
(2 experiments)
By image association
Guy face then cut to food = hungry or nautious
Guy face then cut to baby = caring/father (or pedo!)
Alfred
Hitchcock video
Same as above
Charlie brooker
wipe
(could be a theorist) - theory = ***can create meaning through
editing because of technological advancements***
-reality TV (with changing footage/cuts/voiceover/music etc)
Scary Mary Making meaning by genre narrative conventions
(change a film to horror by just changing the narrative structure)
-cuts to represent her as a villian/mad
-haunting music
-fast pace etc
12. AS or A2?
• Some people say AS is easier but you could do A2:
• Documentaries –
remember documentary mode theory (BILL NICHOLS)
– Documentaries still tell stories even though they are ‘real’ or non-fiction
(remember you edit it in such a way to persuade people to believe something)
– You could discuss that some of the theories at A2 because of the text (genre of
doc/print) are challenged because they aren’t film based
Ancillary (print work)
• How elements are placed in design work and how layout and visual
hierarchy create a logical ‘story’
• Also how these ‘stories’ or ‘narratives’ create enigma to consume the
product (like your advert was a ‘preview’ to your documentary – it
previewed part of a wider narrative)
13. Revision notes
Theorist/theory Coursework ex 1
1 Part in your sequence
Coursework ex 2
1 Part in your sequence
Coursework ex 3
1 Part in your sequence
Todorov
If you can
Strauss
Cook
Kuleshov
