The document discusses various narrative codes that can be used in filmmaking, including: - Linear vs nonlinear narrative structures and how setting the story's structure impacts audience engagement. - How setting, interactive content, and narrative voice can immerse audiences in the story. - The importance of establishing clear themes and tones to provide cohesion and atmosphere. - Additional codes like enigma codes, action codes, symbolic codes, and cultural/reference codes that build suspense, meaning, and allusions to enhance the storytelling.

1. Narratives and codes

2. Narrative Structure
• The traditional way to tell a story is in a linear structure where the
beginning, middle, and finish happen chronologically. In film, linear
narrative structures are most common. However, nonlinear storytelling
became more popular in the later half of the 20th century thanks to the
French New Wave filmmakers. These narratives are structured in a way
that allows filmmakers to tell the most effective story, rather than one
that may feel stunted by a strict linear structure.
• Not every story should be told with a linear structure. Sometimes, the
action happens in the middle, and that’s the most logical place to begin.
Structure boils down to capturing the audience’s attention and holding it
until the end. If you feel the beginning of your story is too slow or
doesn’t provide enough information to keep your reader interested,
starting in the middle of things is your best bet.

3. Narrative Setting
• Setting is a crucial part of a film’s narrative. When the setting is right,
the movie feels immersive, as if there is no barrier between the
audience and film. When wrong, a setting can keep the audience from
fully committing to the story. The best settings don’t only pull audiences
into the film—they reveal important details about the narrative.
Character, plot, and thematic details can all be established within the
setting in subtle and interesting ways.
• One of the best ways to build setting and adhere to the golden writing
rule of “show, don’t tell” in the story is with interactive content. Pairing
multimedia elements such as video, images, animations, and GIFs,
interactive content allows you to tell a more immersive story to the
audience. With many different interactive elements for the audience to
engage with, it’s easy to bring the setting to life.

4. Narrative Voice
• Voice is one of the strongest elements in film. It provides the most
information about the characters, giving the audience a better handle on
who these people are and why we should care about them. Because
voice is such a fluid concept, it can be difficult to nail down. But when
you get it right, voice has the power to keep audiences entranced.
• The reason digital storytelling fails is because people feel disconnected
from the story. A more human voice will help cut through the white noise
and build a connection with the audience. Another technique is pairing
the right voice with the right story. As mentioned above, narrative voice
can be accomplished in a variety of ways. A light, humorous voice, for
example, is one way many filmmakers establish connections.
Alternatively, applying a more ominous, emotional narration is another
way to create a dynamic and interesting voice.

5. Narrative Theme
• Theme holds a film together. It’s the narrative glue that keeps all the
other elements in place. A film with an unfocused theme feels like a ship
without a rudder, and when this happens, it’s easy for audience to
disengage. When theme is clearly presented and feels strong throughout
the movie, it leaves quite the impact.
• Establishing a theme for a story will help keep the audience clued in on
the content’s purpose. It’ll also help to hone in on the parts of the story
that matter most. Themes are particularly helpful when
developing episodic content that maintains a common thread throughout
each piece. The important thing to remember when developing a theme
for a content is to try and limit your theme to only a couple closely
related concepts.

6. Narrative Tone
• Similar to theme, tone helps set the overall atmosphere in a film. The
way filmmakers establish tone is by incorporating other narrative
elements, such as setting, structure, and voice, and ensuring they all
take on a similar quality. If these elements are discordant with one
another, the movie will feel confusing.
• Tone is a necessary component of any digital storytelling strategy. But
remember that tone will vary depending on the type of story. Once this
is figured out, creating atmosphere is a matter of controlling the
language, visuals, and other multimedia components. If the piece is
more emotionally driven, it makes sense to use elements that enhance
the touching moments. If the story is educational, highly emotional
language or visuals might not pair well with the story that the maker is
trying to convey.

7. Enigma code
• An enigma code refers to any element in a story that is not explained
and, therefore, exists as an enigma for the viewer, raising questions that
demand explication. Most films hold back details in order to increase the
effect of the final revelation of all diegetic truths. We tend not to be
satisfied by a narrative unless all "loose ends" are tied; however,
narratives often frustrate the early revelation of truths, offering the
reader what Barthes terms "deliberate evasions of the truth”, "mixtures
of truth” and "partial answers“.
• Within our short film, we used the enigma code by withholding
information from the audience, as they don’t know where the
protagonist is. Furthermore, the narrative keeps the audience engaged,
giving small hints and pieces of information. For example, the audience
follows the protagonist throughout the whole movie, receiving hints
where they would go next, when the girl answers the phone. The
audience and the girl are at the same pace.

8. Binary opposition
• A binary opposition is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite
in meaning. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such
as on and off, up and down, left and right. Typically, one of the two
opposites assumes a role of dominance over the other.
• Our character are binary opposites through their clothes and actions. The
Messenger, Kharon, wears black, which is associated with dark and death,
while the girl, Irene, wears white, which is associated with light and life.
Through their actions, Kharon is the dominant character. It guides Irene
through her journey towards the graveyard, by giving her instructions and
hints. On the other hand, Irene is vulnerable and obedient towards
Kharon, following the figure and its instructions.

9. Action code
• An action code refers to the other major structuring principle that
builds interest or suspense on the part of a reader or viewer. The code
applies to any action that implies a further narrative action. For
example, a gunslinger draws his gun on an adversary and we wonder
what the resolution of this action will be. We wait to see if he kills his
opponent or he is wounded himself. Suspense is thus created by action
rather than by a reader's or a viewer's wish to have mysteries explained.
• The action code in the film is when the girl firstly follows the trail which
leads to the door where the black figure was standing. Suspense is
created after the girl knocks at the door and the door knocks back,
making the audience feel tensioned.

10. Semantic/ connotative code
• The semantic code points to any element in a text/ film that suggests a
particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation. By
"connotation," Barthes does not mean a free-form association of ideas
(where anything goes) but "a correlation immanent in the text; or again,
one may say that it is an association made by the text-as-subject within
its own system". In other words, Barthes marks out those semantic
connotations that have special meaning for the work at hand.
• Our film is under supernatural/ mystery genre. The setting is in parks and
a cemetery, which are isolated places. Through narrative, the protagonist
is solving a quest, being accompanied by a black figure. The supernatural
genre is reinforced by the protagonist being a female who doesn’t take
the supernatural experience serious until the end. We will use orchestral
music for the soundtrack. We are also challenging the conventions, as
we’ll use high-key lighting.

11. Symbolic code
• A symbolic code can be difficult to distinguish from the semantic code.
The easiest way to think of the symbolic code is as a "deeper" structural
principle that organizes semantic meanings, usually by way of antithesis
or by way of mediations between opposite terms. A symbolic antithesis
(contradiction) often marks a barrier for the text.
• Within the film, there are many symbolic codes. The first one is colour
white. The calla lily/ white lily is a funeral flower, that represents
sympathy. The white dress emphasises the innocence of the girl and hints
the fact that she might be dead. Moreover, the river in the park (river
Styx) symbolises the boundary between the living and the dead realm. As
the girl never crosses the river with Kharon, the audience might argue if
the girl is actually dead or not. This creates suspense and adds to the plot
twits at the end.

12. Reference/ cultural code
• The reference code designates any element in a narrative that refers
"to a science or a body of knowledge" . In other words, the cultural
codes tend to point to our knowledge about the way the world works,
including properties that we can designate as physical, physiological,
medical, psychological, literary, historical, etc. The "gnomic" code is
one of the cultural codes and refers to those cultural codes that are
tied to clichés, proverbs, or popular sayings of various sorts.
• We have used the cultural code, as the film is based on Greek
mythology. The myth that we used is about the ferryman Kharon, who
transports the souls of the dead on his boat. They cross the river Styx
and departs the souls to Hades. The protagonist, Irene, represents one
of the dead souls.