RESEARCH -Narrative

WHAT IS NARRATIVE?
Narrative means a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious. A story is taken as a synonym of narrative.

Film trailers are an engaging way of teaching fiction genres and narrative structure.  It is important that genre is established in a trailer as it grabs the attention of audiences that studios know will want to see the film.

Typical narrative structure is often broken down in this way:

1. Opening: establishes setting and introduces character
2. Build up: Relationships established. Development of characters and their world
3. Problem: a dilemma or series of complications.  Characters are faced with an obstacle to overcome a mystery to solve, or often more than one
4. Events: a series of events/action as characters try to overcome obstacle, solve problem, discover truth and so on.  Further complications may arise in the process
5. Resolution: the protagonists are victorious, problems are solved, truth revealed
6. Ending: characters reflect on events, reinstate relationships and look forward.

What are the conventions of narratives in each of the following genres?:

COMEDY:   The narrative of comedy is that it is funny and witty, encouraging to make the audience laugh and to enjoy themselves whilst watching it. An example of a comedy would be 'The Inbetweeners'. This film throughout start to finish expresses humor in different manners but each time works successfully. Moreover, the genre -comedy isn't a serious genre of film. You don't have to really focus in order to understand the film.

HORROR: The narrative of Horror is that it is scary and sinister, also overly realistic for the audience to watch as they feel that they are made to feel that ghosts etc. are real. An example of a Horror movie would be 'Women in Black' which encourages the audience to feel freaked out as it is very dark and gloomy. Also the story told throughout the film makes out that the 'Women in black' could in fact be real, therefore scaring the audience after the film has been watched to make them feel that she is actually real. This is what horrors are for, they are made to make the audience feel scared.

ACTION: The narrative of an Action film is that they are very up beat and fast. This will lead the audiences adrenaline to rush as they are exciting and interesting as you never know what will happen next.  An example of an action film could be 'Skyfall - James Bond'. This film encourages the audience to want to know what is going to happen next as there are continuously knew things occurring that you want to find out more about.

DRAMA: The narrative of a drama film could be any emotion, because when the problem occurs during the middle of the film, it could end happily, or sad. It could leave any emotion. For example, with 'Toy Story' everything is all going well until Andy buys a new toy (Buzz Lightyear) and Andy doesn't like him because he is jealous, causing the audience to possibly feel sorry for Andy.

ROMANCE: The narrative for a romance film it to share feelings and emotions between the couple. The problem in a romance film could involve the couple breaking up or having an argument. This would cause the audience to feel upset or sorry for the characters which creates emotion. An example of a romance film could be 'The Fault in Our Stars' which is a sad film as the problem is where both of them have cancer. This is the dilemma which may or may not be solved but it is romantic because the couple are both very loved up.


NARRATIVE THEORY:

• Propp: Vladimir Propp broke up fairy tales into sections. Through these sections he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within the Russian fairytale. Usually there is an initial situation, after which the tale usually takes the following 31 functions.
• Todorov: Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian-French historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist. He is the author of many books and essays, which have had a significant influence in anthropology, sociology, semiotics, literary theory, thought history and culture theory
• Barthes: Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, linguist, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, social theory, design theory, anthropology and post-structuralism.
• Levi-straus: Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theory of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anthropology at the Collège de France between 1959 and 1982 and was elected a member of the Académie française in 1973. He received numerous honors from universities and institutions throughout the world and has been called, alongside James George Frazer and Franz Boas, the "father of modern anthropology".