Transcript Narrative Theory - s3.amazonaws.com

Narrative
• In a nut shell (quite literally), sum up the
narrative content of your music video.
Narrative Theory
Noam Chomsky “Narrative is fundamental to
human understanding.”
•What is it? Narrative is the media term for story
telling. Narrative is the way the different elements in a
story are organised to make a meaningful story.
THEORISTS
•Propp
•Binary opposites
• Todorov
•Barthes and Semiotics
•Saussaure and Signifiers
Narrative and Meaning
USING NARRATIVE TO MAKE MEANING IN FILM
• Bordwell and Thompson point out the different ways in which we are
surrounded by the story form. As children we listen to fairy tales and
myths. Reading material as we progress becomes short stories, novels,
history and biographies.
• Religion is often presented through collection of stories/moral tales e.g. the
Bible/ the Quran.
• Scientific breakthrough is often presented as stories of an experimenter's
trial. Cultural phenomena such as plays, films, TV, dance, paintings tell
stories. Newspapers tell stories, Dreams are little stories in themselves.
Using narrative to build suspense
Restricted narrative can be used to surprise an audience, e.g. when a character
does not know what is waiting around the corner and neither does the
audience.
The key point is that we are culturally conditioned to see things as stories –
viewers of your video will actively try to read it as a story, piecing things
together so they make narrative sense.
What the examiners say…
• For each of these concepts we need to teach (and
students need to apply) the work of key theorists and
theories.
• Students are then recommended to select two (ideally
contrasting or at least different) theories which they will
apply if a certain question comes up. That means they
need to be going into the exam with ten in mind, ready
to go depending on the question. They need to be able to
say to themselves, before the exam, sentences like “If
genre comes up I’m going to discuss my A2 music video
project in the light of Steve Neal’s theory and the
repertoire of elements theory” etc.
• Examiners will not have seen the coursework that
students are writing about.
Propp’s Theory of Narrative
• Propp studied folk tales and he
proposed ways of grouping
characters and their actions into
eight broad character types or
‘spheres of action’. N.B. One
character may occupy more than
one sphere of action
• He argued that, whatever the
surface difference between stories
and fairytales, they all share the
same internal structure.
• Characters and actions can be
grouped into:
• 8 character roles
• 31 functions
The Characters
• 1. The villain
• 2. The hero, or character who seeks something, usually
motivated by a lack of something (money, love etc.) The
hero doesn’t have to be heroic in the way most people
would understand it – heroes can be male or female,
brave or cowardly.
• 3. The donor, who provides an object with some magic
property.
• 4. The helper, who aids the hero.
• 5. The princess, reward for the hero, and object of the
villain’s schemes. Again, this is not necessarily a
beautiful damsel in distress – the princess 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.
Match them up!
Apply Propp’s roles/ functions to
your video
• Use the placemat
provided, make notes
in relation to your
video in the
appropriate quadrant.
• Look at the 31
functions named by
Propp and make a
note of the ones that
apply to your work.
Levi-Strauss
• No, nothing to do with jeans! He introduced the notion
of binary oppositions as a useful way to consider the
production of meaning within narratives. He argued
that all construction of meaning was dependent, to some
degree, on these oppositions.
Examples
• Good vs Evil
• Male vs Female
• Humanity vs Technology
• Nature vs Industrialism
• East vs West
• Dark vs Light
• Dirt vs Cleanliness
Think of 5 famous stories or
plotlines. These can be fairy
stories, novels, films and as a
minicase study, apply Stauss’
ideas of binary oppositions to it…
TODOROV
Todorov’s theory says narrative is a five part structure:
–
–
–
–
–
Exposition – setting scene and introducing characters
• Little Red Riding Hood has to take food to grandmother who is ill
Development – situation develops, more characters introduced
• She sets out through woods where wolf is lurking
Complication – something happens to complicate lives of characters
• She meets wolf, he delays her and rushes ahead and ties up
grandmother
Climax – decisive moment reached; matters come to head; suspense high
• She arrives, comments on size of grandmother’s ears, etc., Wolf eats
her up
Resolution – matters are resolved and satisfactory end is reached
• Wolf falls asleep, passing forester investigates noise, rescues
grandmother from cupboard and Red Riding Hood by cutting Wolf’s
stomach open
Here narrative is not seen as linear, but as circular. The narrative is driven by the
characters’ attempts to restore the equilibrium, although the end result is not quite
the same as the beginning.
Now take
the same 5
stories and
see if
Todorov’s
theory fits
them better
or worse…
Cause and Effect
Conventional Pattern of Cause and Effect
The director can create a mood or atmosphere by choosing
certain shots in a certain order, to build a picture in our minds.
We automatically link what is happening in one shot with what
happens in those either side of it, as this is what happens in real
life. Thus, by showing us a window frame and then a shot of a
house, we presume the house is what you see out of that
window. In this way we are interacting with the film.
Montage: pattern of cause and effect
Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian filmmaker, believed that it was
more effective if consecutive shots were not obviously linked as
the audience were forced to think and interact more to make the
mental jump from shot to shot. Montage can be used in pop
videos to encourage us to make associations and link ideas.
How do either of these narrative models apply to your video?
Same / Different
Ways in which narratives of
music videos are similar to film
• Feature narrative element
• Use signifiers / iconography
to communicate meaning
• Will establish characters
• Use technical codes –
camera work, mise-enscene etc to communicate
meaning
• Will often try to
communicate a story
• Often follows rules of cause
an effect
Ways in which narratives in
music videos differ from films.
• Short time frame
• No dialogue
• Main function is to advertise
the record
• Secondary function to develop
image of band keep them in
the public eye
• Live performance
• Singers address the audience
directly – sing to them
• The music is more important
than the visuals
• Narrative is just one element
How do Propp’s ideas relate to your video?
How do Cause and Effect or Eisenstein’s Montage
ideas relate to your work?
What binary oppositions are featured in your work?
State how Todorov’s theory relates to your work?
The Exam
• As I read through the
exam response
highlight all links
made to theories.
• What mark would
you award this
student for their
response to 1b?
Now Write an Essay
• How have you
applied narrative
theory in your
product?
• Write a plan for a top
band answer.