2 - Narrative Form Flashcards
(22 cards)
-Narrative
We can consider a narrative to be a chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space.
-Plot
If we use flashbacks instead of linear time, or if we decide to organize events around one character rather than another, or if we make other choices about presentation, we will be creating a different plot
-Diegesis
The total world of the story action is sometimes called the film’s diegesis
-Diegetic/nondiegetic Material
The characters can’t read the credits or hear the music. Credits and a film’s score are thus nondiegetic elements.
-Story/Plot Temporal Order
Filmmakers can choose to present events out of story order.
-Flash-forward/backward
then the plot that uses a fl ashback presents something like 2-1-3-4, or 3-1-2-4. The fi lmmaker can also shuffl e story order by employing a fl ashforward.
-Story/Plot/Screen Duration
In general, a fi lm’s plot selects only certain stretches of story duration. The fi lmmakers might decide to concentrate on a short, relatively cohesive time span, as North by Northwest does. Or they might let their plot unfold across many years, highlighting signifi cant stretches of time in that period.
-Ellipsis
The plot skips over years of story time, as well as many hours of Thompson’s week of investigations
-Story/Plot Frequency
This increased frequency may allow us to see the same action in several ways. Repetition can take place simply on the soundtrack. Sometimes only a single line of dialogue will reappear, haunting a character who can’t escape the memory of that moment.
-Story/Plot/Screen Space
Normally, the locale of the story action is also that of the plot, but sometimes the plot leads us to imagine story spaces that are never shown. In Otto Preminger’s Exodus, one scene is devoted to Dov Landau’s interrogation by a terrorist organization he wants to join. Dov reluctantly tells his questioners of his duties in a Nazi concentration camp (3.16). Although the fi lm never shows this locale through a fl ashback, much of the scene’s emotional power depends on our using our imagination to fi ll in Dov’s sketchy description of how he survived.
-Exposition
The portion of the plot that lays out the backstory and the initial situation is called the exposition
-Narration
the plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specifi c effects. Narration is the moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot.
-Range of Narration
On the whole, in The Birth of a Nation, the narration is very unrestricted. We know more, we see and hear more, than any of the characters can. Such extremely knowledgeable narration is often called omniscient (“all-knowing”) narration.
-Restricted vs. Unrestricted Narration
Restricted to a certain perspective vs all knowing
-Depth of Narration
A film’s narration manipulates not only the range of knowledge but also the depth of our knowledge.
-Objective vs. Subjective Depth
A plot might confine us wholly to information about what characters say and do. Here the narration is relatively objective.
Or a film’s plot may give us access to what characters see and hear.
-Perceptual vs. Mental Subjectivity
For instance, in North by Northwest, point-of-view editing is used as we see Roger Thornhill crawl up to Van Damm’s window (3.20–3.22). Or we might hear sounds as the character would hear
vs
The filmmaker can go deeper, beyond the character’s senses and into her or his mind.
-Character/noncharacter Narrators
Character narrator, vs external narrator
he filmmaker can go deeper, beyond the character’s senses and into her or his mind.
-Reliability of the Narration
“reliable narrator” is one who is accurate and impartial
the “unreliable narrator”, who lacks objectivity, and may conceal, or be ignorant by happenstance, or design, of significant information.
-Narrative Elements of Classical Hollywood Cinema
Make sure your main character wants something. Emphasize conflict. Take your character on an emotional journey. Be sure that your ending resolves the initial situation
-Story
The story is the chain of events in chronological order
-Setup
Indeed, the first quarter or so of a film’s plot is sometimes referred to as the setup.
