Narrative

Question 1

Narrative Form

Answer 1

a type of filmic organization in which the parts relate to one another through a series of causally related events taking place in time and space

Question 2

Story

Answer 2

in a narrative film, all the events that we see and hear, plus all those that we infer or assume to have occurred, arranged in their presumed causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations

opposed to plot, which is the film’s actual presentation of events in the story

Question 3

Plot

Answer 3

a narrative film, all the events that are directly presented to us, including their causal relations, chronological order, duration, frequency, and spatial locations

opposed to study, which is the viewer’s imaginary construction of all the events in the narrative

Question 4

Duration

Answer 4

in a narrative film, the aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the time span presented in the plot and assumed to operate in the story

Question 5

Frequency

Answer 5

in a narrative film, the aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the number of times any story event is shown in the plot

Question 6

Narration

Answer 6

the process through which the plots conveys or withholds story information

the narration can be more or less restricted to character knowledge and more or less deep in presenting characters’ perception and thoughts

Question 7

What is narrative?

Answer 7

a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space

needs to have causality

causality can be manifested at the local level shot change or larger level of major plot turns

Question 8

What is story?

Answer 8

the set of all events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers takes place

presumed and inferred events; explicitly presented events

Question 9

What is diegesis?

Answer 9

the total world of the story action

Question 10

What is plot?

Answer 10

everything visibly and audibly present in the film set before the viewer, including non-diegetic material like title credits and orchestral score

explicitly presented events; added nondiegetic material

Question 11

What are the three aspects of narrative?

Answer 11

causality
time
space

Question 12

What is causality as an aspect of narrative?

Answer 12

spectators actively seek to connect events by ascribing causality

causal motivation: the causal justification given in a film for the presence of an element in a film

characters are the main agents of cause and effect

natural events, such as an earthquake in a disaster films, can motivate character actions

plots can present effects but withhold their causes to reveal them later in a film, such as a murder mystery

Question 13

What is temporal order?

Answer 13

the order in which the plot presents story events

normally, events in a film are presented in chronological order, but can be temporally reordered

Question 14

What is temporal duration?

Answer 14

the selection of story events

e.g. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off takes place within a day while the story duration of 2001: A Space Odyssey is several millennia

Question 15

What is screen duration?

Answer 15

the running time of a film

Question 16

What is temporal frequency?

Answer 16

the number of occasions that a story event is presented in a film

normally, an event is presented only once in a film, but some films repeat events

Question 17

What is space as an aspect of narrative?

Answer 17

events often occur in specific locations, with locations often assuming narrative significance

narrative spaces can also be inferred

screen space: the plot space that is selected by the screen through onscreen/offscreen decisions

Question 18

What is depth of story information?

Answer 18

the extent of story information provided to the viewer

omniscient and restricted narration spectrum

Question 19

What is omniscient narration?

Answer 19

a type of narration that informs the viewer about multiple plot lines in different locations, and discloses their subjective states of characters, such that the viewer knows more than characters

Question 20

What is restricted narration?

Answer 20

a type of narration that restricts the knowledge of the viewer about story events to the perspective of one character, such that the viewer knows the same amount of information as that character

Question 21

What is internal focalization (depth)?

Answer 21

the representation of the private subjective states of characters (optical and aural points of view, dreams, intentions)

Question 22

What is internal focalization (space)?

Answer 22

the inference of the subjective states of characters based on their expressions and their perceptions

Question 23

What is external focalization?

Answer 23

the presentation of characters through their verbal and physical behavior

Question 24

What is a diegetic narrator?

Answer 24

a character who narrates the events in the film

Question 25

What is a non-diegetic narrator?

Answer 25

a figure who narrates the story outside the story world

Question 26

What is a extra-fictional narrator?

Answer 26

a non-diegetic narrator of the film

Question 27

What is the historical authors?

Answer 27

the relevant filmmakers involved in the production of the film and its story

Question 28

What is narrative structure?

Answer 28

feature narrative films are normally conceived as possessing three parts: openings, middle, endings

Question 29

What is Syd Field’s “three-act structure”?

Answer 29

act I: beginning
act II: confrontation
act III: resolution

1/4 - 1/2 - 1/4 ratio

Question 30

What is Kristin Thompson’s “four-part structure”?

Answer 30

set up
complicating action
development
climax (often followed by a short epilogue)

Question 31

What is the set up in the four part structure?

Answer 31

the establishment of the initial story situation, often entailing the protagonist formulating his/her goals

Question 32

What is the complicating action in the four part structure?

Answer 32

takes the story in a different direction by introducing a new situation, often entailing the protagonist pursuing a different strategy to achieve his/her goals

Question 33

What is the development in the four part structure?

Answer 33

the period in which the protagonist struggles to achieve his/her goals as a result of the obstacles that have been previously introduced

Question 34

What is the climax in the four part structure?

Answer 34

the progress leading to the resolution of whether the protagonist’s goals will be achieved or not

Question 35

What is the epilogue in the four part structure?

Answer 35

resolution of the remaining subordinate plotlines

Question 36

What is a plot turn?

Answer 36

an incident in a film’s narrative in which the story is taken in a different direction, often impacting upon the goals of the protagonist(s)

Question 37

What is a character?

Answer 37

an agent in a story, who is normally human or possesses human attributes (thoughts, emotions, goals), and through their goals and actions drive the story forward

character’s goals and actions are the main source of causality in mainstream films

Question 38

What is a protagonist?

Answer 38

the main character of the film’s story, who assumes the central focus throughout the story

Question 39

What is an antagonist?

Answer 39

the principal opponent of the protagonist who presents obstacles in the way of the protagonist achieving his/her goals

Question 40

What are flat characters?

Answer 40

characters who depiction in a film is reduced to their social function whose subjectivity is not considered narratively significant

often understood by viewers with reference to social categorization

Question 41

What are rounded characters?

Answer 41

characters that are more individuated as a result of their depiction of their subjective states and goals

often perceived by viewers to possess an individuating personality, which is given “life” through the performance of the actor

Question 42

What are the three components of the structure of sympathy?

Answer 42

recognition
alignment
allegiance

Question 43

What is character recognition?

Answer 43

those aspects of character depiction that facilitate the representation of figures to be recognized and reidentified as characters, usually through their possession of basic human attributes (whether a human body and/or a mind)

Question 44

What is character alignment?

Answer 44

the narrational processes by which a film follows a character along their path within a story, as well as providing access to their subjective states

Question 45

What is character allegiance?

Answer 45

the ways in which a film guides a spectator’s moral orientation to the characters in a film - often triggers emotional sympathy or antipathy toward a character (or some combination of both)

Question 46

What are the historical contexts of film narrative innovation?

Answer 46

Italian neorealism (1940s and 1950s)

European Art Cinema (1950s to 1980s)

American independent cinema (1980s to 1990s)

Question 47

What are alternative narrative strategies?

Answer 47

episodic narrative structures

reliance on ending that are open-ended with unresolved plotlines and uncertainty as to the fate of the characters as opposed to being close-ended with all major plotlines resolved

an abandonment of deadlines as narrative structure

characters lack clear-cut traits, motives and goals and behave inconsistently

greater emphasis probing the psychology of characters than the development of plot

greater emphasis depicting subjective mental states of characters, whether dreams, memories, hallucinations, fantasies, they are often unmarked from objective sequences

greater use of temporal reordering, with flashbacks often un-cued

greater degree of narrative ambiguity

story interrupted for some form of overt narrational “commentary”

unreliable narrator

viewer prompted to reflect upon how the story is told rather than exclusively focus on the story

Question 48

What are alternative characters in the independent cinema?

Answer 48

independent films also provided opportunities to differentiate characters from those typically presented in mainstream films

differed not only in terms of goals and character traits but also in terms of social types

independent films depicted a broader cross section of social life than depicted in the mainstream and offered greater opportunities to dwell on their subjectivities

race and ethnicity; sexuality; subcultures