Narrative Form/ Classic Hollywood

Question 1

What are the 2 types of film form?

Answer 1

Narrative Elements and Stylistic Elements

Question 2

Name 3 Parts of Narrative Form

Answer 2

Characters, Ordering of Scenes, and Themes

Question 3

Name 4 Stylistic Elements

Answer 3

Camera movements, Sound effects, Lighting, and Transition Between Shots (Editing)

Question 4

What is Film Form?

Answer 4

The set of relationships (or patterns) between parts of a film (that generate the viewer’s expectation)

Question 5

What is Frame Narration/Nested Narration

Answer 5

A structure in which a frame plot surrounds an embedded tale (a story within a story)

Question 6

Name 2 Narrative Elements

Answer 6

Story vs. Plot
Characters

Question 7

What is Story (fabula)?

Answer 7

All of the events presented explicitly and inferred by the viewer, arranged in chronological order. This includes events that aren’t presented on the screen which viewers are left to imagine how they got from scene A to scene B.

Question 8

What is Diegesis?

Answer 8

The world of story

Question 9

What is Diegetic?

Answer 9

Belonging in the world of story

Question 10

What is Plot (Syuzhet)?

Answer 10

All of the events presented explicitly to the viewer, in the order of presentation. When Lockwood is singing, his voice is diegetic, the sounds he makes are diegetic, but the orchestra music accompanying accompanying his singing is non-diegetic.

Question 11

What events in a film are story, plot, or both?

Answer 11

Presumed and inferred events > Story
Explicitly presented events > Both
Added non-diegetic material > Plot

Question 12

What is Backstory?

Answer 12

Events that took place before the plot; “details of a character’s past”

Question 13

What is an Ellipses?

Answer 13

Period of time between explicitly presented diegetic events

Question 14

What is Character Motivation?

Answer 14

The central cause behind a character’s actions

Question 15

What is Characterization?

Answer 15

The process of conveying information about characters

Question 16

What are the acts in a Four-Act Narrative Structure?

Answer 16

1. Setup/Exposition
2. Complicating Action
3. Development
4. Climax/Epilogue

Question 17

What is a Turning Point?

Answer 17

A narrative moment that signals an important shift of some kind in character or situation

Question 18

What do Narrative Elements do?

Answer 18

They have roles/functions in the narrative. Think: how would the plot differ in the absence of the narrative element?

Question 19

What is Classical Hollywood Cinema?

Answer 19

Produced by companies located in or near Hollywood.
Between Approx. 1917-1960
Follow a set of conventions that are “classical”

Question 20

What are the conventions of classic Hollywood cinema?

Answer 20

1. Clarity (space, time, causality, character motivations, etc.)
2. Unity (Tight causal chain, space and time are presented as a unified whole, Motifs - recurring elements-, hooks or dangling causes)
3. Goal-Oriented Characters (causal agents) who encounter obstacles (their goals are the building blocks of the film and can be personal or professional)
4. Closure (satisfying ending)
5. Unobtrusive, self-effacing style