Coursework Research - Narration

what is Narration?

Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience.^[1] Narration encompasses a set of techniques through which the creator of the story presents their story, including:

• Narrative point of view: the perspective (or type of personal or non-personal "lens") through which a story is communicated
• Narrative voice: the format (or type presentational form) through which a story is communicated
• Narrative time: the grammatical placement of the story's time-frame in the past, the present, or the future

A narrator is a personal character or a non-personal voice that the creator (author) of the story develops to deliver information to the audience, particularly about the plot. The narrator may be a voice devised by the author as an anonymous, non-personal, or stand-alone entity; as the author herself/himself as a character; or as some other fictional or non-fictional character appearing and participating within their own story. The narrator is considered participant if he/she is a character within the story, and non-participant if he/she is an implied character or an omniscient or semi-omniscient being or voice that merely relates the story to the audience without being involved in the actual events. Some stories have multiple narrators to illustrate the storylines of various characters at the same, similar, or different times, thus allowing a more complex, non-singular point of view.

Narration encompasses not only who tells the story, but also how the story is told (for example, by using stream of consciousness or unreliable narration). In traditional literary narratives (such as novels, short stories, and memoirs), narration is a required story element; in other types of (chiefly non-literary) narratives, such as plays, television shows, video games, and films, narration is merely optional.

Give one example of the use of Narration in each of the following genres:

• COMEDY - usually the narration comedies is witty and humorous. for instance in 'The Inbetweeners' there is narration however it does not deal with meaningful feelings, but it includes funny jibes.
• Horror - The narration in Horror films usually includes serious and direct dialogue, i believe this is due to the suspension building up throughout the plot. For example, during the film 'The women in black' the dialogue is mature and humorless.  
• ACTION - the narration during an action film is usually fast and quick due to the suspension building up throughout the plot. 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: 
• Barthes:
• Levi-Strays:

what is required for a good piece of film narration?

i understand that a good piece of film narration requires a clear and loud voice as this allows the listener to easily engage with the speaker. 

A good piece of film narration should also have appropriate language choice for the subject matter it is narrating. This language choice should be fitting with both the genre of the movie and the target audience of the movie, for instance, a piece of narration for a children's movie would use simple language opposed to more complex dialect as the target audience, that being children need to both understand and engage with the speaker.

Is narration something that you are contemplating for your own coursework?

Currently, we are planning our coursework, however the topic of narration has not occurred. although, having researched about how it can improve films, we may consider it. I believe more thought and discussions should take place before making an important decisions. 

DG