Research: Narrative
What is narrative?
A narrative or story is any report of connected events, real or imaginary, presented in a sequence of written or spoken words, and moving images. It can be organised in a number of thematic or formal categories. Narrative is found in all forms of human creativity, art, and entertainment.
What are the conventions of narratives in each of the following genres:
Comedy-
The setting of a comedy film really depends on the type of comedy, the generic places of most comedy films include, bright places, towns, cities and other well populated places. In teen comedy films they are set in high schools and small towns and in a social comedy with a lot of people it is normally set in a house or bar. The technical code for them is that the camera is very natural and goes along with the characters and do include high shots to capture the whole environment. Medium shots to catch all of the characters expressions and then including the editing sounds to add humour. Iconography in comedy films include bright colours, blue and yellow are often used, the lighting is often bright and shot during day time. The character types vary in comedy films there are the idiots that are very stupid and accident prone, the smart people who tend to be socially awkward and then the regular people who have accidents which occur around them, and they tend to be sarcastic. Lastly the themes tend to be one of the following, anarchic comedy, gross-out, parody, romantic comedy, screwball comedy and slapstick.
The settings tend to be small communities or isolated places, urban environments, dark streets and narrow alleyways. Large cities or run down ghost towns, almost anything that connotes isolation or being alone. The technical
Action-
codestend to include camerawork that is very expressive and not natural. High and low angles can connote fear and nightmares. Point of view shots (POV) are important because they allow the audience to see the world from the person/creature, this normally happens at the end or in the middle of a typical horror film. Handheld shots make it difficult for the audience to make out what is happening. Disturbing sounds are very important in a horror movie, diegetic sounds like footsteps and non-diegetic sounds like a heartbeat are commonly used. The editing can create unsettling tension and suspense. If the editing hasn't been paced up in a while then you know that something very bad is about to jump out and scare you. The Iconography often includes dark colours like red and black which links to evil. The lighting is expressive and non-naturalistic. Low-key lighting can help to create dark shadows and unfamiliar shapes in the blackness. Props can help us to further identify the genre of horror, specific props can be identified with a villain or character, common objects include, weapons, masks, icons of supernatural, religious icons etc. The character types in a horror closely identify as a main protagonist often a victim or hero of the movie, a villain often a monster, mutated freak, alien or serial killer, the stupid/immoral teenagers that always get killed, creepy children, police officers that can be good or bad and many more including ghosts, zombies, demons, psychopaths and stalkers. Themes of horror films include good vs evil, depression, religion, childhood issues, revenge, supernatural, beyond death, zombie apocalypse and nightmares.
The characters in action films tend to be believable despite the film itself being unrealistic. The main protagonist who tends to be a 'normal' guy who discovers a hidden power or talent. The hero is always helped by a team of innocent characters who get caught up with the action. Mortal danger arises as a twist in the plot and the characters take it seriously. Exotic locations, mind boggling chases and hair raising adventures keep the audience on their seats. Technically action films use a lot of special effects so to create a bigger impact on the audience watching. Lighting is used to show danger; being very dark and mysterious and happiness; being very bright and light. The camera shots used show the characters from different angles, this can be used to create equilibrium and being very loud and sudden. These features show how the technical effects can affect the mood of the audience whilst watching the action film. Action films conventionally use a range of things for iconography. They usually feature fast cars, guns, good looking women, the police and some kind of fight, as well as other things. The narrative in action films usually follow the life of a person, or group of people, who are living a normal life until something changes everything and they then go on some form of a mission to help solve the problem, usually they manage to solve the problem, while picking up a girl and being involved in a few car chases in the meantime. The themes that usually feature in action films usually involve an injustice that needs to be resolved. A moral justice is normally reached by the end of films from the action genre.
Drama-
Characters are crucial to a drama as they help to create the tension and atmosphere of the film de to the circumstances they are facing. As well as the characters above, another typical character seen in drama films is the friend that the main character confides in. There are many sub-genres of drama, as the genre itself is a very very broad genre, with a wide spectrum of different films with different ideas and approaches of cinematography, but are essentially still classes as drama. The themes of which these films are based upon are just about anything as long as it is realistic which generally includes nothing supernatural. Some of the more popular themes to depict are injustice, drug addiction, poverty, mental illness, the corruption of power and racial prejudice. They usually link to something topical, such as politics or poverty. All drama films are very tense, often the soundtrack/music playing an important part in the overall feel of the films with mysterious intense scores to provoke emotions in the spectator.
Romance-
In the romance genre there are few typical props you can expect to see throughout the film, for example you can expect to see some sort of flowers and gifts that will be given to one of the main characters usually by the love interest. The giving of gifts is commonly associated with the genre as it is the reflection of romance and commonly is represented as a relationship with giving and usually ending up with the pair being married after the pair have some sort of disruption or disequilibrium. There will normally always be two main characters. A male and a female, the male is virtually always the love interest and the selling point of the film, with such massive names playing the character. Most of the time there will be a character that is there to disrupt the love interest and come in-between the two characters. A typical settingfor a romance film is big cities, this is because a big city has everything that the film could possibly want, therefore they use the big cities as the majority of people can associate with the big cities and gain understanding of the film and begin to make a link with their own life.
Narrative theories:
Propp-
Propp was essentially interested in folk tales, he noticed that often many folk tales were similar in a variety of areas, he identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions. The typical characters he found were, the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. In the struggle scene Propp suggested that there is a struggle between the hero and the villain, and that the hero is branded and the villain is overcome which leads to the state of disorder being settled. And nearing the end of the film normally at the recognition scene the hero is recognised or the false hero or villain is unmasked from the film
genres that would include this type of character.
Todorov-
He came up with the theory that narratives have a clear three-part structure. The first of which being equilibrium, where everything is calm and in order, which could be seen as normal. The second of which being disruption, where all the bad things start to occur. Finally, restoration where the equilibrium is now restored and back in order.
Barthes-
Roland Barthes narrowed down the action of a text in to Five Codes which are woven into narrative, these are, The Hermeneutic Code (HER), The Enigma / Proairetic Code (ACT), The Symbolic Code (SYM) and the Cultural Code (REF)
Levi-Strauss-
He studied myths of tribal cultures, and examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions. Media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts have adapted his research.
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