Overview:
Narrative is one of the important sections that will be needed for analysis for films and it is split into 6 equally important sections. Those sections are:
Definitions
Three act structure
Types Of Narrative
Terminology
Narrative viewpoint
Narrative devices
Understanding the distinction between a movie's story and plot is crucial to understanding storytelling. The story is what the audience can piece together and determine the chronological sequence of events, while the plot is just what the audience witnesses occurring in a movie in a particular order (it doesn't have to be chronological).
Most films (especially those of western descent or shortly, from Hollywood) are structured in a Three-act structure which contains an inciting incident, the main plot points and the climax.
There are 3 primary types of narrative
Linear narratives: One thing then another then another (most common type
Circular narratives: Linear narratives that finish where they began
Episodic narratives: split up into chapters, sometimes separate stories like Quinten Tarantinos Pulp Fiction
Terminology:
Chronological flow:
The arrangements of things following one after another in time.
Character motivation:
The driving force behind a character’s actions.
Ellipsis:
The omission of a section of the story that is either obvious enough for the audience to fill in or concealed for a narrative purpose, such as suspense or mystery.
Cause & effect:
Something that triggers an event or action (cause) and it’s consequences (effect)
Flashback & flash-forward:
A temporal edit to another point in time.
Narrative Viewpoint:
Voiceover / narration:
An omniscient or subjective non-diegetic verbal commentary.
Restricted:
The audience only know as much as the main character.
Unrestricted / omniscient:
The audience see aspects of the narrative that the main character does not.
Narrative Devices:
Title cards:
Printed contextual text or narration at the start of a film.
Intertitles:
Printed text or narration shown between scenes.
Chaptering:
The divison of a narrative into distinct labelled units.
Audience positioning:
How the narrative encourages or discourages audience sympathies and reactions.