In the lesson this week we looked at the term 'Narrative', we explored the different types of narrative structures and we identified the different types of narrative structures in media texts. As a class we established that the term 'Narrative' is the skeleton of the story or the structure of a text. We also learnt that there are different types of narrative. A linear narrative is when the story runs in chronological order as it has a start, middle and end. An example of a film with a linear narrative is 'Rocky'. A non-linear narrative is when the story is not in chronological order, for example; flashbacks. An example of a film with a non-linear narrative is 'Memento'. After establishing these types of narrative, we discussed which one was used most often in the British social realism genre, we concluded that films of this genre usually have a linear narrative. For example; Fish Tank, Submarine, Bullet Boy, etc. In this lesson we also learnt two further types of narrative that depend on how the narrative information is conveyed to the audience, these are a restricted or omniscient narrative. A restricted narrative is when the narrative is only told from one of the characters in the story and therefore as the audience we only see the narrative from one characters perspective. Meaning the audience feel how that character feels and are limited as they only see events as the character does. Examples of British social realist films with this type of narrative are; Looking for Eric and Fish Tank. An omniscient narative is when the narrative is told from multiple characters in the story, so we see the story from more than one characters perspective. This allows the audience to have more access to narrative events and sometimes know more than the characters, it also allows the audience to choose who they sympathize with. Examples of British social realist films with an omniscient narrative are; Lock-stock and Snatch. After learning these different types of narrative we watch scenes from four films and answered the questions; linear/non-linear? Restricted/Omniscient?
The first film we watched was 'Slumdog Millionaire', this film's narrative was non-linear and restricted.
The second film we watched was 'Psycho', this film's narrative was linear and omniscient.
The third film we watched was 'Fight Club', this film's narrative was non-linear and restricted.
The fourth and final film was 'Home Alone', this film's narrative was linear and omniscient.
After this exercise we revised Todorov's narrative theory and concluded that most if not all films follow this theory as they have an equilibrium, then experience disruption (disequilibrium) and eventually reach a new equilibrium. We also looked at McKees classic narrative structure and found that again most films follow this structure as it is a more in depth version of Todorov's narrative theory.
What have been the key issues for your pre-production this week?
The key issues for my pre-production this week have been deciding whether or not my partner and I would use a linear or non-linear narrative and whether it would be restricted or omniscient. After learning that most British social realism films have a linear narrative and vary as to whether the narrative is restricted or omniscient, my partner and I had to carefully consider the way in which we wanted the audience to convey our narratives information.
What decisions did you make about these issues and why?
After careful consideration, my partner and I decided to have a linear narrative as it is most typical of the British social realism genre. We also decided to have a restricted narrative as in our films opening sequence we want to focus on the troubles of our main character - Leah. As it is only the opening sequence of our film we wanted to give the audience a strong insight into her life and her perspective of life.
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