Narrative Film

Narrative A story of events, experiences or the like, whether true or fictitious. (Macquarie Dictionary)

A narrative is a chain of events in cause- effect relationship occurring in time. A narrative occurs when a story is told. The plot of the story that is being told is only part of the narrative, because the devices that are used in its telling are also part of the narrative.

It seems that the development of narratives is a fairly fundamental human activity. In everyday life we are faced with a multitude of events and phenomena. We use narrative to try and make sense of the variables - to try and establish relationships between one event and another.

List all of the things you have seen and done in the last 24 hours. Identify the incidents that are worth telling to a school friend. How would the set of incidents change if you were recounting them to a grand parent? What devices would you use to ensure that the events make sense to the listener/ reader?

Film is well disposed towards the creation of narrative because of its capacity to link scenes and shot together in a meaningful sequence. In the very early years of the twentieth century, film makers realised that there was a more effective way of developing a narrative than by stringing together several scenes in a manner that resembled a stage play.

It became evident that the performance in front of a camera could be interrupted and the shot reconstructed. A technique of creating narratives through sequences of shots became the accepted means of creating film narrative. Since the early days film has continued to be refined with the inclusion of different shots, camera movement, sophisticated editing, sound and special effects.

Narrative film shares the same elements as other media, particularly the novel. The important features are the development of: Setting Characters Conflict Resolution

Setting should establish time and place. In addition, setting may also establish the psychological boundaries for the plot and audience expectations about the sort of actions that they will witness. It does not do this in isolation from the other elements in the film, such as costume, but there ought to be sufficient clues for the audience to identify an era.

Although screen characters appear to resemble people we meet in the street, they are far more regulated than real people. The film maker only has limited time to develop a limited number of character traits. These must be quickly recognisable by the millions of viewers; therefore they will largely conform to a recognisable pattern.

We learn about characters partly from the way they look. A character may be old/young; handsome/ugly; white/black; nice/nasty. The character's costume will tell us about his/her social class, personality, time period and so on. What a character says (and how he/she says it) indicates personality. Similarly, what other characters say about another character can tell us something about both.

The more interesting characters are often the minor characters - those who support or obstruct the central character in the journey through the narrative. Like the central characters, the supporting characters are dependent on audience sympathy, therefore they have to be developed in fairly conventional ways. However, because they are not central they are often allowed to display some idiosyncrasies.

Feature film narrative is heavily dependent on character. Once they type of character has been established, there is a strong tendency to build the conflicts around that character. For example, the poor but honest character will survive many traumas so that the honesty is demonstrated. Often the resolution to the conflicts that the character has been forced to face comes in the form of a reward.

Our society decrees that the reward is frequently love or money - not that such a reward is realistic in our own lives, but because both are highly valued in the culture.

Conflicts in films have a resemblance to those in novels. The struggles are man against man; man against nature; man against himself. As with novels, the resolutions must be consistent with the "reality" that has been created in the film.