1. Classical Hollywood Narrative

2. Principles of Narrative Construction
Narrative form: a film that tells a story
Most common in fictional films, but it can appear in all other basic types
-documentaries, cartoons, also some experimental and avant garde (art films)
When we go to the movies, we expect a series of incidents that will be connected in some way
We also expect that the problems or conflicts arising in the course of the action will achieve some final state
As the audience watches the film, they pick up on cues, recall info, anticipate, and generally participate in the film form

3. What is Narrative?
Narrative can be considered to be a chain of events linked by cause and effect occurring in time and space—more basically, story
Begins w/ a situation; a series of changes occurs according to cause and effect ; a new situation arises that brings about the end of the narrative
Components of narrative– causality, time and space

4. Plot and Story
Inference and Cues
What do we learn from what we see?

5. Plot and Story
Story: the set of all the event in the narrative, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers
Diegesis: the total world of the story action; everything that exist in the film’s world
Plot: used to describe everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us
- includes the story events and everything that is included in the film
Nondiegetic: things from outside the story world (credits, music from the outside, etc)
Plot goes beyond the story world by presenting nondiegetic images and sounds

6. Cause and Effect The main agents of cause and effect are characters
-humans or entities like people, i.e. the clock in Beauty and the Beast
Characters create causes and register events
A character has traits: attitudes, skills, habits, tastes, and other qualities that distinguish characters—complexity i.e Breaking Bad
Causal motivation often involves the planting of information in advance of a scene.
- minor details can become major plot points
Any film’s plot can withhold causes and thus arouse our curiosity
Plot may present cause but withhold effects, prompting suspense and uncertainty in the viewer

7. Time We construct story time on the basis of what the plot presents
We assume the character spends uneventful time sleeping, traveling, eating—as long as it is not integrated into the story
The viewer is engaged in putting events in chronological order, and to assign them some duration and frequency

8. Temporal Order We’re use to seeing movies out of order
Flashback – portion of story presented out of order
Flashforward- moving from present to future then back to present
Flashback scenes are arranged out of chronological order
Filmmakers play with temporal order to place emphasis on certain scenes that they may not have, if placed in regular temporal order

9. Temporal Duration
Film’s select certain stretches of story duration (the time in which the story takes place)
Sum of all slices of story duration yields an overall plot duration
The plot can use screen duration to expand story duration
The plot can use screen duration to override story time

10. Temporal Frequency
Frequency- the aspect of temporal manipulation that involves the number of times any story event is shown in the plot
most commonly, story are presented only once in the plot
Often times, when a plot repeats a story event, the aim is often to provide new information
The repetition of actions may be motivated by the plot’s need to communicate certain key causes very clearly to the spectator

11. Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development
A film does not just start, it begins– the opening provides a basis for what is to come and initiates us into the narrative
The plot will seek to arouse curiosity by bringing us into a series of actions that has already started, called in medias res
The portion of the plot that lays out important story events and character traits in the opening scene is called exposition
the opening raises our expectations by setting up a specific range of possible causes for and effects of what we see.
The first 1/4th or so of a film’s plot is often referred to as the setup

12. Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development
Most patterns of plot development depend heavily on the ways that causes and effects create a change in a character’s situation
Most general plot development is change in knowledge– a character learns something in the course of the action, with the most crucial knowledge coming at the final turning point of the plot
A common pattern of development is goal-oriented plot– the character takes steps to achieve a desired object or state of affairs
- ex: search plots, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz
Time or space may also provide plot patterns. A framing situation in the present may initiate a series of flashbacks showing how events led up to the present situation
The plot may also create a specific duration for the action– a deadline
Most often times, films will combine these patterns

13. Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development
For any pattern of development, spectator will create specific expectations
As the film continues on and we get to know it better, these expectations become more and more precise
The pattern of development in the middle portion may delay an expected out come (i.e. the wizard asking for the witch’s broom in the Wizard of Oz)
Each step of the journey is governed by an overlying principle (i.e. her desire to go home)

14. Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development
A film doesn’t simply stop, it ENDS
The narrative will typically resolve its causal issues by bringing the development of a high point or climax—there’s only a narrow range of possible outcomes
Emotionally, the climax aims to lift the viewer to a high degree of tension or suspense
Can leave endings open ended or definively close them

15. Narration: The Flow of Story
The plot may arrange cues in ways that withhold information for the sake of curiosity and surprise
It may also supply info in a way to create expectations or increase suspense
All this is called narration- the plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects
-moment by moment process that guides us in building the story out of plot
The most important actors of narration are range and depth

16. Range of Story Information
Unrestricted or Omniscient– we know, see, and hear more than any characters can
- builds suspense (Hitchcok and Truffaut)
Restricted – we don’t hear or see anything that the main character cannot see or hear
- curiosity and surprise for the viewer
These are two categories, no movie is clearly definitive one or the other; one range may be dominant over the other but it will still include both
“Who knows what when?”

17. Depth of Story Information
how deeply do we plunge into a character’s psychological states?
Objective- A plot confines us wholly to what the characthers say and do: their external behavior; outsider looking in– POV shot
Sound, perceptual, and mental subjectivity: how they hear, understand,and view/think things in their own minds
Just like the range of story info, it fluctuates as to how much of one we understandtrying to to achieve a specific effect on the viewer

18. The Narrator
Narrator- some specific agent who purports to be telling us the story
Can be a character in the story or a non character (think documentaries)
how much they tell and give away is completely to how the story should be told