Narrative

The plot/story distinction affects all three aspects of narrative: cause/effect, time and space.

Cause and effect

• Usually, the agents of cause and effect are characters. By reacting to events, they create causes and react to the twists and turns in the story.
• Characters have several properties:
• They usually have a body.
• They possess traits: attitudes, skills, psychology, drives, details of dress and appearance, habits, etc.
• The viewer seeks to connect events by causal motivation of characters.
• Sometimes the plot will lead viewers to infer causes and effects. The plot may withhold causes and thus arouse the viewer’s curiosity (Sci-Fi, horror, mystery).
• It may also withhold effects after presenting causes, prompting suspense and uncertainty (disruptive if it happens at the end of the film and leaves viewer hanging).

Time

Causes and effects take place in time.

The film may present events out of chronological order.

The film does not show every detail from start to finish (we assume insignificant details: sleeping, eating, etc).

In constructing the film’s story, the viewer considers these temporal factors:

• Temporal order: may be in or out of chronological order, including flashbacks and flashforwards; it may alternate between past and present.
• Temporal duration: Screen time is the duration of time it takes to watch a film. Story time is the duration of time covered by the story. Screen time is usually between 90 minutes to 3 hours; story time may cover a day, several years, or a century, for example.

Space – Events occur in particular locales. The visible space between the frame (plot) is called screen space. Story space includes screen space and other locales that are spoken of, but never seen.

Openings, Closings, and Patterns of Development

A film begins “in medias res,” Latin for “in the middle of things.” The viewer speculates what went on before based on plot cues. The portion of the plot that sets out story events and character traits is called exposition. The set-up of a film is generally the first 30 minutes to ¼ of the film.

Patterns of development:

     Change in knowledge – a character does something that turns the plot .

     Goal-oriented plot – a character takes steps to achieve a desired goal/object.

     Search or investigation – this pattern is often seen in crime dramas and mysteries.

     Journey – an actual journey, or a metaphysical one.

A film doesn’t stop, it ends. The climax is the high point of drama. This is where everything reaches a head. The climax is followed by the resolution, or a tying up of loose ends.

Narration – the flow of information – Range and depth

The range of story information – who knows what when.

     Unrestricted – the audience knows more, sees more, hears, more than all the characters. Also called omniscient narration, especially in historical narratives, where the audience knows the outcome of an actual historical event (ie A World War) that the characters are living on screen.

     Restricted – The characters and the audience learn story information at the same time. This may be useful in creating suspense in a horror or mystery. However, Alfred Hitchcock, known for the suspense genre, prefers unrestricted narration, so that the audience will fear for the protagonist, who doesn’t know what we know.

Restricted and unrestricted are opposite to each other. Most films are a mixture of the two.

Depth of story information

      Most narrative flow (narration) is objective; that is, the plot confines us to external behavior of its characters.

      At times, we see things from the character’s point of view (POV). This mental subjectivity is when we see images from the character’s mind: dreams, fantasies, memories (in the form of flashbacks). This subjectivity increases a viewer’s identification with the character, and may reveal a character’s motives.

The Narrator

The narrator is a specific agent who purports to be telling us the story.

• The narrator may also be a character in the story (or a character who is a child in the story, but an adult narrator).
• A non-character narrator is the anonymous “voice of God.” This type is a matter of fact commentator who may be objective or subjective.
• Sometimes the narrator is not revealed until the end.