CHAPTER SUMMARIES FOR FINAL EXAM CHAPTER 7 Telling Stories About Time Narrative Films Narrative film depicts characters pursuing goals and confronting obstacles to those goals In general narrative follows a three part structure consisting of a beginning a middle and an ending an opening state is disrupted in the middle of the narrative and that disruption leads to a reestablishment of order in the ending A Short History of Narrative Film While early films tended to merely present a moving image often these images referred to a story and film adaptations of well known stories were very popular with early film audiences In order to capitalize on a growing culture of leisure time moviemakers developed more complex stories that could attract larger audiences keep them in their seats for longer periods and allow them to charge more than a nickel for admission As early narrative films developed there became a need for film scripts and screenwriters Scripts are the written narrative through which films are made They start as treatments then become screenplays and finally detailed shooting scripts Silent films had a limited amount of dialogue in the form of intertitles but the invention of synchronized sound film allowed film narratives to craft more intricate and detailed characters with more in depth psychological and social dimensions In the aftermath of WWII various art cinemas emerged in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s This new form of cinema questioned many of the cultural perspectives and values that existed before the war A number of new wave cinemas subverted traditional narrative and aesthetic forms and turned away from objective realism to more subjective storytelling techniques Contemporary film narratives represent a diverse set of practices but three are particularly significant reflexivity movies based on amusement rides and vice versa and the incorporation of effects influenced by video games and digital technologies into movie narratives The Elements of Film Narrative Narrative is the art and craft of constructing a story through a particular plot and point of view The main features of a narrative film are story character plot and narration Story is the subject matter or raw material of a narrative the actions and events usually perceived in terms of a beginning middle and end The plot orders the events and actions of the story according to particular temporal and spatial patterns with certain actions individuals and events of the story included and others omitted In addition to character story and plot narration is essential to our understanding of film narrative Narration refers to the emotional physical or intellectual perspective through which the characters events and action of the plot appear A first person narration refers to a film told through the point of view of a character in the film A third person narration is told from a more detached vantage point seeing events from outside of the story All of these dimensions of film narrative are also dependent upon various historical cultural and industrial issues As storytelling came to dominate filmmaking characters became the central vehicle for story actions and narrative functions Characters are the central or minor figures who focus or motivate the events of the story They are commonly identified and understood as a product of their appearance gestures and actions dialogue and the comments of other characters Film characters are typically a combination of ordinary and extraordinary features drawing from both reality and fantasy Character coherence is the product of different psychological historical or other expectations that see people and thus fiction characters as fundamentally consistent and unique A divided character subverts one or more expectations of character coherence Character depth refers to the layers of personal mystery and emotional and intellectual traits that comprise the singular character as a unique individual Character grouping refers to the social arrangements of characters in relation to each other Character types are conventional characters e g hard boiled detective who share distinguishing features with other similar characters and are prominent within particular narrative traditions such as fairy tales genre films and comic books A single trait or multiple traits may define character types Character development describes the process by which characters change and learn from their experiences A narrative can be organized according to a variety of temporal patterns Most commonly plots follow a linear chronology in which the selected events and actions proceed one after another through a forward movement in time Hollywood films often follow the deadline structure which creates dramatic tension by accelerating the action and plot toward a central event or action that must be accomplished by a certain moment hour day or year A prominent recent example of this structure is the television series 24 which presents each hour long episode in real time with the entire season depicting 24 hours in the life of U S anti terrorist agent Jack Bauer Keifer Sutherland Plot order describes how events and actions are arranged in relation to each other to create a chronology of one sort or another While most films present plot in linear chronology many films present their narratives out of chronological order through flashbacks or flashforwards Narrative duration refers to the length of time an event or action is presented in a plot whereas narrative frequency describes how often those plot elements are repeatedly shown Narrative location refers to the indoor outdoor natural and artificial spaces that are not merely background for stories but take on cultural and social significance as characters explore these spaces contrast them conquer them inhabit them leave them build on them and transform them Narrative space may be developed in four ways as a historical location ideological location psychological location or symbolic space The organizing perspective through which plots are constructed is referred to as its narration Narration carries and creates attitudes values and aims that are central to understanding any movie Narration can be presented from first person or third person perspectives and it can be omniscient restricted reflexive or unreliable The Significance of Film Narrative Film narratives are significant for two reasons they describe the different temporal experiences of individuals and they
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