Exam QU.1b: Narratives January 2011

In question 1(b) you must write about one of your media productions.


(b) Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions


25 marks

4) Lesson Task: Narratives in Music Videos: Tuesday 10/05/11

Narrative

Section A  - Question 1B – the question may ask you about Narrative and one of your products. You might choose to write about your film or your supporting/ancillary products (digipak or advertisement). 

Symbolism plays a large part in the music video and there is an overlap between Narrative and Genre. In particular connotation the associated meanings of the style you have used and the message you are trying to communicate. 

In the box below is two very well known ways in which narratives are structured (in other words put together) you might like to make some points about how your music video falls into these narrative structures and/or you might discuss the visual codes and the narrative in relations to your packaging. Have you used intertextual references? For example, what is the visual significance of the font styles you have used or some of the effects and how do these add to the narrative?  

Look at the to slides below: Refer to your production and make notes referring to the different narrative categories you think your film production relates to:

Click on further links below for details of the different types of narrative structures 

Narrative Codes: Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes Narrative Codes

Roland Barthes French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician.

In “Introduction to Structural Analysis of Narrative” (1977), Roland Barthes outlined five narrative codes that define the internal logic of the narrative. These codes rely on the audience as ‘readers’ of the text suggesting that audience play an active role in recreating the narrative.

Similar to Todorov’s theory, where audience’s experience of the narrative involves anticipating and expecting a resolution to a problem or ‘disruption’, Barthes’ codes encourage the audience to seek answers to clues and make them anticipate outcomes. The five codes are as follows:

Hermeneutic or enigma code: narratives set up puzzles to be solved, e.g. ‘What did the letter say”, what is in the briefcase’, these enigmas delay the ending of the narrative and maintain audience interest and anticipation. In most cases we will find out the answer to these enigmas and this will contribute to our enjoyment of the overall resolution.

Proairetic or action code: This code also relates to progression in the narrative and involves the codes of behaviour or actions that lead us to expect certain consequences, based on our experiences of other film narratives. For example, when a Cowboy enters a saloon and takes his gun from its holster, this behaviour leads us to expect certain consequences that someone will be shot.

Semic or semantic code: This code involves the connotative meaning of characters, objects or settings that we learn to ‘read’ through our experience of narratives. For example, the colour is often used to suggest danger or passion; therefore a red dress worn by a female is likely to suggest her sexuality or power.

Symbolic code: This code relates to symbolic features of a text that signify oppositions and antitheses that exist in a narrative, such as good/evil, light/dark, civilised/savage (binary opposites).

Cultural, or referential code: this code refers to outside the text and the knowledge that we commonly share and bring to the text and the knowledge that we commonly share and bring to the text to understand its meaning.   

Tzvetan Todorov’s Equilibrium

Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher now living in France. His theory is a relatively simple one and goes something like this: 

1. The fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium (everything is as it should be)

2. It then suffers some disruption (disequilibrium)

3. New equilibrium is produced at the end of the narrative

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

• A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)

• A disruption of that order by an event

• A recognition that the disorder has occurred

• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption

• A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

 

Here narrative is not seen as a linear structure but a circular one. The narrative is driven by

attempts to restore the equilibrium. However, the equilibrium attained at the end of the story

is not identical to the initial equilibrium.

Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation. The characters or the situations are

transformed through the progress of the disruption. The disruption itself usually takes place

outside the normal social framework, outside the ‘normal’ social events. For example: 

• A murder happens and people are terrified

• Someone vanishes and the characters have to solve the mystery So, remember:

• Narratives don’t need to be linear.

• The progression from initial equilibrium to restoration always involves a transformation.

• The middle period of a narrative can depict actions that transgress everyday habits and routines.

• There can be many disruptions whilst seeking a new equilibrium (horror relies on this technique). 

Classical Hollywood Narrative

Further conventions of the Classical Hollywood narrative

The three-act structure: this approach to film-making was taken from the 19^th Century stage melodramas so prominent when feature-length films first began to be produced.

Exposition – is the first part of the narrative that sets up the story events and the leading characters’ traits and situations. This creates a range of causes for

What the audience see on screen. It raises our expectations for what is to come.

Development – a continuous narrowing of cause and effect through the actions and reactions of the protagonist to the events surrounding them. As the plot proceeds, so the potential number of cause and effects that could occur decrease

In number in readiness for the resolution. The film will direct the audience towards a limited number of possible outcomes. Narrative development creates audience expectation in respect to the outcome of the film.

Resolution – is about endings and climaxes. Typically the film ends by narrowing

The range of possible outcomes to two specific ones: success or failure by the

Protagonist achieving the desired outcome. The ending therefore closes the chain of cause and effect

Linear Narrative

Linear Narrative: events unfold in chronological order.

Nonlinear Narrative

Nonlinear Narrative
Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique, sometimes used in literature, film, hypertext websites and other narratives, wherein events are portrayed out of chronological order. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory but has been applied for other reasons as well.