How to teach narrative narrative theory is familiar and a relatively easy concept for teachers and students of literature. Narrative structures can be studied in works of literature, journalism, theatre, and all time based media like movies or television adverts. While many media text can be analyzed according to 'classic' narrative principles of storytelling, moving images and digital forms require also a new critical framework. Film narrative what is narrative? narrative is the art of storytelling, something we all do every day. It is an important part of our lives and something that we value highly, if you consider the amount of time we all spend in front of television and cinema screens receiving narratives. What makes cinema different from other forms of media? people often talk about film and television as if they are the same thing, but in fact they are very different in a number of ways.

In the cinema we are generally in a state of intense and relatively sustained attention. The average film is about two hours long a very long time to concentrate and yet there is something about the cinema which gives a film in this setting the power to take us over for this amount of time. Again think about the situation at home in front of the tv when you probably have all kinds of things distracting you from what you are trying to watch. Where we see it: we go into a large room with lots of strange people and they turn the lights off! there is an obvious sense of occasion about going to see a film. We are surrounded by lots of people so there is a sense of community, like at a football match or a concert, but at the same time we don rsquo t know who most of them are and even if we are with friends we are unlikely to talk to them as much as normal.

This may all sound ridiculous but there is obviously something enjoyable about the cinema itself rather than just any particular film. What do the filmmakers expect of you? to summarise, because of all of these things, the makers of the film can expect you to be in quite a different state of mind to someone who just happens to be watching the film on tv at home. Syd field the american screenwriter has said that in any good film, the audience will be grabbed by the first ten minutes in that short time it is up to the film makers to interest the audience while at the same time alerting them to what the film will be about and giving them a sense of what kind of film they have let themselves in for. Short units of narrative sequences of shots we call a series of shots a sequence and it is a part of the language of film that we are all very used to this is why we all see the same story in the pictures. We are used to seeing sequences which move back and forth between two characters and making the connections between them. Think about an example we watch a man getting out of a car and looking up at a building, we then cut to another shot from inside a building of the same man walking in.

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No one could doubt that it is the same building, the sequence of shots implies this. All of these different sequences are joined together into a general structure of the film. They are joined together in a pattern which is called causality one thing leads to another which leads to another. As you watch any film, you should be able to plot the pattern of causality throughout it, watching a structure develop of events providing the seeds for other events throughout the film. The best account of how this works to produce an overall structure for a film is given by the american screenwriter syd field in his book screenplay.

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Syd field rsquo s three act plot structure syd field is an american screenwriter who has made a lot of money during the last few years out of the theory you are about to read. This is because, unlike the other theories in this booklet, his ideas are not just intended as a way of analysing existing films, but also as a set of advice for potential film makers. The typical hollywood film, according to field can be separated into three separate dramatic sections or acts: the setup, the confrontation and finally resolution. To move the action on from one act to another there are what he calls plot points particularly important pieces of the plot, which turn around the lives of the characters, change their relationships with others and alter the tone of the film.

Of course, films often have a number of plot points such as these, but field points to two major ones between the acts and a less important one at the middle of the film. He claims that within the first ten minutes in particular, the audience will decide whether they like the film and will normally be unwilling to change their minds later. It is therefore vital for the film maker to give the audience a sense in those ten minutes what the film is going to be about, who the main character is and why they should care about him/her and what they can expect in terms of style. In the rest of the first thirty minutes, the audience should learn the nature of the problem facing the hero although this can be left all the way to plot point one. The second act ndash confrontation in this longest act of the film we see the main character in a number of more and more extreme problem situations where they confront their enemies normally quite helplessly. How are characters delineated? what is their narrative function? how are heroes and villains created? audience. What are the major themes of the narrative? what values/ideologies does it embody? other.

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What is the role of such features as sound, music, iconography, genre, mise en scene, editing etc within the narrative? due to the nature and complex narrative structure of memento nolan 20 , one has to closely evaluate the succession of events before one could make the assumption that this film is a 'typical hollywood mainstream motion picture'. It is easy to assume that this film would in fact fit the criteria of the hollywood mainstream motion picture, only upon looking at the cast and a list director christopher nolan who one could assume would use his 'usual' cinematic style to ensure the success of this film. The complex introduction to the film already creates the anxiety driven need to finish watching the film, due to the unusualness of the opening scene that distinguishes memento nolan 20 from other classical hollywood films. Our writers can help get your essay back on track, take a look at our services to learn more about how we can help. Essay writing service essay marking service place an order skills of narrative structure narrative structure is such structural framework that brings about the sequence and order in which a narrative is offered to a reader.

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Narrative structure also refers to such structural element like introduction or opening of the story, which usually assists to give a foundation to characters and situations. Narrative structure mainly includes two things: story content and the way adopted to narrate the story. Story is a rough sketch of dramatic action because it can be illustrated in sequential order. Plot is the way story is told such as type of storytelling, the construction and organization that the story follows. Narrative structure can be analyzed by three 'wh' questions such as who, where, and what. Story and plot is illustrated to tell that the way by which life of characters is affected due to a particular situation or incident.

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It also includes the conflicts that the characters deal with while the main conflict leads to the climax of the story. This conflict in the story makes many forms such as emotional and physical atmosphere of the characters. Plot of story deals with the environment of story, the way it starts, characters, the conflicts of the story, effects of conflicts, their approach to deal with them and the way story move along. It also includes the way adopted to introduce the characters, the way story moves around the characters and conflicts and story and plot is assumed as effectively in the way it is constructed4.

Types of narrative structure chronological or linear in this type of narrative structure, two different stories run alongside each other. Sometimes it can be two people telling the same story or two different ones telling the different stories. Multi narrative multi narrative type of structure is a story within a story, within a story, and within a story again. Dual narrative dual narrative is the story is written in the time sequence in the way it took place.

Flashbacks flashback is the one when more than single voice is involved in telling the story. Fragmented narrative fragmented narrative is the one when the narrative moves back in the time. Readers just receive pieces of it from past and present and future and have to compose all to understand what happened and in what order for us the elements of narrative structure elements of narrative structure which assess the questions like what, why, when, who, where and how have some certain elements. In terms of narrative structure the elements are: plot, setting, character, conflict, resolution and climax, theme, dialogue, action, and sequence of scenes. Major elements of narrative structure are: exposition it is the opening or beginning of the plot of the story that is about introducing characters and setting of the story.

All these elements are largely presented at the opening of the story and takes place as a type of throughout description of incident. It can be dealt with in a variety of ways like most probably character or a set of characters put in plain words the elements of the plot through dialogue or thought, and diaries. Rising action rising action is the middle element of a story during when many conflicts arise, and it leads up to the climax of the story.