Narrative Theories Research Task

Narrative is a work of speech such as a writing, speech or a film, Narrative describes a fictional or non-fictional events. An example of a start of a narrative is "once". This invites us into the narrative world which is set in the past. Most narratives are recounted in the past tense.


Another example of a narrative speech is "Once upon a time" which puts us in a world because the word 'once' is past tense in which takes us to a different time, also 'upon a time' is putting us in a world which is different from ours. Narratives are recounted in the past tense in which this occurs the same with 'once upon a time' as this narrative speech is used in a fair tale or a myth, in a fairy tale or a myth it has an effect on the reader as the narrative speech gives meaning such as upon a time in which stimulates or puts us in a world different to ours which previously i have explained.

Narratives are important as it's a way of communicating through films or books. If narrative speech was not in a book or film then a would be less interesting to read or watch in which audience wouldn't be interested as it's a way of communicating, an example of narrative is 'Once upon a time' this narrative creates a few things which is different time as 'once' is past tense, 'upon a time' is a different world. Without this example a book based of myths would be very boring which would put of a reader in which this is why narratives are important.

Their are three different types of narrative theories such as equilibrium, disequilibrium and . Many narratives theories were people who came up with these theories such as Tzvetan Todorov who suggests three narrative theory's have a three part structure which are equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov  was a Bulgarian theorist, Tzvetan Todorov said that their were five stages structured in a narrative. He suggested that all narratives start with a state of equilibrium, the equilibrium is then disputed by an action or an event, from this their is an attempt to repair the disruption as of which from here their is a reinstatement of a new equilibrium. This narrative structure are found in many film narratives such as finding nemo.

Equilibrium > Dis-equilibrium  > New Equilibrium

A film example of Tzvetan Todorov theory is

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was also a  theorist, he suggests that in a narrative are 8 characters and 31 roles, he also proposed that his suggestion classify's the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. 
Vladimir Propps 8 characters and 31 roles
The hero - Leads the narrative and is usually looking to solve something (a quest)
The Villain - Conflicts with the hero. 
The Heroine - Usually a 'reward' for the hero triamphing.
The Father - An authority figure who offers a reward for the hero to complete his or her quest 
The Helper - Assists the hero in completing his quest. 
The Donor - Gives the hero something such as a special power to help him defeat the villain and win the reward. 
The Mentor  The master/tutor towards the hero, teaches him the tricks of the trade along the way.


To give a film example of Vladmir Propp theory would be Shrek, the hero of the film Shrek would be Shrek himself as he rescues Fiona. The Villain in Shrek is the evil lord, the heroine is Fiona, the father is the evil lord, the helper is donkey, the donor is fair godmother and the mentor is the cat within the film Shrek.


Binary Oppositions

Binary oppositions was an idea created by Claude Levi-Strauss, the idea or theory if you like was in the  twenth century, this theory looks at narrative structure as each character could be opposite such as a good character vs bad character. Binary oppositions is concepts that are opposite in meaning. An example of this would be men vs women, powerful vs weak and good vs evil. Within film narrative's binary opposition is used to show good vs bad in a film. A film example of this would be star wars as the hero would be Luke Skywalker, the villian would be Dark Vador, this is what the audience relates to as of good and evil within films. Binary opposition helps the audience as in a film you can tell from the concepts such as costumes as to what character is the evil and the good, the bad character would be wearing a dark or grey costume where as the good character would be wearing the opposite shade of colour to white. Binary oppositions helps the audience distinguish each character within a film.

I think the theory that is effective opening for our film is Tzvetan Todorov equilibrium theory. I think this as the equilibrium theory fits in to our story of our film opening. A short brief of our story is that matt and his friends are leading a new life but something changes which is the direction they head in and the new equilibrium is Matts life is changed in which you don't see that as it's part of a cliff hanger for our film opening.

AS Media Animatic Movie : Wrong Direction

This is our animatic film opening which is called Wrong Direction. This film was made from the drawings and crayons we did on a flexible learning day, these pictures was on a storyboard so we had each shot on a different sqaure piece of paper, underneath it was the camera angle and shot, we had put the type of angle of each shot so we can interprate this in our animatic film opening. Other than camera angles we also put the dialogue of each shot, this is so that we know what is being said by each character in the shot, the camera movement was also included on each shot.

Here is an image of what we had written on the story which consist of the picture of that shot, dialogue, camera movement and also camera angles. The picture has been half cut out of where we had written about the exachange of dialogue in each shot and camera angles and movements ect.

When we had drawed the pictures and coloured them we had then scanned them and then crop the images using paint, some of the images we had edited in paint to make more better quality and to add props and scenary such as a path with grass.

(picture below showing this)

When we had finshed cropping and editing the images i then made sure that every image was the same size (470x320) because when the images went from shot to shot their was a black gap between the video player and the edge of the image, I did this because i felt it may disorentate the viewer so i made the images the same size.

Making the animatic film we edited it all in a software called windows movie maker. In windows movie maker we added a video transition between each shot such as a fade, at the last shot which is the disfigured man with a unique weapon we faded that shot as that was the end of the animatic film. In our animatic film we also included video effects such as ease in or ease out which was zooming in on a shot or zooming out of a shot. 

Animatic Diary Entry

The flexible learning day consisted of our group finishing our pictures on our storyboard, then we had to scan them images on to the computer and from their was had to crop each shot and also edit them in paint. When we had finish that we then had to import them into windows movie maker in which we didn't get that far due to problems and also timing as well. Our group had each job to do in which was to finish off the storyboard by colouring and also write about what camera movement and angle would be in each shot. Once we did that we had to colour the storyboard which was very time costly as it took up nearly the whole, this is why we didn't get to finish off importing the video and then add video transitions and effects. Another reason why we didn't manage to finish off was because our group was the last to use the scanner, when everyone had finish it did not leave us much time.

Their was many problems we had face before we even started which was the classroom had no power which meant that the computers would not turn on, after that was solved someone in the class had to get crayons. When we had crayons and the computers having power we had then had to get a scanner in which took about 1 hour 15 minutes up of our time as we had to wait for a IT technician. Another problem we had was when we had finish off colouring in the storyboard we had scanned all the images and we was not happy with the outcome or quality of the scanned image due to it being very light coloured, this problem was over come like many others so we had to colour it in again which then lost our place to use the scanner.

I would say that our group did well at each of our jobs as we each had a task to do and i think with the outcome we did well because we had a lot of problems much managed to over come them and get on with it.

Preliminary Video

This our premlinary video consisted of lauren powell (actor) , Ryan Rheeston (actor) and Me Craig Fallows (Camera man and editor) .

This is our Preliminary video, within the video are camera techniques such as shots and angles, we had followed the 180 degree rule and also included over the shoulder shots, all of these techniques we have learnt in AS media lessons which proved effective in our preliminary video. We had recorded the preliminary video with a classroom in the school where we had used chairs and tables, we had set out the table and chairs the way we wanted so we could first practised each shot and the movement of the camera so that we had good footage to edit so we didn't have to go back and do it again. I think that the video overall was a good job we had done as a group as we had used the knowledge we learnt in lessons which was the camera angle & shots, over the shoulder shot and also the 180 degree rule.  With the video techniques being used in our video I felt that the camera movements and angles was a good aspect as when you watch the video their is no shots where it disorientate the viewer, another good aspect was the camera zooming in on props as I think this was important for the viewers to know what the object is so the choice of zooming in on objects was another good aspect of our video.Within our video we had used props, one of them was a briefcase, without this I think that the video would of been very plain and dull without that props and also the viewer watching might have lost interest if we didn't have props.


Their are a lot of things we could of improved on such as people in the background talking in which I think as a group we could have stopped that from happening. The dialogue or storyline was very hard to make out and also follow what was going on in which I think it could confuse the audience as from the noise in the background it's very hard to follow. Another improvement was the props we had made, the prop was a piece of paper which was a contract but as you could see it was just scribbled pattern to make out it was writing, we could of improved this by making a contract on a computer but with the time given we would not of had enough time to film the video. Within the video could of been more talking, more dialogue to give the storyline more structure.

Preliminary Research

Continuity Editing is the main sort of style of editing for a film, television programmes, the editing is putting scenes together. Its editing that's flows through shots smoothly without disorientating the viewer or audience so that it's smooth over the transition of the recording and that the scenes change naturally and also unnoticed. Their are two types of categories which consist of continuity editing and they are temporal and spatial cutting.  These film techniques are important as the audience can understand and follow the story, the viewers would also need to understand the concepts of the story.Temporal cutting is connecting shots to narrative development, this maybe linear progression or not.  Temporal cutting also consists of  flash back on a characters life and also the progression of time. An example of this would be a scene where there is a house party and through out the party their would need to be a progression of time passing by.

Other than temporal cutting their is also another category within continuity editing which is spatial cutting. Spatial cutting creates unified space through the editing shots from different angles and also framing. Spatial editing also includes the rule which is the 180 degree rule when filming. The 180 degree rule involves two characters, when filming you should film on one of the characters shoulder such as their left, and the other characters right shoulder. This then creates a 180 degree, if you don't follow the 180 degree rule then you disorientate the audience. The picture below explains more in a visual way

Here is an example (video) of how part of a film is keeping to the 180 degree rule

Shot and reverse shot is a filming technique, shot and reserve shot is where you film a character looking at another character and then reverses in which shows the other character facing each other, this is shown facing in opposite directions in which the audience thinks that the characters are facing each other.This film technique can also be used by having over the shoulder shots as the character is shown over one characters shoulder and then the other in which it can reverse. This technique may have two different camera's or maybe just one camera in the same height with it sticking the the 180 degree rule, one camera would be used for over the shoulder technique as if you had two camera's over the two characters shoulders then obviously you would see the other camera in the shot.

Here is a diagram (image) showing this

Match on action is a editing technique, it's where one shot is cut to another shot. Match cut is two different actions in different locations or objects, this draws parallels or contrast with two different time-space locations in which the transitions are smooth when linking the shots together. Here is a video below showing this.




I  think that continuity editing is important when filming because it is essential as the transition between shots is as smooth as possible to ensure that the audience has maximum enjoyment and interest from the film and that no attention is drawn to the change in shot or disorientation with the shots. I think without match on action films would be boring as the shots wouldn't be natural or realistic in which this wouldn't appeal to the audience.

Bibliography:
http://www.slideshare.net/leviwigglesworth/shot-reverse-shot-and-match-on-action-media
http://www.slideshare.net/stewedveg/continuity-editing-10739140
http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp050.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/tijoum/the-180-degree-rule
Filmography: Step Brothers

Design Decisions

Costumes
In our film the costumes are important as the costumes will reflect the character type. An example will be the killer (adversary) as the killer character will have dark clothing to represent fear and also to put fear into the audience. The sort of costume the killer will wear is ripped, dark and blood on the clothing so that the audience know what type of character he or she is. The protagonist will have better clothing that the adversary as the audience would get confused if they both wore the same sort of clothing. The protagonist will wear more better and updated clothing as the protagonist will represent as non violent.

Props
In our film the props we are using will weapons, the weapons will be unique and will also show what kind of genre it is (example if you see guns in a fight scene then you would expect it to be action, you also don't see guns in horror). Our aim is for the character to look scary with the weapon, the weapon will be unique because it will appear to the audience as a surprise and will want to watch more because they will want to know how the character use's it.

Lighting
In our film the lighting will be low key lighting, when the adversary is in a camera shot such as a ECU (extreme close up) then the lighting will be dark however when the protagonist is in a camera shot then the lighting will be brighter than when the adversary is in the shot. When the adversary is hunting the protagonist the lighting will be dark to create tension so that there is a build to when the protagonist is nearly killed. The lighting will be mostly dark, when the camera is filming adversary character the background will be light but the adversary will be a dark figure so you can't see his face until he comes and bit closer so there will be a lot of contrast in our film, this is to create tension and also to scare the audience.

Mis-En-Scene
The mis-en-scene is the setting within a film, the settings gives the audience the type of genre the film is, an example of this would be a high built up and busy area would be a a genre of action as many action films consist of this type of mis-en-scene to escape as it's a busy area. For our film the mis-en-scene decision is the woods as of which was based on our film genre which is horror, our group decided on this as the woods can be a scary place with the lighting (dark - natural light) in the woods as this would be an uncomfortable situation as you wouldn't be able to see what is lurking around such as an unusual creature in that kind of darkness.

Questionnaire Research Analysis (Graphics)

This question we asked what type of setting do they find scary, we asked this so that the answers we get we could us the setting that people find scary and also our opinion so that when we film we film it in a setting that an audience would find scary. As you can see we had put on option their so that people can pit their own answer instead of multiple choice ones.

Our film genre is horror, we asked people what is their favourite type of horror film. We found that people don't find crime/mystery very scary. Froim this question a type of horror film haunting was their favourite type of horror film.

Our film genre is horror, we asked people what their favourite genre was, we asked thhis question because we would find out if people like horror films which thewy did but we also found out that comedy is also a favourite genre so with this result we could add some comedy into the film as we know that the two top genre is comedy and horror and our film genre is horror.

With our film genre being horror we wanted to know what draws people to that film genre, with the result you can see that trailer is popular so this tells us that a good trailer of that partiuclar film genre draws people to watching the film.

This question i felt was the most important as this can tel us what other films lack of so that when we come to filming we as a group are strong on that aspect that lacks. The lack of story makes people dislike a film so this is a challenge for us to have a strong good story so the audience don't dislike it.

This question i felt we could improve, with having multiple choice answers we haven't had got many answers their for people to choose from, i felt we could of had more answers their so we could of got more of a result from this question.

This question like many other questions we asked was more of their opinion as their was more multiple choice questions as you can see we have five them to choose from.

This question tells us that the best type of killer to have in our film is mysterious, this is the thype of character we could have in our film knowing that most people like this sort of killer

When we film we know that what ever character or props we use that make the film have scaryness, we know that it won't affect the audeince as we asked people who like the genre horror and they don't feel affect by the film and the aspects in it such as the characters.

Many people expect in a horror film for the evil character to be killed or taken away but that can be argured by the other people who choose the answer 'the evil chcacter gets away and continues what he's doing'. This tells us that the audience likes a dertain ending to a film, we asked this question as the sotry based on our film opening we can use both of these endings so we asked what people this best of these two endings.