1. Narrative

2. What is narrative?

3. What is narrative?
• It is NOT the plot or the story
• It’s how the story is told/presented to an
audience to create meaning to an audience
• Remember the narrative theory and structure
changes because the way we tell stories
changes (think of films 20 years ago compared
to today)

4. Theorists/theories?
Theorist Their theory explained

5. The basic theories (a bit dated )
Theorist Their theory explained
Todorov Narrative structure = equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium
Strauss Binary opposites = binary opposition forms a fundamental way to
understanding narrative (opposition offers structure or a premise to a
text)
Barthes Codes – narrative is all about anticipation and expectation. His codes
encourage explanations of how audiences seek clues and answers to
predict possible outcomes
Enigma code*
Action code*
Semantic code*
Symbolic code
Cultural code
*know these at minimum
Propp Character types – narratives always have certain character types who
perform certain roles/actions (7 character types are: hero, villain, dispatcher,
donor, helper, heroine, false hero)

6. Other theorists (more recent)
Theorist Their theory explained
Kuleshov
effect
(Lev
Kuleshov)
The power of editing to create meaning on audience (editing is a way
to tell a story or the way to create an intended perception of a story)
Image (assembly/connection between images)
Rhythm (pace)
Space (where things are)
Time (over what period of time? Example – transitions)
Cameron Modular narratives – contemporary cinema has modular (segmental)
narrative structures where sense of time is manipulated (it’s not
presented straight-forwardly)
Forking path
Episodic
Anachronic
Split Screen
Cook Hollywood narrative – these films include structures that are ‘linear’
“linear narrative with cause and effect within overall narrative of
enigma resolution and a high degree of narrative closure”
Similar to todorov

7. Do 1 old, 1 new
• 
• Such as:
old=Todorov (but make links to cook)
new= Kuleshov ?

8. Other useful narrative terms
• Diegesis
• Narrative Range: unrestricted / restrictive narrative
• Narrative depth: objective character identification (POV) /
subjective character identification

9. Kuleshov
• editing creates meaning
• Background: history of editing – there wasn’t any before! All meaning came from MES, think of
how editing creates so many meanings to audiences………remember best editing is invisible!
• Around the time soon after came about he held an experiment to measure audience response
which suggested how important context was (because you can easily lead people to believe
anything)
• Even Alfred Hitchcock considers this theory!
• Editing creates meaning of the following things:
Images Assembly – association of images
Rhythm Pace – establish sense of pace (linked to time)
Time Temporal – how long? When?

10. Kuleshov examples
• Original video (2 experiments)
• Alfred hitchcock video
• Charlie brooker wipe
• Scary Mary
http://ocrmediaconference2014.weebly.com/workshops.html
Scroll down to MICHAEL PARKES prezi on ‘editing’

11. Kuleshov examples
Original video
(2 experiments)
By image association
Guy face then cut to food = hungry or nautious
Guy face then cut to baby = caring/father (or pedo!)
Alfred
Hitchcock video
Same as above
Charlie brooker
wipe
(could be a theorist) - theory = ***can create meaning through
editing because of technological advancements***
-reality TV (with changing footage/cuts/voiceover/music etc)
Scary Mary Making meaning by genre narrative conventions
(change a film to horror by just changing the narrative structure)
-cuts to represent her as a villian/mad
-haunting music
-fast pace etc

12. AS or A2?
• Some people say AS is easier but you could do A2:
• Documentaries –
remember documentary mode theory (BILL NICHOLS)
– Documentaries still tell stories even though they are ‘real’ or non-fiction
(remember you edit it in such a way to persuade people to believe something)
– You could discuss that some of the theories at A2 because of the text (genre of
doc/print) are challenged because they aren’t film based
Ancillary (print work)
• How elements are placed in design work and how layout and visual
hierarchy create a logical ‘story’
• Also how these ‘stories’ or ‘narratives’ create enigma to consume the
product (like your advert was a ‘preview’ to your documentary – it
previewed part of a wider narrative)

13. Revision notes
Theorist/theory Coursework ex 1
1 Part in your sequence
Coursework ex 2
1 Part in your sequence
Coursework ex 3
1 Part in your sequence
Todorov
If you can 
Strauss
Cook
Kuleshov