Narratives

What is a narrative?
A narrative is the general plot or story of a film, TV show etc.
Narratives will follow a structure usually the most typical one is beginning, middle, end. Characters must be
included in these narratives in order to push the plot forward. The characters have some kind of conflict that
will drive the plot further, such as in a super hero film, there will be a villain that causes as disturbance and
the hero will have to stop the villain, this will drive the plot further with the characters.
A list of narrative structures:
Single strand narrative- One full story from start to finish and will usually have a moral
Multi-strand narrative- Tells more than one story at a time.
Linear- Equilbrium- Disruption- New equilbrium
Non- Linear- for example it will start at the middle, beginning then end.
Realistic- Made in real life so the audience can relate to them.
Anti- realism- based in a fantasy world that can help people escape from reality
Open ending- stories not resolved at the end
Closed ending- The story is completely resolved

I am researching all of the different narratives so I can understand what will be best for my task. My
task is to design a opening sequence to a thriller film. By researching all of this I can get a good idea as
to what narrative structure I will be using and this will help me to get the best grade possible In this
opening sequence.

Todrov theory
His theory was that all films must have an equilbrium then a
disequilibrium that disturbs the peace and the hero has to stop
this, then a new equilbrium, which is everything beck to how it
was or slightly different.
World war Z is an example that includes Todrovs theory as it
begins with a scene that is happy, then a disruption happens which
includes an evacuation from an unknown threat, then the man
must attempt to stop the threat from continuing.

Propp
This is the list of characters that are needed in order to move the plot forward, a typical use of this is the hero
coming to save the princess and the farther allows them to become married as a reward for his efforts. The
characters would include:
The hero- goes on a mission to help the princess
Villain- attempts to stop the hero from his mission
Donor- provides an object that will help the hero with his mission
Dispatcher- sends the hero on the quest
Helper- will help the hero on his quest
Princess- the reward to the hero
Princesses farther- gives the hero the princess as a reward
This will apply to World war Z because the hero has been separated from his family and must fight the zombies in
order to get back to them, so his family is the princess. The dispatcher would be the army as they pick him up and
take him to the place, the helper would be the women that comes along with him on his journey, and the villain
would be the zombies.

Levi-strauss
His theory is that the narrative will be drove by opposites, such as
good VS evil, this will cause a clash and will cause a disturbance
and drive the plot forward.
In world war Z the opposites alive and dead. This is because the
dead people come back and start attacking the living, and the
people must do what they can to stop this from happening.

Barthes
This theory will engage the audience the most as it will raise the
most questions and keep the audience guessing such as a murder
mystery, it will keep the audience guessing who the murderer is an
will therefore keep them interested. This theory would not apply
to world war Z but it does apply to shutter island as it keeps the
audience guessing what has happened and also includes as twist
and an ending that keeps the audience with different
explanations, so the story is still not explained.

Conclusion
This has helped me to think of many ideas for what I can put in my
thriller film opening sequence, such as going for a non-linear film, such
as starting at the middle, which will help to raise questions in my
opening sequence and therefore engaging the audience and creating an
interesting opening sequence. I think the most useful theory would be
todrov at it is a very simple narrative and can be used in many films,
not just films that include good VS bad.
I think Barthes enigma theory would be a good idea, as I feel for an
opening sequence it would arise many questions which is what you want
in an opening sequence, this has given me an idea for my opening
sequence of having a murder at the beginning to bring many questions.