Narrative theory

A narrative is the story telling of a film and the sequence of events otherwise known as the plot. It is important to the audience as it provides main information of the films genre with the main story line, by using mis en scene and other important elements to determine future events in the film creating the narrative for audience.

Four elements that allow audience to find meaning:
Genre creates consistent meaning and flow of ideas in the film without this there would be no meaning.
Characters are the people that provide depth into the story which is usually emotional and supports the plot.
Connotations and denotation adds meaning to iconography like props Costume as the audience will associate themes with what they see.
Structure of a film allows audience to put events in chronological order and make them understandable.

Theorists:
Vladimir Propp theorized that there are seven different characters. One being the victim hero the center of the villains attention and the seeker hero aids the villains victims both restore equilibrium to the story. For example katniss in the hunger games is the victim hero as she is targeted by the capitol and starts a revolution. The villain causes disruption in the narrative and causes the hero to have to restore things, for example president snow in the hunger games. The donor is the one who provides the hero with necessary tools or skills to continue with their perilous journey, for example Haymitch provides katniss with physical assets such as bow and arrow which highlights the importance of his character. The helper is the one who aids the hero in their quest, Peta joins katniss throughout the quest to defeat the hunger games and also adds a romantic sub plot. The Princess usually female is the prime victim of the villain, katniss's sister could be considered the princess as katniss has to save her from going into the hunger games. The dispatcher is the one who sets the hero on their journey and acts as the voice of wisdom. The false hero is the character that appears to be good throughout the film but then is revealed to have deceived the hero.

Torodov said that films follow an equilibrium structure from the first equilibrium to disequilibrium, then new equilibrium peace. This is were all characters seem stable in the beginning the the dilemma strikes and they have to solve it, in which the narrative is closed by. For example in the film Halloween the begging is where all the people are having fun then the female victim is stabbed starting disequilibrium. The new equilibrium is created when the antagonist is revealed.

Aritotle believes it to be essential to have a beginning middle and end, he claims it important to arouse emotion from audience through themes presented. For example in psycho the plot builds up from the exposure in the shower to the climax were she's stabbed and goes through a painful death adding to tragedy.


Barthes suggested that the seismology theory which the narrative consisted of denotations of cultural understanding and symbolism of iconography of evil and good suggesting that this reveals something about the plot such as scream where we saw knife as a symbol of death
,pain and violence.


Thrillers tend to take the theory plot that Aritotle put out because most thrillers portray theme through iconography to arouse emotion from the objects seen or camera angles, shot size etc. which mostly
out of everything create suspension.

Conclusion:
The narrative that interests me most is Barthes theory, as I would like to take a more symbolic psychological approach to suggest to the audience the intentions.