Assignments: Narrative Structure & Postmodernism

Assignment: Narrative Structure

Describe the narrative structure of Shakespeare in Love (1998). Choose from the Three Act, Four Act, or Five Act (Dramatic) structure, the one you think most appropriate for this film then describe the basic plot of the film according to each act. Use the narrative structure terminology you have learned.


Assignment: Postmodernism

The time we are living in is known as Postmodernism. Therefore, the ideas and concepts associated with Postmodernism can often been seen in contemporary art, including contemporary films such as Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Shakespeare in Love (1998).

Write an essay in which you:

1. explain what Postmodernism is, and
2. describe in what ways the films Romeo + Juliet and Shakespeare in Love are postmodern.

Your essay is likely to have five paragraphs: (1) introductory paragraph; (2) explanation of Postmodernism; (3) discussion of Romeo + Juliet as a postmodern film; (4) discussion of Shakespeare in Love as a postmodern film; (5) conclusion. Remember to include references.

Narrative

Diegetic & Non-Diegetic Elements

Narrative films include elements that are part of the story-world, such as the setting, characters, and so on. This is collectively known as the diegesis. The elements that make up the diegesis are referred to as the diegetic elements or digetic devices. Elements that are not part of the actual story, for example the musical score or the opening and closing credits are non-diegetic elements / devices. They all, however, form part of the overall storytelling, i.e. the narrative. Therefore, narrative elements include both diegetic and non-diegetic elements.

Story (Fabula) and Plot (Syuzhet)

When we speak of “narrative” we usually mean “story.” A story is a series of events that are recounted (i.e. described or narrated) in their chronological order. However, if you know anything about stories, you will know that story events are not always told in chronological order. There is a difference between a narrative’s story (the chronological events, also known as the fabula) and its plot. The latter is the events of the story, which have been rearranged in a creative way to enhance the story. In the plot, also known as the syuzhet, the story events are not always in a chronological sequence. Past events may be shown (flashbacks) or future events (flashforwards) may be narrated early in the the story telling. Many well known narratives do not commence at the beginning of the story – some actually start at the end, for instance the films Citizen Kane (1941) and Momento (2001).

Narrative Structure

The narrative structure of a classical drama, like the Shakespearean play, can be depicted by the following illustration, known as Freytag’s pyramid.

Act One: The narrative starts with an exposition which provides the background information and introduces the characters (protagonists and antagonists), the setting and also the basic conflict and an inciting moment. The inciting moment is what causes the protagonist to act.

Act Two: This leads to a rising action; the conflict becomes clearer as the story progresses.

Act Three: Eventually there is the climax. The climax is where a big change in the story occurs, also known as the turning point. Things will either go well or bad for the protagonist.

Act Four: Next is the action starts to wane (falling action) as the conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels.

Act Five: Finally there is a resolution – a dénouement (happy conclusion) or a tragic ending.

The typical narrative film follows a similar structure, but instead of the five act structure it is condensed into only three acts. Act One contains the exposition and turning point. Act Two includes the complications that lead to the climax. Lastly, in the third act the action falls and the story comes to some resolution.

Another interpretation by Kristin Thompson is that contemporary narrative follows a four-act structure, rather than a three-act structure, in which the first act contains the exposition and a first turning point, in the second act the action leads up to the major turning point, in the third act the struggle continues toward the goal or climax, and finally in the fourth act the story comes to a resolution, known as the epilogue.

When describing the plot of a film it is useful to keep these narratives structures in mind to help you organize the narrative in a coherent manner.

While the three-act or four-act narrative structures are common, they are not the only narrative structures. To understand other types of narrative structures, we need to understand narrative layers.

Narrative Layers

A single narrative layer is one level at which the story occurs. However, it is possible to have another story occurring within the main story – for instance, the characters in the main story could be telling another story (maybe even reading a bedtime story), and so we have a story within a story. In other words, there are two diegesis or two layers, the one embedded in the other. In theory any amount of narrative layers are possible. The first narrative layer is often referred to as the “frame narration” in film theory.

Some Variation on Narrative Structure

Narrative structures usually have a clear and expected flow of events. A protagonist faces a problem (antagonist) or goal, strives to overcome or achieve it, a climax results after which the protagonist has overcome the problem or achieved the goal, or where the protagonist fails (in which case it is called a tragedy). But in the end, there is a resolution. In other words, the audience understands that the story has ended – there is closure. Traditional narratives are also clear, the audience easily understands the space, time, and events; there is also unity between the causes and effects; the characters are identifiable and their motivations understandable; and the focus is on the diegesis.

Some narratives are not so clearly defined. A number of narratives may seem to lack a clear problem or goal for the protagonist to overcome or achieve – these are called episodic narratives. Other narratives may be open ended, i.e. there is no resolution and the audience is left unsure whether the protagonist has achieved the goal, or overcome the problem – there may still be unanswered questions, or unresolved conflicts. The narrative may also depart from traditional conventions: it may lack clarity with conflicting storylines and space, time and events that are difficult to understand; there may be a lack of unity where the law of cause and effect is not upheld; characters’ goals and motivations are unclear, or they may be too far removed from “normal people” that the audience cannot identify with them; and there is an intrusive focus on the non-diegetic elements, like addressing the audience directly, or revealing cinematic “tools”, for instance showing the cameras.

Narration

In books it is much easier to identify the narrator, i.e. the person that is telling the story (i.e. the speaker). In literature there are also different words used to describe different types of narrations; for instance, it could be a first person narration (one of the characters is telling the story from his own point of few), a third-person narration (the story is not told by one of the characters), or in some cases even an omniscient narration (the narrator knows everything about everyone).

In film, it is much more difficult to identify the narrator. Usually there is no audible narrator – instead we only get to “see” what the cameras see. What the director (or cinematographer) chooses for us to see, is in effect part of the telling of the story – part of the narration of film. Sometimes the camera shows what one of the characters are seeing, as if we were seeing the world through the eyes of that character. This is known as a point-of-view shot, when the audience shares the visual perspective of a character. We will look at different ways of using the camera later in the course.

Apart from the camera giving us a visual interpretation of the diegetic world, there are also other narrative elements that contributes to the story telling, like sound, mise en scène, cinematography and editing. We already discussed sound and will discuss the other elements later.

Sound

Types of Film Sound

There are three types of film sound: dialogue, sound effects, and music.

Dialogue

The dialogue is the verbal narrative of the script, recited by the actors. A good actor will not merely repeat the words, but will bring meaning and life to it through the way he or she performs. To do this the actor uses pauses, intonation, emotion, voice volume, pitch, accent and dialect, and so on.

Under the dialogue heading we may also include the voice-over, where "someone" is speaking to the audience. The voice-over can be used to inform the audience of background information, inner-dialogue, and so one, which is often important for the coherence or comprehension of the narrative.

Sound Effects

Sound effects are an important component of a film’s sound because it contributes lots of important details to the film, and to the audience’s understanding of the scenes. [1] Sound effects can help the audience identify the location of the film – the sound of crickets could indicate a rural night scene, while the sound of traffic bustling by may suggest a city environment. [2] The sound also suggests certain moods to an environment. Horror movies, for instance, may employ “scary” noises to create a feeling of suspense and fear. [3] Sound effects can also indicate the environment’s impact on characters. A famous example is the “Crop Duster”-scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) where the audience can hear the plane coming closer and going further away, even though it is not always visible on the screen.

Sound effects have certain characteristics that you need to know about: acoustic qualities; volume; regularity; verisimilitude (sounding authentic).

Music

Music has an important function in film and contributes important meaning to the narrative. [1] The music may establish the historical context for the film. [2] The music also contributes to shaping the space and helps the audience establishes the space of the scene. [3] It also helps to shape the emotional tenor of the scene. A sinister melody may create a suspenseful mood, or a merry melody may create a corresponding cheerful mood. [4] Music can also contribute to defining character – well chosen music can become associated with certain characters, and so add to the characterization of that character. [5] The music could also “distance” the audience when the sound and the image contradict. Such well thought out juxtaposition of music and image by the filmmaker may give special meaning to the scene.

Music has five characteristics. Patterns of development (compare with motifs); lyrics; tempo & volume; instrumentation; cultural significane.

The Relationship between Sound and Image

The typical expectations are that the sound we hear should correspond with the image we see, and that the soundtrack should enhance the mood of the scene. When two actors speak to each other we expect to hear the dialogue, unless they are whispering; when a gun is fired we expect to hear the bang, unless it is fitted with a silencer, in which case we expect to hear a muffled shot. Also, when two lovers kiss we expect romantic music; conversely, in an action film sequence we expect fast paced music, or in a thriller there might be suspenseful sound effects.

However, the sound may differ from what we see and what we expect to hear. There are five ways in which the filmmaker can choose to create contrast; i.e. not conform to the audience's expectations. The five situations are contrasts in:

• onscreen space and offscreen space

Offscreen sound is known as “acousmatic sound” – you cannot see the source of the sound. For instance, if you can hear the sound of police car sirens coming closer, but never actually see the police cars, this is an example of offscreen or “acousmatic” sound. If you can see the origin of the sound, it is known as “visualized sound”.

• objective images and subjective sound

Sometimes the audience can hear certain sounds which the characters in the scene cannot hear. For instance if you are privy to the thoughts, the inner-dialogue of one character that other characters cannot hear, then that sound is subjective.

• diegetic (story) details and non-diegetic (not part of the story) sound

Sounds that does not form part of the actual story is known as non-diegetic sounds. The film may include special sound effects as an example. When a character listens to a radio, the audio from the radio is diegetic. However, if there is background music (e.g. acousmatic music) that the characters cannot hear, and is therefore not part of the actual diegetic (story), then that sound is non-diegetic.

• image time and sound time

At times the sound you hear does not match with the things you see, it is either faster or slower – sound may continue from one scene into another scene connecting different scenes together (a “sound bridge”) or there may be a voice-over informing the audience of things that happened in the past or will happen in the future. These are all examples of when the timing of the image and the timing of the sound do not match.

• image mood and sound mood

The soundtrack is often chosen to match the mood of different scenes in the film. However, a filmmaker may decide to use sound that seems inappropriate to the mood of the scene, in so doing creating supplementary meaning. The effect could be disturbing, humorous, ironic, etc.

Assignment

Write an essay to function as a short review of 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) in which you:

• Provide the basic metadata,
• identify the Shakespeare play the movie is based on ("intertextual reference"),
• give a short outline of the plot,
• and give an opinionated review.
  

Some Cinematic Narrative Elements

Motifs

Sometimes in film certain detail is repeated and takes on special significance. Such repeated detail becomes a motif in the movie.

Parallels

When two or more characters, events, locations, situations, or other elements are compared or contrasted in a film, it is called a parallel.

Structure

It is always important to take special notice of a films structure. There may be parallels in the opening and closing scenes. The film’s narrative usually have important turning points. A director may indicate such turning points in the form of transitions which may include, for instance, a fade-out, or a change in the music.

Allusions

Allusions are “outside references” in a film that bring new meaning to the film.

• Historical Setting & Cultural Attitudes

The film may be placed within a specific historical setting or within a cultural attitude that causes the viewer to “read” the film in a special way. For instance, a story depicted during the Holocaust, e.g. Life is Beautiful (1997) , is read very differently from a film taking place on another planet, e.g. Avatar (2009). Both the historical setting and the cultural milieu in films supply the viewer with certain expectations and attitudes towards reading and understanding the film.

• Stars as Reference

Stars (very famous actors) can also be a reference, often to certain genres. What type of movie comes to mind when Bruce Willis or Hugh Jackman is the leading actor? Most likely an action movie or suspense film. How about Hugh Grant? Probably a romantic-comedy. Jim Carrey? Comedy. And Johnny Depp? Probably a strange film with a quirky character.

• Public Figures & Celebrities

When public figures or celebrities partake in a film they bring with them all kinds of associations. For instance, when Madonna acted in Evita (1996), many devotees of the real Evita Duarte de Peron of Argentina were outraged because Madonna’s reputation as the “Material Girl” contradicted with the virtuous ideas associate with Evita, the "spiritual leader" of Argentina.

• Intertextual Reference

Sometimes a movie may make references to other films or to other books or plays. This is known as an intertextual reference, and also contribute to the meaning of the film.


Summarized from Pramaggiore & Wallis, 2005. Film: A Critical Introduction. Laurence King Publishing.

Metadata

When talking about movies it is often important to refer to the metadata. The metadata are all the important data concerning the production of the film and include the film title, film’s release date, the genre, as well as the names of all those involved, like the producer(s), director, writer(s), cinematographer, cast members, and so on.

Usually when writing an analysis of a movie you need not include all the metadata, merely the basic metadata, which include at least the title, release date, director, and main cast members. Other metadata can be mentioned as needed. For instance, if you discuss the special effects, you may need to supply the names of the chief special effects supervisor and/or chief computer graphics animator. Alternatively, if you discuss the mise-en-scène you may need to mention the names of the cinematographer and/or set designer.

A good website for finding the metadata of a film is the Internet Movie Database.

Welcome to our class blog!

This blog functions as a platform for the dissemination of class notes and announcements. It is not, however, a substitute for your own notes taken during class. Please visit this website regularly for a summary of each class, some extra material, and announcements.

The purpose of this class is to consolidate your previous experience in literature with the visual arts, specifically film. This class will therefore serve a double purpose of introducing you to the fundamentals of Film Theory & Critique, using Shakespeare films as the vehicle. During this semester we will watch around thirteen movies that are either direct adaptations of Shakespeare plays, or roughly based on Shakespeare plays. Some of these plays you may have previously encountered while studying in the Department of English Studies.

Before we watch any new film, please ensure that you are familiar with the play it is based on. Try to read the play and, if possible, also an analysis. If time does not allow, please read a synopsis and analysis of the play – see the links to Shakespeare Resources on the side, or visit the Campus Library, or our department library (Room 305). There will be a quiz on each play before we watch the movie.

The first part of the semester (up until the Midterm Exam) will focus on the introduction of relevant Film Theory. The second part of the semester will focus more on discussions of the films using the theory you have learned, and preparation for your final exam submission. There will not be a final examination; instead you will submit a detailed film analysis of a selected film. A short list of films that you may write your analysis on will be given two weeks before the Final Exam week starts.

I look forward to watching great films with you!