8.3 A LECTURE/P- TNARRATIVE Types of Movies

 8.3 A LECTURE/PRESENTATION- Types of Movies

To-Do Date: Oct 17 at 11:59pm

Here is a powerpoint I made which will help illustrate some of the concepts of chapter 3. There are topics, like film form that you should be familiar with via previous chapters.  Here we apply form to genre studies - how does genre often dictate how a film looks?  Remember to read the presenter notes when present. 

Fiction Films (From Week One)

1)Tell a Story – Are Narrative
2)Employ a Cinematic Language to do so
3)Reflect a cultural milieu

How - Today we shall:
1)Define narratology, narrative and other significant terms.

2)Examine narrative, documentary and experimental styles.

3)Begin to define and diagram the “classical paradigm” in American cinema.

4)Discuss cycles and the evolution of genre.

 

Narratology

Narratology examines:
1) How stories work
2) How spectators make sense of narrative elements
3)Aesthetic conventions of stories
4)Various types (genres) of stories along with their symbolic implications
5)How narrative structure reflects the cultural milieu and our perceptions

 

Definitions of Narrative:
1)A narrative is a story
2)A style of filmmaking
3)A term often used to describe the structure of fiction or fictionalized stories presented.

 

Narrative Concept:
1)A cinematic structure that arranges evens in a cause and effect sequence
2)This causality is the basic organizing structure of most filmic narratives.
3)Movies do not have to arrange events in conventional order.

 

Narrative Structure – The Classical Paradigm
1)Is a set of conventions, considered the “norm” particularly in American cinema
2)Is a narrative structure bases on the dramatic conflict between protagonist and antagonist
3)Builds intensity to a dramatic conflict in which one force must “win” and one must “lose”
4)End with a clear sense of closure, resolution.

Notes:

The classical paradigm is what we see everyday in mainstream film and television. It, to some extent, is what makes movies predictable and yields expectation - i.e. the happy ending.

Narrative Structure – The Classical Paradigm           
A Structure defined by Aristotle in Poetics (335 BCE):
1)Exposition
2)Rising Action
3)Climax
4)Falling action
5)Denouement - The denouement is the final outcome of the story, generally occurring after the climax of the plot

Types of Movies:
1)Narrative
2)Documentary
3)Experimental

Continuing on to Documentary

The rest of notes are off blog.