9.3 LECTURE/PRESENTATION - Elements of Narrative
Here is a PowerPoint I made which will help illustrate some of the concepts of chapter 4. There are topics, like film form that you should be familiar with via previous chapters. Here we examine film form in regards to plot structure and compare and contrast it with story or the narrative itself . Remember to read the presenter notes when present.
CLASS PRESENTATION – WEEK 9
Cinema 21 Student Learning Outcomes
A. Define the basic vocabulary of film production
and film theory.
B. Analyze the aesthetics of filmmaking.
C. Recognize and classify different film genres.
D. Evaluate and explore the creation and effects of various
types of film experience.
Notes
Through a further examination of Narratology and an understanding
of plot and story we will explore our student learning outcomes.
Today we shall:
1)Analyze the role of the narrator and identify the
four types of point of view/narration.
2)Examine how the types of narration
and
character types influence the spectator and film
experience.
3)Continue an examination narrative
structure
and duration.
4)Learn to differentiate between plot
and story
and describe diegetic and non-diegetic
elements.
What Is Narrative?
1)A cinematic structure in which events are arranged in
cause-and-effect
sequences
2)Narrative film is a fiction film, as opposed to
other
styles, such as
documentary or experimental
3)Narration – the act of telling the story
4)The Narrator – who or what tells the story
The
Primary Narrator
1)In every movie, the camera is the primary narrator.
(NOTORIOUS)
2)Its narration consists of the many visual elements it
captures and
arranges in every composition in every shot
What
category of narrator is represented?
And, how is this type of shot defined?
Scene from class: https://youtu.be/u3vnFHHEye4
The camera is the
narrator. The camera selects what we see… the camera tells the story.
To fuly exploit the intrigue, the camera narrator must show us what is going on
with multiple characters and situations.
wrong but also….
First-person – typically a
voice-over but may address the audience directly
Third-person – a voice imposed from outside the
narrative
A medium
shot is kind of the workhorse of the film industry
1)what we tend to see
is two people so a two shot a medium two shot or mediums
three shot which may or
may not be over the shoulder as various characters are
actually speaking with each other
3)so it's used in dialogue
scenes
4)it may show action that the great thing about
A Medium Shot is that if you have a medium
shot and something passes in front of the camera it looks like it's
moving quickly because it moves across the frame really quickly
so if you're if you have car chases or people chases or whatever
medium center shots are quite handy in that respect
It is from the waist up
see his waist up
The questions I would like you to consider in watching this clip from Dark
Passage are:
What category of narrator is represented? And, how is this
type of shot defined?
Possible Narrator Types
four types of point of view/narration.
Notes:
First-person – typically a voice-over but may
address the audience directly Trainspotting; Days of Heaven
Third-person – a voice
imposed from outside the narrative. The Royal Tenenbaums - family history tone of documentary.
Omniscient – has unrestricted
access to all aspects of the narrative and characters, as well as information
that no character knows camera narrator
Restricted – information
limited to the knowledge of a single character – Rear Window
Black Swan (2010). Darren Aronofsky, director. Black Swan is
told in the restricted narration of the increasingly unreliable perspective of
Nina (Natalie Portman).
Direct address narration – breaking the fourth wall – Ferris
Bueller’s Day Off
CREDIT: Black Swan, © 2010 Fox Searchlight Pictures
IN SUMMARY: The narrative is the story; narration is
the act of telling the story; the narrator is who or what tells the story.
In other words, the NARRATOR delivers the NARRATION that
conveys the NARRATIVE.
Characters
Round Vs. Flat characters
In literature, complex
characters are known as ROUND CHARACTERS. They may possess numerous subtle,
repressed, or even contradictory traits that can change significantly over the
course of the story – sometimes surprisingly so. Because they display the complexity
we associate with our own personalities, we tend to see round characters as
more lifelike.
FLAT CHARACTERS exhibit few distinct traits and
do not change significantly as the story progresses.
FLAT EXAMPLE: Jack Sparrow is
entertaining enough to drive the spectacular success the franchise and not
boring. Yet what we see is what we get. His character is clearly and simply
defined, and at the end of every installment he remains the same lovable
scoundrel he was in the opening scene. The movies benefit from the flat
character.
ROUND EXAMPLE: An Education
2009. coming-of-age drama a round character. Jenny Mellor. a
complicated adolescent – she’s smart but naïve; she’s both ambitious and
insecure: she rebels against the same authorities whose approval she craves.
Jenny falls in love with a charming older man who introduces her to a glamorous
new lifestyle of concerts, art auctions, martinis, and sex. She quickly blossoms
into a cosmopolitan sophisticate with no use for anything as inane as school.
But she does receive an education when David turns out to be a thief and a con
man – a married con man at that. Jenny enters the story as a bright girl and
leaves it a wise woman.
Flat and Round are not
absolutes. Some characters are rounder than others.
And flat characters are no more limited to crowd-pleasing blockbusters than are
round characters confined to sophisticated dramas.
Black Swan – Nina, a ballerina
driven to madness in her quest to inhabit a demanding role… yet it could be
considered a flat character. Her traits
are straightforward; she’s a fearful, driven perfectionist. Throughout her
excruciating journey to the final performance, even as she (apparently) physically
transforms, Nina stubbornly clings to the same insecurities and flaws that she
carried into the story. Her final direct address declaration is evidence of her
inability to change.
Guardians of the Galaxy – His
selfish bx – is rooted in a tragic past that complicates any assessment of his
actions and interactions. He steals but with a strong sense of civic duty.
1)Protagonist
2)Antagonist
3)Anti-hero
4)Imperfect characters in a narrative
Notes:
Protagonist – the primary character pursuing the goal
Sometimes known as the Hero. Not necessarily worthy goals or brave or
sympathetic characters.
As long as the protagonist actively pursues the goal in an interesting way, the
viewer cannot help becoming invested in that pursuit and, by extension, the
story.
Antagonist – The
person(s), creature, or force responsible for obstructing the protagonist
Sometimes the antagonist is clear-cut.
Wizard of Oz – Wicked Witch – sets fire to the scarecrow – sleeping poppies,
imprisons doroty.
Black Swan – The imposing ballet director intimidates and manipulates Nina, but
he also sincerely wants her to succeed.
Antagonist does not
need to be human. Jaws – the shark; The harsh elements in Alive; a stubborn
rock in 127 hours.
Imperfect characters in a narrative – have obstacles, character development, and character
motivations
Narrative craves imperfect characters and flaws – it gives characters
room to grow.
Precious – learning to read.
Frank Booth in Blue Velvet
Huffing strange gas, stroking a swatch of velvet and blurting “mommy” before
assaulting his sex slave.
His bx isn’t motivated in a way that we can easily identify, but his outlandish
actions only deepen our fascination with this disturbing movie’s vivid mystery.
Characters are frequently motivated
by basic psychological needs
The character often needs support in the pursuit of his goal.
the character wants to win but his need for self-respect compels
him to train hard and endure extra physical punishment on his difficult road to
the championship.
The narrative goes to great lengths to establish Rocky’s need to regain his
self-respect.
3)Continue an examination narrative
structure
and duration.
Narrative
Structure three 3 act model
(A cinematic structure in which events are
arranged in cause-and-effect sequences)
Most narratives structures can
be broken down to:
1)Beginning (Act I) – sets up the story and
establishes the
normal world
(A movie’s first few minutes lay out the rules of the universe that we will
inhabit (or at least witness) for the next couple of hours. Our expectations of
the story also depend on learning the movie tone. Are we
to watch a grim drama, a whimsical fantasy, or something else altogether?
It’s up to the events and situations presented in the first act to let us know.)
(Character must be established)
The narrative often begins by revealing something about the protagonist’s
current situations, often by showing him engaged in an action that also reveals
some of those essential character traits.
EXAMPLE: The Dude: dark glasses and pjs. opens all the milk and sniffs it and
picks one pays 69cents
TELLS US: free spirit a slob, not smart, not ambitious, but does have
standards.
INCITING INCIDENTS AND RESULTING
CHARACTER GOALS:
Black Swan – Nina offered lead role in Swan Lake, she resolves to dance the
part to perfection.
Wizard of Oz – Dorothy realizes that thee’s no place like home after a tornado
deposits her among the munchkins.
Luke Skywalker – sets off to rescue a princess but winds up taking on the Deaht
Star.
Dude – sets
to replace rug – winds up a pawn in
someone else’s mystery.
Whatever the goal – the nature of the pursuit depends on the individual
character.
2)Middle (Act II) – longest section that develops
the story (Stakes
rising)
3)End (Act III) – resolves the story
(The break up of parts doesn’t matter to the audience just
as long as the “continuous sequence of events is not affected by any particular
screenwriter’s organizational approach to partitioning the narrative
development.
A Theatrical Model
Notes:
Another way to look at the differences and think about organization
Story duration amount of time
the story takes –
Kane his life from childhood. 70 years
All about Eve maybe takes about a year but includes Eve’s past –
Eve’s life up through the awards ceremony.
Plot duration - chronological? flashbacks? flash-forwards?The
cause and effect are easy to discern.
is elapsed time of the explicitly presented events only that which we
see and hear.
Within the let’s say years that the story is told only important dramatic
moments are depicted.
Eve tells her past and then Dewitt reveals it.
What is included, or left-out may be analyzed for what is
left out can create suspense, or surprise
– EVE’S true past.
How the story is told can be genre
driven like in detective-based thrillers you do not know who done it.
Screen duration – how long
the film itself is TRT. Very few films have real-time relationships
between
screen time and story and/or plot time
Cleo from 5 to 7, you may remember comes close.
Implied story duration and then what events the plot details to illuminate that
passage of time.
Story:
The Classical Paradigm – Narrative structure – 3 act model
The Classical Paradigm:
1)Is a set of conventions, considered the “norm” in
scriptwriting of commercial American
cinema.
2)Is a narrative structure based 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” the climax.
4)Ends with a clear sense of closure, resolution.
per Dukeupress.eduhttps://www.dukeupress.edu/classical-hollywood-narrative
What is the classical paradigm in film?
Since the 1970s film
studies has been dominated by a basic paradigm—the concept of classical
Hollywood cinema—that is, the protagonist-driven narrative, valued
for the way it achieves closure by neatly answering all of the enigmas it
raises.
---------
Pgs 1-30
1)Introduces and establishes the lead character(s).
2)Establishes the dramatic premise – what is the
story about?
25%
3)Establishes the dramatic situation – what is the
circumstance and environment
surrounding the lead?
[ACT 1]
SET UP
Plot point 1 – pg 25-27 – incident or event that
occurs, and in doing so, sends the action in a
different direction
AND moves the story forward into Act II.
-------
Pgs 31-90
Multiple obstacles keep the lead character(s) from
achieving goals, desires, dramatic need.
GRAPH ABOVE
Plot point 2 – pg 85-90 – incident
or event that hooks the action and
spins it into ACT III.
(The stakes are rising… the deeper we get into the
story, the greater the risk to our protagonist.
The stakes are becoming increasingly difficult for our protagonist to navigate.
Narrative builds toward the peak.
Over the course of the second act, narrative typically builds toward a peak, a
breaking point of sorts, as the conflict intensifies and the goal remains out
of reach. This is rising action.
The tension it provokes enhances our engagement with the ongoing narrative. As
the stakes and the action rise in 127 hours, Aron undergoes character development.
Pgs 91-120
Final conflict occurs
and is resolved in the
protagonist’s favor.
GRAPH ABOVE
Narrative closure
is achieved –
all conflicts are resolved.
127 hours – our story must reach a turning point and work
its way toward resolution and the third and final act.
The narrative peak is called the CRISIS. The goal is in it’s greatest
jeopardy. Death even.
The CLIMAX comes when the protagonist faces this major obstacle.
In the process, usually the protagonist must take a great risk, make a
significant sacrifice, or overcome a personal flaw.
The Climax tends to be the most impressive event in the movie. Aron
breaks the bone in his trapped arm.
Black Swan: Nina realizes she’s been stabbed (by herself-it’s
complicated), but she dances onto the stage and gives the performance of her
career.
Once the goal is either gained or lost, it’s time for the
RESOLUTION.
The third act of the falling action.
Narrative wraps us loose ends and moves toward a conclusion.
In 127 – Aron still needs to find help
Black Swan – Surrounded by her adoring director and fellow dancers, the black
swan declares her perfection.
Story:
The Classical Paradigm
Most screenplays are structured in three acts.
GRAPH ABOVE
Pgs 1-30
plotpoint #1pg 25-27
pgs 31-90 pgs
90-120
plotpoint #2 pg 85-90
A MORE LITERARY MODEL
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE SCHEMATIC
Notes:
Figure 4.1: Narrative structure schematic both graphics overlayed.
Story:
Narratology (Narrative theory)
Started with Aristotle
What exactly do narratologists mean by
“story” and “plot?”
Please answer this question – write it down.
Story: Narratology
Narratologists consider
1)a narrative or story to be its content
2)and the plot to be its form.
In other words, they differentiate between a
story and its plot structure.
What
exactly do narratologists mean by
“story”
and “plot ?” HERE IS THE ANSWER
Story: the
general subject matter, the raw
materials of a dramatic action, the events in
chronological sequence (or what happens).
WHAT
Plot: the superimposition of a structural pattern
over the story; involves the implied narrator as
well as the structuring of the scenes into a
pattern (or how events happen). HOW
Story: All the
explicit material (events) in chronological order plus backstory
and inferred information.
What Happens.
The world of the characters.
Plot: All the explicit
material (events) – ORDER – CHRONOLOGICAL
(chronological? flashbacks? flash-forwards? ) The cause
and effect are easy to discern.
Plus the non-diegetic material.
How the story is told – the structure.
The world of the audience
Story and plot differences:
Cinderella – Cinderfella, Pretty Woman. Walt Disney, Kenneth Branagh’s live
action
Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008, Pearson Education, Inc.
One tool is a backstory: a fictional history behind the situation existing at
the start of the main story: the story of Rose Calvert’s diamond. That device,
as well as a powerful romantic story and astonishing sfx, made titanic one of
greatest.
Another tool is order – Bringing order to the plot events is one of
the most fundamental decisions that filmmakers make about relaying story
information through the plot.
Most use – Chronological order.
Citizen Kane – 9 sequences – 5 of which are flashbacks
Pulp Fiction – Constructed – Nonlinear way and fragments of time.
Memento – takes manipulation of plot order to the extreme by presenting
the events in their respective narratives in reverse chronological order. Each
story opens with the story’s concluding event, then works its way backward to
the occurrence that initiated the cause-and-effect chain. (Our ignorance of
previous events helps us identify with the limited perspective of the movie’s
protagonist, Leonard – a man incapable of forming new memories)
Rashomon – An innovative variation on the idea of plot order. The same
story – the rape of a woman – is told from four different points of view.
bandit, woman, husband and woodcutter. Kurosawa’s purpose is to show us that we
all remember and perceive differently, thus challenging our notions of
perception and truth.
Another tool is events – In any plot, events have a logical order, as we’ve
discussed, as well as a logical hierarchy. Some events are more important than
others, and we infer their relative significance through the director’s
selection and arrangement of details of action, character, or setting.
This hierarchy consist of 1)the events that seem crucial to the plot (and thus
the underlying story) and 2) the events that play a less crucial or even
subordinate role.
MAJOR EVENTS – branch in the plot structure and force alternate paths.
MINOR EVENTS – Add texture and complexity to the character, relationships
outside of music. a date.
the story exists as a precondition for the plot.
Understanding the story, the filmmaker chooses their plot, their form of
presenting the events and the order. “Through plot, screenwriters and
directors can give structure to stories and guide (if not control) viewers’
emotional responses.” (Monahan 132)
Screenwriting specialist, Sid Field, describes plot
points as significant events that turn the narrative in a new direction.
For example, the development of the social network narrative is profoundly
influenced by Eduardo Severin's decision to contribute a crucial algorithm to
his friend, Mark Zuckerberg's first social networking experiment.
The plot point sets up a major narrative development
that leads to Eduardo's involvement in Mark's enterprise, his eventual
betrayal, and his fervent attempts for credit and compensation. Likewise, the
moment when Sean Parker discovers an early version of the Facebook certainly
qualifies as a plot point.
Notes: Another way to look at the differences and think
about organization
Stagecoach: the Major events in Stagecoach – those
branching points in the plot structure that force character to choose between
or among alternate paths.
Usually have the word – decision.
The Minor events: add texture and complexity to
characters and events but are not essential elements within the narrative.
Someone’s anxiety, wavering enthusiasm, shows of social superiority, curly’s
arrest.
Story duration amt of time the story takes – Kane his
life from childhood. All about Eve maybe takes about a year but includes Eve’s
past – Eve’s life up through the awards ceremony.
Citizen Kane – Story duration is more than 70 years (the span of Kane’s life).
Stagecoach – (includes what we know and what we infer from the total lives of
all the characters.
Plot duration is elapsed time of the explicitly
presented events only that which we see and hear. Within the let’s say years
that the story is told only important dramatic moments are depicted. Eve tells
her past and then Dewitt reveals it.
What is included, or left-out may be analyzed for what is
left out can create suspense, or surprise – EVE’S true past. How the story is
told can be genre driven like in detective-based thrillers you do not know who
done it.
Citizen Kane – Plot duration is about 1 week (The duration of Thompson’s
search)
Stagecoach – The time of those events within the story that the film chooses to
tell. 2 day trip from Tonto to Lordsburg.
Screen duration – (the movie’s running time
on-screen) how long the film itself is TRT. Very few films have real-time
relationships between screen time and story and/or plot time Cleo from 5 to
7, you may remember comes close. Implied story duration and then what
events the plot details to illuminate that passage of time.
Stagecoach: 96 minutes
At the level of scenes (a complete unit of action), the more
interesting relationship is usually between screen duration and plot duration.
We can generally characterize that relationship in one of three ways
1)In a Summary Relationship – screen duration is shorter than plot
duration;
2)In Real time, screen duration corresponds directly to plot duration
3)In a Stretch Relationship, screen duration is longer than plot
duration.
(Summary and stretch are achieved through editing techniques)
Summary relationship Example – duration plot versus
screen:
Plot duration of party 4 hours
Screen duration = 10 minutes
Summary Example 2 -Citizen Kane – Welles depicts the
steady disintegration of Kane’s first marriage to Emily Norton through a rapid
montage of six shots at the breakfast table that take 2 minutes but depict 7
years of their life together.
Stretch Relationship Example – is used to highlight a
plot event. stressing it’s importance to the overall narrative.
Can be achieved by Special effects such as slow-motion - for graceful
effect.
a reunitied couple
Battleship Potemkin – THE ODESSA STEPS – uses editing to stretch the
plot duration of the massacre: selected single moment are broken up into
multiple shots that are overlapped and repeated so that our experience of each
event on-screen lasts longer than it would have in reality.
Eisenstein does this because he wants us to see the massacre as an important
and meaningful event, as well as to increase our anxiety and empathy for the
victims.
Real-time relationship is least common -
Used in uninterrupted “reality” on the screen.
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope – rtr screen and plot.
long take, unedited continuous shot – to preserve real time.
Cinematic Time – In most narrative movies, cuts and
other editing devices punctuate the flow of the narrative and graphically
indicate that the images occur in human-made cinematic time, not seamless
real time.
Classic Hollywood editing generally goes out of its way to avoid calling
attention to itself.
It attempts to reflect the natural mental processes by which human
consciousness moves back and forth between reality and illusion, shifting between
past, present, and future.
Diegetic
and Nondiegetic
1)Diegetic elements – what we see and hear on
the
screen that come from inside
the world of the characters.
The diegetic music came from a jukebox from within the story.
The new music the filmmakers have imposed onto the movie to add narrative
meaning to the sequence.
Diegetic elements in Stagecoach: everything in the story
except the opening and closing titles and credits and the background music.
2)Nondiegetic elements – what we see and hear
on
the screen that come from our world
– the world
of the audience.
(Plot also includes nondiegetic elements: those things we
see and hear on the screen that come from outside the world of the story, such
as score music (music not originating from the world of the story), titles and
credits (words superimposed on the images on-screen), and voice-over comments
from a third-person voice-over narrator.
These movie supermposed movie things titles, music are not part of the story,
but are an important piece of the plot: the deliberate selection and
arrangement of specific events and elements the filmmakers employ to deliver the narrative.
Non-natural – movie-ish score, titles… voice-over. OUR WORLD
Elements
of Narrative: Duration
Imagine a hypothetical movie that follows the lives of two people over the course of one week, starting with the moment that they first move into an apartment together as a couple and ending with their parting of ways
Figure 4.3 Duration: Story versus Plot
Duration – the
length of time it takes for things to occur (in life or in movies)
Story duration – the length of time the
implied story takes to occur
Plot duration – the elapsed time of the events
explicitly presented in the film take to occur
Screen duration – the movie’s running time on
the screen
Elements of Narrative:
Suspense
vs. Surprise
Surprise – taken unaware, can be shocking. Our
emotional response is generally short-lived and can
only happen in the same way once.
Hitchcock – a boom is a surprise – prior to the surprise is
nothing.
Suspense – anxiety brought by uncertainty –
what is going to happen.
our emotional response to it is generally short-lived.
Suspense – the bomb is underneath the table and the public
knows it is there and will explode at l pm o'clock. the audience longs to warn the
characters on the screen.
Suspense – is a more drawn-out experience.
Suspense is the anxiety brought on by a partial uncertainty:
the end is certain, but the means is uncertain.
Stagecoach – The knowledge that Geronimo is on the warpath
before the stagecoach leaves Tonto certainly lends suspense to the events that
follow, especially when the original cavalry escort leaves and the promised
second escort doesn’t materialize.
The camera narrator reveals a large gathering of Apache
warriors watching the defenseless stagecoach from a hilltop.
Elements
of Narrative:
Repetition
Repetition – the number of times a story element
recurs in a narrative plot
It is an important aspect of narrative form.
We accept it as a functioning part of the narrative’s progression.
It’s appearance more than once, however, suggests a pattern and thus a higher
level of importance.
ELEMENTS: Like Order and Duration – Repetition serves
not only as a means of relaying story information but also as a signal that a particular
event has a meaning or significance that should be acknowledged
in our interpretation and analysis.
Ways to repeat :– A character may
1)remember a key event at several times during the movie.
2)Familiar image – an audio or visual image that a
director periodically repeats in a movie to stabilize its
narrative
1)By its repetition, the image calls attention to itself
as a narrative element.
2)may be symbolic
Volver: Almodovar uses frequent shots of wind
turbines in the Spanish landscape as a symbol to help us understand the meaning
of the title. A Spanish word that means: turn, return or revolution. as in a
circle turning.
On the literal level, the story itself turns on the cycle of genetic or bx
influences that pass from one generation to the next.
Citizen Kane: The first four shots in the scene depicting Kane’s death
in the opening minutes feature the superimposed image of snow falling across
the screen. This visual element is sourced in the snow globe Kane drops after
he utters, “Rosebud.”
Snow image returns 16 minutes later during Kane’s childhood
Later in the film after a fight with his wife he goes and grabs the snowglobe
again.
One portrayed the influential events that brought Kane to this moment - the other reveals the eventual consequences
of the actions we just witnessed.
ELEMENTS: Setting – The time and place in which the
story occurs. It establishes the date, city or country and provides the
characters’ social, educational and cultural backgrounds and other identifying
factors vital for understanding them. such as what they wear, eat and drink.
Certain Genres – association with specific settings –
Westerns – wide open country
Film Noir – Dark City Streets
Days of Heaven – magnificent landscapes in the American West
1920s (The vast wheat fields and the great solitary house against the sky –
directly complement the depth and power of the narrative, which is concerned
with the cycle of the seasons, the work connected with each season and how
fate, greed, sexual passion , and jealousy can lead to tragedy.
They are from the Chicago slums, and once they arrive in the pristine wheat
fields of the West, they are lonely and alienated from themselves and their
values. They cannot adapt and thus end tragically. Here, setting is destiny.
Woody Allen and New York – Manhattan.
Manhattan has been photographed so differently:
Woody - romantically
film noirs – harsh black and white contrasts
Taxi driver – sour colors
North by Northwest – Bright colors.
Stagecoach – the physical setting – the desert and
mountains, towns and stagecoach – also represents a moral world, established in
its first minutes by the contrast between Geronimo and his Apaches and the U.S.
Cavalry.
Filmed on set in Hollywood.
Understanding the setting helps us to understand many of the other aspects of
the movie, especially its meanings.
Other:
Kubrick – 2001 – creates an entirely new space-time
continuum
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – creates the most fantastic chocolate
factory in the world.
Blade Runner – unfamiliar setting
These stories about outer space and future cities have a
mythical or symbolic significance and future cities have a mythical or symbolic
significance beyond that of stories set on Earth.
Their settings may be VERISIMILAR and appropriate for the purposes of the
story, whether or not we can verify them as “real.”
ELEMENTS Scope – Related to duration and setting.
The overall range, in time and place, of
the movie’s story.
EXAMPLE:
BIOPIC: a biographical film about a person’s life – historical or fiction -
1)Through one significant episode or period in the life of a person
2)Through a series of events covering a longer portion of a person’s life –
i.e. birth to old age.
Young Winston- childhood to 26
Darkest Hour – Winston – his first few weeks as Britain’s PM.
Dunkirk – The scope of Dunkirk, covers the beach evacuation up until the
end of that speech. spans 1 week, but the story develops more individual
character, perspectives, and conflicts that take place in relatedly far-flung
locations, including fighter pilots in the air, desperate evacuees at sea on
transport ships, civilians assisting the effort using their personal pleasure
craft, and the besieged troops and officers stranded on the broad beached of Dunkirk
itself.
Stagecoach – The Story’s overall range in time and place is
broad, extending from early events – Ringo’s wild past and imprisonment – to
those we see on-screen.
Although it is a two day trip, we area also aware of the larger scope of
American History, the westward movement. Made right before the start of WWII in
Europe, Stagecoach presents a historical, social and mythical vision of
American civilization in the 1880’s. Ford saw clear, simple virtues and values.
Pioneers establishing traditions for freedom, democracy, justice and
individualism. Manifest destiny territorial expansion destined by god.
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