Chapter 6: Narrative

narrator

A character or other person whose voice and perspective describe the action of a film, either in voiceover or through strict limitation of what is shown by a particular point of view.

stereotype

A character type that simplifies and standardizes perceptions that one group holds about another, often less numerous, powerful, or privileged group.

narrative frame

A context or person positioned outside the principal narrative of a film, such as bracketing scenes in which a character in the story's present begins to relate events of the past and later concludes her or his tale.

credits

A list of all the personnel involved in a film production, including cast, crew, and executives, usually divided into opening and closing credits.

reflexive narration

A mode of narration that calls attention to the narrative point of view of the story in order to complicate or subvert its own narrative authority as an objective perspective on the world.

third-person narration

A narration that assumes an objective and detached stance vis-à-vis the plot and characters, describing events from outside the story.

restricted narration

A narrative in which our knowledge is limited to that of a particular character. retrospective plot: A plot that tells of past events from the perspective of the present or future.

deadline structure

A narrative structure that accelerates the action and plot toward a central event or action that must be accomplished by a certain time.

character coherence

A quality created within a fiction of characters displaying behavior, emotions, and thoughts that appear consistent and coherent.

character depth

A quality created within a fiction of characters displaying psychological and social features that distinguish them as rounded and complex in a way that approximates realistic human personalities.

flashforward

A sequence that connects an image set in the present with one or more future images and that leaps ahead of the normal cause-and-effect order.

flashback

A sequence that follows images set in the present with images set in the past; it may be introduced with a dissolve conveying a character's subjective memory or with a voiceover in which a character narrates the past.

narrative

A story told by a narrator or conveyed by a narrational point of view.

classical film narrative

A style of narrative filmmaking centered on one or more central characters who propel the plot with a cause-and-effect logic wherein an action generates a reaction. Normally plots are developed with linear chronologies directed at definite goals, and the film employs an omniscient or a restricted third-person narration that suggests some degree of verisimilitude.

postclassical narrative

A term used to characterize cinema after the decline of the studio system around 1960.

unreliable narration

A type of narration that raises questions about the truth of the story being told. Also called manipulative narration.

archetype

An original model or type, such as Satan as an archetype of evil.

character types

Conventional characters (e.g., hardboiled detective or femme fatale) typically portrayed by actors cast because of their physical features, their acting style, or the history of other roles they have played; see stereotype.

alternative film narrative

Film narratives that deviate from or challenge the linearity of classical film narrative, often undermining the centrality of the main character, the continuity of the plot, or the verisimilitude of the narration.

multiple narrations

Found in films that use several different narrative perspectives for a single story or for different stories in a movie that loosely fits these perspectives together.

characters

Individuals who motivate the events and perform the actions of the story. chronology: The order according to which shots or scenes convey the temporal sequence of the story's events.

first-person narration

Narration that is identified with a single individual, typically (though not always) a character in the film.

omniscient narration

Narration that presents all elements of the plot, exceeding the perspective of any one character; see also third-person narration.

linear chronology

Plot events and actions that proceed one after another as a forward movement in time.

classical Hollywood narrative

The dominant form of classical film narrative associated with the Hollywood studio system from the end of the 1910s to the end of the 1950s.

plot

The narrative ordering of the events of the story as they appear in the actual work, selected and arranged according to particular temporal, spatial, generic, causal, or other patterns; in narratology, also known by the Russian word syuzhet.

character development

The patterns through which characters in a particular film move from one mental, physical, or social state to another.

narratology

The study of narrative forms, encompassing stories of all kinds, including films. From Russian narratology are derived the terms fabula (story), all the events included in a tale or imagined by the reader or viewer in the order in which they are assumed to have occurred, and syuzhet (plot), the ordering of narrative events in the particular narrative.

story

The subject matter or raw material of a narrative, or our reconstruction of the events of a narrative based on what is explicitly shown and ordered in the plot.

narration

The telling of a story or description of a situation; the emotional, physical, or intellectual perspective through which the characters, events, and action of the plot are conveyed. In film, narration is most explicit when provided as asynchronous verbal commentary on the action or images, but it can also designate the storytelling function of the camera, the editing, and verbal and other soundtracks.

screenplay

The text from which a movie is made, including dialogue and information about action, settings, etc., as well as shots and transitions. Developed from a treatment. Also known as a script.