Looking at Movies (3rd ed) Chapter 4

flat character

A character that is one-dimensional and easily remembered because his or her motivations and actions are predictable. Flat characters may be major, minor, or marginal characters. Compare round character.

round character

A character that is threedimensional, unpredictable, complex, and capable of surprising us in a convincing way. Round characters may be major or minor characters. Compare flat character.

narrative

A cinematic structure in which content is selected and arranged in a cause-and-effect sequence of events occurring over time.

screen duration

A film's running time. Compare plot duration and story duration.

shooting script

A guide and reference point for all members of the production unit, in which the details of each shot are listed and can thus be followed during filming.

marginal character

A minor character that lacks both definition and screen time.

storyboard

A scene-by-scene (sometimes shot-by-shot) breakdown that combines sketches or photographs of how each shot is to look and written descriptions of the other elements that are to go with each shot, including dialogue, sound, and music.

plot

A structure for presenting everything that we see and hear in a film, with an emphasis on causality, consisting of two factors: (a) the arrangement of the diegetic events in a certain order or structure and (b) added nondiegetic material. See diegesis and nondiegetic elements. Compare narrative and story.

subplot

A subordinate sequence of action in a narrative, usually relevant to and enriching the plot.

minor character

A supporting character in a movie. Minor characters have fewer traits than major characters, so we know less about them. They may also be so lacking in definition and screen time that we can consider them marginal characters.

stretch relationship

A time relationship in which screen duration is longer than plot duration. Compare real time and summary relationship.

summary relationship

A time relationship in which screen duration is shorter than plot duration. Compare real time and stretch relationship.

narrator

A voice that helps tell the story. The narrator may be either a character in the movie or a person who is not a character.

cinematic conventions

Accepted systems, methods, or customs by which movies communicate. Cinematic conventions are flexible; they are not "rules."

narrative film

Also known as fiction film. A movie that tells a story—with characters, places, and events—that is conceived in the mind of the film's creator. Stories in narrative films may be wholly imaginary or based on true occurrences, and they may be realistic, unrealistic, or both. Compare nonfiction film.

rough-draft screenplay

Also known as scenario. The next step after a treatment, the rough-draft screenplay results from discussions, development, and transformation of an outline in sessions known as story conferences.

treatment

Also known as synopsis. An outline of the action that briefly describes the essential ideas and structure for a film.

diegetic element

An element—event, character, object, setting, sound—that helps form the world in which the story occurs. Compare nondiegetic element.

character

An essential element of film narrative; any of the beings who play functional roles within the plot, either acting or being acted on. Characters can be flat or round; major, minor, or marginal; protagonists or antagonists.

familiar image

Any image that a director periodically repeats in a movie (with or without variations) to help stabilize the narrative.

story

In a movie, all the events we see or hear on the screen, and all the events that are implicit or that we infer to have happened but that are not explicitly presented. Compare diegesis, narrative, and plot.

first-person narration

Narration by an actual character in the movie. Compare voice-over narration.

voice-over narration

Narration heard concurrently and over a scene but not synchronized to any character who may be talking on the screen. It can come from many sources, including an objective narrator (who is not a character) bringing us up-to-date, a first-person narrator commenting on the action, or, in a nonfiction film, a commentator. Compare first-person narration.

story conference

One of any number of sessions during which the treatment is discussed, developed, and transformed from an outline into a rough-draft screenplay.

major character

One of the main characters in a movie. Major characters make the most things happen or have the most things happen to them. Compare minor character and marginal character.

omniscient

Providing a third-person view of all aspects of a movie's action or characters. Compare restricted.

restricted

Providing a view from the perspective of a single character. For example, restricted narration reveals information to the audience only as a specific character learns of it. Compare omniscient.

nondiegetic element

Something that we see and hear on the screen that comes from outside the world of the story (including background music, titles and credits, and voice-over narration). Compare diegetic element.

real time

The actual time during which something takes place. In real time, screen duration and plot duration are exactly the same. Many directors use real time within films to create uninterrupted "reality" on the screen, but they rarely use it for entire films. Compare cinematic time, stretch relationship, and summary relationship.

story duration

The amount of time that the implied story takes to occur. Compare plot duration and screen duration.

suspense

The anxiety brought on by partial uncertainty: the end is certain, but the means are not. Compare surprise.

order

The arrangement of plot events into a logical sequence or hierarchy. Across an entire narrative or in a brief section of it, any film can use one or more methods to arrange its plot: chronological order, cause-and-effect order, logical order, and so on.

narration

The commentary spoken by either offscreen or onscreen voices, frequently used in narrative films, where it may emanate from an omniscient voice (and thus not one of the characters) or from a character in the movie. There are two main types of narration: firstperson narration and voice-over narration.

rising action

The development of the action of the narrative toward a climax. Compare falling action.

plot duration

The elapsed time of the events within a story that a film chooses to tell. Compare screen duration and story duration.

inciting moment

The event or situation during the exposition stage of the narrative that sets the rest of the narrative in motion.

falling action

The events that follow the climax and bring the narrative to conclusion (denouement). Compare rising action.

exposition

The images, action, and dialogue necessary to give the audience the background of the characters and the nature of their situation, laying the foundation for the rest of the narrative.

cinematic time

The imaginary time in which a movie's images appear or its narrative occurs; time that has been manipulated through editing. Compare real time.

protagonist

The major character who serves as the "hero" and who "wins" the conflict. Compare antagonist.

antagonist

The major character whose values or behavior are in conflict with those of the protagonist.

climax

The narrative's turning point, marking the transition between rising action and falling action.

repetition

The number of times that a story element recurs in a plot. Repetition signals that a particular event has noteworthy meaning or significance.

characterization

The process of the actor's interpreting a character in a movie. Characterization differs according to the actor, the character, the screenplay, and the director.

denouement

The resolution or conclusion of the narrative.

duration

The time a movie takes to unfold onscreen. For any movie, we can identify three specific kinds of duration: story duration, plot duration, and screen duration. Duration has two related components: real time and cinematic time.

setting

The time and space in which a story takes place.

diegesis (adj. diegetic)

The total world of a story—the events, characters, objects, settings, and sounds that form the world in which the story occurs.