Narrative Theory Practise Exam

The film which my partner and I constructed for our AS coursework was in the genre of a 'coming of age' film.

The storyline of our film is about how a couple (famous band member Harry and his girlfriend Melody) goes through a tough phase (due to Melody's terminal illness) and how Harry reacts to it, rebuilding his life. For our opening sequence we decided to set this up by showing Harry walking out of a television interview due to a question about his girlfriend and then we used flashbacks of their early relationship and Melody's final moments.

Valdimir Propp is a theorist who discusses narrative purely in terms of character and actions. Valdimir Propp's theory has been applied when the characters can be labeled as his 7 characters. Harry Ward, one of the main character as being the boyfriend to Melodie will fit in the category of 'Hero' as he is by Melodies side at all times and even leaves his important interview. 

Melodie Harris who is the other main character, is a victim and fighting a disease. She fits in the category of being  a 'Princess' as she is vulnerable and is being victimised by her illness.

The rest of the band which Harry is in will be fitted in the category of 'The (magical) helper' as during the interview, when Harry walked off the stage, they all stopped and focused on what was wrong with Harry. They all supported him by caring and understanding he is experience a trauma and is very sensitive. 

Tvzetan Todorov's theory can also be applied to the narrative of our film.  He divided stories into 5 clear stages: equilibrium, disruption, recognition, repair and new equilibrium.

With our film, as it starts off with a flash back, so instead of an equilibrium, the disruption occurs at first and then the equilibrium, recognition, and repair. Unfortunately, there is not a repair in our film as later on, Melodie dies. Which means the pattern of the narrative in Nostalgia is:

Disruption - Equilibrium - Recognition - Disruption 

The 1st disruption is when Harry and the rest of the band members are being interviewed on the 'Nicole Show' and Harry walks off the stage when he has been asked about his meaning of their new single, which is about Melodie as she is fighting for her life. 

The equilibrium is when the flashback of Harry and Melodie's early relationship was like, as we included more than 3 shots/location such as the couple at a dinner, buying each other presents, going on dates to the park, and we also included the couple holding hands and kissing to show as much loving emotions to be shown so the audience can understand their positive relationship. To make the shots/scenes look like a "flashback" shot, we used Final Cut Pro and used an effect called fade which surrounds the frame with smokey black effect that fades in with the footage so it looks like flashback. 

The recognition is where Melodie is in the hospital, from including the shot of Melodie in the hospital, it shows she is vunderable, weak human being, and also shows why Harry is so worried and is anxious about her illness because he loves her, which is shown through the flashback with how he treats her. 

The 2nd disruption is when Harry walks in Melodie's hospital room and she dies moments later. 

Roland Barthes also discussed a film in terms of Action codes. These threads are Narrative Codes, Action, Enigma, Semantic, Symbolic and Referential. 

In our film, Nostalgia, we included the Enigma, Semantic and Symbolic codes. 

The Enigma code is how the audience questions about the film later. 

Enigma code has been applied to our film as audience questioned 'why did Melodie die?', 'what happened to Harry after Melodies death? A new girlfriend ', 'what happened to the band? Did they split?', 'how did the bands fan react to Harry newly being single and the death of Melodie?'

The Semantic code is when there is an edit or a sound or a props which clearly indicates the storyline. We have applied many Semantic codes in Nostalgia with the use of props and soundtracks. By using the breathing machine tube up Melodie's nose and the beeping noise in the background indicated Melodie was close to death and that she was going to die. 

The Referential Code is when a text includes a reference which is understood by society and culture as having a further connotation.  Part of our sequence was shot in a television studio (which people understand as part of our celebrity culture and links to Harry being a famous band member and therefore a typical hero) and part was filmed in a hospital (indicating that something bad will happen).

Finally, Claude Levi Strauss defined narrative as requiring the constant creation of conflict and opposition. He summarised this in terms of visual oppression (such as light verses darkness) or conceptual (e.g. love versus hate, control versus panic). We included a number of binary oppositions in our opening sequence, such as life versus death (in that we see Melody take her last breath but also see Harry coping with it), and celebrity versus real life (we included scenes of Harry on television and then cut to the reality of Melody's final moments.