1b. Analyze your production in relation to narrative

A structuralist approach to narrative

Roland Barthes wrote an essay entitled ‘The Death of the Author’

He theorized that nothing is ever written, only re-written.

This basically weakens the legitimacy of the ‘author’, who, therefore, is reduced to the writer . He argued that, instead, it is the reader who makes meaning by linking images with cultural experiences.

Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (Sunless)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8j3MU9dw4&safe=active

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGDu7YOlVuE

‘If they don’t see happiness in the picture, at least they’ll see the black’

The 5 codes• The action code

• The enigma code

• The symbolic code

• The cultural code

• The semantic code

Barthes: a woman is sexualized more by her clothes than her naked body. That’s why a stripper leaves the stage before the moment of nudity

Narrative created through action/ events: consider how this might be inherent in short films?

Narratve created through raising questions

Narrative created through conflict/ opposing ideas

Narrative created through cultural understanding/ ideology: consider how the location of your film, and also how issues of sexuality, will play a part in creating narrative for your target audience

Narrative created through connotation/ denotation

Claude Levi-Strauss

• Binary oppositions

Levi-Strauss theorized that understanding is formed through oppositions. This premise is formed around the idea that, for instance, there can be no good if there were no evil. We only know what it means to be good because there is an opposite force.

Levi-Strauss

Consider how binary oppositions are formed and how meaning is created.

Children’s stories

Religious teachings

Political ideologies

Binary oppositions have been used to create narratives for thousands of years. Even when images were used instead of words, before mass media, before all children had to go to school.

Your task

Do some wider research around these narrative theories and see if you can find a quote or paraphrase a few sentences which you feel sums up the concept of narrative.

Then, write 200-300 words about how these theories can be related to your short film.

1b. Analyse your production in relation to narrative

In a few sentences, try to sum up the argument(s)/ main point(s) of your essay.

For example: I will argue that Todorov’s narrative theory can be applied to my production. Meaning is created and the narrative is driven through equilibrium and disruption

Then select 4/5 key sequences which will illustrate your argument, focusing on the micro elements. The micro elements will relate directly to the wider narrative theory (for example, Todorov)