Question 1b) prep 35 Minutes

Select a product and evaluate it in relation to a media concept in terms

of narrative

• Narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. Audience relies on narrative to make sense of what they are being presented with. Audiences tend to crave a beginning middle and ending and automatically connect events and make interpretations based on those connection.

Whats the differnece between story and narrative

• Fiske says that “story is the irreducible substance of a story (e.g A meets B. something happens, order returns) while narrative is the way the story is related (e.g. once upon a time there was a princess)”

• In real life it is difficult to construct meaning out of everyday occurrences – there is no real structure to speak of. However in media texts there is a real sense of organisation. Audience have of form and can rely on other texts to help them understand how a text might be constructed

• Aristotle view on narrative – “the most important is the plot, the ordering of the incident; for tragedy is a representation not of men but of action and life, of happiness and unhappiness”

Dare You - Narrative

• Text appears explaining the situation• Hear a phone call to the police of a young boy

crying• The phone call is cut dead• We see an unknown person running into a cupboard• Cut to self shot of Emily talking about the issue and

banging on the door, this cuts off• Cut to in front of the school, Emily giving an opening

speech setting the scene

Obsession - Narrative• We see an ominous looking man hiding with an axe• We see a woman in the 1970s listening to a radio and drinking tea –

establishing equilibrium• We see her walking outside, then the man watching her from the

bush• See her walking down the street and see him behind her• She hears an unusual noise and turns around but nothing is there• We see her running, getting insife the house and locking the door• She looks outside her window and sees the man walking towards her• She attempts to call the police but there is no answer• Cut to later that day and she is hiding in the loft, as he climbs the

ladder

Roland Barthes• Describes texts as “a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it

has no beginning; it is reversible… the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language”

• What this means is that he believes texts to be a tangled mass that needs unraveling. When you start to pick apart a text we come across a variety of different meanings depending on who you are and what experiences/knowledge you have) he referred to this as negotiated meaning, for example someone who was involved in 9/11 may read a film based on that day differently to someone who is not involved

• Enigma Code – this refers to any element in a story which presents a mystery or ‘hook’ for the audience. It raises questions that the audience demand to be answered. Audiences tend to not be satisfied unless all ‘loose ends’ are tied up

Dare You – Enigma

• My enigma is what happens to these children, when the text comes up saying the location of the others is still unknown

• This is to hook the audience in to make them watch on and find out what happens

Obsession – Enigma

• Why is this man following her? We see him watching her from the bushes, how did he know she’d be there, why is he wearing a balaclava? Who is the man?

• What happens to her in the loft? How does she escape the loft? Does she even survive? It seems inescapable

• How is it resolved?• We don’t know the answers to these questions

because it encourages people to go and see the film to find out what happens

Roland Barthes – Action Code

• This refers to any action that implies a further narrative action. For example a gunslinger draws his gun and we wonder what the resolution of that action will be, suspense is created by action rather than waiting for a mystery to be solved.

Dare You - Action Code

• The camera drops in the cupboard, what happens next??

Obsession – Action Code

• Him watching her as she walks past – leads to her suspecting something, to her eventually being trapped in the loft

• We see the build up of tension as he climbs the ladder, what happens next?

• Her running towards her house, will she make it?