Scott Pilgrim vs Eternal Sunshine: Narrative & Genre study in Thrillers / or/ Hyper-reality in Visual Style
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
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Analysis of the Narrative Structure of Children of Men
In Children of Men, the overall story deals with a dystopian
United Kingdom in the year 2027. The human race has become infertile
and the world at large has fallen into a state of war and oppression.
The Objective Story Throughline, therefore, centers around a problematic
Situation.
In a Situational Throughline, you pass through four signposts - The
Past, The Present, Progress, and the Future. These four items represent
all the ways one can look at a situation. Don’t believe it? Try to
describe a problematic situation without using one of those four terms.
Close to impossible.
The order in which these four signposts appear are different for
every story. They don’t have to be in the order listed above. In
fact, there are a whole host of other factors that determine the order:
if the story is a Tragedy, if the Main Character changes, what kind of
plot device drives the story forward, etc.
In Children of Men the signposts have a very definite progression.
At the start we are dealing with The Present -The world
mourns the murder of 18-year old “Baby Diego” - the last baby to have
been born on earth. Terrorist bombings have become commonplace in the
fight for immigrant rights. While the rest of the world has descended
into chaos - Britain “Marches On.”
In the second act we find ourselves amongst the ruins of an abandoned
and delapidated preschool as Miriam tells Theo of how the plague of
infertility began (The Past). There they meet Syd who agrees to take him to the Bexhill refugee camp as faux prisoners.
Once in the refugee camp, matters change for the worse (Progress).
An uprising amongst the immigrant refugees threatens the tentative
stability imposed by British forces. Theo and Khee scarcely make their
way to the docks as tension escalates into an all-out war.
They board the boat prepared for them and row out to the buoy. And here is where the story stops.
Theo bleeds out just as the boat captained by the Human Project arrives - a boat aptly named The Tomorrow. (Future) Now, if you’re like me you were shaking your head, “No! This can’t
be it!” when the credits started to roll. You wanted more story!
Somehow you just felt like there was more to tell - as if there were
still 20 to 30 minutes left to go.
My contention is that the filmmaker wanted to leave the story
open-ended (and later, I’ll have a quote from the director himself that
this is in fact, what he had intended). In this way, the filmmaker
leaves it up to the audience to fill in that last blank. Will the world
collapse in despair? Or will the hope of children win out?
In short, the filmmaker is leaving it up to us what the future will really be like.
But in leaving this last part out, he left most general audience
members feeling frustrated and cheated. Most listeners of a story want
to know “how it all turned out.” I believe that sense of frustration
comes from the fact that there was still one more act to play out. If
we had followed Kee onto The Tomorrow and learned what the Human Project
was and what hope Kee’s baby held for the future, the story would’ve
felt more complete. In fact, it would’ve been complete as all four acts
would’ve been explored thoroughly.
Narrative 3: Characters & Propp
Vladimir Propp states there are seven
'spheres of action' which characters can be well .... characterized to.
These spheres are catagrised as the hero, villain, donor, helper,
princess (though this can be exchanged for a prince), dispatcher and
false hero. Not all spheres of action are needed to be addressed for a
film as its also well to note characters can portray more than one
sphere and vice versa, spheres can be composed of several characters.
Vladimir Propp seven spheres of action:
Hero: Individual(s) who's quest is to restore the equilibrium.
Villain: Individual(s) who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium.
Donor: Individual(s) who gives the hero(s) something, advice, information or an object.
Helper: Individual(s) who aids the hero(s) with their set task.
Princess (Prince): Individual(s) which need help, protecting and saving.
Dispatcher: Individual(s) who send the hero(s) on their quest.
Fasle Hero: Individual(s) who set out to undermine the hero's quest by pretending to aid them. Often unmasked at the end of the film.
Vladimir Propp seven spheres of action:
Hero: Individual(s) who's quest is to restore the equilibrium.
Villain: Individual(s) who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium.
Donor: Individual(s) who gives the hero(s) something, advice, information or an object.
Helper: Individual(s) who aids the hero(s) with their set task.
Princess (Prince): Individual(s) which need help, protecting and saving.
Dispatcher: Individual(s) who send the hero(s) on their quest.
Fasle Hero: Individual(s) who set out to undermine the hero's quest by pretending to aid them. Often unmasked at the end of the film.
Narrative Structure 1 Todorov
Why is Narrative not the same as story?
When you sit down to watch a film the narrative structure help defines the story. It needs to be structured to help the viewer understand the message contained within, giving the film meaning throughout. However you need to keep in mind that the narrative structure only applies to the way in which a story is told not the story itself.....meaning the narrative structure is the chronological stages or steps that progress from one to the other throughout the story.
The conventional narrative structure pointed out by Tzvetan Todorov as a rule has five stages though this can be rudimentary broken down to three stages, a beginning (state of equilibrium), middle (disruption to the equilibrium) and end (reinstate the equilibrium). What I mean by equilibrium its simply just a state of balance, normality in which the characters find them selves at the begining.
Below is Tzvetan Todorov conventional narrative structure complete with five stages:
Stage 1
A state of equilibrium is defined.
Stage 2
Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis.
Stage3
The Character(s) recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem.
Stage4
The Character(s) attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.
Stage5
Reinstatment to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, a conclusion is announced.
With the five stage layout the narrative becomes more comprehensive. However its essential to remember films need to be seamless as the chain of events unfold, with all the questions raised answered and all the loose ends tied up unless you want to break the conventions, induce a cliff hangar, intentionally create doubt in the minds of the audience and leave them questioning.
Even though these stages are presented here as a linear structure there is no golden rule that it has to be this way, especially if you wish to create a non-linear structure. Should you wish to you can always muddle up the chronological order and have the end at the begining. Remember a film should have clear goals with believable chararcters if its to maintain a sense of credibility and to help keep the audience captivated.
When you sit down to watch a film the narrative structure help defines the story. It needs to be structured to help the viewer understand the message contained within, giving the film meaning throughout. However you need to keep in mind that the narrative structure only applies to the way in which a story is told not the story itself.....meaning the narrative structure is the chronological stages or steps that progress from one to the other throughout the story.
The conventional narrative structure pointed out by Tzvetan Todorov as a rule has five stages though this can be rudimentary broken down to three stages, a beginning (state of equilibrium), middle (disruption to the equilibrium) and end (reinstate the equilibrium). What I mean by equilibrium its simply just a state of balance, normality in which the characters find them selves at the begining.
Below is Tzvetan Todorov conventional narrative structure complete with five stages:
Stage 1
A state of equilibrium is defined.
Stage 2
Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis.
Stage3
The Character(s) recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem.
Stage4
The Character(s) attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order.
Stage5
Reinstatment to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, a conclusion is announced.
With the five stage layout the narrative becomes more comprehensive. However its essential to remember films need to be seamless as the chain of events unfold, with all the questions raised answered and all the loose ends tied up unless you want to break the conventions, induce a cliff hangar, intentionally create doubt in the minds of the audience and leave them questioning.
Even though these stages are presented here as a linear structure there is no golden rule that it has to be this way, especially if you wish to create a non-linear structure. Should you wish to you can always muddle up the chronological order and have the end at the begining. Remember a film should have clear goals with believable chararcters if its to maintain a sense of credibility and to help keep the audience captivated.
Characters & Roles V for Vendetta
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| Dietrich - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does his story communicate? |
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| Mr Creedy - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does his story communicate? |
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| Prothero - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does his story communicate? |
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| Chancellor Sutler - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does his story communicate? |
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| We the People - what their role and what Messages or Ideas does their story communicate? |
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| V - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does his story communicate? |
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| Evey - what is this character's role and what Messages or Ideas does her story communicate? |
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