Different types of narrative

Multi-narrative:

Multi-narrative is telling stories from different rolls, this usually means there is more than one main character, an example for this would be the film “Love Actually” starring Colin Firth, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rowan Atkinson, Liam Neeson and Bill Nighy.

The film is nine different stories that are all love based. During the film, you learn more and more about each character and how they all intertwine with one another however you only realise this near the end of the film.

This way of presenting a film can be quite complicated and cause people to not know what is going on as the film is not just one story and one main actor, it is many.

However, the film is in chronological order, this might be because the concept of multiple stories in a film is usually enough on its own, for the casual viewer and it would only add further complexity if there were multiple timelines in the film.

Linear narrative:

Linear narrative is telling a story with one main character, it is a good way to make films for children. This is because the concept of the film is easy to understand, and events unfold in a chronological order. It is best described as a smooth straight line of events.

Because of the simplicity of the linear narrative concept it is widely used when creating children’s films for example “Despicable Me”, the story of this film begins with “Gru” a criminal mastermind, who uses a trio of orphan girls for a grand scheme, he finds their love is completely changing him for the better.

This film works well because it has a basic story which is easy to follow for children, this alone makes the film successful. As well as this there is a mix of comedy with action and cute minions, altogether this film was an absolute success.

In conclusion, I believe the linear narrative is great for kids as it is a simple story and timeline of events but not so much for the adults as the film almost requires no attention to understand and could be quite boring, unless the film is comedy based.

Non-linear narrative:

A non-linear narrative format is when all the film is presented, but scenes are shown in a different order, for example, a film may start at the end and work its way to the beginning, these types of films require a lot of attention from the watcher or they may not understand what is going on.

An extreme use of this narrative would be the film Memento which is multiple timelines, but they are all out of order. This makes the viewer feel uneasy. It Shows craniological scenes in reverse order and it can be very confusing. Then in some instances, two sequences meet creating a common sequence.

A more relaxed film using a non-linear narrative would be Edge of Tomorrow starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. This is personally my favourite film as it is a good blend of action, thriller with a small amount of comedy. It is about Tom Cruise reliving the same day every day until he wins a war against aliens, however, every time he dies the day resets.

It works well as it is a typical action film with a twist, there is one objective in the story and that is killing the main enemy, though, there are more twists in the film, but as always in a Tom Cruise film, he does eventually kill the enemy.

Another example would be the film called Source Code, where it is really similar to the film Edge of Tomorrow. It is about a man who is hooked up to a machine and being used as an experiment, he is sent back Intime into another man’s body, his objective, to find out who bombed a train carrying hundreds of people so that the police can hunt and capture the guilty man, however there are many twists in the film which eventually lead to the main character defusing the bomb on the train and capturing the man saving hundreds of lives.

In conclusion, these films are successful as they manage to get the watcher thinking and concentrating on the film, however, if the concentration they require is not met by the watcher, then the film could appear “rubbish” and not make any sense.

Narrative of the news.

The narrative of the news is to get the news across to the viewer in a consistent style, for example, there will be a plan if there is a breaking news story e.g. a terrorist attack or a war declaration.

The news channels often tend to frame events (capture them) in a matter of minutes within the event taking place. Often with breaking stories, the narrator is the reporter.

They also tend to repeat events throughout the day to make sure the news is heard by as many people as possible.

Conclusion, I believe the way the media read the news out is all about getting the message across to a wide range of people. They do this by using repetition in their programmes, they are often using eyewitnesses to confirm what they are talking about, but I believe they have a tendency to make the small bits of the news seem as big as the main news to keep consistency.

Narrative of games:

Games in the last 10 years have become more and more like movies. They have turned into almost a blank canvas as to how you end the story of the campaign, so it is your decisions that make the story and how your character is treated and talked to by others, an example game that is like this is Heavy Rain and one called Detroit Become Human.

Detroit Become Human, is a game where you play as multiple characters and envisage their stories, there are 4 people you play as and they all link up at the end of the game, but it is up to the player how they get there. The game really follows a Non-linear narrative, this is an effective choice of game as it is a complicated narrative, but it can also make a great story as it did in Detroit Become Human.

In conclusion, I believe films could be at risk, as games are becoming more and more realistic and interactive, and they can also use all different types of narrative to make an amazing experience for the watcher.

Finally, Propps theory:

I believe Propps theory is mainly used in an action film and not really used in the other genres of film, this is because the list of different roles is specific, but there is not always all of them in a single film genre, for example, realistic action films like Saving Privet Ryan, and children’s films like toy Story and finally thriller movies.

However, these rolls are quite often present in fantasy action films and love films. The Propps theory characters work well together as there is a lot of depth in the characters ranging from a “villain” to “The Princess's Father”, I believe this is a good range of characters, but I believe Propps theory is limited as to how many genres of film it can work under.

I believe Propps theory can be found in the film Spiderman, the characters all fit under the theory very well. The hero in Spiderman is Peter Parker. The Green Goblin is the villain, but he is also the false hero. This is because as well as being the Green Goblin; the character is also the dad of Peter's best mate Harry. Harry's dad “acts” like a father as such when Peter's uncle dies after being shot. The princess in this film is Mary Jane, not only is she loved by Peter Parker she also seems to be the 'a young woman in trouble’ role when getting caught up in the action and because of this Spider-man must rescue her. Peter's uncle and aunt both act as the donor and dispatcher in this film, this is because they do not know he is the superhero, though they still offer advice which helps in the resolution of the narrative.

So, in conclusion, although the theory can be quite complicated, when it is used correctly the outcome of the film it has been used in can be outstanding and this theory is something I would like to use in the future, if I ever make a film.

All the rolls of Propps theory are below:

The Hero

The Helper

The Villain

The False Hero

The Donor

The Dispatcher

The Princess

The Princess's Father