Narrative structure

 Narrative structure

The world is full of stories, some true and some myths and legends; however these are what shape the way media is portrayed. The stories that are in media are called the narrative structure. The narrative structure of a film gives the viewer certain expectations for the film. Most of the media we consume are from texts that tell a story. One example of this is a documentary. Documentaries are based on the ‘real life stories’ of everyday people. These can also influence the opinion of the audience as they show more of a realistic view to, for example, a comedy. In terms of film we expect different things based on the narrative structure and the genre of the film. However there are some general expectations across the field for all movies;

11)      The opening of the movie should give the audience the key facts about who is in the film, what the film is about and where it is set.

22)      The characters should interact with each other

33)      We expect to see a series of incidents which are connected to each other.

44)      A big part of most films are the problems and/or conflict

55)      Resolution

Some films contain clues which give the audience a slight insight into the ending of the film. This is done to help the audience to think about what they have witnessed throughout the film and recall events leading up to that particular point.

Classical Hollywood narrative

Classical Hollywood narrative is a term developed by Tzvetan Todorov who states that stories begin with an equilibrium, which is normality and everything is how it should be, next an event happens which disrupts the equilibrium causing a series of events. This is when the ‘hero’ tries to resolve the problem that has occurred. Once the problem has been resolved there is a new equilibrium, which is not the same as before but the new version of ‘normal’. I think that looking at this theory in relation to different films allows an audience to follow a series of events and to understand the affect that the events have had on the characters.  The film Halloween however does not follow the classical Hollywood narrative as there is an event right at the beginning of the film where Michael Myers kills his older sister and throughout the film this theory is not present as we do not know what the normal equilibrium was before Michael killed his sister and the film ends on a cliff hanger where the ‘evil’ character was thought to have been killed however we can hear his breathing in the background of the last shot.

Character types

The theory that there are certain characters present with in the films was developed by Vladimir Propp who studied 100s of examples of folk tales and analysed them to find any structures that they shared. From his research he found that there were 31 narrative functions and that there were 8 main character types which he later published in his book ‘Morphology of the folk tale’ (1928). The 8 character types that he found were:

·         The villain

·         The hero

·         The donor

·         The helper

·         The princess

·         Her father

·         The dispatcher

·         The false hero

When applying this to different films I think that this theory is helpful as it identifies key characters that may be in the film and what their roles are within the narrative text are. Some of the eight characters that Propp identified are present within the film Halloween. There is the Villain (Michael Myers) the hero or in this case the heroine (Laurie), the helper/ the hero (Dr Loomis). 

Binary opposition

This theory of Binary opposition was developed by Claude Levi-Strauss who found that there are sets of opposite values which is incorporated in the structure of media texts. The most known example of Binary opposition is Good and Evil which are two sets of opposite values, including morals and behaviours. These can be easily identifiable within a film. This theory I fell allows the audience to understand that there has to be polar opposites with the structure of the film in order for the film to have a strong story line and so that the structure of the film can be based around the battle of opposite domination. In the film Halloween there are examples of binary opposition.

11)      Good vs Evil

22)      Girl vs boy

33)      Strong vs weak

44)      Normal vs strange

55)      Empowered vs victim 

Bordwell and Thompson

Theorists Bordwell and Thompson whilst not creating a full theory behind narrative stumbled across ideas which are relevant to narrative structure. These are evident in their book ‘Film art: An introduction’ where they state an interesting definition of narrative. They defined narrative as ‘A chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time and space’. They found that for them the narrative starts with one particular situation which is followed by a series of changes according to a pattern of cause and effect, finishing off with a new situation which brings to an end the old situation before it. They also stated that ‘narrative shapes material in terms of time and space. What is meant by this is that time and space determine where things take place, when they take place and how quickly the events take place and that narrative manipulates the audience’s awareness of time and place by using techniques such as flashbacks, replays of action and speeding up or slowing down time. 

In the film Halloween there are many events that cause other events to happen. Two examples of this is at the beginning of the film where he kills his older sister on Halloween night. This is the trigger that starts up a series of events such as him going to the psychiatric hospital. The second event that triggered other events is when he escaped from the hospital and drove away in the car. This started another series of events.

Also in the film we there are two events that we know happen but we don’t see. The first one is when Michael was younger and he went into the psychiatric hospital and we do not see within the film what happens to him while he is in there. Another event we don’t see but we know it happened is  him killing a man just after he escaped and stealing his boiler suit which he wears throughout the rest of the film. 

Section 2- Halloween

11)      How does the start of the film exemplify a common technical code convention of the horror genre?

At the very start of the film there is a killing with a very short build up. So from the start of the film we know what the genre is and what the main theme of the film is about. Also in the film Michael stalks Laurie for quite a while appearing and disappearing while she at school and at home. This is quite common for a horror film as it shows the build-up for the attack that we know is going to happen at some point within the film. 

22)      How does the setting fit with the horror genre?

The setting is in a rural town, which is quite typical of a horror film to be set somewhere quiet and where people can easily be isolated. At the start of the film the main characters were in the house for the first scene but as soon as Michael escaped from the hospital the setting opened up into a rural town. The fact that the setting is rural means that there are less people around so the killer is less likely to be caught.

33)      What iconography of “innocence” do we hear or see early on?

Early on within the film we notice that the first victim is a venerable, young, attractive female who was killed. The following victims were also all ‘innocent’ in terms of that the killer had no prior connection to any victims apart from his first which was his sister.  The second killing of the man whose clothes he stole was purely an opportunist killing where the victim happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

44)      What was the main industry impact of Halloween?

Though the genre of slasher had been around years before the film’s release, Halloween sold the slasher genre to the world, which counters some of the codes and conventions of the earlier horror films. Many believe that the birth of this genre was the film ‘Psycho’ with the classic and very famous shower scene. This particular genre also was a lot more graphic than other films from other horror sub-genres, for example we get to see the most of the killings that Michael commits and not silhouettes on the wall or just sound effects. The film paved the way for other graphic and disturbing films that followed.

 

55)      Name some slasher movies which followed on from Halloween

After the movies released Halloween and the concept within the film started a whole line of films who follow suit, for example Friday the 13^th filmed in 1980 a mere two years after Halloween came out following on with the terrifying genre. Other famous films include nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and a newer slasher film called behind the mask.

66)      What are the four plot rules of the slasher film sub-genre which Halloween began?

·         A traumatic event in the past creates a psychotic killer

·         The killer returns to the site of the event, usually on a specific date in the present that allows the makers to use a calendar motif in the title.

·         The killer stalks and graphically kills a group of obnoxious and stupid teens of both sexes, usually with some sort of blade, often a garden or farm implement.

·         A ‘final girl’ survives, usually boyish and often virginal, or thwarts the killer, although he is never entirely vanquished.

77)      What does the extract mean by “a reactionary sexual agenda”?

This means that the characters in the film that had sex ended up dead. Critics of the film say that this is a ‘punishment’ and ‘consequence’ for the ‘out of control’ teens. The critics felt that the film implied that the director felt that teens were have too much sex and that there was too much ‘free love’ from the 60s. The final girl Laurie was an intended target and as she paid attention to her surroundings and what we’re happening she survived, however the critics noticed that Laurie happened to be more ‘boyish’ then the other girls and that she was still a virgin which some may say that these factors support the critic’s view of the film.

88)      How does the director, John Carpenter, counter the suggestion that Halloween had a reactionary sexual agenda?

Unsurprisingly John Carpenter did not agree with the films critics and in fact the reason the teens were killed was because ‘they were not paying attention’ and that they were ‘distracted’. The reason that Laurie survived was because she paid attention and was distracted by other things within the film, making her a harder target for Michael to kill. Throughout the film the signs were all there that he in act intended to kill her (for example stalking her at home and school), however this never happened.

99)      Why did Michael kill his sister?

Critics say that Michael killed his sister as he saw her having sex with her boyfriend and replicates the action with a knife. However this is not what the director intended, the reason that Michael killed his sister was because he was evil. This is represented in the film where Dr. Loomis refers to Michael as ‘it’ showing that Michael doesn’t process human qualities and could mean he is a satanic or supernatural being. 

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Section 3- The Crazies

11)      Does the crazies follow CHN and why or why not?

The film does not follow that Classical Hollywood narrative as at the very start of the film we are shown the town on fire, showing disequilibrium before we see the equilibrium that we are used to seeing at the start. The structure of this film is disequilibrium, equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.

22)      How many of Props character types can be identified in the film?

In the film I was able to identify four out of the eight characters that Propp identified in his research. These were the hero (David), the helper (Russell) , the princess (Judy) and the villain (the government). 

33)      List five examples of binary opposition in the film and explain them

Government vs people

Zombie’s vs humans

Good vs evil

Normal vs the unknown

Science vs nature

 

44)      Identify three durations and give an estimate of the time each duration covers

The screen duration of the film was 92 minutes, the plot duration was 4 days and the story duration was also a matter of days.

55)      Give two examples from the 92 minute film that happen in a different time and space

The fire scene right at the beginning of the film. This is a flash forward into the insight of the future of the town within the film. This also plays on the audiences mind as they want to know how and why the town ended up alight. 

The second event was when Judy and David were arguing about Judy going to her mothers. When Judy notices something outside she sends David out to check and they are both taken to the school and ‘checked’ for the disease. When David goes back to the police station to get a gun after escaping from the ‘disease free’ peoples line he finds Russell is already there. What we don’t see is Russell attempt to leave the town by packing a truck and driving down the highway only for his tyres to get spiked and for him to get sent back. This is referred to later in the film when they find his truck on the road and he runs straight to it.

66)      List two events from the 92 minute film that cause later events in the film but happen before the film starts.

The plane crash that releases the toxins into the drinking water of the towns’ people, this is essentially the start of the epidemic and the cause of all the events within the film. We know this when the man who runs out onto the baseball pitch was the owner of the first house connected to the water supply. 

The second event that causes later events in the film was the isolation of the remaining people. When the government starts to get involved and starts to quarantine the town off it triggers the hero David to rescue his pregnant wife and to find their way out of the town. This is what starts the main character quest to try and escape the town alive.