122 CHAPTER 4 ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
cause-and-effect sequence occurring over
time.
>When we think of it that way, almost all
movies, even documentaries and experimen-
tal films, employ some level of narrative.
>In fact, narrative permeates more than just
the world of movies—it infuses our culture
and our lives. Whether we’re describing a
sporting event, relating a dream, recalling a
memory, or telling a joke, we humans tend to
order events so as to convey meaning and
engage the recipient.
>Because story and storytelling are so
ingrained in our everyday lives, including the
movies we watch, it’s all too easy to take
narrative for granted.In order to better recognize and understand
how it works, we’ll first need to break narrative
down into the various components that contribute
to telling a cinematic story. Let’s start with two
closely related (and potentially confusing) terms:
narrationand narrator.
Narrationis the act of tellingthe story. The
Narratoris who or what tellsthe story. In other
words, the narratordelivers the narrationthat con-
veys the narrative. Filmmakers employ different
approaches to the concept of narrator (who or
what tells the story) and narration (how that storyWhat Is Narrative?
We’ve already gotten a good start on exploring
the question, “What is narrative?” in Chapters 1
and 3. Among other things, we begin this chapter
dedicated to the subject having already learned the
following:
>A narrative is a story.
>Narrative movies are fiction films, as opposed
to other movie modes, such as documentary
or experimental.
>At the broadest conceptual level, narrative is
a cinematic structure in which the filmmak-
ers have selected and arranged events in aLearning Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be
able to
✔know the relative meaning of the terms
narrative, narration, and narrator.
✔understand the function of the camera
narrator, a first-person narrator, and a
third-person narrator.
✔recognize and understand the function of
omniscient and restricted narration.
✔distinguish characters by their complexity,
their motivation, and their role in the
narrative.
✔understand how narrative structure func-
tions, including the concepts of character
goal and need, inciting incident, obstacles,
stakes, crisis, and climax.
✔differentiate between the story and the
plot of a movie.
✔know the difference between diegetic and
nondiegetic elements of a movie’s plot.
✔understand the importance of the order
(chronological or nonchronological),
significance, and duration of plot events.
✔understand the three kinds of relationships
between screen duration and story
duration.DVDThis tutorial discusses the relationships
among narration, narrators, and narrative.