Research: Narrative theory

What is narrative and why is it important to audience?
Narrative is telling a story to the audience through structured elements such as characters who act in a certain way according to the story line or object that are symbolic and creates meaning in the story. Narrative is important to the audience because it gives them an understanding of the story.


Creating meaning through text

Genre: elements such as lighting, color, and sound in a movie can allow the audience to identify the genre of a movie. If the genre was thriller, you would expect the movie to have low-key lighting which creates a dark mood, eerie sounds to frighten the audience or make them feel uncomfortable.


Characters: characters can be identified through facial expression, relationship, physic, body language or their appearance in the film. Characters are the most important elements in the film as they are the one telling the story, engaging and creating a connection with the audience. The above factor allows the audience to make assumption of the role of the characters even when it has not been specified in film.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
Structure: every movie follows a structure in oder to get their message across to the audience. there should be a clear order of event and its cause, with a suitable setting which corresponds to the story line as well as the genre of the film. characters should be able to create connections or relate to audience in order to get the right response such thrill, fear or sadness from the audience.



Propp: propp's theory of narrative is divided into three parts which he believe are key when directing a film. The first part of his theory is equilibrium, which means that everything needs to be calm or peaceful at the start of the film. It is then followed by disequilibrium which is when the villain of the film is introduced and there a disruption. The last part is known as new equilibrium. This is when the villain is unmasked, the hero is recognised.


Todorov: todorov is the second theorist who's theory is similar to prop's but with a few added idea of how a film should be narrated. his theory starts with equilibrium when everything is calm in a film, then there is a disruption caused by the villain, followed by an attempt of recognition and repairing the situation but he/she is denied and a last return or restoration which is also a new equilibrium.


Aristotle: Aristotle believes in evoking emotion through themes, in other word he values more how the audience feels and react when watching a movie.


Barthes: Barthes is the last theorist who I would say is more unique because looks at iconography and culture and how it can be symbolic. His theory consists of symbolic-connotation, semic- denotation and culture.


Narrative structure thrillers tend to take: in my opinion most thrillers follows propp, todorov and aristotle theory because, the structure of their theory tends to create the atmosphere which is essential in a thriller. in term of structure, propps and todorov's narrative theory would be the most common one used in almost every classic thrillers. thrillers would usually start with an equilibrium where the hero or the villain haven't been introduced to the audience, and this is done to engage the audience by making them want to guess the roles of characters where they will become attentive to small details such as facial expression, body language or relationship between characters. it's then followed up by a disruption or disequilibrium which where things starts to go wrong and the characters roles are specified and an emotional attachment between the characters and the viewer is created, where the audience would start to feel the same way as the character certain circumstances and would not want any harm to come to them. the movie is ended with a new equilibrium or as i like to say a new beginning where everything is back to a normal state.


Conclusion
in my thriller i would be using aristotle and Barthes theory because i would like to create a connection between the audience and the main character who i would say is would be seen as an protagonist and antagonist due to his confusing acts which tends to scare the audience but also makes the audience feel sympathetic toward him. i also want to meaning, tension and drama through character and iconography.