Narrative Within Film

When analysing Narrative within film it is key to not confuse that of the storyline with that of the narrative. The storyline is the actual 'story' the core base of the text which focuses upon a main theme which will lead it to fitting into a particular genre of film such as romance, action adventure, thriller etc.. The narrative is the way in which this storyline is told and how these themes within the storyline are presented to the audience in a particular way. Narratives can sometimes correlate with genres of film and therefore leading to these genres having 'typical storyline's'. Within Narrative there are six key elements that must be taken into account when analysing a piece of media text. Such as follows -

Technical Code -
 Technical Codes are all the 'technical' elements to the text such as sound, camera work and editing and how these have been put into support the narrative of the text in order to create certain thoughts and feelings and trigger certain emotions in the audience's who view the text. A clear example of this is within 'Sin City' where a unique almost motion cartoon theme is created through the use of sound, editing, camera and choice of colour in order to trigger particular emotions from the audiences.

Verbal Code-
This is the way in which the dialect of the media text particularly within texts that consist of a narration are used in order to convey the overall narrative of the piece. For example the narrative of a documentary has a contrasting tone to that of 'Bridget Jones Diary' in which the dialect's tone is presented to support the narrative/theme of the film.

Symbolic Code-
Symbolic codes are mostly parts to the mise-en-scene of a media text that symbolises an element of a character in order to say something to the audience about this character. For example within 'Grease' the character of Danny Zuko is mostly seen wearing a black leather jacket with slicked back hair to symbolise his 'bad boy' character and his daring personality.

Structure -  
Structure is the typical 'Beginning - Middle - End' scenario found throughout almost all films. The idea of narrative structure follows that of Todorov's theory of structure. That at the 'beginning' phase of a media text there is an 'Equilibrium' in which all is well and normal, next the 'middle' phase there is the 'Disequilibrium' phase in which an event occurs that breaks the equilibrium. Next in the 'End' phase as Todorov's theory goes there is a 'New Equilibrium' in which the conflict is solved and once again there is normality in a newly formed manor. A good example of this comes within that of 'The Simpsons Movie' All is normal in the residents of 'Springfield's' life (Equilibrium) until a large glass dome falls over 'Springfield' and within a couple of days a bomb will be enclosed and set to clear out the towns existence (Disequilibrium). However the character of 'Homer Simpson' along with others from the film work towards throwing the bomb out of the dome and destroying the dome restoring life to how it was at the start but in a more peaceful and positive manner (New Equilibrium).

Character-
Conventional characters within all genres of film are part of a narrative to the media text. For example within the action adventure genre conventionally there is that of the protagonist (hero) and his sidekick (the one who aids the protagonist on his journey to 'save the day') as well as the use of other conventional characters such as the antagonist (Villain) and more typically in original action adventure genre text's the use of a 'damsel in distress'. A clear example of this is present within the action adventure film's of batman (more commonly the original batman films that where first produced)

Narrative Conflict -
A theory devised by that of the 20th century theorist Levi-Strauss that all narrative is moved forwards in media text by a conflict caused by opposing forces whatever it may be opposing sides in a battlefield to opposing men fighting for the one women they both want within a romantic comedy and many other examples. A good example of this within 'Titanic' in which the conflict of rich and poor men come into play.