http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative
Narrative is an account or a story. The art, technique, or process of narrating consists of or is characterized by the telling of a story.
Theories;
Tzvetan Todorov – Equilibrium.
Todorov says that all stories start in a state of equilibrium, which is then disrupted, setting in a motion a chain of events. The resolution of the story is the creation of a new and different equilibrium;Equilibrium>Disruption>Resolution (New Equilibrium)
Vladimir Propp
Propp identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions; they provide a structure for the text, and he said they applied in most tales.
The hero – a character that seeks something
The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest
The Donor - Who provides an object with magical properties
The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
The False hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims
The helper - who aids the hero
The princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots
Her father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort
Christopher Vogler
Chris Vogler is a story analyst for Disney, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, and many more Hollywood production companies. He explored the construction of narrative from a character driven perspective. His theory is called The Hero’s Journey.
1. Ordinary world
2. Call to Adventure
3. Refusal of Class
4. Mentor
5. First Threshold
6. Test, Allies, enemies
7. Approach to the inmost cave
8. Ordeal
9. Rewards (seizing the sword)
10. The road back
11. Resurrection
12. Return with the Elixir
Vogler also claimed that there were eight Archetypes within Hollywood narratives;
•Hero
•Mentor
•Heraid
•Shape Shifter
•Allies
•Shadow
•Trickster
•Threshold Guardians
Levi Strauss-Binary Oppositions
Meanings, including narrative, depend on binary oppositions – he explores these in terms of underlying typical themes rather than events. Conflict helps to drive the narrative.
•Man Vs Woman
•White Vs Black
•Young Vs Old
•Hero Vs Villain
•West Vs East
•Good Vs Ba
Roland Barthes’ Enigma Codes
Enigma/hermeneutic code
-anything that sets up a question in the narrative
Semic Code
-the way in which the character, actions, events, settings take place on meaning; mise-en-scene, semiotic analysis, psychoanalytical theory
Symbolic code
-Signifying binary oppositions or psychological symbols
Action code
-Codes of behaviour in the diegetic world that are universally understood, from our de-coding of other narratives.
Cultural/Referential Code
-Codes that are defined by the world outside the narrative diegesis, with are understood through our interaction with the wider world
Robert McKee
Robert McKee has a simple 5 part structure for narratives;
1. Inciting incident
2. Progressive Complications
3. Crisis
4. Climax
5. Resolution
In Queens Of The Stone Age’s music video for ‘No one knows’, the narrative is shows an event that is a loose metaphor for the tables turning in relation to karma. The video shows a dark interpretation of what the lyrics mean, as well as embedding humour into it. In relation to the humour sides, the bands are shown to be quite relaxed as the animals shown are purposefully shown to look fake, which also adds to the funny side of the video.
To show the bands legitimacy, the video shows many shots of the performers themselves playing so the audience can clearly see that the music is their own. The person playing drums in this video is David Grohl, famed for being the drummer in Nivana and Vocalist in the Foo Fighters, this promotes the band, as fans of David Grohl’s two perious bands will see him in the video, and this may entice them to look into Queen’s Of The Stone Age.
The video shows a ‘new equilibrium’ as it shows the life’s between the deer and the people switched, and the people (played by the band) end up where the deer stereotypically would have been.
