Narrative, Plot and Storyline

Within one of our exam questions (1b) we are required to select one of our own productions and evaluate it in relation to media concepts. These concepts include:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

At first glance, the only one which seemed a little unusual to me due to the fact we have specifically studied it yet was 'media language'. However upon further inspection, it became clearer that actually 'narrative' was a concept in which held scarce knowledge about; you just assume it means the story.

So What is Narrative?
~ What distinguishes narrative from other forms is that it presents information as a connected sequence of events.
~ Progression - it links it all together.
~ The most basic narratives are linear - arranged in a straight line-like sequence (ABCDE). It is structured logically and is easy to follow as everything seems to make sense.
~ Many narratives sturcture their sequences causually; each event logically follows on from the previous one; each event causes the next event.
~ The majority are recountedin past tense.
~ Narative Hook: it should serve to intrigue the audience and give them a reason to keep on watching. This is often achieved through the use of an Enigma or McGuffin.
~ Most contain 'seeds' of the theme, which develop and grow later on.
~ Films which do not follow the conventions of a familiar genre can be harder to get into, as they have the potential to alienate the audience
~ Whilst sometimes it is the Director's intention to alienate the audience, most film openings incorporate generic conventions.

What is the difference between a story and a plot?
~ Films usually consist of events which are explicitly shown onscreen and events which are inferred to have happened off screen.
~ The Plot: everything that the film explicitly shows
~ The Story: the chronological order if all events explicitly shown and inferred.

Boris Tomashevsky
~ He suggested that the plot can be seen as the aesthetic arrangeent of ideas that teh firector wishes to bring to the attention of the reader.
~ So effectively the best bits of the characters' lives.
~ I think it is easy to follow this theory, as often with any film you watch, it is the conventional markers you see which move the plot along; you don't see the fill in bits of everyday life - which is just aswell really as you'd need the film in constant realtime, and would end up with a year long film!

Lion King
~ Is a good example, as we don't see many of the back stories - such as how Pumbaa and Timone met, how Scar and Mufasa were like as cubs, how Zazu became Mufasa's assistant etc.
~ We natually fill in the missing parts and details
~ However they did make some sequels following the success of the first film, so some of the holes are filled, but of course not all.

So it is now a whole lot clearer to me what measures to take when elaborating on the concept of Narrative within my exam question - there's a lot more to it than I thought!