Story Elements

As you know, there are two interrelated strands to the construction of a fictional movie narrative, 'story elements' and 'production elements'. This post is dedicated to the former.

What is a narrative?

Before you begin analysing the components of narrative, it's important to understand what narrative is. The easiest way to describe it is as a series of events that happen in a chronological order. For instance, 'A girl meets a boy, they fall in love and get married'. Right there, you could be describing any number of stories, from 'Cinderella' to 'Pretty Woman'. What makes a story interesting - that is, what makes it unique - is the way that 'story elements' are used to structure the story and make the audience care about what's happening. Those story elements include 'narrative possibilities', 'character', 'setting', 'storylines', 'structuring of time', 'cause and effect', 'point of view' and 'narrative progression'.

Narrative Possibilities:

'Narrative possibilities' refer to the possibilities - the things that might happen - with regard to the characters, stories, issues and/or ideas established in the opening sequence. The opening sequence of 'The Player', (below), introduces the viewer to the major character, a studio producer, and the film's locatoin, the studio, as well as the harried tone of the film, as a roving camera captures numerous conversations around the lot in one sweeping shot, the phone constantly ringing and being answered in the background. As well as 'orienting' the viewer, however, this sequence does what all good sequences should do: it makes the viewer ask questions. 'Who is this producer?' 'How am I meant to feel about him?' 'Will he make any of the projects that are being pitched to him?' 'How does the film's title, 'The Player', relate to the character I'm watching?' Only time will tell.

Character:

It goes without saying that characters are a major part of a good story. It's the characters that the audience loves or loathes. It's their shoes that we, as audience members, are asked to walk in. So what makes a character interesting? To put it simply, an interesting character is one that's multi-dimensional (i.e. a mixture of light and shade, organised and disorganised, fair-minded and judgemental). In other words, it's somebody just like us. Generally, a character can be understood by a combinatoin of how they look, how they act, and how they are perceived by others. It is important to be able to discuss the establishment and development of characters throughout the narrative, as well as their relationship to one another. The scene that follows is from the beginning of the television show 'Breaking Bad'; it paints a deft portrait of a multi-dimensional character, Walt, once a nobel-prize winning chemist, now a high school chemistry teacher with terminal lung cancer who has decided to begin dealing drugs in order to support his family once he's gone:

Setting:

'Setting' refers both to when and where a story takes place, and is often essential to the narrative. The following clip is from the movie 'The Edge', and is set in the wilderness. In the movie, it's the fact that the main characters (played by Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins) are stuck in the wilderness that forces them to reveal their true colours, including previously undisclosed feelings about each other.

Storylines:

Of course, when looking at narrative, it is essential to understand the way that different storylines work to engage the audience. The terms that you'll need to understand are 'plot' and 'subplot'. Remember the example of the story we used earlier, of the girl meeting the boy, falling in love and getting married? We could use a subplot to give the narrative an extra dimension. In Shakespeare's day, that often meant adding a comedic or magical element. In our case, we might introduce the subplot that the man the girl has fallen in love with has been married before and already has a son. This provides interest for the viewer because it raises a number of questions about how the girl (from the plot) will relate with her love interest's child (from the subplot). It's sounding more interesting already. Now introduce one or two more subplots and you have a really complex story.

Structuring of time:

Structuring of time refers to how the events are ordered in the film. How the time in a narrative film is structured can vary. Some films just have a beginning, middle and end in that order (chronological order) and some can actually start and the end and flash back to the beginning. How the film is structured and the order that events are revealed is important in engaging an audience. You wouldn’t want the murderer revealed at the beginning of a crime film would you? Linear narratives occur in order with a beginning, middle and end. Non-linear narratives are ‘all over the place’. The story is not presented in the order it occurred. Quentin Tarantino’s films are good examples of non-linear structures.

Structuring of time is usually controlled by the editing process to create:
A flash forward
A flashback
Compression of time
Expansion of time
Repeats
Parallel action

In 'Nick of Time' (1995), we see the most extreme form of linear narrative - a story in which one minute of screen time is equal to one minute of real time - a technique later made famous by the show '24':

In 'Pulp Fiction' (1997), Quentin Tarrantino plays with the audience's expectations, introducing them to a host of characters and showing them a series of events with very few clues of what order the various subplots actually took place:

Cause and effect:

Cause and effect is simply what propels the story. That something happened because of something else. For example, the main character is feeling depressed because his girlfriend left him. (Girlfriend left – cause, depression – effect). His friend feels sorry for him so invites him out for dinner (friend feels sorry – cause, invites for dinner – effect). They go for dinner and eat Indian. The character gets a stomach ache. (Ate Indian food – cause, stomach ache – effect). He goes to hospital. (Stomach ache – cause, goes to hospital – effect). He meets a new love interest.
So a whole lot of events have taken our character from a depressed break up to a new love.

'Magnolia' (1997) begins with three stories that rely upon a strange and convoluted series of cause and effect:

Point of View:
Usually we see the story from an objective point of view where we witness the events as a spectator. Sometimes we see events from the point of view of the character and see what they would see through the shot selection. When analysing this elements we need to ask:

From whose point of view is the narrative presented?
What are the effects of this on the story and character development and audience engagement?

In 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' (1998), sound and vision combine to make the audience share the protagonist's point of view when risking half a million dollars on one hand of poker:

Narrative Progression:
Similar to the opening sequence we also look at the closing sequence and how the film possibilities have been resolved. We need to examine:

Have the possibilities been fulfilled?
Were the conflicts, issues etc resolved?
Do the closing and opening relate to each other and if so how?

Most films leave us with a happy ending but sometimes things are left unresolved and up to the audience’s imagination.

There is no example for this story element. We're abiding by a strict 'no spoiler' policy here. To see narrative progression at work, watch any film or TV show and, when you get to the end, ask yourself the three questions above.