Lets Talk about Narrative
What is a narrative? Narrative from my understanding is that it is the most important elements of any piece of media. The narrative of a piece in media is what can be seen as the core, due to it being the thing that holds everything together. The narrative is where the story is developed from.
There are two types of narrative that you should be aware of, being Linear and non-linear. Linear being very self explanatory shows the story in one straight formatted line of narrative leaving there not much movement to occur and for barely anything catastrophic within the story to go wrong. Where as with Non-linear, this is where narrative gets a bit difficult to grasp an understanding of. it is basically the story being broken up from its basic straight structure and putting it back together in a more scrambled/warped order. Which now, thinking about it kind of sounds pretty obvious as well, hence the 'non' added to the word.
Anyways, aside from that, the simplest way to understand narrative is by breaking it down into categories, kind of like my previous post on genre. Narrative begins from your starting point and ends at, well the end; its what lies in-between those two points that help develop the narrative. The first part of your narrative should start off which is whats referred to as the equilibrium (balance). This is where the scene is being set and the characters are gradually being introduced. Now in reference to the term equilibrium, it is setting the balance of the beginning of the story where everything should seem pretty normal in the eyes of your character/protagonist. The story all seems good with the introductory to the characters, location but them comes the complication/disequilibrium. This is generally the part where things begin to take a turn and disrupts the linear pattern. When this occurs, it generally makes different events take place within the story like hence the title of this section the "Complication". Resulting in the climax of the story where it is at it's peak of these turn of events where both bad and sometimes good things can take place. Eventually ending in the resolution of the narrative, bringing the story back down to a low to end off on a linear path once again.
Now to put my general knowledge of what narrative is into play, i will be relating it to once again, an all-time favourite film of mine, being Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy.
For such an action packed, comedy filled movie with numerous events occurring left right and centre, the film does have structure, but it isn't really something i would call linear as there isn't just one target mission/focus, as at times there are numerous and things become quite unpredictable as it progresses on, definitely is something i would expect from its director James Gunn. So what I'm trying to say is, is that the film doesn't follow the linear narrative format but a more non-linear focus in the film. The Guardians of the Galaxy's narrative is embedded instead of emergent, as the film is unpredictable and takes many turns leading to more events. This just makes the film all the more on the path of a embedded storyline/narrative.
The film is highly based on its characters archetypes as the protagonist Starlord/Peter Quill takes on the archetype 'hero' due to his role not only being the main character, but he also has numerous traits of the hero archetype, one being his integrity and bravery directing him into leadership. Another character that takes on another archetype would be The Everyman, this is taken on by the character Rocket Raccoon as in my opinion he is a bit of everything as he can be villainous as he's introduced into the film as a renegade thief, he takes on parts of the hero role, when he help the characters by assisting them in the escape from space prison. And who does love Rocket? He's one of the most loveable characters in the film's. These are just two examples of many archetypes involved in the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Writer and director of the film, James Gunn doesn't stick to the one genre throughout his movies but i must admit Sci-fi is definitely his strong point with both Guardians of the Galaxy movies sky rocketing through the markets and still continue to increase. Gunn has developed horror, romance and comedy films in the past, yet his recent movies do not set his permanent resignation from other genres/ structures in his films. This just goes to show that he is willing to experiment and try new things in his industry, and is definitely an over achiever and thinker. I now am just eagerly waiting for the new Avengers infinity war and the next G.O.T.G movie.
Narrative is the heart, the soul and the base of a great story/film, as it isn't just a story being told, but more so, how it connects with the audience and how its being told. They provide strong emotion, emersion and an overall great experience when done well, wether it be based to true events or made up.
Throughout the development of this blogpost i have heightened my knowledge towards narrate and its means and a greater understanding of why it's such an important factor to have when developing a story.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DmMz9QZRd0
Archetypes: https://www.scribendi.com/advice/character_archetypes_in_literature.en.html
Understanding narrative: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-narrative-writing-definition-types-characteristics-examples.html
There are two types of narrative that you should be aware of, being Linear and non-linear. Linear being very self explanatory shows the story in one straight formatted line of narrative leaving there not much movement to occur and for barely anything catastrophic within the story to go wrong. Where as with Non-linear, this is where narrative gets a bit difficult to grasp an understanding of. it is basically the story being broken up from its basic straight structure and putting it back together in a more scrambled/warped order. Which now, thinking about it kind of sounds pretty obvious as well, hence the 'non' added to the word.
Anyways, aside from that, the simplest way to understand narrative is by breaking it down into categories, kind of like my previous post on genre. Narrative begins from your starting point and ends at, well the end; its what lies in-between those two points that help develop the narrative. The first part of your narrative should start off which is whats referred to as the equilibrium (balance). This is where the scene is being set and the characters are gradually being introduced. Now in reference to the term equilibrium, it is setting the balance of the beginning of the story where everything should seem pretty normal in the eyes of your character/protagonist. The story all seems good with the introductory to the characters, location but them comes the complication/disequilibrium. This is generally the part where things begin to take a turn and disrupts the linear pattern. When this occurs, it generally makes different events take place within the story like hence the title of this section the "Complication". Resulting in the climax of the story where it is at it's peak of these turn of events where both bad and sometimes good things can take place. Eventually ending in the resolution of the narrative, bringing the story back down to a low to end off on a linear path once again.
Now to put my general knowledge of what narrative is into play, i will be relating it to once again, an all-time favourite film of mine, being Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy.
For such an action packed, comedy filled movie with numerous events occurring left right and centre, the film does have structure, but it isn't really something i would call linear as there isn't just one target mission/focus, as at times there are numerous and things become quite unpredictable as it progresses on, definitely is something i would expect from its director James Gunn. So what I'm trying to say is, is that the film doesn't follow the linear narrative format but a more non-linear focus in the film. The Guardians of the Galaxy's narrative is embedded instead of emergent, as the film is unpredictable and takes many turns leading to more events. This just makes the film all the more on the path of a embedded storyline/narrative.
The film is highly based on its characters archetypes as the protagonist Starlord/Peter Quill takes on the archetype 'hero' due to his role not only being the main character, but he also has numerous traits of the hero archetype, one being his integrity and bravery directing him into leadership. Another character that takes on another archetype would be The Everyman, this is taken on by the character Rocket Raccoon as in my opinion he is a bit of everything as he can be villainous as he's introduced into the film as a renegade thief, he takes on parts of the hero role, when he help the characters by assisting them in the escape from space prison. And who does love Rocket? He's one of the most loveable characters in the film's. These are just two examples of many archetypes involved in the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Writer and director of the film, James Gunn doesn't stick to the one genre throughout his movies but i must admit Sci-fi is definitely his strong point with both Guardians of the Galaxy movies sky rocketing through the markets and still continue to increase. Gunn has developed horror, romance and comedy films in the past, yet his recent movies do not set his permanent resignation from other genres/ structures in his films. This just goes to show that he is willing to experiment and try new things in his industry, and is definitely an over achiever and thinker. I now am just eagerly waiting for the new Avengers infinity war and the next G.O.T.G movie.
Narrative is the heart, the soul and the base of a great story/film, as it isn't just a story being told, but more so, how it connects with the audience and how its being told. They provide strong emotion, emersion and an overall great experience when done well, wether it be based to true events or made up.
Throughout the development of this blogpost i have heightened my knowledge towards narrate and its means and a greater understanding of why it's such an important factor to have when developing a story.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DmMz9QZRd0
Archetypes: https://www.scribendi.com/advice/character_archetypes_in_literature.en.html
Understanding narrative: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-narrative-writing-definition-types-characteristics-examples.html
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