Group Narrative and Narrative Theory - Miss Georgiou

Group: Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson, Lily Badcock, Jazz Chrystie.

Group Narrative

A narrative is the way in which a story is told within media texts. The purpose of a narrative is to tell a story to an audience through written/spoken words or in a sequence of moving pictures. This post will discuss the narrative of my group's future opening scene of a thriller film.

My group showed each other our 'individual ideas for a narrative' posts. We discussed which aspects of our narratives that we all did or didn't like, and combined all of our good ideas into our group narrative.

Group member 1: Lily Badcock [read narrative here]

Lily's narrative involved a damaged man who was abused in his childhood. He blames the whole world for what happened to him. He was a burns victim, therefore fire is a theme throughout, as the man burns his victims. The opening sequence would involve a montage of childhood images, overlayed with footage relating to fire and smoke. The killer uses a mask to cover up his burns and also hide his identity.

 A good point about Lily's narrative idea is the originality behind it. However it is still quite conventional, as many horror/thriller films involve a killer with a terrible childhood/backstory who blames everyone else for his past and who targets innocent people (this is also seen in Saw). However, a disadvantage of this narrative is that it is quite difficult to film because we cannot realistically burn people/buildings.

Group member 2: Amber-Louise Reed-Johnson [read my narrative here]
 

A summary of my narrative would be that a woman's fiance leaves her at the altar, and her mental state deteriorates and she kills him for revenge. The opening sequence includes her in a dark, basement-like atmosphere flipping through a photo album of everyone who was invited to the wedding [then a flashback to the wedding], and landing on her ex-fiance's face and crossing it out. Flashbacks to killing him and his family.

An advantage of my idea for a narrative again is the originality of the plot. Also, the creepy atmosphere would build suspense, keeping up with the conventions of a thriller. A bad point of the plot is that there isn't anything that the scene is building up to because we know the ex-fiance is already dead/been killed by the woman. An improvement could be that we see that she has already killed his family, and she is preparing to kill him. Then, the scene could cut to show her standing outside his house, watching him. This would build a lot of tension and frighten the audience because they know what is coming next, but don't know when.

 

Group member 3: Jazz Chrystie [read narrative here]

To summarise Jazz's narrative, his idea is about a man who is obsessed with insects and uses them to kill his victims. He is tall, angry and 'dominant' and his victims are usually attractive females. The opening sequence involves many bodies in a room that contains many dead bodies with insects crawling all over them. The scene would have low key lighting, and eerie sounds such as dripping water to be heard, to emphasize the quietness of the room. The killer will drag in many dead bodies throughout the scene. The opening scene will also keep cutting to investigators trying to find the serial killer. Blood and insects will be a motif throughout the scene.

A good point about this narrative is that there are many conventions, such as a male killer and vulnerable female victims. However, the scene would be almost impossible to film as we would need many dangerous insects for the scene to make sense. Furthermore, the scene is not building up to anything and therefore lacks the elements of surprise and shock.

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My group has decided to create a thriller film for my narrative. However, we are changing the plot slightly. The opening sequence will now show a room covered in wedding decorations, invitations, flowers etc. and a woman crying on a bed. The woman, whose ex-fiancé left her at the altar, is wearing a wedding dress and sitting on the bed in the room, surrounded by the wedding decorations. A flashback will then be shown of her and her best friend/maid of honour getting ready for the wedding, and there will be a generally positive atmosphere in the flashback. However, the next frames will be of present-time 'bride' writing on the wedding balloons, crossing out "together forever" and writing "RIP". She then has a flashback, seen in wedding-video style, of her [now ex-]fiancé getting ready for the wedding with his best friends. The scene then goes back to the 'bride', who then looks through a photo album of everyone at the wedding that she knows. She has written various things across the several photos. She is then shown crossing out one of the best friends, previously seen in the 'groom's flashback, and the scene cuts to her walking behind him holding a knife, implying that she's killed him and this is a flashback. This then repeats with the other two men. Then, she circles the 'groom's face, and the scene cuts to the 'groom' with his new girlfriend, the best friend of the 'bride', and he goes upstairs to the bathroom. As he walks out, the 'bride' is there with a knife, waiting to kill him.

We decided on this narrative as it both challenges thriller conventions (stereotypical genders of killer and victim are swapped) and includes them (shock, surprise and suspense). We also thought that the plot was interesting and different, which would draw the audience in. It may also receive a higher female audience as it does not include a stereotypical/conventional blonde female as the victim. Our narrative was inspired by films such as Orphan and Saw, which are both very popular thriller/horror films. Orphan inspired our film due to having an unexpected and female killer. Saw inspired our film with its unique plot, and killer with a backstory. Scream also inspired our film as it includes a conventional, classic weapon - the knife. We have tried to incorporate all of these things into our thriller opening sequence.

Narrative Theory

There are 3 main narrative theories: Vladimir Propp, Tzvetan Todorov and Erving Goffman.

Vladimir Propp (1895 - 1970) was a Russian literary critic and scholar. He analysed over 100 Russian fairytales in the 1920s, and proposed that there were 7 broad character types in the tales that he analysed, which could be applied to other media.
These were:

1. The donor (prepares the hero, #2, or provides the hero with some sort of magical object)
2. The hero (reacts to the donor, #1, usually weds the princess, #4, winner)
3. The villain (opposes and struggles against the hero)
4. The princess (person the hero marries, usually sought for during the narrative)
5. The [magical] helper (helps the hero in the quest)
6. The false hero (believed to be a good character in the beginning but is revealed as evil)
7. The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)

The model highlights similarities between seemingly different narratives and stories. It also gives a good structure for a narrative. Some films' narratives fit this model, whereas others' do not.

Tzvetab Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian literary theorist. He suggests that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium, wherein everything seems 'normal' and happy. He proposed these stages of narratves:

1. A state of equilibrium
2. A disruption
3. A recognition of disruption
4. An attempt to repair disruption
5. A restoration of equilibrium

This model can be correctly applied to a wide range of films.

Erving Goffman proposed a character theory which suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text/production.

These are:

• The protagonist (the leading character)
• The deuteragonist (the secondary character)
• The bit player (a minor character, the audience is not aware of their specific background)
• The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages)

Our narrative will most closely follow the narrative theory proposed by Erving Goffman. The protagonist of the film is the unnamed 'bride'/killer. The deuteragonist is Hayden, the 'groom'/ex-fiancé/victim. The bit player is the maid of honour/bride's best friend. She is unnamed and her story isn't quite known. The fool(s) are the 'groom's friends. We chose this narrative theory to follow as it most closely applies to the film industry. Vladimir Propp's narrative theory is most suited to fairy tales, and there is not enough time in the opening sequence to accurately follow every step of Todorov's narrative theory.