Narrative: blog task

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 Narrative: blog task


Complete the following questions using the Media Factsheet resource available on the Media Shared drive. 

You'll find them in our Media Factsheet archive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. You can also access them online here if you use your Greenford Google login.

Read Media Factsheet 14 - Telling Stories: The Media's Use of Narrative and answer the following questions:

1) Give an example from film or television that uses Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. 
Korean movie: Ballerina

Equilibrium: A woman who was a former bodyguard lives her life happily with her best friend who is a ballerina.

Disequilibrium: One day she comes home and discovers that her best friend  has died and her last wish for Ok-ju (bodyguard) is that she should finish a sex trafficker named Choi Pro as he had victimised Min-hee (ballerina) by filming her and extorting money due to the video.

New Equilibrium: She kills the villain (Choi Pro) at the end.

2) Complete the activity on page 1 of the Factsheet: find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode 1). Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.
This is the opening scene of an American tv show Pretty Little Liars.

Temporal Marker: We can see that the setting is dull so it might be set on a day where it was cloudy and dark. We could maybe infer that the time could be set in the evening too.

Geographical marker: It looks like the opening scene is set at a funeral place as there was a coffin and there was a girl in there.

Historical marker: We could infer that it could be set in early  based on the clothing, hair and jewellery the girls are wearing in the scene.

Character marker: We could see that there is one girl in the coffin and 4 girls were shown at the end, maybe suggesting they are all best friends. Audience may wonder whether the girl in the coffin is an enemy or friend of the 4 girls. 

Generic marker: We could tell that it is based on a mystery and crime genre as we saw a girl in the coffin, creating suspense and enigma for the audience to find out who killed the girl (questioning who committed a crime to kill the girl). The lyrics also suggest that it's a mystery based drama as it talks about secrets. 

3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.
Ok-ju (Ballerina)
Harry Potter (Harry Potter)
Peter Parker (Spiderman)

4) Give an example of a binary opposition.
Hero and villain

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?
- When the policeman captures the criminal in a crime drama– the ideology of the value of law and order is emphasised.
- When the girl wins the heart of the guy in a romantic comedy the values of heterosexual relationships and monogamy are reinforced.

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?
Enigma code: The media text's creator will purposefully include an idea for the story that demands questions and draws readers to keep reading in order to find out how the mystery is solved.

Action codes: Action codes are what move the story along. Action codes help to build suspense because they grab the audience's interest about the scene's ending and consequences, instead of having a feeling of mystery.

7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narrative:
  • Episodic narrative (the series): Since the problem is fixed by the end of the episode, it can be viewed in any sequence without having to watch any of the earlier ones. 
  • Overarching narrative (the serial): There will be a cliffhanger and a recap since the story is completed at the conclusion of the series rather than at the end of the episode.        
  • Mixed narrative:  Both overarching and episodic, with a lot of change in addition to small problems that have resolutions.
  • Multi-strand overlapping narrative (soap narrative): There are several stories, most of which are finished in one or two episodes, though this can change. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger, which keeps viewers interested by telling different, non-repetitive stories.
8) How does the Factsheet suggest adverts use narrative?  
In advertising the idea of the problem and resolution is crucial. Often adverts set up a problem and then immediately offer the solution to create a swift resolution.

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