Narrative Structure in Film

To begin with we should get something straight: the narrative is not, as is often thought, the same thing as the story.

No movie making student will be unaware of this fact, but still the two become confused in many situations. Another point to make is that while there are standard rules regarding narrative this does not mean there is only one way to tell a story. There are many, as those who dare to experiment will confirm. Think of narrative as the method in which the story is told and you have half the answer already. The story is, if you like, what happens; the narrative is how it happens.

Why is Narrative Important?
Our minds work in a certain way and we, as humans, like to have things sorted into the correct order. This is why film narrative often falls into the same beginning, middle and end construction – the classic Hollywood narrative style to some – and usually presents an obstruction or problem and a resolution, in order to tie up any loose ends that may be present in the story.

To understand the order of things is to read a story correctly, and jumping between different strands can be confusing for the audience. This is why narrative is vital for a successful movie – it simply gives the audience the full story, right to the end.

Conventions in Narrative
The easiest way to explain the standard conventions in narrative is to break them down into four categories: genre, character, form and time. Every film will fit into one genre – horror, comedy, drama for instance – and you will be aware of the need for developing your characters, while form is the actual presentation of the narrative and time is perhaps the most important of all.

How many films are portrayed in real time? The answer is very, very few, as usually a story is condensed into less than two hours in a feature film. The use of slow motion, flashbacks, dreams and more are all examples of time in the narrative, and all are effective movie making methods that need consideration. What is essential is that to be effective, the events that make up the narrative need to be connected. This is where our sense of order comes into play.

Open and Closed Narratives
You will undoubtedly come across the terms open and closed when considering and studying narrative in films, and this is largely down to one man. Roland Barthes was a professor of semiotics in the middle of the 20th century and his interpretation of narrative as ‘threads’ waiting to be ‘unravelled’ has become one of the classic views of the movie making world.

As we mentioned above the story needs to fit together – as do your shots – and to understand how best to do this it is necessary to ‘unravel’ the narrative and find out which category it fits into. Put simply, some texts can be unravelled in many different ways, and have a number of different meanings; these are open narratives. Those that can be interpreted only in one way, and have – in Barthes words – only one thread, are closed narratives.

Barthes also had a theory about ‘codes’ in narrative, and categorised these – his possible ‘threads’ to be grasped at – as Action and Enigma codes, Symbols and Signs, Points of Cultural Reference and Simple description codes. The complexities of each may send you off at a tangent, hence it is best to look at them simply and understand that Barthes was simply looking at the different elements that make up film narrative, and why.

More About Time
As we have said, time is very important in film narrative, and with good reason. To portray the life of a character and the events within in a standard film length means contracting the story to a great degree. How many times do you see a film begin with a date or time indicator, and then later indicate that you are now several years beyond? This is a popular way of keeping the audience up to date with exactly where they are in terms of the narrative of the story. Remember the classic Hollywood narrative – the three part beginning, middle and end that makes up the narrative of so many blockbuster movies.

Back to the beginning and, while narrative is ruled by conventions, that does not mean that you are restricted to the classic narrative theme. Be prepared to experiment, but make sure the audience understands what is going on.