Applying Narrative theory to Short films

Narrative theory 

The narrative is not the story itself but rather the telling of the story. A story just is a sequence of events, a narrative recounts those events, perhaps leaving some occurrences out because they are from some perspective insignificant, and perhaps emphasizing other. A narrative account, however, might be almost entirely about the crash itself and the few seconds leading up to it, there are many theories surrounding the narrative of films and some popular ones are listen below, people that have contributed to this include Aristotle and Todorov.

Applying Narrative Theory to a short film.

Movie Mind machine.

Aristotle's Unities

 Movie Mind machine is the story of two men who are film enthusiasts, so much so that they create the technology that allows them to briefly erase their memories so that they can re-watch a film and it be as if it was the first time they had seen it. The narrative follows the men through the process of coming up with the idea, creating the technology and their use of it,  including their family and friends reaction to the creation. In regard to Aristotle's Unities, which is perhaps the first narrative theory, Movie Mind Machine seems to follow his ideas as it is all set at the same place within the same time period despite the 6 week jump in time, The ending also follows these ideas as both men end up losing their jobs and their mental state declining  causing one to end up in jail and both to develop severe addiction problems.

Freytags' Dramatic Structure
 Freytag believed each narrative consisted of five stages, Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action & Denouement/Catastrophe/Resolution. I believe that Movie Mind Machine follows these conventions, at the beginning of the film the viewer is provided with an explanation of the science behind the technology and the reason for its creation, this covers the idea of the exposition. After this we experience the rising action, the two protagonists  begin to use the machine and we start to see the side effects. We then get to the climax when both characters have lost their jobs and one ends up in jail, in this section we also see their family and friends reactions. It then moves onto the end of the film in which does in fact end in catastrophe for both men as their mental state begins to decline and they lose their life prospects due to their addiction.

Todorov's theory
Movie Mind machine goes against Todorov's theory, Torodov believes that narration begins with a calm period of equilibrium,which is then disrupted and a period of unsettlement chaos and disequilibrium follows,  however he believes that this is followed by return to the calm setting and begins a new equilibrium that came previous to the disruption. This is not the case with Movie Mind Machine, in Movie Mind machine it does begin with a period of calm and equilibrium and then rise to a period of chaos however it does not return back to the period of calm, instead the addiction seems to get worse and there is no real conclusion.

Propp's theory
Propp theory stated that there was only ever eight types of character, the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. This does not match with Movie Mind Machine as there is only four characters throughout the entire short film and two of them play a very minimal role, which rules out the possibility of the characters representing more that one of these set roles. Usually films have the protagonist be the hero however this film differs as the protagonists are actually not heroic at all, they can almost be seen as the villains as they are the people who created the technology that has spiralled into their own addiction that they are not even trying to remedy despite the pleas of their family and friends, despite this though due to the comical angle they are not portrayed in a negative light and they are still somewhat likeable.

Barthes' Enigma Code
  This states that the narrative will establish enigmas as it goes along, Essentially the narrative function is to establish these enigmas and then solve these mysteries, to a certain extent Movie Mind Machine follows this as at the beginning of the short film the viewers curiosity is heightened when one of the protagonist begins to discuss his plan and then we quickly realise that this is not a good idea and will have negative effects for the protagonists.

Levi-Strauss' Binary option
Levo-Strauss' Binary option is not followed by Movie mind machine, this code believes in a lot of ideology and negative tension, due to the comical nature of Movie Mind Machine it would be difficult for this to come across, this code is mainly followed in film genres such as westerns due the the way they are usually representing more that what we initially see on the screen and there is often a deeper meaning to what is being shown.




Narrative Image

The narrative image is what we think of before we actually see the film. It is the film’s image or identity, and how it is branded. It comes from the direct publicity surrounding a film (ie its marketing – the poster, trailer, video release etc) and also from word of mouth. It particularly draws on the generic qualities of the film. In other words, the marketing promotes the film’s genre signifiers in order to exploit the audience’s desire for familiarity and recognition – this brands the film and broadens its potential appeal.

Movie Mind Machine Narrative Image
In movie mind machine, the poster image consists of the two protagonist sat on the sofa laughing at a film with the technology they created in front of them, this manages to capture the films essence before it all goes wrong, We are  quickly introduced to the joy the  characters feel when watching films and this picture makes it very obvious that the film is designed to be a comedy, It also makes it very clear that it is a very alternative short film rather that a full feature film, it is the simplicity and the obviously low budget that gets this across. Due to the fact it is clearly a comedy this will appeal to a large amount of people as in regards to short film, comedy is one of the most popular genres, therefore they are alienating very few film fans. It can be said that the setting in which this picture is taken may promote familiarity among the audience as they are clearly relaxed in a living room watching a film, an activity that is enjoyed by everyone and is very relatable, also a film about movie buffs may be extremely attractive to real movie buffs due to the fact it is so easy to relate to.