Narrative

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

Modern family is a show that follows the structure because it starts of normal and then a problem occurs which needs fixing. In the end, a solution is made.

2) Find a clip on YouTube of the opening of a new TV drama series (season 1, episode  Embed the clip in your blog and write an analysis of the narrative markers that help establish setting, character and plot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z4YypnO1e0&ab_channel=MAYMEE

The clip starts off by introducing one family first. It shows their house first and then the characters. The audience gets and idea of who they are and how their personalities are because of dialogue and the way they act. The first scene includes the mum calling the children down to eat and she has a cereal box in her hand, indicating that they are eating breakfast and it is morning. This is a temporal marker. The geographical marker is the houses look like they are in America and also the accents in the clip are American so we know it takes place in America. There are planes and all phones in the clip. This shows that it is a modern show and is of this time. That is the historical marker. The show follows the lives of one big family.

3) Provide three different examples from film or television of characters that fit Propp's hero character role.

. Batman

. James Bond

. Superman

4) Give an example of a binary opposition.

Good VS Evil

5) What example is provided in the Factsheet for the way narratives can emphasise dominant ideologies and values?

The example in the factsheet is if a cop arrests a criminal it shows the value of the law.

6) Why do enigma and action codes (Barthes) offer gratifications for audiences?

Enigma creates tension in the atmosphere and makes the reader want to carry on. 

7) Write a one-sentence summary of the four different types of TV narrative:

Episodic narrative-  The problem in the episode is usually resolved by the end of the episode. An example is modern family.

Overarching narrative- The individual episodes may not have a resolution but a narrative arc is used to stretch a problem over a few episodes.

Mixed narrative- If a series uses both episodic and overarching narratives, it is mixed.

Multi-strand overlapping narrative- Soap operas  are an example for this. It has a continuous narrative.