Monday, 12 October 2015

Narrative Theory 1: Bordwell & Thompson

Bordwell and Thompson 1997 believe narrative is made up of two parts, the story and the plot. Within the story and the plot it is then broken down into sections, say C .

A) Inferred Events.
Events we already presume have happened and have not being shown in the video. For example if there was man and his wife leaving their house to go for a meal an inferred event is that they have gotten married and bought a house at some point before the current event.

B) Explicitly shown events.
These are are events shown directly on screen. Example, if the man and woman go to a restaurant and we see him spill a drink on her.

C) Non-Diegetic material. 
Events which happen off-screen during the film. An example is if the man and wife return to find their house has been robbed however we did not see the robbery.

The story is what happens this is made up of A + B. As through inferred events we assume parts of the story of what will of taken place for them to get to this point and explicitly shown events will develop the story we see unfold before us.
The plot is how we are shown what happens in a narrative, made up of B + C. Explicitly shown events will work with non-diegetic material to reveal the plot to us. Non-diegetic allow the plot to move along at a acceptable pace as we cannot see all events of a narrative otherwise it could make for a long film.

Applying Bordwell and Thompson to Sacrilege by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
The construction of Sacrilege is in reverse chronological order however we can still apply Bordwell and Thompson's narrative theory effectively.

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