A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Making Short Films Narrative Point Guide

Four Steps To Writing A Short Film Scenario

1. Find the ending first
2. Then the beginning…
3. Then the first turning point – the event that gets the story going;
4. Then the second turning point, the scene that swings the story around and sets up
the ending.

The Script
• Is the audience interested in the characters? So we want to follow their story?
• Do the characters start a point A and shift subtly and convincingly to point B?
• Is there conflict? All stories progress through conflict: action and reaction.
• It is the emotional journey that holds the readers and grabs the audience.
• With the conflict established, and the characters introduced, the pace and urgency of
the scenes should increase, racing the audience towards a conclusion that should
achieve two goals:
o To be both what the audience expects…
o Yet not exactly what it expects.
• The audience wants to be surprised, not disappointed by the obvious.
• Each scene should have its own beginning, middle and end, a minor conflict
leading to resolution and on to the next scene, the characters growing from each
development. The characters need to go through changes.
• Enter your story a short time before the crisis that ignites the drama.
• Scenes are like parties: arrive late and leave early.

Characters and Narrative

1. Who is the story about?
2. Do we empathise with the main character/s?
3. Are they likable?
4. What exactly do these people want?
5. Who is stopping them getting it?
6. Why?
7. Have the principal characters gone through major, irreversible changes?
8. Are those changes credible?
9. Will those changes move and affect the audience?

1
 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Narrative Structure
1. What’s the story actually about?
2. Introduce main character(s); set the scene.
3. Give the characters a problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.
4. Let the character work out a plan to overcome the problem.
5. Before setting out to solve the problem, there may be a moment of doubt that will
require the hero to seek advice from a mentor: teacher, best friend. This is an
opportunity to let the audience know more about the problem and weigh it up in their
own minds. What would they do?
6. With new resolve (and often with help from their mentor), the hero sets out to
overcome the problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.
7. Overcoming the problem or challenge will be met by extreme opposition from the
rival, who will usually have greater but different strengths and will in some ways bear
similarities to the hero: the nemesis is the hero’s dark side.
8. The hero will appear to fail in their quest. They will glimpse defeat, even death, and
will require superhuman effort to overcome this daunting final task.
9. The hero will win the final battle, with an opponent, or enemy or with themselves, and
returns to their natural state wiser, or stronger, or cured, but not necessarily happier.
The journey has made the hero a different person. They have glimpsed failure and
can never go back to the simplicity of what they once were.

Narrative and Audience Expectations

Expectations
1. Are there surprises, thrills, and revelations: is the audience led one way before the
opposite is revealed?
2. Is the audience lifted and let down and then lifted again, the peaks and troughs going
higher and plunging lower as the story builds?
3. Do the main turning points and climaxes appear for maximum impact and interest?
4. Do we have the elements you’d expect for the genre?
5. Is the underlying theme clearly revealed?
6. Is there a satisfactory ending which gives the audience what they expect, but not
exactly how they expected it?

Scene Narrative
1. What is this scene about?
2. What does this scene achieve?
3. Is the scene necessary?
4. What does this scene tell us about the main character/s?
5. Do the secondary characters have their own dramatic function?
6. Does this scene have conflict, a beginning, middle and end?
7. Does this scene contribute to the main character(s) objectives, development, and
revelations of true nature?
8. Do the characters behave consistently, and where they are inconsistent is that
understood and applicable within the narrative?
9. So the characters have individual voices, word patterns, or slang?
10. Can verbal exposition be replaced by the visual?

2
 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Narrative
Film is a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the
story of us as a culture or set of cultures. Since stories in film have to be told in a very short
space of time filmmakers have to adopt specific ways of telling stories. Narrative theory sets
out to show that what we experience when we ‘read’ a story is to understand a particular set
of constructions, or conventions, and that it is important to be aware of how these
1
constructions are put together.

• Narrative: The structure of a film.

• Diegesis: The fictional space and time implied by the narrative – the world in
which the story takes place.
• Verisimilitude: Literally – the quality of appearing to be real or true. For a story
to engage us it must appear to be real to us as we watch it (the diegetic effect). The
story must therefore have verisimilitude – following the rules of continuity, temporal
and special coherence.

The Structure Of The Classic Narrative System

This structure is not unique to film. In fact it is an integral part of the majority of both western
and eastern cultures. Thus what we expect from film is informed by our exposure to novels
and plays. According to Cook (1985), the standard Hollywood narrative structure should
have:

1. Linearity of cause and effect within an overall trajectory of enigma resolution.

2. A high degree of narrative closure.
3. A fictional world that contains verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and
temporal coherence.
4. Centrality of the narrative agency of psychologically rounded characters.

Narrative Structure
Every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative
types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are as
follows:

1. Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or
almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.
2. Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James
Bond, Rocky etc.
3. Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.
4. Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. Smokey
And The Bandit, Duel, The Terminator.
5. Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul
belongs to him, e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.
6. Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of
losss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born
On the Fourth Of July.
7. Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.
8. Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle, Man loves woman…unfortunately one or both
of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.

1
DOMAILLE, KATE, (2001). Narrative Theory, The Horror Genre: Classroom Resources,
Leighton Buzzard: Auteur Publishing, p.2.1.

3
 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Some narrative theorists claim that all stories can fit into one of only three narrative structures:

1. Man Verses Man,

2. Man Verses God (or Nature),
3. Man Verses Himself.

Tzvetan Todorov
Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian structural linguist. He was
interested in the way language is ordered to infer particular meanings
and has been very influential in the field of narrative theory.

• Todorov argued that all stories share a common structure.

• Stories begin with equilibrium: this means that all the forces
in the story are in balance.
• There is a disruption of the equilibrium: something happens
that sets off a chain of other reactions.
• There is a close, establishing a new equilibrium different from the first.

This sounds like every story has a beginning, middle and an end, which is obvious. In fact
there is a little more to it than that. In analysing a story using Todorov’s descriptions the
reader is invited to think about how and why the story has been told in that way and not in
another. In doing so the reader will see that the story has a particular point of view and will
privilege some aspects over others. Todorov’s argument is that stories are a construct and
that the way, or the form, in which a story is constructed influences how the events of the
2
story are received.

Todorov sees the start of the narrative as:

• Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and

normal.
• Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of
disequilibrium.
• Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
• Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against
the disruption.
• Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the
reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final
state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.

Thus Todorov’s narrative theory can be expressed as:

Equilibrium – Disequilibrium – Restoration Of New Equilibrium

2
DOMAILLE, p.2.1.

4
 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Vladimir Propp
The Russian theorist Vladimir Propp in his 1928 book The Morphology
Of The Folktale studied the narrative structure of Russian Folk Tales.
Propp concluded that regardless of the individual differences in terms of
plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common
structural features.

These features included the functions of particular character types:

• The Villain: The antagonist, who acts against the hero.

• The Donor: Someone who provides an essential object.
• The Helper: Someone who helps the hero.
• The Princess: The prize for the hero.
• Her Father: The person who rewards the hero.
• The Dispatcher (May set the hero a task).
• The Hero
• The False Hero (a deceptive character).

For example in Star Wars (1977) the following characters match these character types:

• The Villain: Darth Vader

• The Donor: Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi
• The Helper: Han Solo
• The Princess: Princess Leia
• Her Father: Bail Organa (Although its really Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader – the
villain)
• The Dispatcher: R2D2 (although its technically Leia who sends the message in the
first place, Artoo is simply the messenger)
• The Hero: Luke Skywalker
• The False Hero: Darth Vader

The characters were seen as stable elements from story to story, despite individual variations
of appearance or idiosyncrasies of personality.

Propp also pointed out that there were standard narrative events, which he called Narrative
Units, which were also common to all of the stories he studied. The narrative units were
sufficient to describe all of the stories, although not all units appear in all of the stories, but
when they do appear they are in a prescribed order.

Joseph Campbell And The Universal Hero Monomyth

Joseph Campbell’s influential work, The Hero With A Thousand
3
Faces, developed the idea of the ‘Universal Hero Monomyth’ .
Campbell’s work suggests that there is an underlying structure of
iconography, themes, concepts and narrative structure that is
common to the religions, myths and legends of almost every culture
in the world and that when brought together and broken down into
their constituate parts these myths can be used to formulate a
universal monomyth that is essentially the condensed, basic hero
narrative that forms the basis for every myth and legend in the
world and is, therefore, common to all cultures. Campbell’s
theories essentially built upon those of Todorov and Propp all of
which serve to illustrate the fact that all stories follow similar
narrative patterns.

3
Campbell, Joseph, (1949). The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Fontana Press (1993 Edition), UK.

5
 A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Both George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg were heavily influenced by Campbell’s theories
and Star Wars conforms to Campbell’s model of the Monomyth almost exactly.

Campbell discussed the idea of the Heroes Journey, which is a metaphysical as well as a
physical journey that the hero must undertake in order to reach his goal. Though aspects of
the journey may be emotional, they can often be interpreted quite literally:

Campbell’s
Campbell s Stages Of The Hero’s
Hero s Journey
1. Ordinary World – the ordered world that the hero will choose (or be forced) to
abandon.
2. Call To Adventure – a problem or challenge arises.
3. Refusal Of The Call – fear or reluctance may strike the hero.
4. Meeting With The Mentor – the mentor is a key character.
5. Crossing The First Threshold – the hero commits to the adventure.
6. Test, Allies, Enemies – the hero must learn the rules that will govern his quest.
7. Approach To The Innermost Cave – the most dangerous confrontation yet, perhaps
the location of the treasure, or the object of the quest.
8. Ordeal – the hero must face his fear or mortal enemy who will seem more powerful.
Mental or physical torture may occur.
9. Reward (Seizing The Sword) – the hero can celebrate the victory.
10. The Road Back – vengeful forces controlled by the villain are unleashed.
11. Resurrection – perhaps a final confrontation with death.
12. Return With The Elixir – return to the ordinary world with some wisdom, knowledge
or something else gained from the adventure.

Claude Lèvi-
Lèvi-Strauss
Claude Lèvi-Strauss’ ideas about narrative amount to the fact that he
believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites e.g. good
vs. evil, black vs. white, rich vs. poor etc. The importance of these ideas
is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or
structure. Things are right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in
between. (This structure has ideological implications, if, for example, you
want to show that the hero was not wholly correct in what they did, and
4
the villains weren’t always bad.

4
DOMAILLE, p. 2.5.