Normality (equilibrium) | a presentation of the stable ‘initial conditions’ of the narrative (or equilibrium) |
A hero | one individual who the narrative revolves around and whose perspective dominates |
An enigma (villain) | or agent of change, which deflects the hero from his (rarely her) normal everyday life (disequilibrium) |
A quest | which the hero has to embark upon in order to overcome the effects of the enigma |
A resolution (new equilibrium) | return to normality which signals closure of the narrative (new equilibrium) |
Start the James Bond clip at 1m17sec and play for a minute. Even a sequence this short can contain all the above narrative devices.
Alternative narrative structures
There are a few films which invert the narrative structure by starting at the end. Can you think of any?
Some types of films do not follow the Classic Hollywood narrative structure such as European art films and video art installations. Makers of such films argue that life does not follow a conventional narrative structure and therefore films needn’t either. If you are not used to non-conventional narrative structures then you might find it hard to understand what is going on in a film and you might feel cheated at the end when there is no ‘closure’.
