Narrative

The dictionary definition of 'Narrative' is

1. A narrated account; story.
2. The art, technique or process of narrating.

According to theorists there are many aspects to a story, including Todorov's '5 stages of Narrative', Propp's '8 Character Roles' and Aristotle's '4 Step Theory' but we'll get to that later on. The whole point in a story is to entertain the audience. However, stories are told to create reality for the audience, they stick in the audience's mind. The best narratives are ones that provoke a response from the audience, ones that provoke emotion. If the film maker can understand what it's like for the audience, he/she is able to manipulate the audience into feeling attached to the characters to story. Audiences used to watch a film and they would see what they were meant to see. New forms of media and technology are stopping this and making audience's more passive.

Audiences are becoming more passive, which means authors lose control over his/her work. The audience are able to make their own choices with what they see and how they see it. 'Out My Window' is a good example of an interactive documentary that breaks the conventions of modern day media. The audience are able to chose what content they see, who's life they explore and how they watch it. They can pick any order, or even just one story. The choice is completely there. Although the audience will still see only what the film maker gives them, they have a bit more leniency with the film.

Modes Of Documentary

In recent study, it has been shown that there are 6 different modes of documentary. Bill Nichols; film critic and founder of 'Contemporary Study of Documentary Film' defined these 6 modes and explained how their conventions define them.

• Poetic - It is often abstract, it moves away from the sense of reality. 
• Expository - They speak directly to the audience, they are informative, factual and often use footage and voice overs. 
• Participatory - The film maker becomes a part of the documentary, meaning is created by the relationship between the film maker and audience. 
• Observational - The film maker is simply a witness to the events, it is their attempt to capture reality. 
• Reflexive - It acknowledges the constructed nature of documentary and flaunts it. Using typical conventions. They make it clear that it is a film.
• Performative - Emphasises the subject nature of the film maker and constructs truths that are significant to them. 

Most of these documentary modes will use the generic conventions that audiences connect with documentary. These include things such as; Voice-overs, montages, archive footage, Interviews, editing etc. However, the different modes help categorize the documentaries for how they portray these conventions. It's somewhat like a hybrid genre.

Documentary audiences can easily be manipulated by the film makers, they have the ability to keep certain information from the viewers and potentially spoon feed them their opinion. Everything put into a documentary is there for a reason, because the film maker wanted you to see it. Some could say that documentary is biased, but the film maker always tries to hide that aspect. Audiences have to understand that the information will be truthful to an extent, but the film maker has the ability to manipulate people, whether it be intentional or not. 

Genre

Everyone has a favourite genre, whether it is Comedy, Action or Sci-Fi Thriller. All are portrayed in different ways and uses different conventions to suit people's interests and personalities. Different genres use conventions to draw in their audiences, the audience then becomes familiar with these conventions and allows them to define the different genres.

Producers use different codes and conventions, including:

• Visual Codes
• Auditory Codes
• Textual Codes
• Narrative Codes

So when they see or hear these conventions, they know what genre they will be watching. For example; when audiences watch a western they expect; Cowboys and Indians, Dust balls, deserts, steam trains and murder, just to name a few. But why do people watch different genres? I think it is to be able to escape that reality and be able to chose your own mood.

Me personally, I have two favourite film genres. The first one is comedy. This is because everyone can relate to a funny film. I see it as something that brings people together to have a good laugh. I love watching comedy films with friends and family because the reactions can be so different. Everyone can find a different angle from a joke. Mainly because the jokes can be so versatile that most people are able to find them funny. Sometimes it’s nice to watch a comedy because it takes the seriousness away from everything. Which is the main point in a film, to take its audience out of reality and entertain them.

The second genre I love is Romance, or Romantic Comedy, which ties in with the first. I find that the sheer unrealistic nature of these films is enough to draw anyone in. I love watching people fall in love, even if it isn’t real. It just brings happy thoughts; in maybe someday it could be you. Or even the fact that sometimes the things you want do become a reality. (Unlike the film itself) It brings almost a false sense of hope, but I think it serves its purpose; to entertain and give the audience what they want to see.

Audiences

As part of the 105MC module, we started to explore the idea of audiences and the relationship between the producer and the consumer. Communication between the two is key when understanding what the consumer wants from a product.

There are three different models used when trying to understand the media.

• The Hypodermic 'needle' Model
• The Uses and Gratification Model
• The Encoding-Decoding Model

When we look at any form of media, we are able to break it down and place it into one of the three categories. One film I analyzed was Taken 2; I was able to look at the models and start to unpick some of the conventions of the action/thriller film.

Taken 2 was shown on Film 4 at 9pm on the 5th of October. To start this means the audience is going to be of an older age. We can look further into the demographics when we explore the advertisements shown during the broadcast. Some of the adverts that were shown include; Budwiser, Vodaphone, Halo 5 and a popular gambling company. When I look at these companies, I instantly think they are aiming for a male populated audience. Therefore, I would say that this film was targeted at male audiences aged 18-40. However, when researched, it is shown that 46% of the audience profile for Taken 2 was female.(Maybe they should re-think some of their advertisements) This just shows that film genres still have the stereotypical views enforced; when producers think action, they think male audience.

There are other aspects that could draw people to a film like this. Including the fact that it is part of a franchise. Most people aren't going to watch this film if they haven't seen the first one. They wouldn't have a full understanding on what was happening. But they could be drawn in by either the genre of the film, or even popular actor; Liam Neeson. There are so many reasons as to why someone would choose to watch this film.

Relating to the three theories I mentioned before, I would say that this film does not fit into the category of the 'Hypodermic' theory. This is because this theory states that the audience would have been forced to take in this form of media. Whereas, the audience are able to chose whether they want to view the film, where they want to watch it and How. They have control on what media they consume and why. Therefore I would have to say that this fits into the final two models. This is because the audience have become passive, they are able to make their own decisions. They are able to form their own opinions on the film depending on the conventions of the film.

The Man With The Movie Camera

Well to start off, I had already seen this film before in a previous Film Studies lesson but was not interested enough to watch it. However, that just doesn't give the film the credit it deserves. So as I sat down to actually watch the film for what seemed like the first time, I was expecting some kind of plot to arise, but what I got seemed like an array of different shots and scenes. I instantly noticed that it was an experimental film and I finally began to see what all the fuss was about. After all, critics have been saying that this is one of the top 10 films ever made.

Although at first the film seems quite simple and some people even said boring, it was easy to get caught up in the film because so much was going on. I really liked this film due to the experimental nature of it. The director; Dziga Vertov has tried to use various different cinematic processes to tell a story. He has shown how far film can be taken and set a standard for any film made after.

First Real Day At University

My first 'real' day at Uni began pretty much how every student pictures it, bloody terrifying. Although I had a whole week of induction sessions trying to get me settled in, I still felt this over whelming sense of fear that something was going to go wrong. I thought; Is this course for me? Will people like me? But what if i'm rubbish compared to everyone else? This is exactly how I felt throughout sixth form and I really didn't want to relive the bad experiences from that. So of course, like everyone else, I woke up, got to class on time, and then realised I was in the wrong class.. damn. The only thing I had to do was show up and somehow, it was difficault for me to do that correctly. But a very nice leacturer showed me the timetable and set things straight and it was even better to learn that technically my day didn't start till the afternoon. Bonus eh?

The point i'm trying to make here, is that although my day started off pretty average, it slowly, yet surely started to get a lot better as it progressed. I spent the majority of my morning getting to know my surroundings, until now I didn't know Coventry was so beautiful. But then came my first ever lesson and finding the room had to be the hardest part. It took me a good 10 minutes to find the basement, let alone the room I was supposed to be in. Once again, I felt like I was the only one who had this problem. Although I was a little late, I didn't get that nervous feeling of walking into a classroom like I had in sixth form. Everyone was pretty much in the same position as me. Yes people kind of looked at me as I walked in, but that's because I was kind of late, not because they chose me as the weak one in the group. Which again, was pretty much the atmosphere in sixth form.

Anyway, the first workshop was just like an introduction to the course, which calmed me down a bit because not all the information was thrown at us.We all got to know eachother a bit more, when the first daunting task was introduced.. Stand up and tell us a bit about you. Why would anyone want to know more about me? It's just me, i'm not that intresting? But despite my instncts telling me otherwise, I stood up, spoke, and it wasn't too bad after all. We all looked nervous, which calmed down the butterflies in my stomach. I have to say, I quite enjoyed the first workshop, because I felt everyone was working together and for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel left out. The most interesting part though, was 'The Man With A Movie Camera', but i'll get to that in my next post. So by the end of the session, I didn't feel that bad, but then again, I hadn't been to the lecture yet. The idea of someone talking at me for a whole hour didn't seem like something I could get used too. The idea just seemed boring and out of fashion.

Once again, I was completely wrong and I think the lecturer had a great time proving my theory wrong. He actually had me laughing and really engaged in what he was saying. I then wasn't thinking about all the negative questions, I just thought about what the course could give me and how I could use that to my advantage. This is what this module has shown me. I am so lucky to be able to work with such a versatile group of people.