Definitions
Time – in moving image products time is linear (has a set time unlike print).
Sequential – the narrative has a set order and is chronologically.
Theme – almost all videos have a theme in them so they fit into a genre.
Narrative – the overall structure.
Story – things, ideas etc.
Plot – how the story is organised.
Key Theorists
Todorov – Tripartite Narrative Structure – beginning/middle/end. It has an equilibrium (beginning) then disruption (middle) then a new equilibrium (end).
Freytag – Freytag’s Pyramid – exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement.
Propp – Stock characters – that perform stock functions – hero, helper, princess, villain, victim, dispatcher, father, false and hero.
Claude Levi -Strauss – Binary Oppositions – e.g. good vs bad, rich vs poor, educated vs stupid, old vs young.
Seymour Chatman – Satellites and Kernels – kernels are moments elements that are essential to the narrative development. Satellites are moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed. Think about the way satellites orbit something bigger like a planet. Satellites can therefore be thought as useful to develop character, emotion, location, time and so on, but NOT ESSENTIAL. In this way they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story.