I am highlighting the sequential nature of the movie
starts in reverse photo preveiw. two stories simultanios black and white difference
pre story reexplaining the start
Satellites and kernels (Seymour Chatman)
Character types and function (Vladimir Propp)
Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.
When looking at moving image products, it is therefore possible to look for patterns, codes, conventions that share a common features.
it is clear that narratives are a combination of many individual elements (sound, image, text etc) which are edited (connected) together. Narratives are organised around a particular theme and space and are based in an idea of time.
-themes of flashbacks slowly re-building the story
-purgatory like feel
-with each day more information is gathered
Tripartite narrative structure
Roland Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes
Although the words proairetic and hermenuetic may seem very complex, it is easy for students to grasp in that moving image products are either based around ‘doing’ / ‘action’ or ‘talking’ / ‘reflection’.
Enigma code: the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised – which encourage an audience to want more information.
-Flash backs
-Flash forwards
working with time, foreshadowing, chronological order
Narrative Theory
Narrative…story…plot
Todorov – Tripartite Narrative Structure
Propp – Character Types
Spheres of Action
Propp proposed that his list of stock characters are structured into a narrative that has 31 different functions that play an important role in organising character and story into a plot. Without going into detail for each, overal they can be dvided into the following sections:
Levi-Strauss – Binary Opposites
Satellites and Kernels
Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes
Key Words:
Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.
Thompson makes a distinction between a narrative which may be regarded, broadly speaking, as a communication which ‘tells a story’. The story generally consists of characters and a succession of events, combined in a way which displays a certain orientation or ‘plot’. As such, narrative is the overall structure involved in communication, which can be broken down into: ‘story’ and ‘plot’.
A really good way to think about NARRATIVE STRUCTURE is to recognise that most stories can be easily broken down into a BEGINNING / MIDDLE / END. The Bulgarian structuralist theorist Tztevan Todorov presents this idea as:
2. Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function) STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories
CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
Although the words proairetic and hermenuetic may seem very complex, it is easy for students to grasp in that moving image products are either based around ‘doing’ / ‘action’ or ‘talking’ / ‘reflection’. Look at this sequence from Buster Scruggs (Dir J Coen E Coen 2018), which is basically divided into ‘some talking’ (hermenuetic codes) which leads into ‘some doing’! (proairetic codes)
Key words: Elision- Ellipsis where you miss things out
time often moves backwards (flashbacks) or forwards (flash forwards) at moments which break the linear sequence.
Time can also run simultaneously, in that it is possible to play-out different narratives at the same time: simultaneous or parallel narratives.
Narrative strands are even able to be flagged up as something that needs to known (or will be fully developed) later, known as foreshadowing. This raises the concept that the audience are then given some information, feelings, ideas or logic that the on-screen actors do not have access to, which is called dramatic irony.
As such, some elements may emerge and play out but actually turn out to be of little value, meaning or consequence to the overall / main parts of the narrative – these can be called non-sequitars. Nevertheless, the use of light & shade is very important in terms of constructing an effective and enjoyable narrative.
Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory+. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.
( Freytag’s Pyramid exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement)
Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)
Spheres of Action:
Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)
(This theory suggests th at NARRATIVES (=myths) are STRUCTURED around BINARY OPPOSITIONS)
Seymour Chatman: Satellites & Kernels
Roland Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes
Structuralism has been very powerful in its influence on narrative theory. Its main virtue is that it is most interested in those things that narratives have in common, rather than in the distinctive characteristics of specific narratives.
STORY is often associated with themes and meaning and can be decoded from all of the different elements that are used, for example, the characters, setting, props and themes etc. Whereas the PLOT is the way in which the story (elements/themes/ideas/meaning) is organised and sequenced.
A really good way to think about NARRATIVE STRUCTURE is to recognise that most stories can be easily broken down into a BEGINNING / MIDDLE / END. The Bulgarian structuralist theorist Tztevan Todorov presents this idea as:
Vladimir Propp
CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:
Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)
This theory suggests that NARRATIVES (=myths) are STRUCTURED around BINARY OPPOSITIONS eg: good v evil; human v alien; young v old etc etc. As such, it encourages students to understand narrative as a structure of key (oppositional) themes that underpin action and dialogue to develop a set of messages that the audience are able to decode and understand.
memento
Plot
So far the film has used a small amount of characters which are involved in the story
As such, they employ elision or ellipsis in that some elements are missing. Similarly, time often moves backwards (flashbacks) or forwards (flash forwards) at moments which break the linear sequence.
Time can also run simultaneously, in that it is possible to play-out different narratives at the same time: simultaneous or parallel narratives.
This raises the concept that the audience are then given some information, feelings, ideas or logic that the on-screen actors do not have access to, which is called dramatic irony.
non-sequitur – they are really useful creative elements but not essential to the story.
Narrative Recap Notes –
Theorists –
Todorov – Narrative Structure = Equilibrium, Disruption, New Equilibrium (Includes resolution)
Levi-Strauss – Binary opposition – Themes e.g Love VS Hate, Good VS Bad
Vlasimir Propp – 8 Stock Character types, Hero, False Hero, Donor, Dispatcher, Helper, Villain, Farther, Princess.
Seymour Chatman – Satellites & Kernels
Roland Barthes –
Kernels are essential for the development of a plot where Satellites add extra detail and context.
Spheres of Action – One character is able to occupy a number of different rolls
PostModernism –
Postmodernism can be defined as the reimagining/ parody of something such as art. It uses the context of previous things in order to create an understanding for itself – ‘Anchorage’. This ‘New Version’ could be created or reimagined as a way to represent the modern world and dominant ideologies, rather than the past.
pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist
parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony
An example of a pastiche work would be ‘The Simpsons’
Fredric Jameson’s (1984) notion of the ‘metanarrative’ – For example Music Videos, which can distort and fragment reality and time in order to create a sense of escapism for viewers. Similarly, Ads and Commercials use this technique in order to attract viewers into buying this product as if it is ‘Life changing’. Overarching ideas, attitudes, values and beliefs that have held us together in a shared belief, For example, the belief in religion, science, capitalism, communism, revolution, war and peace.
Bricolage – In the arts, bricolage is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work constructed using mixed media.
Intertextuality – Relies on signs creating meaning for other signs, similar to Anchorage, it creates context which allows that piece to be interpreted/ encoded/ decoded.
Fragmentary Consumption/ Fragmented Identities – Can be created online via media such as phones which allow us to create a false/ alternate version of ourselves. This space that allows us to create this identities is continued after new products/ technologies are produced in order to allow us to continue this – Fragmented Consumption.
Habermas – Public Sphere
Spheres of Action – In a way the main character can relate to many of the ‘stock’ character types suggested by Propp.
Memento –
Hermenuetic Code – Black&White to colour – signifies the main characters memory loss. + The dull colours used.
Spheres Of Action theory can be applied as the audience feels sympathetic towards his condition. Yet the main character can also be seen as the villain as he killed someone.
Narrative = Plot = non-chronological
Binary Opposition = Past VS Present,
Kernels – The images the main character uses for his memory, Flashbacks
Roland Barthes – Enigma Code – The way in which intrigue and ideas are raised, ecouraging an audience to want more information and therefore continue with that piece of media. “I thought pleasure in reading was finding out what will happen next” referring to an enigma code.
Elision/ Ellipsis – dropping out some information that isn’t relevant
Flashbacks – are used to refer to previous events
Flashforwards- are related to future events
The flashbacks/forwards allow time to be rearranged and can create foreshadowing such as the main character killing someone in the beggining of the movie.
Dramatic Irony – When the audience is aware of something the character is not.
Parallel narrative – colour + black and white narrative
Light + Shade – seperate the heavy/ dark parts of media with the lighter parts such as humour.
Non-sequitar – mini stoylines that don’t end anywhere (e.g the escort scene in Memento) allows for more entertainment in media.
Most characters can be linked into the spheres of action theory.
Kernals – non-chronological, Teddy explaining, The fight,
Satellites – Escort scene,
Enigma – Natalies characer, changes from good to bad
Objective (physical) – The black and white scenes
Subjective(non-physical) – coloured scenes with internal monologue/ thoughts – first person
Binary opposition between Subjectivity and objectivity
What is the significance of the story of Sammy Jenkiss to Leonard? Foreshadows leonards condition and how his memories aren’t reliable.
What does this tell us about the relationship between facts, memories and fiction? Memories are subjects, facts are objective, lennys memory of his wife proves that not all memoris are reliable or truly accurate.
By the end of the film, do we feel like Leonard got the right man by shooting Teddy? – No, as he did with the previous two deaths he is likely to foget and only being looking for the killer again.
Narrative is the overall structure involved in communication, which can be broken down into: ‘story’ and ‘plot’.
Enigma codes: create puzzles and questions within the narrative which is what memento does throughout. these codes are used to create an active audience.
elision or elipsis: this means, in terms of time, to cut things out. for example if someone is burning a book the audience does not want to see the whole thing being burnt, it would take too long.
Use Foreshadowing, flash forwards and flash backs in essays.
Dramatic irony: when we know something the character does not.
Parallel or simultaneous narratives: two narratives running at the same time eg, in memento the black and white parts and the parts in colour.
Mix of light and shade: heavy stuff eg gore and murder vs jokes or moments of love
non-sequitars: a storyline that went nowhere, eg the women in the toilet in hotel room. These create mystery/enigma that lead nowhere. These are useful as they add more interesting and entertaining parts to the plot.
Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function):
Each has a function that contributes to the narrative.
Tztevan Todorov (Tripartite narrative structure):
movie notes:
black and white
flash forward in the beginning and the sound of gunshot
memory condition-writes notes
flashbacks of his wife tell story
We are looking at Memento as a way of going back over the very complex theoretical ideas that we covered during lockdown. As such, for this film you will need to refer to NARRATIVE (essentially how narratives are structured) and POSTMODERNISM (a way of thinking about some of themes that are in this film). You may also want to refer to The Language of Moving Image, which will enable to think about how movies are put together which should help you when you revisit your music video production.
THINKING ABOUT NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER
NARRATIVE, CHARACTER, IDENTITY, CONSISTENCY, STABILITY
NARRATIVE, CHARACTER, TRUTH
How could ‘Memento’ be classed as a postmodern text?
Look for evidence of these postmodern phenomena:
Rhizomatic thought = ‘rhizomes’ are plant life that don’t follow the root-tree system e.g. fungus or mould. There is no ‘core’, no lesser or greater elements. If you destroy the centre of a mould the rest doesn’t die (like if you destroyed the trunk of a tree), it continues to thrive. Modern terrorist movements have a ‘rhizomatic’ structure: there is no single leader, issuing orders down the chain of command with an overall goal that every unit is working towards. Terrorists work in cells, with their own individual goals and objectives, and though instructions may be sent to them, these are very rarely orders, and they may or may not be followed e.g. when the IRA abandoned armed activity as part of the Northern Irish peace process, some cells decided their leaders had betrayed their ideals, and continued bombing under the name ‘The Real IRA’. Similarly, there is no evidence the 7/7 bombers received any orders or had any contact with the so-called ‘generals’ in the Al-Qaeda; instead they planned, resourced and implemented their attack independently.
Gilles Deleuze, philosopher and film critic, worked with a radical psychoanalyst called Felix Guattari to write some of the most impenetrable but insightful books attacking what we think of as ‘common sense’. He championed a vision of human identity that saw the self as multiple, with each ‘self’ possessing an immanence. Therefore there is no higher, ‘core’ you, with other selves that have less meaning – instead each self, each aspect of your identity has an existence that is intense and, though connected to other more stable selves, it doesn’t fit into a hierarchy where there are selves which are ‘more’ or ‘less’ you. He also wrote about lots of other ideas that you have to study philosophy to post-graduate level to be able to understand!
Along with other postmodern philosophers, Deleuze disputes the idea of a hierarchy to knowledge or experience or identity; and the notion of there being a core ‘truth’ that we can find by adding together knowledge. Instead, like Baudrillard and Lyotard, he encourages a view of the world as full of diversity, multiple truths, none less or more meaningful than the next; what he termed A Thousand Plateaus. Deleuze a great deal more cheerful than the other two, however. Instead of bemoaning the ‘end of history’, Deleuze sees the abundance of ‘immanence’ as creative and playful, with each ‘immanence’ affecting and influencing others, and consequently spawning new experiences, selves and realities (much in the way a mould or fungus spreads out into new and random forms).
Immanence = means literally ‘to remain within’, but seen by postmodernists as concept whereby things can exist without referring to anything outside of themselves for meaning. It is an intensity by itself, without needing to refer to a hierarchy for meaning. (Don’t confuse with imminence, which means the quality of something about to occur!)
Key words: