MTD1Notes WEEK 4

MTD1 week 4

Summary of class 3:

• Communication theory – sender, message, receiver

(Dove, Axe, Unilever)

• Typography – styles and how they communicate
• Metaphor, Myth

-Imminent Domain

-Wrestling

-Dirt

-Nature and SUVs

-exercise in finding/analyzing an image

Metaphor: Darmok Synopsis[1]

Excerpts:[2][3]

Narrative

reading for this week: Berger 4-6

communicating in metaphor (that happens to take the form of narrative) Darmok Ch. 6 – fade “Shaka, when the walls fell” (segue between metaphor and narrative – stories as experience) Jean Luc has epiphany about how the alien communicates – by metaphor Synopsis: [4]

Types of narrative • Classical Linear Narrative • Modernist Narrative • Fragments and Stories (360 degrees)) • Interactive Narrative

Aristotle - Poetics Storytelling is imitation/representation (mimesis) Requires:

• Medium (means of imitation)
  • language (theater, poetry, novel)
  • visual art (painting/drawing/sculpture)
  • film, animation

• Object of imitation (character, situation)

• Mode - how imitated - through narration
  • diegetic - telling
    • in his own person (dear reader)
    • in the third person - speaking as a character
  • mimetic- showing
    • “present all characters as living and moving before us”

• Storytelling is not literally mimesis - representing everything exactly as it happens would be boring. It is interpretation of life filtered through imagination.

• Each medium has its own vocabulary

• Theatrical presentation involves sets and established scenic space

• In film, presentation involves construction of the sensation of a coherent space and time through camera shots and angles, and editing

• Shots are also part of STYLE, which give us a perspective on the story

• MODE - strategy for telling
  • Diegetic – telling – in own person (Annie Hall – waiting in line scene w/ Marshall McLuhan)[5]
  • In first person – as character – Shawshank Redemption – final scene – narration by Red over trip to Mexico[6]
  • Mimetic – showing – conversation between Red and Andy in prison[7]

Narrative (story) Sequence of events told from a point of view

• Narrator (person whose point of view is used) (hero, protagonist)
• Story (sequence of events that happened)
• Plot (sequence in which the events are given)
• Characters w/goals, relationships, etc.
• Conflicts

Plot: requires transformation

• Initial situation
• Change involving reversal
• Resolution
  • Mere sequence of events not sufficient
  • Must have ending that relates back to beginning
  • Begin with an event; in the middle of something
  • Tell story in terms of action (rather than description)

Character driven

• low concept, horizontal

Plot driven

• high concept, vertical

Characters:

• Hero/protagonist
  • needs a goal, a motivation, even an obsession
• Villain/antagonist
  • also needs motivation (greed or power are good, revenge, too)

Modernist Narrative

• Self-reflexive
• Non-linear

Fragments and Stories

• 360 degrees[http:www.360degrees.org]

Interactive Narrative

• Linear Structure w/ scene branching
• Hierarchical Branching
• Parallel Structure
• String of Pearls Structure
• Variable State Environment

Genre - set of conventions (Propp) What kind of story is told, how, and by whom

• Detective
• Western
• Melodrama
• Action/Adventure
• Fantasy
• Romantic Comedy
• Drama

Detective/Mystery (Sin City) Film Noir - high contrast lighting

• Nighttime scenes; gritty, urban
• Stereotypical characters
  • strong/smart man
  • sexy woman
  • uninflected antagonist
• “Who done it” plot
  • lots of violence
  • puzzles to solve
  • good guy usually wins, or at least the bad guy loses

Cinema Verite:

• Lightweight (at the time) equipment (super 8, 16mm)
• Film (pre-video)
• No narrator
• Low light
• Hand held
• Life as it unfolds (documentary)
• Relationship w/ camera (no 4th wall)

Time: Story time and screen time

• Screen time (feature): 90-120 min. typically
• Story time: varies
  • Rope: unfolds in real time
  • Story time = screen time (running time)
    • Also High Noon
    • Memento:  ???? Years? Months?
    • Citizen Kane: Weeks? But including flash backs, a lifetime (telescoped time)
    • Rashomon: (gate {trial [forest events] } )

Comedy

• imitation of characters of a lower type
• what makes something funny?
  • Aristotle – we feel superior:Homer Simpson [8]
  • Freud – masked aggression: Bill Maher [9]
  • Schopenhauer – incongruity: sta puft marshmallow man [10]

Tragedy

• representation of men as better than they are
• leads to purgation of emotions (catharsis)
• Brecht on catharsis (makes one complacent)

“Spectacular Equipment”

• special effects
• Music
• Lighting
• Computer animation
• Other techniques
• camera angle, POV
• editing
• etc.

not Aristotle's version

• Neistat bros. movies
  • Bullet detonation w/ hammer[11]
  • hackknife[12]
  • $100 budget[13]

catharsis:

• Violence and videogames[14][15]

• Brecht's idea of catharsis[16]

Realism:

• Final Fantasy[17]
• Wall-E trailer [18]

link to power point on narrative [19]