• Narrative, Narration and Diegesis

• Narrative: The story

• Narration: How the story is told. By “narration,”

we are referring to all the stylistic elements
such as camera movements, angles, lighting,
costume, décor, acting, editing, color etc.

• Diegesis means recounted story in Greek. In

film studies, it is used to imply the story world.
It is the total world of the story action.
• How does a film create meaning?

• The meaning is created in the encounter

between film and the viewer. The formal
structure of the films affects our viewing
experience.

• The form creates expectations in us.

• Our involvement with a film largely depends on

our expectations. However, this does not
mean that our expectations will or must be
immediately satisfied.
• Expectations

• The film may delay satisfying our expectations.

• Suspense involves such a delay in fulfilling an
established expectation.
• What happens when our expectations are
cheated?
• We are surprised. Surprise is a result of an
expectation that is revealed to be incorrect.
• Comedy, for instance, often depends on
cheating expectations.
• Our expectations also urge us to make us
curious.
• Convention

• Convention is our prior experiences in regard

to films, to our film viewing experience.

• A tradition, a dominant style, a popular form,

some such elements are common to several
different films/artworks. Such common
elements are called conventions.

• Conventions are employed to create

expectations. Genres, in this respect, heavily
depend upon conventions.
• There are three major factors that may
create expectations in the viewer:

• Narration cues

• Conventions

• Prior experiences (derived from everyday life or

from other works of art / film or conventions)
• Narrative Motivation

• Motivation functions within the narrative to

explain causality (why things occur), enabling
the narrative to make sense within the logic of
the diegesis.

• Motivation functions on a number of levels

within a film to give the diegesis verisimilitude;
it is a cinematic convention designed to create
naturalism.
• Narrative Motivation
• In Classical Hollywood cinema, motivation
provides the film with the appearance of unity,
naturalism and cinematic realism. All of these
effects are the product of drawing on
established conventions.

• David Bordwell defines four types of

motivation which serve to give a film unity and
make the film’s causality seem natural:
• Compositional, Realistic, Intertextual or
Generic, and Artistic.
• Compositional motivation means the
arrangements of props and specific use of
lighting if necessary as well as the establishing
of a cause for impending actions so that the
story can proceed. Compositional motivation
refers to choices made within the shot
composition.
• For example, a close-up of a knife on a counter
triggers the audience’s expectation of its use.
• A dimly lit room in which only one object, the
telephone, is highlighted suggests that the
phone will ring and the protagonist will answer it
and take action as a result.
• Realistic motivation concerns setting. The
decor must be motivated realistically.
• So, in an historical reconstruction attention
goes into every detail (costumes, sets, objects,
etc.) to ensure that verisimilitude prevails.
• Realistic motivation also includes narrative
plausibility. Motivation for actions must appear
realistic.
• Realistic motivation draws on the
expectations of realism from the daily
experience of the audience—actors must sweat
on sunny days, a wealthy character’s dwelling
place must appear luxurious, a jealous lover
must become enraged when discovering
infidelity, etc.
• Generic motivation means that all genres
have codes and conventions which they
follow.
• Generic motivations refer to the codes
and conventions within the genre that
establishes expected behavior, even if that
behavior violates realistic expectations.
• Thus, although a musical is intrinsically not
compositionally or realistically motivated,
within its own specificity the singing and
dancing are entirely justified.
• Intertextual motivation, the complement to
generic motivation, refers to the justification of
the story as it relates to the conventions of
other similar texts.
• Bordwell (1985: 19) quotes the Hollywood film
narrative: ‘we often assume that a Hollywood
film will end happily simply because it is a
Hollywood film.’
• Or the star can be the source of intertextual
motivation: if she/he is a singer as well, the
audience will expect a song. If she/he leads in
real life the life she/he is portraying on screen,
that again is a form of intertextual motivation
(guaranteeing authenticity as well as realism).
• Finally artistic motivation appears when
the film calls attention to its own
aesthetics.

• With Hollywood this happens particularly

when the technical virtuosity of filmmaking
practices is highlighted, as in the studio
spectacular.
• Plot

• The term plot is used to describe everything

visibly and audibly present in the film before
us. The plot includes all the story events that
are directly depicted.

• Also, the plot may contain the material that is

extraneous/external to the story world

• These are called non-diegetic elements.

• Non-diegetic Elements

• Atmosphere music
• Credits
• Non-Diegetic Inserts

• Scenes that depict dreams or hallucinations,

are they diegetic or non-diegetic?

• What about internal voice of a character?

• Extra-diegetic

• What is totally outside the film’s diegetic world

is called extra-diegetic.

• Film’s posters, fragments, the trailers are such

elements. Everything we learn about a film
before we enter to the theater is extra-diegetic
information.
• The opening and closing scenes of a
film

• If a film brings us into a series of events that

has already started, this type of beginning is
called in Medias Res which means in the
middle of things.

• With this sort of opening, we can speculate on

the possible causes of the events presented.
• If a film may start at in the middle of the things,
it may also end in the middle of the things. It
may hide the end of the story. That is called
open-ended.

• In open-ended films, narration ends, but not

the narrative. It closes the narration not the
story.
• Prologue

• If the film starts with an introductory note or a

story, which is by itself can be regarded as a
short film, this is called prologue.

• Prologue should be regarded as introductory

words or explanatory notes.
• Epilogue

• Epilogue, on the other hand, is to be regarded

as concluding words.

• The story ends, everything is resolved, but

some elements are added to the end of the final
scene to make the viewer think about the
ending of the film.
• Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder: 1959)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8gh0SLV8Xg

• Carrie (Brian De Palma: 1976)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgR0PN0xTI0

• Jaws (Spielberg: 1976)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-
3q0DOXb74
Fabula (Story) Syuzhet (Plot)

Inferred Non-diegetic
Diegetic

Inferred Diegetic Non-Diegetic

• Fabula and Syuzhet

• From the storyteller’s standpoint, from the

director’s point of view, the story is the sum
total of all the events in the narrative.

• The filmmaker can present some of these

events directly (make them part of the plot) or
can hint at the events that are not presented or
can simply ignore presenting some other
events.
• The distinction between fabula and syuzhet is
made by the Russian Formalists.

• The imaginary construct, we, the viewers create

progressively and retroactively is termed as
fabula.

• The fabula is a pattern perceivers create

through assumptions and inferences.
• The fabula is never materially present on the
screen or soundtrack. The fabula can only be
imagined, guessed, cannot be given.

• The syuzhet, on the other hand, is the actual

arrangement and presentation of the fabula
in the film.

• The syuzhet is a system because it arranges

components according to specific principles.
• The fabula is defined as the chronological
series of events that are represented or
implied in a fiction, while the syuzhet is
considered to be the order, manner and
techniques of their presentation in the
narrative.

• The spectators create the fabula imaginarily

by relying upon the syuzhet.

• However, what the director has in mind is the

story, the fabula; from the fabula he/she
creates the syuzhet.
• From the viewer’s point of view, all we have is
the plot: the arrangement of the material in
the film as it stands.

• We create the film in our minds on the basis of

the cues presented within the plot.
 Fabula Syuzhet
• Constructed by • Constructed by
Reader/Viewer Writer/Filmmaker
• Chronological Order• Order of Recounting
• What we interpret • What we perceive
• As many different • Generally only one,
ones as there are
readers agreed upon by all
• Mental • Perceptible