Week 4

Study Questions for Film Art, Chapter 3, Narrative as a Formal System”, Bordwell.

These questions are are intended to help guide you through discussion this chapter on narrative structure. We will use them to discuss narrative structure, and I would like you to hand these in to me next class so I can assess your understanding of the reading.

1. What are our narrative expectations according the Bordwell (74)?

2. What is Bordwell’s definition of narrative? (75)

3. In the example that he gives on page 75, how do cause, time and space interact to form the narrative?

4. Useful distinctions can be made between plot and story. What is story? What is plot? (76)
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. What are differences between story and plot from the filmmaker's perspective and from the viewer's perspective?
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. On page 78, Bordwell discusses the role of characters in a cause-effect narrative. What is the role of characters? What makes up a character?

7. Time can be broken down in three characteristics: order, duration and frequency.

a.Order: What are some examples of the ordering of time in different films you have seen or which Bordwell writes about?

b.Duration: Bordwell breaks down duration into story duration, plot duration and screen duration. How do those three interact?

c.Frequency: Temporal frequency refers to how many times a story event is presented in the plot. What ways can temporal frequency be used in a plot to provide more information?

d.Altogether, why is a careful manipulation of these important to the viewer experience of the narrative?

8. Space can also be broken down in story space, plot space and screen space. What are the differences?

9. What normally happens during the set-up, exposition, or the opening of the film? Does this hold true for all films?

10. Narration is the way the plot distributes story information (88).
In order to determine whether the range of information is restricted, unrestricted or omniscient, what question can we ask ourselves while watching a film or creating our plot? What is restricted? What is unrestricted? What is omniscient?

11. Depth: The depth of our story information can be described by how deeply or intimately “the plot plunges into a character’s psychological state.” (90) Bordwell describes this through objectivity and subjectivity. How does film form portray objectivity? There are two kind of subjectivity--what are they and how can they be conveyed in film form?




12. What or who is the narrator and what is his or her role?