1B Narrative Essay

Discuss how you use Narrative in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience.

For my AS course work I created a film opening by the name of Cohen which was a sports drama about an old English football player reflecting on his footballing career. The film was  non-linear as it used flash backs to present parts of the narrative.

While creating the coursework I considered many different theories one of which being the Binary Opposites theory by Levi Strauss. An example of the binary opposites we used is old and young and future and past. The opening went from the character as an old man walking across a field to a flashback to the past to his younger self. The binary opposites create meanings of nostalgia as a man was reflecting on the good parts of his life. This binary opposite also created meaning which represented themes of ageing and passing as the juxtaposition of scenes shows the sheer changes the man has had through his life. A real life example of a film which uses these binary opposites in a form of a flashback is the war film 'Saving Private Ryan', the film is a different genre to mine but the binary opposite still creates similar meanings.

Another theory i considered in the creation of my film opening was Propps typical characters theory. My main character was the 'hero' in the sense of the theory and his team mates were his 'side kicks'. Our film subverts some aspects of this theory as there were no plans to have a damsel in distress and a character whose role would be classed as a dispatcher was not included. By having a hero the meaning that the film is about this person is created. The film being called Cohen, the characters name, compliments this as it shows the film is directed around him and his life.

Barthes codes theory was another that I looked at in the planning stages of creating my film opening. Before the protagonist goes into his flash back he see's a flat football with the England logo on it which provokes his flash back. The football is a symbol according to Barthes theory. The symbol creates the meaning that his life is near its end like the life of the flattened football is. The logo on the ball enhances this because it directly correlates with the protagonists life because he was an England football player.

Barthes also had a theory about creating enigma. Because we were creating a film opening we wanted to create enigma so that the audience would be intrigued to watch the rest of the film. We created Enigma by not explaining what football match the team in the flashback were warming up for and what has happened to the character in between the man being young and the being old because of the flash back. This was a big theory to consider because creating enigma supported the audiences viewing of the narrative.

Narrative theories played a big part in creating my film opening. We thought the most influential theory we applied to our film opening was Levi Straus' binary opposites theory, this was because age played a big part in the narrative.