Monday, 28 January 2013

Story Type

In terms of McKee's genre/sub-genre categories, my film would fit into the 'Maturation Plot' which is the narrative type for the typical coming-of-age story. The story type for my film will be the 'Rite of Passage' as the theme of the narrative will be the transformation of a child into an adult life, again typically that of a coming of age narrative movie. 

Levi Strauss' invented the concept of binary oppositions in a narrative. Using a youthful character in my narrative, coupled with another character, either a brother or close friend, then I can make these oppositions prominent through the characters. Here are some of the opposing concepts that i wish to include within my narrative:

- Known - Unknown The idea of uncovering the unknown and first time experiences are typical embedded narrative points of coming-of-age films. 

- Reality - Surreal The contrast of reality and surrealism comes from the drug use in the film as well as the protagonist's condition. 

- Past - Present Constantly reinforcing the idea of maturity in the narrative will allow flash backs   or forwards and cataphoric and anaphoric references in the narrative.

- Legality- Illegitimate/Illegal Throughout the film elements of illegal activity and legal activity will occur. This is another convention of the coming-of-age genre, where the protagonist must decided on a moral and ethical scale what is correct. 

Structure - Todorov:
Todorov gives the  theory of the conventional linear narrative structure of a movie. I will give these stages of the theory in context of my film:

Stage 1 - State of equilibrium is defined.
We see the family's lifestyle: Charlie is at home reading/listening to music then writing, Dion as an art college student, Rob and Jude (father and mother) go to work on a daily basis. There is also evidence of the friendship with the other students that live in the area and are friends with Dion which Charlie is also friends with. 

Stage 2 - A disruption occurs to the equilibrium in the form of an action or crisis. 


Stage 3 - The progagoinst and other major characters have recognized a disruption has occurred and set goals to resolve the problem and restore an equilibrium.


Stage 4 - The characters attempt to repair the disruption which resulted in the disruption of the narrative to occur.

Stage 5 - A new equilibrium has been installed to the narrative and the conclusion is announced. 


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