Narrative in films - including the narrative from my own opening

Narrative in films

There are two types of narrative within film, these are linear and fractured. A linear narrative is a story which is told from the beginning to the end where the problem is then solved. A fractured narrative is where the story jumps back and forth in time, for example a story about a 40 year old man could flashback to his childhood. There are many different ways to use narrative, you can use flashbacks, voiceover and multiple perspectives (more than one main character), all of these are different ways which the story could be told.

An example of a linear film is 'Toy story 3', in this film Andy departs for college and leaves his toys behind, his toys then ended up being put in day care which was hell for the toys, from here they then had to plan an escape along with their new friends which they have made in the day care. Once they finally escape after facing many problems along the way they finally get home, after this they then find themselves being given to one of Andys friends, this friend is a little girl who plays with all of her toys. This is where the equilibrium is restored for the toys as they are now finally happy and back to being played with.

 

An example of a fractured film is the film 'Blind spot', this film is about a 17 year old student (Danny) which falls in love with an older man, this older man (Darcy) then disappears and while is trying to find Darcy he ends up finding new love, and these three then develop a new bond. Throughout this there are constant flashbacks of Dannys past which is what makes it a fractured narrative.

 

 

My own film

 

My proposed film idea is to tell the story of a door to door salesmen who wants to change his life, i plan on this being a linear narrative. In the beginning he will find a problem, this problem is that he is going no where, no one wants to buy his products, hes single and lives at home by himself. To solve this problem he decides to ask his friends to move to Las Vegas and from there they then improve their lives, making money from gambling and also partying non-stop, finally they then realise this is not what they want either, in fact what they want is a proper job, and a whole family, they find this and the equilibrium is restored.The way i would tell the story is with a voiceover, this will not be from any of the characters, there will be a designated person to do the voiceover. I would also intend to start the film from the beginning of the story with no flashbacks.