Classical Hollywood Narration
Classical Hollywood narration became the norm around the time of the First World War and is still operative today. In fact, for most of us, it is probably the only style of cinema which we know and therefore we tend to take it completely for granted that it is the only way of telling a story in a cinematic mode. In truth it is not the only way, as you will realise if you see an art film or an avant-garde film. Classical Hollywood narration functions in distinctly different ways to these narrative modes. The key features of classical Hollywood narration are:
· Its focus upon an individual or small group of individuals who early in the story encounter specific goals which are clearly either attained or not attained by the end of the film.
· Its goals tend to exist in two areas - the private (often in the form of romantic desires) and the public (a mission, a discovery, a conflict with the enemy).
· Its reliance on causality for narrative coherence and unity. The plot construction tends to be linear, with one event clearly leading to the next and all the plot events resolutely leading to the goals established at the beginning of the film.
· Its subordination of space, time and sound to the logic of the narrative.
We rarely see or hear anything in the film that cannot be accounted for by a character's actions. Thus we never see a space which is not either occupied by a character or being looked at by a character. Similarly, objects are only shown if they are relevant to the plot. Bordwell and Thompson compare the narrative strategies of The Maltese Falcon (an example of classical Hollywood narration) and There Was a Father (a Japanese film) to show how differently objects are treated in the two types of films. 'John Huston wouldn't think of cutting away from Sam Spade and Brigid O'Shaughnessy to a shot of a coat rack in a corner of the office unless the hats on it had some significance (e.g. in the unravelling of the mystery). Yet in There Was a Father, Ozu does cut to a coat rack to begin a sequence in a go-parlour, without ever drawing the hats or the space of the rack into the narrative action.' (1976, p. 46)
· Its processes of concealment. Classical Hollywood film hides its own status as a film production - we never see the cameras, actors do not look at the camera nor do they acknowledge the audience's presence, the shots are stitched together in such a way that we hardly notice the transitions.
Narrative Voice
The narration of events and characters in both novels and films involves the selection and combination of units of meaning. The choices that are made reveal a narrative point of view specific to the particular text. The act of telling a story, whether it is in written or visual form, implies a narrator. The narrator is not a person but a role constructed by the text and is referred to as the narrative voice. The narrative voice is the sense of who is telling the story and is connected with point of view.
As a textual process the narrator can function through various sorts of relationships to the story he or she is telling. There is a relationship structured in time: the narrator might tell the story before, during or after the events being depicted. The narrator mayor may not be a character in the story. If the narrator is not a character, then the narration may be from an external point of view which has access to the thoughts of, and events surrounding, all the characters. Alternatively, the narration may use a single character's perspective on events or introduce a limited number of characters' perspectives.
Films and books both have a narrative voice but each is constructed differently in each medium. In the novel the story is carried forward by what the characters say and do and there is also a narrator's voice. This narrator's voice is generally in the third person (the external observer), but sometimes and in some genres is in the first person (a character in the story). As discussed, earlier detective novels conventionally use first person narration: '1 knew I had to find out for myself by going back to the scene of the crime, the windswept moors.'
The narrative voice establishes the time and place in a book: 'It was a dark and stormy night on the windswept moors.'
In a novel we also depend on the narrative voice to reveal what we are to make of the characters: 'And over the windswept moors came the stumbling figure, evil dripping from every pore.'
The narration in a novel can offer the reader a character's thoughts and motivations, his or her history, his or her point of view on the events and his or her feelings and reactions to the events. Narration in a novel can offer all of this information about all of the characters.
Film narrative is propelled by characters' actions and dialogue. The narrative voice, the sense of the story W1folding, is the product of the camera positioning and the editing. At any moment in a film the camera position will determine the audience's point of view. This point of view may be that of a character or that of an outside observer. The camera, together with the editing, can give the point of view of multiple characters.
Character’s feelings, attitudes and emotions have to be signified (or signalled) by what they do and say, what the camera does and how it is used to convey meaning, how lighting is used to convey mood, emotion and meaning, how colour is used to convey meaning, how music is used to suggest meaning and action, and how sound effects are used to create shades of meaning and interpretation. All of these factors are used by the audience, alongside their understanding of genre and of film conventions generally.