NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
There are various types of structures that serve the spine of the cinematic story.
Traditional structures follow tested structural paradigms which may be developed formulaically. The following are frequently employed traditional structures:
§ Classic Hollywood – identified and attributed to Syd Field, it involves a rigid structure with three distinct acts:
1) Act One (pp. 1-30) – sets up story, hooking viewer quickly with an inciting incident, and spinning the plot in a new direction by the end of the act
2) Act Two (pp. 31-90) – complications, conflicts, crises, obstacles and confrontations
3) Act Three (pp. 91-120) – resolution
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§ Hero’s journey – Based on Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, it’s also based more loosely on three acts:
1) Act One – hero leaves ordinary world when called to adventure, hero refuses the call until mentor helps him over the first threshold
2) Act Two – hero encounters tests, allies, and enemies, approaches the inmost cave, endures the supreme ordeal, and takes possession of reward
3) Act Three – hero returns to the ordinary world, experiences a resurrection and brings back and elixir
§ Circular tale – story begins and ends in the same place, physically or metaphorically
§ Tale within a tale – framing narrative within which the main story exists
Emergent structures are influenced by the advent of the Internet, fracturing, truncating, segmenting, and interweaving narrative. These structures may be non-linear, experimental structures based on character, narrative, or non-narrative needs. The following are some of the newly emergent structures:
§ Point of view structure – structure is shaped around character traits (memory, for instance) or theme
§ Multiple points of view structure – story is told from interweaving points of view which may present parallel or disparate world views
§ Convergent narrative – various, seemingly unrelated storylines converge at the resolution of the narrative
§ Time based structure – similar stories spin forward, repeating stories from different points of view or in altered versions, or stories exist simultaneously on split screen
§ Collage narrative – story weaves eclectic visual styles into the whole fabric of the film