[Nar-uh-tiv] Structure

[Warning: Big bundle of text with very few pictures. Not for the faint of heart or easily bored.]

Keith Reynolds Can’t Make It Tonight by Felix Massie

The Terrible Thing of Alpha-9 by Jake Armstrong

Bendito Machine by Jossie Malis 

Procrastination by Johnny Kelly (Coincidently something I suffer a lot of… especially the tea bit)

Meltdown by Sam Morrill

Birdboy by Alberto Vazquez & Pedro Rivero

DNAUXB by Tony Comley

The Cat Piano by Eddie White & Ari Gibson

Puppet by Patrick Smith

Blik by Bastiaan Schravendeel

One rat Short by Alex Weil

nar-ra-tive

[nar-uh-tiv]  noun

1. a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

2. a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story.

3. the art, technique, or process of narrating.

 

All of these animations above are different in their own way. Their animated style, length, complexity, tools, fluidity etc. But there is one thing that all these animations have in common and which a large majority of non-abstract, and even some abstract, animations have. Narrative.

Narrative is basically the foundation of any story to any animation, film, book, theatrical play etc. its the setup to a story that gives it structure and meaning. Narrative is commonly broken down into three components that bring a story together:

Setup – The stage of the story were the audience is introduced to the main characters, primarily the protagonists & friends and sometimes the Antagonist and their friends, any history that leads to the main body of the story and other materials that would be necessary to establish the beginning (This could include a small story itself, such as a prologue, to build up the beginning). The setup is important as it establishes the characters giving what will eventually stick with the audience throughout the story, life. This is also were a problem would be introduced, something that would push the story forward (An example of this is when a large explosion goes off in the animation Birdboy, killing nearly everything or when the puppet strikes the guy in the face for the first time in Puppet). This then leads into conflict, or act two in other words.

Conflict – The primary part of the story. An event or events that are usually triggered by the catalyst (The initial incident that occurred in the setup). This is the parts of the story were we see the protagonist journey, the discovery of the key to the resolution, the antagonist plotting and throwing obstacles in front of the protagonist, the further development of the characters (the character arc, in which the protagonists goes through life changing understanding by the events that surrounds him/her or have been through). This conflict allows the story to build up into an event that can be resolved. This leads us to the resolution.

Resolution – the point in which the event becomes overwhelming. This could mean the protagonist has arrived at the allocated destination of his journey, the key to the answer has been set in place, the plots of the antagonist are nearing an end or the final battle has commenced.  This gives the story closure and allows the audience to see all the pieces of the story come together, to give meaning to the events that have taken place and ultimately establishes the climax (the point in the story when a decision or action is made usually made by the protagonist that becomes the turning point of the narrative and also defining to the protagonist  who they are as a person) of the journey for the protagonist and/or antagonist. The most common use of this resolution os to allow the audience to see the protagonist finally overcome the antagonist i.e. the hero beating the villain. The basic good finally conquering evil. It would be hard to imagine a story without resolution. It would be a story where the hero is forever journeying and the threat of the antagonist forever developing, both cases in which it is no longer interesting or of importance because neither will finally accomplish what they set out to do.

If we take one of the animations above, DNAUXB for instance, we can break it down to its basic narrative components. The setup shows the character, Bear for simplicity, flying out of a large ship that is currently exploding into a space war. This establishes the motives of the setup being escape and survival. In the conflict he is targeted by two enemy spaceships and is forced into a cat & mouse chase. After escaping the two enemy ships he warps away, into a larger problem, the mothership, as he then tries to escape he is attacked once again when the mothership fires a large number of drones. So we can obtain from this that the protagonist chooses the option to run, which leads us to the climax when he returns with the drones chasing him in the act of self-sacrifice, bringing us to the resolution. He crashes into the mothership along with the drones, destroying the enemy in his sacrifice and assuming saving something or someone. That is DNAUXB simplified to the narrative structures considered above.

So we have the basis of the beginning, middle and end of a narrative. So the question I ask myself is why did I look into the structure of narrative?

I have been set a new project. A fictional animation. One with a story, a made up story. a story with a narrative (not abstract is basically what I mean here… yay for not abstract). The importance of this little research is that I intend to produce a short story that have all of these components of narrative. Setup, conflict, resolution and climax, revolving around the overall plot of this animation.

So to finish this little rant up, I’ll throw out a quick idea of a narrative story that I could propose for an animation:

Fox walks out of his little hut and stretches. He yawns and pets his stomach, clearly hungry. He walks out into the shallow forest for a bit, walking past pig who is stood on a ladder fixing his roof, and ends up by a tree. upon inspecting the tree Fox sees an apple hanging off a fairly high branch. After trying to get the apple, running jumps, kick and all, Fox remembers Pig with the ladder. Rushing back to pig he asks to borrow his ladder. Pig lends him the ladder which Fox then uses to climb the tree and pick the apple.

Setup – We are introduced to Fox and establish that he is hungry. The hunger is the initial incident that starts the journey off, which in this case is looking for food.

Conflict – Fox progresses the story by looking for food, passing Pig through his journey and eventually arrives to the apple. Through his attempts to retrieve the apple, the first and only climax of the story occurs in which fox decides to ask Pig for his ladder, rather then walking away and leaving the apple or continue to reach the apple pointlessly.

Resolution – Fox obtains the ladder, returns to the tree and gains the apple, which he then eats happily. Like the beginning, this part of the narrative is short as it serves to close the story. Fox is no longer hungry.