Introduction
Hello and welcome back, last blog we created a loose plot and mood board, my loose blog included the names of my three main characters which I discussed with my partner. Today we will dive deeper into these characters by first researching what character types and narratives their are so we can classify our characters into our findings.
Narratives
First I’d like to explain narratives because this is the order of the story’s events. Therefore we have a couple to discuss, I’ll be going over the six most popular narratives, linear, nonlinear, circular, multi strand, open, and closed.
- Linear : This narrative is exactly what it sounds like, it’s a story in chronological order like for example Karate Kid that I’ve dove into before, the story progresses through beginning > middle > end.
- Nonlinear : This is when the story is told out of order meaning there’s either flashbacks or time jumps to the future. An example of this is The Titanic since the movie begins in the present and the rest of the story is the past.
- Circular : This is when a story ends where it begins, so the ending is revealed at the beginning of the story and the story comes full circle, meaning it goes present > flashback and then continues till we’re back to the present scene where it’ll usually build off to come to a conclusion.
- Multi Strand : This is when a story follows multiple characters at the same time so there’s parallel story’s for the characters with one larger story. This is very common in TV shows like Stranger Things for example that uses multi strand narratives to create complexity.
- Open vs Closed Narratives : Closed narrative means that at the end of the story it all comes to a conclusion whereas open means that’s question are left at the conclusion of the story so that the ending may be up for interpretation which spoiler alert, open narrative is used in Stranger Things since Ellen’s death or escape from the wormhole is never confirmed. Frozen on the other hand uses closed narrative because the story comes to a complete close, no monumental questions unanswered.
My film opening will use non linear narrative because it will contain a flash back.
Character Types
Character types can be used to categorize story characters depending on what they give and how they are presented . The main 7 are protagonist, antagonist, love interest, confidant, deuteragonist, tertiary characters, and foil.
- Protagonist : This is the main character of the story, they usually need to be relatable or have a backstory/character arc to understand their motivations. Story’s are usually told from this characters point of view like in The Hunger Games where Katniss is the main character and the story is from her perspective which also makes Katniss an unreliable narrator which is common from the first perspective story telling.
My film’s protagonist will be Emily, a 13 year old girl who is struggling with a mental block from the growing pressure of being a young and committed athlete, which in her case in gymnastics.
- Antagonist : This is the villain of the story but not to be confused with an Anti hero which is when a villain is the main character like The Joker movie. A good example on an antagonist is the Evil Witch in Snow White, she affects the story by being an obstacle for Snow White since she seeks to harm her.
The antagonist of my film is Veronica the mother and Laura the coach or trainer. Both of these characters will be antagonist because though they aren’t villains or wishing harm on Emily, they think that applying pressure on her is helping her succeed but in reality they are posing the challenge of losing passion due to stress on Emily.
- Love Interest: This is the main characters object of desire, this character should be compelling and three dimensional. A good example of this is Daisy Buchanan for The Great Gatsby. My film though, will not have a love interest because she is young and we are focusing on her love for gymnastics.
- Confidant : This is the main characters side kick or best friend, this character can be comedic relief or be very influential to the story like Hermione in Harry Potter. My film opening will not have a confidant.
- Deuteragonist : This is character who is also close to the main character but they don’t greatly affect the story with their character arc. My film’s though will also not have this because it has limited character’s.
- Tertiary : These are background characters who exist to populate the films story but don’t affect the story’s plot. These are common in films and my film will include this in the opening scene and closing scene.
- Foil : This character exist to make the main character look better, a good example of this is Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter because he is constantly compared to the main character, emphasizing Harry’s ability’s as a wizard. My film opening doesn’t include this either since the film will only be two minutes so there isn’t much time to introduce every character that would be in an hour long film.
Conclusion
This research helps me understand these characters I’m building and better understand the story of my film opening, building off my last blog on a loose plot. Now that I have a foundation for this film I will create a project proposal in my next blog post. Thank you for reading and see you next time.
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