David Bordwell describes a narrative as a chain of events occurring in time and space in a cause-effect relationship.
Narrative is generally accepted as having two components: the presented story and its telling or narrative process, also referred to as narrative discourse. Story is a collection of depicted events, characters (or agents for some), and acts from which the viewer is creating a world of fictional time, place, and cause-effect.
In total, there are 4 conventions of narrative that one must analyze;
- Genre – The general theme of a story.
- Characters – The actors playing a specific role in a film.
- Time – Time frame setting the movie is based on.
- POV – The point of view from which the narrative is told.
Movies such as but are not limited to The Wizard of Oz, The Goonies, or Rocky are all examples of narrative films due to the particular structure of their story. Furthermore, The Wizard of Oz begins with the introduction of character, and then plays out unfortunate events that occur to them and how they overcome those obstacles.
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