Narrative

When it comes to thinking about the narrative of my short film, it is most important to decide on the structure in which I want the story line to follow.
Structure
After having a discussion with Sophie about this, we thought it was best to use a linear structure as it would allow us to make the short film more successful based around our skills. As we were both new to media at the start of the Alevel course, we did not know anything about the creation of a short film. By creating a linear structure, we thought it would be easier creating one based on this as it made most sense to use and we had already thought about a good story line which would fit this.
When looking back on my short film, it also features open structure in some areas as the audience as left to think for themselves about what happens. This features in the final scene where Lily dies. Due to the relationship between the talent, we could not show any sort of voilence or sexual scenes, so we decided to apply a voiceover which said "and thats when I died". This enabled the auidence to know that the killer, George, did actually kill her and she unfortunatley died. From this, it allows the audience to imagine for themselves, the way in which he killed her.
Narrative
Over the years, the complexity of the narrative of media texts has increased. Media texts, such as films, now expect you to know what is going on in the film, without neccessarly telling you the plot. This has become the norm of films and Sophie and myself decided to stick to this convention and not reveal all about our plot. Two features within the narrative are unrestricted narrative and restricted narrative. The unrestricted narrative in our film is evident as there is a killing at the end of the short film. This is expected in thrillers and therefore the audience will subconciously presume that there will be one featuring in my short film. The restricted narrative is evident at some stages of my short film as I do not inform my focus group that Lily's father has died before hand and that's why she visits the grave. This should, however, become clear when she goes to visit his gravestone after school. After factor which isn't directly shown in the short film is that George waits for Lily everyday after school and stalks her to the graveyard, reassuring her route and that it is a daily occurance.

There are many theories that have been conducted which can support films narrative.

Barthes
Barthes is a very popular narrative study which has been created to support the idea that to understand a narrative, a producer must follow codes which help the audience pick up the plot to a film/short film. These 5 codes are:

1. Action code - something that the audience knows and doesn't need explaining.
2. Enigma code - something that is hidden from the audience.
3. Semic code - something the audience can notice through connotations.
4. Symbolic code - something that symbolises something abstract.
5. Referential code - something that happens within a culture and is understood.

Barthes theory is the most suited to my short film and its narrative so therefore I fully agree with it.

1. Action code - the audience knows that George is the disturbed peadophile.
2. Enigma code - the audience are unaware that the father has died beforehand.
3. Semic code -
4. Symbolic code -
5. Referential code - that Lily goes to school everyday as this is the norm in most countries, especially England.

As you can see above, all of the 5 codes are met, which fully supports Barthes theory. In turn this should make the audience fully aware of whats happening at all times and make the narrative and plot of the short film succesful.

ODOROV
Odorov also created a very popular theory which explains the sequence in which a narrative should and does follow in. It is conducted of 5 steps which are listed below:

1. Equilibrium - everyday life.
2. Disruption - something happens to alter the equilibrium.
3. Conflict  - trying to solve the problem.
4. .Resolution - problem is sorted.
5. New Equilibriun - back to normal.

When looking at my short films narrative, it is clear to see that some of the steps of this theory is met, however not all are achieved.

1. Equilibrium - you see Lily coming out of school which is something that occurs every week.
2. Disruption - as Lily gets kidnapped this alters the equilibrium.

The other three factors of conflict, resolution and new equilibrium do not get met with the narrative of my short film so this contradicts the theory as it doesn't apply and therefore the theory could be seen as in accurate. However this theory may not fit my short film due to the genre being a thriller - this could be different with other genres.