Lovefield-Narrative-Gemma

Narrative Structure

The narrative structure of ‘Lovefield’ is a linear structure as it has a beginning a middle and an end, this allows the audience to follow the story simply although there is a misguiding storyline to begin with.

Restricted and Unrestricted narration,

The opening of the short film is very much a restricted narration, as an audience we expect the worst has happened and get the idea a women has been murdered from the semantic and syntactic codes used. It is not until the end that the narration becomes unrestricted as we realise what has actually happened which then allows us to instantly change our opinion on the only character we see.

Todorov and his 5 stages,

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. A state of equilibrium-  This first stage is the opening shot of the field. i.e the pan showing the field as at this point there has been nothing to cause a disruption that the audience know of.

2. A disruption of that order by an event.- This stage arrises when a disruption has occurred which is when the audience hear the diegetic flat tone of the phone, the blood on a piece of clothing, the constant sound of the crow and finally the knife being stabbed into the ground covered in blood. At this point the audience are then at the edge of their seat wondering what is going on due to the restricted narration.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.- The man we believe to be the antagonist is rushing to his car in a panic trying to solve something and appears to be enhanced by the crow as a bad guy about to do wrong.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.- after looking in the car boot the man finds a towel and runs back around his car to use it for what is assumed to be hiding the dead body so we believe that is how he intended to ‘repair the damage’

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium- it is then revealed in the final stage that he man we believed to be the antagonist actually was the protagonist and the blood and knife was him delivering a baby which he used the towel to wrap it in. At this time the non-diegetic soundtrack becomes softer a sense of reassurance is developed from the music which is reinforced when we see an ambulance pull up against the side of the road.

Levi Strauss and binary oppositions,

There are two binary oppositions in the short film ‘Lovefield’ the first one is between good(protagonist) and evil (antagonist), this is shown as the audience is made to believe that the man is an antagonist from the restricted narration and the close camera shots although it is then revealed to the viewer that he actually is a protagonist. The second binary oppersition is between life and death similar to the reason above the audience were made to feel as if a murder had taken place through again the restricted narration whereas in reality a new life had occurred.