Narrative and Genre

Narrative and Genre

Narrative and Genre are two different things. Narrative means the way that the story is told and presented to the audience, while genre means the type of setting inside the film. For example, Saw can be classed as a Horror/Thriller because the audience never knows what will happen next so it adds suspense which thrills the audience. There is another type of of narrative called Linear Narrative. This is a normal type of narrative style because this means the the story line has a right order from start to finish and is easily understandable. While on the other hand, we have the Non-Linear Narrative. This means that the storyline for the film is mixed up, so the end of the film could be at the beginning. A good example of a Non-Linear Narrative is the film called Memento. This is where the storyline starts at the end and the storyline slowly goes back to the beginning of the film. This technique is excellently used in this movie.
Being able to use narrative in my own movie will be especially important because if the audience don't understand what the film is about, it might be easier if a narrator explains the story and says what has happened.
Genre can be seen as the way people define a movie. For example, The Avengers could be seen as an Action/Thriller because of the fighting scenes and the storyline. But it could also be put into the genre of Science Fiction because the characters are made up with unnatural superpowers and are not real.
This knowledge will help me majorly with my own movie because if I can use both of these techniques correctly, I will hopefully be able to get top marks when I am making my own film.