Task B Section 2 & 3 - Formats and Narratives

Formats and Narratives

A serial is part of a format. Serial is when a show or a programme or ‘series’ start the next episode where they left off from the last episode. An example of this would be ‘Freak. Episode one ends on all four of them playing a video game, then the beginning of episode 2 its starts off with them playing video games.



A series is when a programme is focused on different people’s story and each episode is on a different story. For instance skins season three episode one, there are four main characters at the moment and this episode will focus on the guy in the hat, but the next episode will be a different story about someone else.

A single drama is mainly used in movies. It focuses on one character and their story throughout the whole drama; it also is based on real life issues and can be a documentary single drama and period drams. An example of this is Harry Potter, the movies is based on him and only him and his story, with other associates in the in his story but the main focus is him.

There are different types of narratives that serial, series and single drama could be.

You have linear and non-linear. Linear is when an event is portrayed in a chronological order and it also uses 3 act structure when everything happens in order and you can clearly seeing that this happens. The purpose of this is to create an emotion from the audience, such as sympathy or suspense. An example that uses linear is the movie ‘Up’. This movie uses the 3 act structure when it’s showing his life from one he was you in the past to the present. They show this through a flashback. The reason being why it was only one flashback is because they wanted to build up emotion from the audience in one time and to show us what happened in his life. 

In Non-linear is when an event is not in chronological order which means they have flashbacks or flash-forwards at any point in the event.  This is mainly preceded in thrillers to create mystery. The purpose of this is to show the audience what happened in the past to make the character how they are in the present, or what could happen to the character in the future because what they did in the past or present. An example of this would be black mirror because there are flashbacks at random times throughout the short film to show the audience what happened to the character in the past in order to understand what is happening to the character in the present.

Episodic narrative is used by having a cliff hanger at the end of each episode. This gives the show a new story or problem to deal with in the next episode.  The purpose of this is that it creates a wider audience and with the use of cliff hangers it leaves the audience in suspense and wanting to know what happens next therefore they would watch the next episode. The example to this is below with the other narratives.

You have open and closed narratives. Open narratives usually have several characters with known certain ending. The purpose of this is to show the audience this is in real time so you could be watching it live. An example of this would be soap operas such as EastEnders. Closed narratives are usually in films and have a tight reading; they’re usually 2 hours and have ‘the end’ to complete the movie. The purpose of this is that the audience won’t get lost throughout the movie; they will always know the story. Also it shows that the movie is finished and there is not another one after.

You have realist and anti-realist narratives. Realist narrative is a believable story that maybe based on a true story. It displays believable scenarios for an example a middle season or a man living in the city. The purpose of this is that it can cause the audience to feel the same emotions towards the movie as they would feel if the event happened in real life.  Anti-realist is on adverts that aren’t real, so it can have anything in the advert such as cartoon characters. The purpose of this to make the audience laugh so more people will remember it and talk about the advert to others.  An example for this is hide and seeks the natural confectionary because sweets are talking in the advert.



We have single and multi-stranded narratives. Single stranded narrative is a story that has one central character or hero acting a single plot while surrounded by a group of minor characters. The purpose of this is that it will always keep the focus on the protagonist and highlight his story for instance superman, it focuses on one plot and the story is all about him. Multi-stranded is when there are several narrative running at the same time, such as hollyoaks. It focuses on one family and so does everyone in the episode on each scene. It can also be used for documentaries. The plot constructs a puzzle that the audience is asked to solve while the characters act out the story.