Dramatic Narrative

Abstract Understanding the foundations of dramatic narrative together with dramaturgy—the nexus of this and its representation on screen—is essential to consideration of practical aesthetics. Elements of dramatic narrative are listed in this chapter: world, characters, their configuration, story, the stakes and register of the drama, premise, theme, genre, structure, tone, passage of time, suspense, friction, and tension. Story—central to human interaction and understanding—is the imperative of cinema, offering cumulative gratification and demanding narrative logic and stakes that ultimately reveal a sense of meaning. Structure—traditional (three-act, five-act) or unconventional—is considered the framework of dramatic flow, its stanchions represented on screen by changes of tension, rhythm, tone, light, place, dynamics of shot size, and shifts in energy flow. The term narrative units—the building blocks of dramatic narrative—is used to encompass acts, movements, scenes, sequences, and vignettes moving the story forward or having other purposes such as suspense, wonder, resonance of emotion, revelation, new knowledge, or modulation of narrative momentum. The credibility and autonomy of characters are important: their relationship to narrative POV; function as an amalgam of fictional being and building block of story; categories; configuration; and presentation without judgment, as well as the impact of their individual natures on screen language adopted by the filmmaker. The world of the film, real or fantastical, needs to seem truthful in its physical and human/cultural aspects, whether it captures known environments or incorporates mythical elements. Dramatic narrative may be modified through the filmmaking process.