Preview

Shadow of a Doubt

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2509 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shadow of a Doubt
Shadow of a Doubt
1. Story and Plot
What is the difference between story and plot?
In narrative films the difference between story and plot is quite important. The story is all the events “explicitly presented and those the viewer infers” that occur in the narrative arranged by the viewer in their chronological order (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010, p.80). This material as defined in Film Art, is know as diegetic and therefore existed in the narrative world and can be seen and heard by the characters. Plot consists of “everything visibly and audibly present” shown on the screen which is also known as mis-en-scene (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010, p.80). This includes nondiegetic materials, such as a series of shots that are presented outside the narration (e.g a flashback) and also music, that does not affect the characters in the film as they cannot hear or see them.
What is the benefit of making a distinction between story and plot?
The distinction between story and plot occurs because the plot consists only of explicitly presented events. Off-screen activity is not a part of the film’s plot – this content belongs to the story alone. From this we can see that explicitly presented events are common to both the story and the plot.
However, plot can present nondiegetic material such as images and sound, can further assist the viewer in developing an understanding of the plot and therefore the story. For example, in Shadow of a Doubt the repeated images of a dance scene set to the Merry Widows Waltz, is neither heard nor seen by the characters in the film. It is nondiegetic. This distinction gives us the tools to analysis what the narrative is doing with time, specifically order (chronology, flashbacks, flash forwards), duration (length of time) and the frequency (how often event is revisited in the plot).
What is the relationship between the story and the plot in this film? What does the difference between them tell us? How are order, duration and frequency

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    story consists of all the events and characters—those that are explicitly shown as well as all those others that are implied or must be inferred by the viewer—that belong to the narrative.…

    • 962 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The story is told in an all knowing point of view. It is not centered on the thoughts and feels of any one person but on all of the characters in the movie. The plot is told in chronological order starting with their first mission , although not in a combat capacity, which is not only successful but goes beyond in destroying a train which was disguised as civilian but was actually a military train loaded with guns and soldiers.…

    • 2416 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shadow Of Doubt Analysis

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Australian Story’s documentary ‘Shadow of Doubt’ gives new insight into the controversial topic of murder while hinting at police corruption, tunnel vision and the real truth. This documentary follows Deb Drummond, the granddaughter of accused murder Reg Brown, in a somewhat biased way positioning the audience in a way to believe that Reg Brown is innocent. Reg Brown is accused of killing Bronia Armstrong at the Wallace Bishop Arcade in 1947. Bronia Armstrong's family did not participate in the documentary. The the lack of thorough police investigation shown and only one side of the documentary positions the audience to view this case with a heavy bias for Reg Brown's innocence.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Film Analysis: Speed

    • 1301 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The film "Speed", starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock is classed as a film where narrative plays a very large role in delivering the viewer with a broader understanding of the story or plot of the film. Narrative meaning a "chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space" (Bordwell and Thompson, 2005).What the above statement merely translates to is a word were all very familiar with namely, story. The narrative of a film typically begins "with one situation, a series of changes then occurs according to a pattern of cause and effect; finally, a new situation arises that brings about the end of the narrative." (Bordwell and Thompson, 2005).…

    • 1301 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Eventhough the scenes jump from storyline to storyline, they never seem disconnected. Successive scenes always contradict or reinforce the former scene in content and artistic protrayal. In the beginning, the music that was awarded an Oscar contains reference to the country the scene takes place in. As the desperation in all the storylines builds up, the music also becomes less of a tool to distinguish between different settings, but rather powerfully emphasizes the character's universal experiences of loss and despair.…

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jamaica Kincaid

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Plot, according to Ann Charters in "The Story and its writer", is "the series of events in a narrative that form the action, in which a character or characters face an internal or external conflict that propels the story to a climax…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The plot versus the story, relatively stay the same. The story builds on the plot by introducing the characters and eventually building up to the fight of the century, Charlie versus Viola. The plot practically summarizes the whole movie as the movie does not introduce any surprises other than the crazy behavior between Charlie and Viola. About the only surprise in the movie is that Ruby, played by Wanda Sykes actually starts to defend Charlie and somewhat takes her side.…

    • 1135 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    a. The plot is the story line. It is what happens in the tale. While there are many possible types of plots, it is important to recognize that principles of plot…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Explain the difference between a film's story and a film's plot. Use a specific film to illustrate your point of view. In the film you chose, are the events presented chronologically or are they presented non-linearly? What might a filmmaker's intentions be when he or she chooses to present events chronologically or in a non-linear order? How are elements like character development or foreshadowing used differently between the two storytelling…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    “To restore morality, we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs,” (Roy Moore). To Alfred Hitchcock, the restoration of morality is everything. Morality comes from biological sources such as survival instincts, as well as society and human interaction. Morality plays the starring role in everyone’s life and is an important detail in Hitchcock’s films. Film reviewer Jamey Hughton claims that Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley would leave director Alfred Hitchcock in awe after viewing the film. Hughton states this because he believes Minghella seems to have replicated Hitchcock’s breathtaking work in this film. Although the two movies are incredibly well filmed thrillers, I would have to disagree with Hughton’s…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cask of Amontillado

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The plot is a sequence of major events that occur during a story. The plot of this short story is murder over retaliation because of an insult. It begins with Furtunado's insult towards Montresor then Montresor taking revenge. Next, the setting of the story states the time and the place of where the story is based upon. For example, the setting is at dusk during Carnival and in the Catacombs at night.…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Why I Live In The P. O.

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Plot refers to the arrangement of the story's actions. Any story starts with an introduction in other words an exposition. Let us take Cheever's short story "The Country Husband". This story started by describing a main situation, which had a big influence on the rest of the story. It described the airplane crash experience, which the main character went into. After that, the author described the main character's family, their relations and the way they treat their father. Moreover, this exposition gave us an important piece of information about the setting - the place where the story happened and it was New York City. After that, the conflicts and complication begin to reveal. There could be more than one conflict in fact a story could be…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Opression and Inequality

    • 2611 Words
    • 11 Pages

    concepts of each story. These important concepts consist of the plot, theme, list of characters…

    • 2611 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a certain order that the plot follows which is separated into 5 parts. The first part is the exposition, which is the beginning part that gives background to what is happening so that the reader understands why the events that are about to occur are occurring. The second part is the rising action, which is the events…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story of the film follows the story…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics