Narrative Structure

Linear Narrative

• Clear, middle and end
• Follows chronological time frame
• Action A leads to action B leading to action C

Fragmented Narrative 

• Non linear
• Disrupted/disjointed narrative
• Not a clear middle/end
• Shown out of chronological order 
• Narrative technique that can help show parallel stories
• Seen to replicate the way the human mind works 
• Make audience 

Enigma code - Ronald Barthes 

• Man in elevator killed- 
• Why dont they care about the first character
• What killed him?
• Met Eleven: Where does she come from ?

Restriction Narrative 

• Experience a story through the sense of one character   

Omnipresent Narrative 

• Seeing view of the world of the story point of view of every character 

Narrative endings

Stranger things Characters and representations

Stranger Things

Stranger Things

Era

• 1980s
• Enjoyed by both young and old audiences
• Makes intertextual references to a range of 80s texts
• Stephan Kings novel
• Dungens and Dragons
• ET
• Stand by me
• The goonies

Representation
Masculinity- Teacher, Government workers, Sheriff/ Police, Jonathon- Cooking, Crying etc.
Age- Young vs Old, young swearing etc 'no ones typical'
Small town America
80's
Teenage- geeks over plastics
Intertextuality
Stranger Things 2016
ET 1982

Speilberg- Et was a huge influence and the duffer brothers wanted to set the film by the coast to make reference to jaws however the budget didn't allow this.
Stephen King- Eleven has been compared to Carrie and the font in the title clearly rejects a homage to the king of Horror.
Nightmare on Elm street- monster through the wall
The Goonies- Young actors
Firestarter- Young girl with head manipulation techniques
Stand by me/ the body- Kids walking along tracks
Synergy
-Eleven's favourite food are eggs waffles. Kelloggs Eggo was not product placement in the first series.
-However, Eggo sales have increased dramatically, and as such Kellogg's have jumped on the 80's bandwagon, by including one of the 80's adverts in the season trailer for Season 2. This was launched at the NFL Super Bowl.
-National Waffle day was celebrated by a post made on twitter referencing Eleven and stranger Things.
Fandom and Stranger things 
-The series has a strong online fan base.
-Fans often create negotiated readings
-Textual Poachers- selecting part of the text that appeal to them and using these as the basis of their 'WE media" products.
-Fan essential in the marketing/ promotional process- their fan art etc shared by Stranger Things official social media accounts.
The Duffer Brothers
- The duffer brothers began making films in the third grade using a hi8 video camera that was a gift from their parents.
-They relocated to orange, California to study film at Chapmans University's Dodge College of Film and Moving Arts, graduating in 2007
-After writing/ directing a number of short films, their script for the post-apocalyptic horror film Hidden was acquired by Warner Bros in 2011

Original Netflix series so paid for by them and distributed by them exclusively.
Ranked as the most popular digital series in the US only after the week after its release on Netflix
Merch
Stranger Things Pops
T-shirts, phone cases etc
Success of Stranger Things
Attributed to its pacing and its binge-ability. In earlier iterations, Stranger Things was set to be a film, however, they decided with Netflix to let it play out without being restricted to a standard 13 or 22 episode run.
Low budget and Netflix is paid via subscription  rather than per program
 The series was first aired Netflix 15th July 2016, with only 8 episodes. 

Social Media- Twitter, Facebook, Instagram . Fan Art, memes and gifs produced by prosumers in the fan community. Features links to announcements and Q&A streams, interviews and other content.
Millennials
The generation now represents a quarter of the US population. This group also has an annual buying power of more than $200 billion, yet its still one of the most challenging generations for marketers to figure out.
Nostalgia Marketing 
-People generally spend more money when they are feeling nostalgic.
-Stranger Things lays the nostalgia on thick with the 80's fashion and hairstyles. Back to a time when kids went outside on their bikes.
-Captivated by title sequence as same style of 80's. The font choice is distinctly 80's and shows the attention to detail and authentic feel.
-Even though the familiar feeling, the show still feels original.

Stranger things Poster

Poster analysis

Setting -

• School
•  Suburban Town
•  Night time
• Barbed Wire
• Keep Out (danger)

Themes- 

• Parnormal
•  Blue and Red- Star Wars
•  Polar opposites magnets
•  Age
•  Love
•  Friendship
•  Fear

Icons- 

• Bikes
•  Camera
•  Radio
•  Walkie Talkies

Genre-

• Horror
•  Sci-Fi
•  Thriller

Characters- 

• Non gender main character
• US middle class
•  youth majority
•  facial expressions ( anger, fear, confusion, defensive, determined.

Intertextuality- 

• 80's teen film

Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, John Carpenter

Long form TV drama

EXAM
Long answer- 30marks 60mins
Apply a theory- 10marks 25mins
40 marks
85mins


Language
Industries
Audience
Representation

The rise of long from TV drama 

Institutional context
US network broadcasters must satisfy their advertisers and hold market share. They are also controlled by federal regulation.

• Launched in 1970's
• First US national cable tv channel
• Fix, showtime and AMC- Many subsidiaries of larger conglomerates.

UK LFTVD

• BBC and ITV 90's- rely on heritage and crime drama
• SKY- US long form with sky Atlantic
• CHANNEL 4- foreign language/ subtitled long form winners

Problems with UK tv drama?

• UK Broadcasters have failed to meet the challenge of the US cable channels move to long form, with their risk taking content and style
• BBC and ITV 90s> relied on genre based, formula drama. Heritage and crime drama are prime examples.
• Sky co-opted success of US long form with sky Atlantic

Changing platforms

Content viewing via a TV still dominates in the UK

Netflix dominates 24% of UK market

PVR- Personal Viewing Recorder (3/4 households)

Time shift- Planning watching schedule 
SVOD- Subscription video on demand (netflix)

Binge watching started with DVD in late 90's.
'Water cooler tv' to 'shared universe fandom'
Easter eggs- clues, cross references (tv, film, video games)


Why do audiences love LFTVD?

• High quality drama
• Multiple episodes hours years
• Content can be dark and difficult but innovative
• Time shifting, easily acceptable
• Easily accessible
• Attracts some  of the  best and innovative writers and actors

'State of the nation' TV
 -Long from shows challenge the simplistic storylines and stereotypical characters that dominate the networking TV in US ( CSI)
-HBO ( time Warner) launched The sopranos in 1999 (2007) which was a huge commercial and critical hit. Increasingly these shows were about the crisis of US identity.
-Other shows followed inc. The Wire (2002-2008) which won awards and turned US TV into a medium for a serious subject matter and critique.

12- West Wing

13- Buffy the vampire slayer

The Emergency Room
Genre- Occult fiction
Themes- High school, youth
Narrative- Young girl becomes the next in line of 'Vampire slayers'
Platforms- DVD

Netflix- Haven't made a profit

Social Context

Disability:
The Paralympics is broadcast ed around the world every 4 years their positive message that is produced from these games, produces a very important message to people with similar attributes making the watcher idolise certain individuals. The most recent Paralympics took place in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 in total 4342 athletes from 159 countries participate. Also, many tv shows like Eastenders cover disabilities, physical, mental and emotional. Donna in Eastenders is a disabled actress this platform can inspire many people with disabilities.
Regionalism: 
Many TV shows create stereotypes, for example TOWIE portrays people from Essex to be blonde tanned and dumb their are also other reality shows like Geordie Shore and Made in Chelsea who also portray regionalism.
Class:
Music industry commonly cover the class issue Stormzy being a significant figure in this
Ethnicity:
black Panther was one of the first major films to feature a mainly black cast being a huge step forward in the film industry.
Sexuality:

Cultural trends

SOCIAL CONTEXT