Clerks opening narrative

Narrative

In media terms, narrative is the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end. We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts. Each text becomes part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

The difference between Story & Narrative:

"Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A meets B, something happens, order returns), while narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess...)" (Key Concepts in Communication - Fiske et al (1983))


Clerks; phone ringing causes the disturbance in the first few shots

Todoror- Equilibrium- Dante's day off
Disturbance- Phone rings
New Equilibrium- End of film

Dante -> Phone -> Goes to work

There can be expectations of the new equilibrium from looking at the genre.


http://www.filmeducation.org/secondary/concept/film-narr/docs/narr.3.html