Narrative Techniques

Technique	Description	Effect	Example from a film
1. Exposition	Films in the back story of the characters and their situations	Let us know the motives of the character, or about his psychology (but if used wrongly it can be bad for the film)	The narration of the beginning of Amelie explaining the back story of everyone.
2. Dangling cause	Information or action that leads to no effect or resolution until much later in the film	It helps us to have an idea on the ending, thus when the ending comes there is a bigger impact.	Shrek 2, fairy godmother tells the king that he helped him in “affairs from the heart” at the end he is a frog.
3. Obstacle	Stands in the way of the characters reaching their goal	It creates tension in the story and makes the story more interesting	Physcho, when the policemen follows the lead actress
4. Deadline	A time limit placed on a protagonist to accomplish a goal	It creates tension on the story and makes the story more interesting. More goals orientated.	Inception, dreams are synchronized in order to make the inception.
5. Dialogue hook	Creates a link between two consecutive scenes	Helps the story flow