Narrative Image

This is all about the marketing of a film. The narrative image is what we think of
before we actually see the film. It is the film’s image or identity, and how it is
branded. It comes from the direct publicity surrounding a film (ie its marketing –
the poster, trailer, video release etc) and also from word of mouth. It particularly
draws on the generic qualities of the film. In other words, the marketing promotes
the film’s genre signifiers in order to exploit the audience’s desire for familiarity
and recognition – this brands the film and broadens its potential appeal.
But the narrative image also centres on the idea of difference and originality.
This comes in the form of the narrative enigma. The film’s publicity has to
encourage the audience into asking questions about the film, and must intrigue
the audience enough to want to know the answers. They will only be able to do
this if they pay to go and see the film. This is the enigma – the mystery
surrounding the film.
So the narrative image is a promise – a promise to the audience that the film will
deliver the answers. Often the narrative image is deliberately misleading, in order
to widen the target audience – the core audience is encouraged to go and see a
film that conforms to expectations, but are shocked by unexpected breaks with
convention that may have put them off if they had known about it beforehand.
In summary, narrative image combines similarity and difference and only works if
this combination is finely tuned to target the audience effectively.