Story vs Plot

STORY vs PLOT

When we are linking images together in terms of cause and effect, one of the ways in which we do this is to look at what is happening on screen and assume that other events have taken place that we haven't actually seen. For instance, if we watch the opening to Gladiator, where a huge battle is about to take place we will assume that preparation for this battle has taken place, that the hero has proved himself to be a worthy leader in battle, that he has had a successful home life before this point. These events will have taken place in a different time and space to what we see on screen at present.

When discussing film narrative, we can make a distinction between the story and the plot (the plot is sometimes called the discourse)

a) The term plot is used to describe the events on screen and how they are organized/presented.

b) The term story is used to describe the whole set of events in a narrative that we bring to the plot in order to make sense of it. This will include not only the plot elements, which we have seen, but also the events we have inferred, which we have assumed have happened.

The story world is often referred to as the diegetic world of the film, the imaginary world that we enter into when we set out to watch the film. (Thus we refer to a film's diegesis.) We should note that the plot may also include non‑diegetic material that is part of the plot but not part of the story world. So, the plot may include music and voiceover elements for instance ‑ these are not part of the story world because we know they would not really happen in this created world we are seeing ‑ they are 'add‑ons'.