·
What
are some ways to make narrative in film nonlinear?
·
What
are some means that allow the director to make that seem reasonable within the
structure of the film (i.e. there is a reason to do what they do)?
·
List
ten films that use non linear narratives
One major change
to make is to change the dynamics of relativity.
Another way to say this is to alternate the point of view that the story is
told from or to make the narrator subjective instead of objective; the narrator
maybe unreliable or unclear on order of events or even what the events are.
This style of story telling creates additional drama and expectations for the
audience.
Here are some
examples of these devices:
A.Kurosawa; Rashomon.
·
One
story told by four POV. The Samurai, The Thief, The Samurai’s wife and the
woodcutter (neutral observer)
·
As
each story gets told the narrative changes AND the editing style and camera
style changes. As if each narrator is telling it from their POV which is unique
to the way they remember (or choose to remember) the events in their head.
·
This
led to the following: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect
Non linear Narrative
·
Betrayal Harold Pinter: A play that tells the story backwards, later adapted
as a movie (way before Memento)
·
Memento: A film that tells the story in reverse order AND features an
unreliable narrator
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HnW_930nmQ
(start at 1:00)
·
Pulp Fiction: Starts and ends in the same place (though events in
the plot) occur after the final sequence of the movie). Then three scenes take
place out of order and focus on different characters (with a lot of overlap).
The timeline of the narrative is circular.
·
Reservoir Dogs: told mostly in order but uses extensive flashbacks
from multiple characters POV
·
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Events seem to take place chronologically in the
real world, but inside Joel’s mind memories shift to dreams to lucid dreams
where he controls and changes events, even as those memories are being erased.
· Elephant –
Tracking shots, circular timeline, events repeated from different points of
view and then extends the timeline towards that characters POV.
· Fargo & Psycho:
Shifting protagonists.
o
They meet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Je2WxsqWA
· (500) Days of Summer (Annie Hall)
Each scene is introduced by the day # on which the events take place. You put
the story together
· Loosely
connected characters inhabiting the same set of events: Robert Altman – Nashville, Short Cuts
Note that many
online posters have edited Pulp Fiction and Memento “in order” as in
chronological order to tell the story linearly. What is the value of this?
Some films give everything away at the start, all
the exposition is laid out chronologically and then the action plays out.
Alternate forms include keeping key ideas from the audience until a dramatic
moment in the action whether this is done by unreliable narrators (liars or amnesiacs)
the dramatic meaning of the film can change when the motivation or reason for
actions is either revealed late in the film.
Exercise: Writing Journal Entry
Write a short
story (or screenplay)
(one major event,
about one page long).
Rewrite it with
the events in a different order.
Consider making part of a future screenplay non-linear
.
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