Investigating Alternative Narrative Structures in Film

From the time we get to primary school we are already well aware of the notion that stories must have a beginning, a middle and an end. This is the structure of our favourite fairy tales and our favourite children's books. The three act play has its routes in Classical Greek Tragedies and is as abundant in Shakespeare and Opera as it is in newspaper comic strips and low brow melodramas.

Film has always championed a conventional structure to narrative, and there are many films which fit into Todorov's five Stages of narrative like five fingers into a glove.

However there are also those that have challenged and deviated, baffled and confused - if Narrative recognition is an appeal to some audiences then surely narratives that don't conform will be an appeal to others?

 

Research Investigation

The essay will hinge on the case studies you choose to explore as you investigate the different approaches to telling stories. You may wish to make a comparison between two movies - one that is conventional and one that is unconventional.  You may wish to look at specific filmmakers and study their own approach to storytelling. The following list might prove to be valuable when slecting texts...

• David Lynch - Lost Highway and Mullholland Drive
• Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction
• Christopher Nolan - Memento and Inception
• Orson Welles - Citizen Kane
• Alfred Hitchcock - Vertigo and Psycho
• Woody Allen - Annie Hall

Some of these films actively play around with what we understand about plot and audience positioning - others, such as the works of David Lynch, spiral round and in and out of one another, utterly confusing an audience but still retaining its own logic.

Once you know your chosen texts inside out and back to front (or front to back in the case of Nolan's Memento) you can begin to apply the narrative theory that you've researched.

Some of it will be extending the work of theorists studied in the AS course. Other points will require you to cast fresh eyes over theories that are new to you  and get your head's around ideas that are just a bit more complicated than stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end.

David Bordwell has written extensively about film narrative, as has Nick Lacey. All the theories are out there, as are the experimental films which bend and break the rules. It's your job to find it all and put it together.

Please always label research with your name and: Alternate Narrative in Film

Media Product

You must direct, film and edit your own trailer or opening of a film that uses an unusual narrative structure or system. Your idea must be original but at the same time you must show that there are links between your Research Investigation and the product. In the case of this project it should be fairly obvious which films you have used as your case studies. Not because you've copied their ideas, but because of the influence that their narrative has over your product.

Your film should also hold up to an academic analysis based on the theories of those you studied and researched when writing your essay.

Overall this needs to be of an excellent quality - the end result may well be a film which confuses, frustrates or shocks an audience - these things are all fine so long as that was the intention.

To create an intricate and intriguing narrative will require excellent planning, and this should be clear from the quality of your film, the following advice should be heeded at your own peril:

• Outline ideas
• Write a step treatment (scene by scene)
• Write a script
• Storyboard key action sequences
• Write a shooting script (the order you will do film things)
• Have read throughs with your actors and let them know exactly what your vision of this film is
• Watch the footage carefully and write put together a 'paper edit'
• Re-shoot anything that doesn't work
• Give yourself lots of time for editing.

This project is complex, involved and at times very difficult. Done well it can result in higher level thinking and a stunning looking creative project.




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