This week our focus was on Narrative; it’s components and purposes, as well as the concept of ‘Non-Narrative’ media products. Daniel gave a really interesting presentation covering these ideas, running us through aspects of narrative such as Causality, Tropes, Archetypes, Genres and more.
I was glad to see ‘The Hero’s Journey’ (T.H.J) be brought up, as I had researched this concept before and had found it to be a really interesting area. To summarise the concept: ‘The Hero’s Journey’ provides a (for lack of a better term) ‘storytelling template’ which suggests to us that the human process of creating a narrative often follows certain patterns and relies upon numerous ‘steps’ which adhere to a somewhat standard ‘journey’. It’s fascinating to consider how narratives from all different ages and cultures typically seem to follow T.H.J in some way: While we can see aspects of T.H.J in Greek mythology, we can also see its presence in the typical summer blockbuster, such as The Hobbit, The Avengers, Star Wars, etc. etc.
Stages of ‘The Hero’s Journey’
It’s also interesting to consider how T.H.J operates within different media forms; for instance within interactive mediums such as video games. The video below explores this idea, using the game ‘Journey’ as an example of how players often follow a ‘Hero’s Journey’ story arc in video games.
Later in the session, Daniel went on to discuss the idea of ‘Non-Narrative’, asking whether we can ‘ditch’ narrative completely. Having just watched Godard’s ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ for Cinema Studies, the point made about the French New-Wave tendency to ‘skirt around’ conventions of narrative was particularly relevant. However, these films (largely made by ex film-critics), still maintain certain aspects of narrative, in ‘Vivre Sa Vie’ we see the character of ‘Nana’ moving through (somewhat) logical and connected events – so indeed, narrative is still present.
To conclude the discussion of ‘Non-Narrative’ we were shown an experimental short film titled
‘We Have Decided Not to Die’:
https://vimeo.com/34459710
I found it to be a really interesting piece of work, and some of the visuals were particularly eye-catching (for instance, the slow motion leap through the window). We were asked to consider different arguments ‘for’ and ‘against’ calling this a non-narrative piece. Below are the notes I made (although I personally do think that this film contained a narrative).
Narrative:
– Title Cards: presents a sequence of events
– Reoccurring Imagery: creates motifs and visual links between the 3 sequences
– A Journey: we travel from one place to another as each sequence comes to an end
– Progression: we see the events unfolding one after the other, giving a sense of development
– Film’s Title: this gives us some context and a way to interpret the content
Non-Narrative:
– Unrelated Events: the 3 events seem to lack logical connections
– No Chronological Order: viewers cannot perceive a chronological unfolding of events
– Lack of Development: characters do not interact and seem to do very little
– No Context: the sequences seem to be unrelated, with no explanation or clarity
– Little Causality: character motivations are unknown (non-existent?) we don’t know why
Now to share another video from the internet.
Here’s an animated homage to Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli (the man behind some of my favourite animated films). Even though it lasts under 3 minutes, I think it presents numerous components of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, showing that even the shortest of narratives may be formed in accordance with T.H.J. Anyways, the animator has done a really great job and you should definitely consider watching it.