✗

This week’s lecture focussed on narrative storytelling. It also happened to coincide with my rewatching of The Jinx: a documentary series following the infamous life of Robert Durst.

The connection with narrative storytelling?

Even though this series is the exact opposite of a narrative, the notoriety that surrounded the case for so many years made it seem as such. Due to the level of surreality that surrounds the life of Robert Durst, the series drew largely upon narrative story-telling techniques and cinematography to create the series.

A few notes on the series:

• Makes use of many flashbacks/re-enactments- all highly stylised and dramatic, like in fictional films.
• Still follows conventional storytelling structure – e.g. introduction, complication, body, climax, denouement, coda
• The way the story is told reads very much like a narrative voiceover – it’s as though a narrative is being read aloud
• As the series progresses, the documentary becomes less planned out visually, as the cinematography loses presence. This coincides with the turning point in the series, wherein the crew have to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and the action begins to unfold on screen. The series from thereon out has a far more conventional documentary style to it.
• Lines between narrative and documentary styles and conventions are often blurred – intentionally done to highlight the surreality of the case as something close to what would have been written in fiction.