This week’s reading brings me back to my first year, first semester moments. Narrative. Just to summarize the idea of the reading, another definition of narrative is story. Normally a narrative starts off with one circumstance. Then as it goes on, series of changes happen according to the causes and effects and finally a new circumstance arises and brings out the end of the story.
Maybe let’s take a film for example, maybe Evil Dead. Starts off with a situation where Mia is having some drug addiction and she needs a rehab. So, her brother and a few friends accompany her to a remote cabin in the woods to help her recovery. Then, another problem arises is when Eric accidentally unleashes the demon from the Book of the Dead causing Mia to be possessed by a demon. Then, they need to find a way to stop the demon from killing everyone but there were only three ways. However, David, Mia’s brother does not have the heart to murder (purify) his own sister. The situation goes out of hand as one by one they all are being killed. Finally, David gains his courage by using the hardest method to save Mia and he succeeded. Unfortunately, David was killed by one of his friends who were being controlled by the demon. The circle is now complete after David’s death as the demon needs to kill five people and it rises from hell. Mia has to face the demon one on one now.
So as we can see, the story keeps going on and on. One situation after another. Plot, space, time, story; it’s all there.
Like any other normal film, there’s always an introduction, a climax and an ending. The introduction is usually to introduce the characters and a maybe a problem. The climax is the best part of the story where the hero has to solve the problem. The ending is where the problems are being solved, normally. Unless there’s a sequel to it, then the story will be left hanging; like Pirates of the Carribean 2.
Also, let’s not forget about experimental films!
There have this abstract form style. What are the qualities of the film if you ask? If we look at the short film, Ballet mècanique, we see an animated version of Charlie Chaplin. This tells us that the figure of Chaplin is highly abstract because it is recognizable as human but it is also made up of simple shapes and moves in a jerky fashion. Coming after that, we see a woman swinging in a garden. She looks unnatural, with that fixed smile on her face and she constantly lifts her eyes and head and lowers them. Then a shiny ball circles and swings back and forth towards the camera. This tells us that the woman is not a character in the story, but an object.I honestly find a little bit creepy when I first watched one of the videos in my cinema studies screening last year. There were a lot of close up shots of the eye and teeth. But hey, it’s abstract.
Another one is called associational form. It is a type of form whereby it suggests idea and emotions to the viewers. It is like an assembly of image and sound that have no logical connections. It can be categorized as poetic film. For instance when Robert Burns says, “My life is like a red, red rose”, we do not assume that his love is literally red, but we look for possible association. Her beauty is the reason for the comparison. Or perhaps William Shakespeare where he compares his lover’s beauty to summer. It does not mean she’s a weather, but because summer is so beautiful and she is too.
Other than that, I thought that this could be an interesting read too!
Understanding film narrative: the trailer
