Dan’s lectorial today was on narratives and storytelling and must I say was probably the most engaging lectorial yet. However, still after walking away I was a bit like “uhhh so what just happened?”, especially after watching the short film by Daniel Askill ‘We Have Decided Not to Die’. Honestly it was probably one of the strangest things I have watched but obviously was very interesting and would have taken a lot to master some of the techniques which went on through the film. But one of the big questions was, is the film actually considered to be a narrative (a story) or is it a non-narrative (a piece of art)? I compiled a few examples of why it could fall under either category.

Narrative:

• It has a beginning, middle and an end
• There are development of the character/s
• There are sequences through the film
• Patterns of representation to link
• It goes from one place to another which takes the audience on a sort of journey
• The title ‘we have decided not to die’ shows that the characters have made a choice not to die therefore they are performing an action

Non-narrative:

• There isn’t really a plot at any stage
• Not really any link between the three ‘rituals’, they just go from one to the next
• It is emotionally intense the whole way through, there is no up and down like a narrative should have
• There isn’t any sense of closure, the last man jumps out of the window and then it goes back to the pool – no real ending or resolution
• The people are more like props rather than characters

So it is quite difficult to say whether or not it is a narrative, but if you would like to make up your mind on this dilemma, take a look at the whacky film:

(video source: https://youtu.be/UIg8bHnW9vk)