IM1 – Lecture Six
- Notes taken from this weeks lecture:
- Q1. What is the point in redefining narrative as anything more than ‘cause and effect’?
- There’s so many more ‘parts’ than just cause and effect
- If we define narrative as cause and effects we’re missing a lot of other things that’s going on
- Narrative implies the idea that someone has put something together in an order – a cause of significance – not random or accidental
- Abstract = don’t call it a narrative but still looking for that causual relations.
- If you trip over and break your arm, this is cause and effect but is not a narrative – everything that surrounds us relies on cause and effect
- Global warming – is not a story I’m narrating, it’s a cause and effect – so it’s not a story despite there being a cause and effect relationship. We can narrate themselves afterwards.
- We need to define it more than cause and effect – because we are surrounded by cause and effect and a small part of those are actually stories
- I’m still confused
2. Ryan notes ‘we can never be sure that sender and receiver have the same story in mind.’ Korsakow films allow for greater freedom of interpretation. Do you see this as a positive or negative? How can the filmmaker control interpretations?
- K film = different amount of control you can have as a creator
- Any clip in these films can associate to each other in anyway
- Controlling interpretations can be very difficult
- Hannah thinks there are different amount of control you can over the content of a k film
- If you’re making this film you have to accept the fact that there’s going to be 7 different interpretations – Viewers could get stuck in a loop, where another user could see both loops. – they’re seeing different stories. the overall view will be different from one user to another because of the technicalities of the software
- It’s nice to go into a piece of work and be surprised but what you’re seeing
- We can’t guarantee the sender and the receiver have the same story in mind – the question almost answers itself in that sense.
- Basic semiotics – meaning can’t say what it means
- The definition will never equal the word, rather you’re giving more words to try and describe it
- Language = defined by it’s relationship to something else.
- it’s inevitable a mismatch between the sender and the receiver
- K film = saying you can have lots of relations with other things – not just one – a thinks it’s a positive thing – it’s a much better representation of the world… there are more meanings than one.. things are intertwined.
- Filmmakers just have to get over it. Get over the fact you cannot control interpretation.
- Think about it as flirting – it’s a dance if you think you’re in charge of it, you’re in troubleQ5. What is the difference between the components of story and discourse?
- In the general sense the two terms can be described as….. told for entertainment.’
- STORY ‘An account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment.’
- DISCOURSE ‘written or spoken communication or debate.’
- Q6: When considering non-linear narrative, how important is Ryan’s sixth criteria for identifying narrative; the notion of ‘closure’?
- Closure comes back to the idea of cause and effect
- The desire to tie up all the lose ends
- In a K film you can have an end SNU
- Closure is a fundamental idea in relation to story because it’s only when something ends that you can understand what’s happened
- Ending = think about why things happened , until the end you can’t understand the cause and effect
- Closure is not invested in the media object but rather in the audience.
- Between the work of the user and the audience
- Nature of the experience – why would the viewer want to go back – does it offer them something different?
rebeccaskilton • April 7, 2014