Collaboration: Film Lecture 4 - Time and Storytelling (Non-Linear)

 Linear vs Non-linear

Linear Storytelling = Non-time displacement (Moving from sequence A-B-C)

So, what is Non-Linear Film making?

  Non-Linear stories can have retrospective timing, such as when Forest Grumps is talking. This is book framing of time change throughout the film.

  The Princess Bride is reality framing, we are going into a different time frame/ reality compared to the one we are currently in (The old man telling the story). This is equal to a Story in a Story.

Flashbacks/Forwards 

These can be done is different ways and can have several positives and negatives; 

- Takes the audience out of reality

- Slow place of story telling

- Stops more creatives uses of telling.

- Can be seen as lazy.

+ They can support the core narration or made in a creative or refined manner.

+ They can be used to isolate time.

Some examples of films that use flashbacks;  Stranger Things, Up, Captain america - The winter soldier.

Hooks and Twists - Storytelling Trajectory.

A way of engaging the audience and adding twist in the story.

Hooks - We are lead on to be given more information but it never happens.

Twists - If the audience aware there is a twist, they will look for it.

 *e.g Psycho - Uses a celebrity to draw in the audience, kills her off early to shock the audience into a early twist.*

*From Dusk Til Dawn - starts as a escape movie and then becomes a vampire movie.*

Types of Twists:

  Deux Ex Machina - A story should never just stop or a character that just disappears (unless this is deliberate). This is considered Jarring and can irritate an audience.

  The Unreliable Narrator - Someone who we believe is the narrator that is making us believe in something that isn't true. Examples of films that use this trope are Fight club and Dr Caligari. 

Breaking the Forth wall and the Stream of Consciousness  - The Mind and Boundaries.

Here are some ways that the forth wall can be used in films;

Forth wall - talking to the audience directly via the camera (Ferris Buellers Day Off, Spaceballs, The Wolf of Wolf Street).

 -Characters inner thoughts.

-Explaining the world.

- Hanging the Lantern - Letting the audience know the main character knows.

- Suspension of disbelief.

- letting the audience in on the joke (Wayne's World uses advertising)

- Stretching reality via sets;  Dogville (2003), this films gives a essence of a play so to enhance the emotions of the characters. (The sets are not important, the characters are). Pleasantville (1999) works around bending time on two different perceptions of that world. This film uses the background to extend the narrative.

  Director Charlie Kaufman is know for his meta-narrative films, having made Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Synecdoche, New York.

Time & Editing

  The Kuleshov Effect - Placing images between ones of a man so to give him his emotion. This was done via editing and how people take the moment. The man's emotion is the same the whole way though, but is perceived differently but what comes before him.

Stranger Things - Thematic groups where everyone is going though the same thing.

  Birdman - A actor who played a superhero in the past is trying to reboot his career. This is done though following a seeming linear sequence of time, when really its non-linear.

  All of the above is partially Non-linear singularly,  but requires a mix to be completely non- linear.

  Non-Linear Storytelling is the rejection of storytelling forms, starting from the 1990' to present. Pulp fiction, Natural Born Killers and Reservoir Dogs ares prime examples of Non-Linear storytelling. 

In Pulp fiction all the story events comes together in the diner at the end, revolving around the narrative of the suitcase.

We are now moving into the Nostalgia and Franchises era, where films are always being re-invented for younger audiences and seeming cash generation. Examples of these are Ghostbusters, Star Trek and Planet of the apes. This can cause films to become nothing more then marketing tactics, upsetting fans and turning people away. 

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

(2004)

  Revolving around the changing relationship between Joel and Clementine, Eternal Sunshine delves into the possibilities of memory altering and the subconscious resistance that comes with it. Seemingly a knee jerk reaction from Clementine having her own mind wiped, Joel opts to undergo the procedure to forget the pain of his deteriorated relationship. However, as he travels though his own memories, he realizes he has made a mistake and tries to save her in his own subconscious so to be able to reach out to her once again.

  Working in a Non-linear format, there are several different narrative styles involved in this film. This includes Analepsis, Achrony and Syllepsis. Analepsis and Achrony in the form of moving between memories. During his procedure, Joel seems to still be aware of what is happening around him in the conscious whilst trapped in the unconscious. This ability gives him some control over moving though his subconscious and how Clementine speaks to him, although this would not have happened in other patients cases. Joel and Clementine are not the only ones to have had their minds tampered. Syllepsis is notable by the other characters in the film, these being Mary, the Dr, Patrick and Rob. Patrick had seeming stolen Joel's identity in a bid to get the new, altered Clementine to fall in with love him. Rob is in love with the once infatuated Mary, and had helped sway her in the decision to have her memory altered. Mary, once discovering her memory lose, chose to return evidence to clients in a act of revenge. In Eternal Sunshine looped workings, Clementine's parcel arrives when herself and Joel are rebuilding their relationship once more (completely unaware that its happened before), causing more uncertainty and pain.

There is framing between the conscious and the subconscious, intertwining the two world and acting a dual stream of consciousness. I enjoyed this film a lot, although it was confusing at times.