CG087. Time-based Multimedia

Assets

Week 7. Storytelling For Beginners.

Today.

Silent times and Storyspace. Film Form.

Motivation and motifs. Narrative form

Story and plot. Time and space.

Classical Hollywood cinema Expectations

Silent times and Storyspace.

Silent times .

Battleship Potemkin by Sergei Eisenstein. helps write the rulebook of modern cinematic techniques

Made in 1925. A short edited sequence from the Odessa steps section of the film. A short story in its own right.

This link gives another story from the same section. http://www.integratedstreaming.com/librarymedia/potemkin.htm

Very powerful drama. Strong emotional content.

30 Sec long 18 cuts

Click on image.

Silent times

Charlie Chaplin.

Witty intelligent comedy.

10 sec 5 cuts a mini-story in its own right

Click on image.

Storyspace. The ultimate game where people play with each others expectations

It is generally agreed that all stories have:

Beginning (I say I say I say… My dogs got no nose) Middle (Your dogs got no nose? How does he smell? )

End (terrible!)

Applies to Movies, Opera, TV adverts, Novels, Jokes etc.

Storyspace what is it?

“Chunks” of experience organised in a way that has a beginning, middle and end.

Lots of things fit the description from phone calls, theories of universe, switching on a light etc.

Is this how we experience information that has resulted from action ?

Storyspace

Many real, Physical phenomena like gravity and light were simply not noticed by people until acutely perceptive individuals came up with satisfactory stories about them. (storyfication)

Where no suitable story exists we make one up that fits the Information we have.

Science, religion, paranoia, superstitions, life after death etc…if we cannot make up a story we become confused and may suffer psychological trauma and cannot function.

How quick can storyspace be…….. ?????

“The duration of the present”Miroslav Holub.

Shortest possible narrative is between 50 milliseconds and about 3 seconds.

Under 50 milliseconds, events do not make it into consciousness, although they have powerful effects subconsciously.

Trauma.

Is it the opposite of story?

If we cannot perceive events as stories can we perceive them at all ?

Events that do not follow the BME structure could just be cognitive noise, but too-abrupt events which appear to the audience/viewer out of sequence may be impossible to assimilate and may even cause trauma. Road accidents, bombings, muggings etc. No perceived gentle build up/no sequence.

Film Form.

Why Study Formalist Film Theory? To provide a theoretical foundation for understanding the forms

and functions of time-based media Unlike “Film Studies”, we the understanding not to interpret

films, but to analyze and design multimedia information systems Video capture Video analysis Video retrieval Video assembly Video reuse Video summarization (e.g., meeting recording) User interfaces to audio-visual content and that use audio-

visual content

Perceiving Artistic Form

Form The overall system of relations that we can

perceive among the elements in the whole film

In perceiving form, the spectator draws on Cues within the work Prior experiences

Derived from everyday life From other artworks

– Conventions and norms

Principles of Film Form Function

What is this element doing there? How does it cue us to respond? Motivation (justification for the presence of an element)

Similarity and repetition Motif (any significant repeated element in a film) Parallelism (cues to compare two or more distinct elements by

highlighting some similarity)

Difference and variation

Development Progression moving from beginning to middle to end

Unity/Disunity

Viewer’s Activity

“The constant interplay between similarity and difference, repetition and variation, leads the viewer to an active developing awareness of the film’s formal system.”

Narratives are highly motivated.

They are organized systematically.

Every element of film form serves a function in the

narrative.

Motivation means that everything you see and hear in a film is intended to be meaningful. Implicitly as spectators, and explicitly as film analysts, we recognize the systematic organization of narrative through the repetition and development of motifs.

Motifs are basic elements of narrative meaning.

A motif is any significant element of film form. A motif is a little hammer overloaded with meaning. It can be

a gesture, a character trait, a piece of dialogue, a musical theme [Jaws theme], patterns of light and dark, camera movement [subjective camera in Halloween], any manipulation of the image [solarized image in Predator]; in short, any kind of narrative or stylistic element.

A motif is by definition repetitive. It will reoccur and redevelop in a strategic and meaningful

way.

A motif can serve multiple narrative functions The system and coherence of the narrative film, its abhorrence of non-functional elements, and its apparent organic unity are presented here as ideals. Most Hollywood films aspire to be tight, unified, with everything meaningful and in place. But few succeed entirely and some don't succeed at all. While aspiring to unity almost all narrative films incorporate, consciously or not, elements of disunity. Rather than all the motifs harmonizing, as it were, there are often some wrong notes.More importantly, some films strategically and systematically build themselves on principles of disunity. The "montage" style of Soviet films of the 1920's are one example. Rather than assimilating shots into the impression of a continuous space, they stressed the formal integrity of the shot and the shock of the cut..

Motifs are basic elements of narrative meaning

Narrative Form

Narration

Plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specific effects

Moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot

Involves range (unrestricted/restricted) and depth (perceptual and mental subjectivity) of knowledge of story information

Range of Story Information

Spectrum of knowledge of the story world that viewers and characters have Unrestricted (omniscient) narration Restricted narration

Creates “hierarchy of knowledge” among viewer and characters

“Who knows what when?”

Depth of Story Information How “deeply” the plot plunges into a character’s

psychological states Continuum between objectivity and subjectivity Subjectivity

Perceptual subjectivity (hear and see what character perceives) Point-of-view shot Sound perspective

Mental subjectivity (hear and see what character thinks) Internal voices Internal images

“How deeply do I know the character’s perceptions, feelings, and thoughts?”

Range and depth of knowledge are independent variables

Narrative Form

Narrative A chain of events in cause-effect relationship

occurring in time and space

Story and Plot (chicken or egg ??) Story

Set of all events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly represented and those the viewer infers

Plot Everything visibly and audibly present in the film All the story events that are directly depicted

Story and Plot

Story (THE VIEWERS INTERPRETATION)

Plot (THE VIEWERS GUIDE)

Presumed and inferredevents

Explicitly presentedevents

Added non-diegeticmaterial

This implies a basic distinction: STORY and PLOT.

This distinction is useful for three reasons:

1) it helps us move between a general consideration of narrative and the criticism of specific films;

2) it helps us distinguish between the formal patterning of the film and the mental/perceptual activity of the

spectator; and

3) it helps us to understand the organization of film space and film time.

Plot and Story

Plot and Story The plot refers to the ordering of actions and

events as they actually appear in the film in their closed and irreversible sequence The plot is organized by various patterns of

development.

The story refers to the spectator’s mental reconstruction of these actions and events into a chronological and meaningful pattern.

Plot and Story The plot is the film as it literally unrolls before your eyes. The plot of a film is

fixed and unchanging, it always begins with first scene and ends with the last. (The first true exceptions to this rule are "Hypertext" narratives with truly randomized plots.)

However, the activity of story-making in the mind of the spectator is not so linear and fixed. While watching the film, the spectator is always juggling events in his or her memory, anticipating what comes next, making second guesses, reassessing old information in the light of the new, correcting earlier mistaken impressions; in short, establishing patterns of meaning out of the cues that the plot offers. Therefore, the "story" exists nowhere but in the mind of the spectator. It defines the interpretive activity, conscious or unconscious, that the spectator performs on the material offered by the plot. The plot rarely depicts events in strict chronological sequence. Time and causality are messed with in order to initiate mysteries and to give pleasure at their resolution (Pulp Fiction). The story--or "what really happened"--is therefore a mental construct, established by the spectator retroactively using the clues offered by the plot. (Many spectators many differing stories)

Time

Temporal order Flash-back Flash-forward

Temporal duration Story duration Plot duration Screen duration

Temporal frequency Repetition of events

Teeth Brushing Example

Brushing Teeth Protagonist stands in front of bathroom mirror Protagonist opens medicine cabinet to remove

toothbrush and toothpaste tube Protagonist squeezes out toothpaste on

toothbrush Protagonist brushes teeth Protagonist drinks water from glass Protagonist spits out water and toothpaste residue

Temporal Duration

Story Duration Example: Brushing teeth in story world (5 minutes)

Plot Duration Example: Brushing teeth in plot world (1 minute: 6

steps of ~10 seconds each)

Screen Duration Example: Brushing teeth (12 seconds: 3 shots of

~4 seconds each)

Space

Story space

Plot space

Screen space and off screen space

Classical Hollywood Cinema

Patterns of development in the Hollywood cinema Most Hollywood plots are structured in three-acts. BME

structure

The three acts of most Hollywood films are further divided into six sections of narrative development.

The typical Hollywood plot follows a canonic form.

The six basic plot sections

EXPOSITION

CONFLICTS DEFINED AND DEVELOPED

POTENTIAL SUCCESSES AND FAILURES

APPARENT DISASTER

RAPID TURN OF EVENTS

CLIMAX AND CONCLUSION

Plot: the “canonic form” The basic pattern:

initial state of affairs--violence or rupture--restoration--undisturbed stage--disturbance--struggle--elimination of disturbance

A double causal structure: two plot lines

Each plot line encompasses a goal, obstacle and climax

The two plot lines coincide at the climax

Resolving one plot line triggers the resolution of the other

Segments

How to make a task easier divided it up into smaller tasks… Segments

Typical film has 14 - 35 segments each with 25 - 30 shots/ segment. Not standard just a guideline.

How do you recognise a segment ?

How to define a segment

Beginnings and ending of segments are often signaled by cinematic marks of punctuation such as fades, dissolves, wipes, irises, or hard cuts;

A segment is often defined by unities of time, place, and action. A single narrative idea will be followed through from statement to conclusion;

Apprehension of formal unity in the patterning of the shots;

Apprehension of formal unity in the context of the film considered as a whole

“Classical Hollywood Cinema”

Action primarily arises from individual characters as causal agents

The process of achieving goals desired by one or more characters drives the narrative’s development

The protagonists’ goals come into conflict with other characters’ goals (antagonists) to create conflict

“Classical Hollywood Cinema” The cause-effect chain drives narrative events

Plot time tends to depend on the story’s cause-effect chain “Dead time” is rarely shown Appointments bring characters together at a specific time

and usually place Deadlines makes plot duration dependent on the cause-

effect chain

Narration tends to be “objective” and unrestricted

Narrative usually has strong closure at the end (cause-effect chain ends with final effect)

What are some of the basic conventions of film narrative?

Genres imply one set of conventions. What are some of the conventional expectations that you bring to the mystery genre?

Many historians also consider THE CLASSICAL HOLLYWOOD CINEMA or CHC as representing a set of stable narrative conventions. From the early on, the Hollywood studios refined their methods for standardizing the production of films. These standards, which have a concrete industrial and economic basis, became widespread owing to Hollywood's economic domination of world markets. In this manner, the classical Hollywood cinema has become the dominant model for the construction of "good" film narratives. The CHC has become an aesthetic norm for film narrative.

Just as there are films that build themselves systematically on principles of disunity, rather than unity, there are many important films that implicitly or explicitly challenge the norms of the CHC. The CHC presents a series of narrative conventions.

It neither objectively defines narrative as such, even good narrative, nor is it the only way of telling a story visually.

It is simply the most familiar model of film narrative. As you watch films you should think about which ones can be considered as creative deviations from the norm of Hollywood Cinema. There are also many important non-narrative films.

Conventions of the classic, Hollywood cinema Hollywood narrative: … is human-centered; individual characters are the causal

agents of the narrative; narrative centers on individual choice, action, decisions, or problems.

... is driven by desire; --the narrative defines a lack or a need, proposing a goal that the protagonist must accomplish (the CHC is a goal-oriented form);

... is built on opposition and conflict; the progress of the hero towards the defined goal is opposed by problems, obstacles, or a character with antagonistic values;

Conventions of the classic, Hollywood cinema ... is linear (actions and events are clearly

linked by a logic of cause and effect); the forward movement of the narrative, the progress or set-backs encountered by the hero, takes place in a linear fashion. Each action or event must follow logically from the actions preceding it even if that logic is only apparent retroactively. Time is subordinate to the cause and effect chain: the plot will omit insignificant elements in order to emphasize only events of causal importance; the plot will rearrange story chronology to maximize interest in the narrative.

... depicts actions and events with clear and complete motivation; each element must have a clear reason for being there--it must follow the internal logic of the film.

Conventions of the classic, Hollywood cinema ... tends to have an objective or

omniscient narration; The camera narrates in third person. It pretends to an objective status against which the limited knowledge of individual characters can be measured. Even if a single character dominates the pov of the film, there are portions of the film that give us access to things that the character does not see, hear, or know.

... communicates a strong sense of closure. No loose ends. All problems overcome, mysteries resolved, desires fulfilled.

CHC… hit list Hollywood narrative is human-centered; ... is driven by desire; ... is built on opposition and conflict; ... is linear (actions and events are clearly

linked by a logic of cause and effect); ... depicts actions and events with clear and

complete motivation; ... tends to have an objective or omniscient

narration; ... communicates a strong sense of

closure.

Finally expectations.

Our narrative competence, like our ability to speak, is huge but largely unconscious. You need to be encouraged to be more self-conscious about your activity as spectators, simply do not accept what you see. Investigate your expectations.

Expectations

Suspense Delay in fulfilling an established expectation (his he going to get caught ?)

Surprise Result of an expectation that is revealed to be incorrect (he gets away !)

Curiosity Construct hypotheses about prior events (why did he slam the door ?)