|
Bordwell & Thompson (2004) define a narrative to be a 'chain of events in cause-effect relationships occuring in time and space'. Narration itself is the process by which the plot presents story information to the spectator. Historically, fictional cinema has tended to be dominated by a single mode of narrative form (Bordwell & Thompson, 2004). This mode is known as the 'Classical Hollywood' narrative.
In classical Hollywood narratives the chain of actions that results from predominantly psychological causes tends to motivate most other narrative events (Bordwell & Thomspon, 2004). Furthermore, most classical films display a strong degree of closure at the end. Bordwell & Thompson (2004) discuss how these films leave 'few loose ends unresolved and complete their causal chains with a final effect'.
More importantly, classical narration is known to be represented in a single stream in which one image fills the screen at a time. However, in their daily experiences modern generations are becoming more used to seeing everything at once...
Recently Hollywood has been changing and adapting with the times. For example, most Hollywood releases now involve digitally manipulated scenes- the use of the cameras always carefully hidden (Manovich, 2004). 'Loops' or repititions of footage that were once avoided in narrative cinema have bceome more apparent. A film in which this 'loop' form is obvious is Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera. Several new TV programs are now interactive in nature, allowing the viewer to 'take charge' and control the character's motivations. Spatial monatge is currently being explored technically and it no doubt close behind?
Spatial Montage represents an alternative to traditional cinematic temporal montage, replacing its traditional sequential mode with a spatial one (Manovich, 2004). Whilst directors may experiment with this variety of montage, it is this author's belief that the traditional form of single-stream narration will remain to be the preferred choice. After all, traditional Hollywood films allow the audience to immerse themselves in a particular world. Too many would be confusing!
|
|