3. Narrative and non-narrative structures

A narrative structure is basically the story and whether the film has a beginning, middle, and end. The Girl Chewing Gum goes straight into action and doesn't show an introduction but it does have a beginning, middle and end. The narrative of this film changes as we think at the beginning that this is footage happening live as the director speaks, to finding out that it's not real and the footage is pre recorded.

Koyaanisqatsi definately shows clearly a beginning, middle and end. At the start we are on a deserted island, to completely changing pace in the middle to more fast paced action, and ending slowly again, with the ending being similar to the beginning. This is showing how life is a continuous circle, things can never stay the same forever but can always at times become repetitive.

With 1001 Nights we are not told the whole story. We hear the 5 women telling their stories but not in whole, we are only hearing half of what really happened, and we only hear what they say, not the questions asked. At the start we are not clear as to what the film is to be about as there is no introduction, we are just brought straight in as the first woman speaks.

Telling Lies has a clear beginning, middle and end. We first hear the phone ring, then we hear the conversation taking place, then ending by hanging up the phone.

Narrative structures are not always in use, therefor aren't always important, depending on what type of film we are viewing, like Gisele Kerozene, can be viewed as an entertainment based piece rather than a story happening. Some films will have an ending told before we reach the middle of the film so we know what happens at the end, but most of the time a film will run through a linear based structure and to fully understand the endings we need to have a beginning and a middle. 1001 Nights doesn't use this narrative structure and the stories we hear aren't in full detail, we don't have a beginning and we don't really have an end either because much more could be said.