Narrative structure and dead insects

"...They take a whole bunch of dead shit, and make it come back to life through film."

Can i quote my lecturer here? Maybe it wasn't my lecturer who said this. Maybe it was the crazy guy eating his own face on the train home on Friday night (FYI, the Werribee line is not for the faint of heart). You'll never know.

Stan Brakhage's Mothlight received many cracks from my fellow classmates (myself included) at uncovering the subtext, some of which could be true, some could be false. But the above quote stands true, regardless of any other analysis you throw over the top of it.
Whether it's recording actual events in a news report or documentary, a science fiction feature film projecting a possibility of an alternate universe, or just 2 stupid fictitious people who take 140 minutes to realise they are meant to be together, film gives life to events and scenarios (both real and fiction) every time you turn on the television or walk into a movie theatre.

 

I think if i were to take away only 1 piece of information from this class, that would be it. But I need to back up a little- I don't want to give the impression that that was all I took away from the lesson.

Classical Narrative- 2 words that when paired together had never meant a great deal to me, up until last Friday.

Everyone understands the basic idea of narrative structure in film. You meet the characters. Something happens. That something gets resolved. Then the lead male gets laid. A lot.
You don't need to see him getting laid, you just know that it’s going to happen, and a part of you wants to start a an epic slow clap, as if to say, "well played random film hero, well played."

It wasn't until the actual elements of classical narrative structure were listed and discussed that i began to develop a deeper understanding of the paradigm employed in the majority of films over the last 80 years.

While i do appreciate this common structure, i am eager to watch David Fincher's Mulholland Drive next week, as it rejects the conventional structure of film to which society has become accustomed to.

More about that next week!

Sean.