Plot, Time, and Structure

Plot is the order in which events are organized and told. Its most effective form is determined by the nature of the story and the intentions of the writer and director functioning as storyteller. Cinema is highly flexible when it comes to organizing the events of a story over time because unlike th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inDirecting Vol. 1; pp. 65 - 83
Main Authors Rabiger, Michael, Hurbis-Cherrier, Mick
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 2020
Edition6
Subjects
Superb
Tony Stark
Hirokazu Koreeda
Alaskan Wilderness
Dramatic Questions
Playback
Non-Chronological Narratives
Reverse Chronology
Hurt Locker
Long Shots
ADR
Parallel Storytelling
RAF Fighter
Character POV
King's Speech
Young Men
Gay African American Male
Fruitvale Station
Main Character
Subjective POV
Dramatic Beats
MCU
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Summary:Plot is the order in which events are organized and told. Its most effective form is determined by the nature of the story and the intentions of the writer and director functioning as storyteller. Cinema is highly flexible when it comes to organizing the events of a story over time because unlike theatre films can easily move forward and backward in time, in large or small leaps. Real time, something seldom tackled by film, means that events unfold without breaks, lapses, or ellipses so that the complete story has the same duration as the film's running time. Far more common than real time are films that adhere to chronological time, where chronology means putting selected events in order of their occurrence, from beginning to end. The structure of such a film would have to be a fractured one, with numerous openings and a multitude of voices, with its prime strategy being one of refraction, not condensation.
ISBN:0815394314
0815394306
9780815394310
9780815394303
DOI:10.4324/9781351186391-8