Why we use Nonlinear Narrative

Definition: Nonlinear narrative is a narrative technique  where events are portrayed, for example out of chronological order, or in other ways where the narrative doesn't follow the direct causality pattern of the events featured, such as parallel distinctive plot lines, dream immersions or narrating another story inside the main plot-line. It is often used to mimic the structure and recall of human memory but has been applied for other reasons as well.

Nonlinear narrative is used to make films more interesting and artistic. Many filmmakers use nonlinear in order to make their stories more mysterious. A famous example of this in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller Momento, which shows the film in alternating black & white and colour scenes, the colour scenes play in reverse order and start with the end of the film, and the black and white are in chronological order and start at the beggining. This means the film starts at the end, then begins and finishes in the middle. This narrative structure is used because the films protagonist has short-term memory loss and cannot remember thing five minuites after they happen. The director uses his strange narrative in order to make the audience as confused as the hero.
Nonlinear structure is used in many genres of film, such as rom-com (500 Days of Summer), crime films (Pulp Fiction), drama (The Presteige) and our chosen genre, Comic book films (Watchmen and Sin City).
We used nonlinear in order to make our movie seem more unique and outside the box, and because it is becoming more popular.

Order of opening titles

This is the order for our opening titles. We put it in this order because, after analising film openings, I found that they follow roughly the same order. They often begin by telling you the production companies and the name of the film. Then it ofen shows the cast list then the backstage crew, ending with producer, writer and dirctor credits. The full order for ours is:

1. ASS KICK PRODUCTIONS logo
2. MARBLE FILMS logo
3. Fight scene
4. Frozen last shot goes to black
5. Photo's start
6. Ass Kick Productons present
7. In association with Marble films.
8. A film by James Estrop, Beth Hardy & Ryan Turner
9. VICTOR'S VENGENCE
10. James Estrop
11. Ryan Turner
12. Costumes by J&R
13. Fight choreography and Stunts by James Estrop & Ryan Turner
14. Associate producers: Ashfield school media department
15. Edited by Beth Hardy
16. Production designer: J,B,R
17. Director of Photography: Beth Hardy
18. Exective producer: James Estrop
19. Produced by Beth Hardy & Ryan Turner
20. Written & Directed by James Estrop, Beth Hardy & Ryan Turner.

Our target audience: will we please them?

Codes and conventions we used:

1. Action/fight scene
2. A hero and a villian, both of whom have a motif.
3. Good vs evil.
4. Backstories that relate to each other and are relervant to the plot.
5. Hero's friend.

Codes and conventions we broke.

1. The villain is the nerd, not the hero.
2. Non-linear narrative structure.
3. Hero becomes Hero for selfish reasons.

Our target audience who watched The Avengers:

	Votes	Average
Males	258415	8.2
Females	53361	8.4
Aged under 18	10181	8.7
Males under 18	6671	8.6
Females under 18	3510	8.9
Aged 18-29	200079	8.3
Males Aged 18-29	164255	8.3
Females Aged 18-29	35824	8.5
Aged 30-44	86565	8.0
Males Aged 30-44	75483	8.0
Females Aged 30-44	11082	8.2
Aged 45+	13247	7.9
Males Aged 45+	10986	7.9
Females Aged 45+	2261	8.0
IMDb staff	39	8.4
Top 1000 voters	567	7.5
US users	82169	8.5
Non-US users	229607	8.1
IMDb users	484024	8.3 And for TDKR: Votes Average Males 311286 8.5 Females 51341 8.6 Aged under 18 10417 9.3 Males under 18 7747 9.3 Females under 18 2670 9.3 Aged 18-29 240840 8.7 Males Aged 18-29 205000 8.7 Females Aged 18-29 35840 8.7 Aged 30-44 96716 8.2 Males Aged 30-44 86464 8.2 Females Aged 30-44 10252 8.2 Aged 45+ 12747 7.8 Males Aged 45+ 10908 7.8 Females Aged 45+ 1839 7.9 IMDb staff 36 7.7 Top 1000 voters 551 7.7 US users 90385 8.6 Non-US users 272242 8.5 IMDb users 578469 8.6

Evaluation of shooting session

On March 19th, my group and I filmed the footage from our fight scene. We went to a classroom in lower school (our primary location idea, the dance studio, was being used), which was good because it had the right amount of natural light so that we could see the filming in good quality but also had a gloomy, darker look than classrooms in the sixth-form center. After pushing back all the tables and chairs, we started filming our fight scene. Beth filmed the scene, in which the hero (James) and the villain (myself) have their "final battle" (breaking conventions and linear narritive structure by showing the final battle first). We shot the scene on Beth's ipod camera, which produced a good quality image. We will mute and re-record sound in the editing stages as there was lots of unwanted background noise (lower school kids walking past). We filmed most of the shots several times and a few from different angles so that we have more to work with during the editing stages of our film opening coursework project. Because we did not use a tri-pod, we will have to see how the clips look in the editing and if it doesn't look good we may have to refilm some shots next week. I think that, even if we do have to refilm parts, we got some good shots and it helps that we now have a better understanding of our film opening scene.

Video diary 1

In video diary 1 we rehearse our fight scene, which is very important so we knew what we were doing and did'nt hurt ourselves.

Plan for Tuesday

Media 5 & 6
Beth: Camera
Ryan and James: Costumes.

• Location:
• Dance studio (First choice)
• Classroom (second Choice)
• Sort lighting and do a camera test.
• Consult Script and Timeline.
• Shoot fight Scene (stay after school if nessesary)

Location , costume and lighting

We have decided that the best place to film the fight scene within the villain's lair would be the dance studio as we can adjust the lighting more than we would be able to in a regular classroom or drama studio. We are planning on using low key lighting to give Victor's lair an ominous, spooky feel to it.


Here is the first idea for James' costume:

James is playing our hero Super J. In preperation for his role he got a costume. He used bright colours (red & blue, like Superman and Spiderman) and tights. So that his costume seemed more superhero-like. However, it also had to look homemade and break other conventions by getting rid of the mask, cape and boots. Getting rid of some conventions of the costume whilst keeping others is an idea explored in V for Vendetta, Superman (who has no mask) and Watchmen.

I am playing the villain Victor. My costume is mainly black and very simplistic & homemade looking (a bit like in Kick Ass and Defendor). I thought about my characters quest for revenge on Super J and my black costume connotes my character's hatred and evil. My character also has a mask to protect his identity and because if neither character had a mask it wouldn't look like a Superhero film.
Here is my finished costume:

Script

First shot of a wall. Super J crashes into the wall. Victor appears and pins Super J against the wall and then throws him to the ground. As Vicor approches, Super J takles him to the floor and then punches him. As Super J is recovering, Victor disorientates him with a shot to the back of the leg. Super J tries to attack but Vicor blocks his attack and punches him to the floor.
Victor goes to punch Super J and finish him off when the picture freezes and a Voice over comes in.
Super J (in Voice Over): Well... I never thought it would come to this. I always thought that the hero was unable to be defeated. The all powerful force to protect the world. I used to be normal. Just like You.
(Photos amd opening titles)

Target audience

The main audience that comic-book movies try to appeal to are males between the ages of 15-35. They try to appeal to this audience because on average more men would rather watch a comic book movie than say a romance film. Also, more men than women have been proven to watch these films in cinema's and on DVD, so the makers of these filmes keep trying to appeal to this target audience in order to make more money. It also uses the stereotype that all men like films where everything explodes and people fight in order to acheve it's target audience. However the audience is getting much wider as two comic book films (The Dark Knight Rises and Avengers Assemble) were two of the highest grossing films of last year.

Evaluation of our progress so far

So far we have choreographed our fight scene and taken the photos that will overlap the titles. However we have not filmed any of the fight scene yet. So far I think it's going well, we took alot of photos and now it's just a case of picking the ones we want in the edit. We do however need to make the fight tighter and more realistic as at the moment there are times when we look like we are dancing.

Photo's from opening

Here are some of the photos taken for our opening. They will run over the main titles. These are only some of them.

 We tried to use a variaty of shots, but focused mainly on using mid 2 shots to show the friends at the start. We wanted the photos to tell part of the story and the origins of both the hero and villain.

 



We also created two fake production companies with logos.

Timeline for our opening

1.  First logo (3 seconds)
2. Second logo (3 secondes)
3. From black screen to mid-shot of James crashing into wall (6 Secs)
4. 2-close up shot of Ryan grabbing James and throwing him (2 Secs)
5. Deep shot showing Ryan from behind throwing James towards the camera (2 Secs max)
6. High angle shot- James hits the floor (1 Second)
7. Low angle shot from James' Point of view- looking up at Ryan walking towards him (5 seconds)
8. Mid-closeup of James getting up ready to attack (3 secs)
9. Wide shot of James running (1 Second)
10. Close up of James shoulder tackling Ryan (2 secs)
11. Mid-2-shot of both characters crashing to the floor (1 Second)
12. Over-the-shoulder shot of James grabbing and punching Ryan (3 Secs)
13. Mid shot of James getting up and looking groggy (2 seconds)
14. Close up of Ryan getting up and going to punch James in the back of the leg (6-7 Secs)
15. James hops round in a wide shot (2 secs)
16. Mid shot of James looking suprised (1 Sec)
17. Tracking close-up shot of James' fist going to punch Ryan and Ryan's hand catching James' (3 secs)
18. Mid-close up of Ryan going to punch James (1 sec)
19. Big close up of James' face being hit by Ryan's fist (1 second)
20. High angle shot of James Falling to the floor (1 sec)
21. Low angle shot going into close up of Ryan walking in(7 secs)
22. High angle shot of James' face (1 sec)
23. Low angle shot starting at regular speed and then going into slow motion of Ryan going into punch James. Just as he gets there the shot freezes and  the clip goes into voice over (15 secs)

24-39- Photo's and opening titles (All photo's/tiltles on for 3 seconds)

Feedback from the class on our idea

My group and I pitched our idea to the rest of the class and got feedback about our idea.
Positives;

• unique
• Good storyline
• Gets right into action.

Negatives

• Could go horribly wrong
• Might have overshot it

Sound design

Sound design is everything you here in a film or TV show. It includes backgroud noise, dialogue, score, sound effects, ambient/drone noises and every thing else that you can here (including silence).

Sound design is just as if not more important than visual image. Sound can change the mood completley.

Now heres the last part of the scene again, with a different mood.

Some of the best examples of great sound design are used in horror movies. Watch this scene from House At The End Of The Street.
Notice how all the way through the scene there is a creepy drone sound and a sting at the end. The sound effects are also more exaggerated  Now watch it again with the sound off. Notice the difference. This happens in alot of horror.

Notice the heavy breathing. Unnerving isn't it.
It's not just horror films that have sound design. All movies do. Horror films simply use it in a more elaborate way. Watch this
Not only is there dialogue in this scene, but also every time iron man moves you can here a robotic sound from his suit. Footsteps and faint background noise from outside are also added in.

Sound designers have always found ingenious ways of creating the noises they want:

25 (or more) word pitch

Our film opening is a darkly comic superhero film with a nonlinear narrative. It begins with a fight scene between the protagonist and antagonist. At the end of the fight a small narration is herd from the hero and then there are several photo's with the ttiles and music to go with them.