Free writing - Experimental Narrative Stylization Thoughts

The first thing I would think about when creating an experimental narrative is chronology. Or perhaps that’s getting ahead of myself. The first thing you should think about when making anything is why you are making it in this way or that way. There must be justification behind your stylization. Assuming you’ve already done that and have decided that yes, you have a story that is best told as an experimental narrative, the first thing I would think about is the chronology. Shifting around the chronology of scenes can’t be done at random. It must have a reason behind it. Every scene should be considered in relation to the story as a whole. If the viewer is seeing the scenes in a non chronological order, the story needs to develop in a rational arc despite the scenes being out of order. The story is revealed to the audience in a different order than to the characters in the film and this must be taken into account. The premise of the characters on screen knowing things that the audience does not know and vice versa lends itself to suspense and dramatic irony so these techniques should be used as effectively as possible. If the audience knows the end from the beginning they need to be asking why it ended the way it did throughout the film otherwise it would be easy to lose interest. This is done best when the climax of the film, the turning point, is not the ending of the story but rather some other point, and the scrambled chronology allows the actual climax to occur at the end of the film even though it may occur at the beginning of the story.

Another thing to think about for an experimental narrative is the headspace of the characters. Experimental narratives often try to explore this with stylistic techniques giving the viewer insight into the mind of the characters that traditional films lack in favor of realism, pacing, or ease of watching. This can include hallucinations, strange color palettes, odd soundscapes, etc. I would focus on my cinematography for these moments as that is an important part of portraying mood and the way the character occupies a frame of a movie can show where they are in their mind as well. I would do more with lighting if I had the resources for it.