Experimental narrative

Experimental narrative should not be confused with the more specifically nonnarrative experimental film or video. The experimental film or video is often entirely taken up with an issue of style. In the extreme (in more than one Norman McLaren film, for example), the film can concern itself with the variations of movements of abstract lines or shapes. In McLaren s films, line or shape give a visual dimension to an abstract musical piece. The narrative intention is at best remote more often in such work, it is not even a factor. In the experimental narrative, in contrast, narrative intention does have a role. However, the form or the style of the piece is as important as—in some cases more important than—the narrative. 

Here too there is a clue to the nature of experimental narrative. It follows a nonlinear pattern as opposed to a linear time or character-arc frame. The usual elements that shape a story—a goal-directed main character, a plot— and a traditional genre all tend to be subverted in the experimental narrative. We are left with the powerful stylistic elements of the experience. 

The key to experimental narrative is the desire to avoid conventional narrative. Conventional narrative is essentially a character-driven or plot-driven story with a beginning, middle, and end. In conventional narrative, the main character may or may not achieve his or her goal, but the drive to achieve the goal carries us through the story to a resolution. A nonlinear story may eschew a single main character, or a plot, or a resolution, or all of the above. In the experimental narrative, the energy of the story comes from the style the writer-director chooses to use to compensate the audience for the loss of linear direction through the story. Many experimental narratives have no plot some have no defined character. Consequently, the conventional dramatic tools—conflict, polarities—are less at play. In experimental narrative, form or style is as important as, and often more important than, content. Thus, a nonlinear form is more able to capture the essence of experimental narrative than is the usual set of dramatic tools deployed in more conventional or linear narrative. 

More than any of the other genres in this section, the experimental narrative takes up the other arts, both for inspiration and for affiliation. All of the arts struggle with the issues of form and content. But the experimental narrative, unlike melodrama and the docudrama, does not affiliate itself with realism. Instead, it uses style to probe for psychological meaning, as opposed to a sociological realism. The work of Bunuel and Dali, for example, links directly to Dali s paintings, his "dream works." Chris Marker s La Jetee... 

The key point here is that the experimental narrative links to other arts to draw inspiration and to use the affiliation to point up the style chosen for the narrative. 

Perhaps the most we can say about these characters is to see them as obsessed, to understand their behavior as habitual (they reject themselves a good deal of the time), and consequently, to care about their fate, rather than to see ourselves in them. These observations make us curious as to the reasons for their desire and the consequent self-abnegation. Unlike in hyperdrama, where the character serves a moral purpose or goal, no such purpose is obvious for the characters in experimental narrative. They are abstract... 

If most forms of drama (like melodrama, for example) are deliberate, purposeful, focusing on an emotional experience for the audience, no such contained experience is the objective of the writer of experimental narrative. The feeling sought might be too diffuse or too intense to be dealt with directly. For this reason, the author seeks out a more indirect or meditative experience for... 

In the case of experimental narrative, the presentation of the motifs is considerably different from that of the other genres. The following two case studies will illustrate those differences. We will look at Atom Egoyan s Calendar (1993) and Clara Law s Autumn Moon (1992). 

What Kind of Story Benefits from Experimental Narrative... 

Unconventional stories are the first source for experimental narrative. Generally, the stories tend to be exploratory—stories of identity, stories of alienation, meditations on a time or place. Vincent Ward s film The Navigator looks at a medieval period Clara Law s Autumn Moon looks at Hong Kong— a place where change and tradition meet and, in the 1990s, conflict. Because experimental narrative sidesteps plot, stories of character dominate. Because the genre favors open-ended or nonlinear stories, the preference is for tone, to make up for the absence of resolution. 

Large scale simply works against the experimental drama, so think in very simple, elemental terms. If you limit the parameters of the story and strive for a feeling-tone, you will be on the right road for experimental narrative. Keeping the idea simple—two people, a particular place—will help you limit the narrative in such a way that you do not accidentally lapse into a more traditional narrative. Experimental narrative does not require a lot of story, so simplify. 

Since plot is not a factor in the experimental narrative, the use of character becomes very important. 

We also should be dealing with the characters in a personal way. We are close to all these characters. They are vulnerable, and yet they remain somewhat inscrutable. They are vulnerable and mysterious. The writer does not want us to know these people any better than they know themselves. As they struggle to understand, so do we. This is an important element of the charm of experimental narrative. The narrative and the style are used to attempt to gain understanding of and insight into the character. Change may or may not happen, but that is less relevant than the exploration itself, the internal struggle. 

One observable aspect of the experimental narrative is that no two structures are alike. We can say the story tends to be nonlinear, but beyond that, few structures resemble one another. 

In the above example, the relationship itself is the shaping device. In Exotica, a place is the shaping structure. In Milcho Manchevski s Before the Rain, an idea—racial hatred kills love—is the shaping idea. Shaping devices become a means to create a structure. The shaping device, however, is not linear—ergo the unpredictability of the experimental narrative. 

This is a form where your voice can be truly unique. The form, the substance, the people, and the structure all will be interpreted through tone. The tone can be poetic, ironic, or expressive, but it should be specific, to help us understand why you are drawn to the characters or place of your story. The tone is the critical mode in which you will transmit your ideas and feelings, so in a sense, if you choose the experimental narrative, it is your most important decision. 

The key to this experimental narrative is that the beautiful mystery of Paris, the Empire of the Moon, is inscrutable but valuable to each of us who needs such a place in our lives. 

Voice continues to be a critical element. Whether the filmmaker chooses to use a genre that highlights voice (the fable, the satire, the docudrama, the experimental narrative) or a more traditional melodrama or situation comedy where voice is more masked, the more natural fit of the short film to metaphor implies the greater potential of the short film for a stronger sense of voice. 

Although the experimental film and video embrace style as the central quality of the genre, the short film varies in the degree of that embrace. Although it is true that style is very important in the short film, it needn t be the exclusive defining characteristic that it is in the experimental genres. Style will be less important should the filmmaker opt for a melodrama, but it will become more important if the filmmaker opts for a fable or a docud-rama or indeed an experimental narrative. 

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