Narrative in films concerns the structure of the film. A linear narrative, for example, is when a story has a beginning, middle and end, and in that specific order. This may seem the norm for most films but this narrative structure becomes broken instantly with the appearance of a dream or flashback etc. The other type of narrative is non-linear narrative. This is not the same as a film containing flashbacks, however, even though it seems that way. This is because films containing flashbacks or even flashforwards usually always jumps back to the point it left off in the story, therefore they usually continue to follow the linear structure.
A non-linear narrative is one that does not proceed in a straight line or in a step-by-step fashion. This could be where an author creates the ending of a story before the middle part is over. A classic example of this would be the 1994 cult classic Pulp Fiction, in which the film seems to be three seperate stories, but upon closer inspection they are actually three sections of one story with the chronology broken up- there aren't any flashbacks actually involved.
Linear and non-linear narrative is also a main feature of short films. The most commonly used form of narrative in short films is linear. This is most likely because short films are, well, short, and overcomplicating the story line with a complicated non-linear narrative whilst intriguing and entertaining the audience member at the same time can be very tricky, so its best to stick to the simplest and easiest form. A good example of a short film with a linear narrative is Spider:
In this product, the story follows a simple straight line with no interjections from flashbacks, it starts with the start and ends with the end. Simple.
-KW
-KW
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