Cinematic Narration

Joseph Ruwe

                                                Cinematic Narration

Most good films tell a story, and an important aspect to the telling of the story is narration. Even in films that do not tell stories, such as documentaries or films that make arguments, the importance of cinematic narration should not be discounted.

Erotetic narration is a type of filming that has a question and answer type of structure that wraps up the loose ends of the film when it is done. In contrast, a soap opera ideally has no end, but just a never-ending middle in which the characters are forever finding themselves in new situations and never come to a final conclusion. Erotetic narrations give the audience closure. This is a way of giving answers to questions and coming to a definite end, rather than just stopping. Film makers should be aware of how to create good closure. Sometimes films end too suddenly and audiences are left with questions about the plot that were never answered. The audience should feel, with proper closure as though the film ended at a point where they are no longer in doubt about the questions and uncertainties in the characters' lives and situations. There is also a certain set-up involved in creating closure. If the story does not have some amount of suspense and questions to be answered, then the audience will walk out halfway through it because they don't have a reason to stay. On the other hand, if the closure is poor, then the audience will leave feeling unsatisfied. An example is the film, The Lord of the Rings. At the end of it  the ring gets destroyed. That is the answer to the main question that the audience wanted to know, and so they were happy with it. They didn't really care about whether or not Frodo lived in Bag End when he got back, or decided that his taste of life outside the Shire made him want the big city life of Gondor. That was irrelevant because it is not a question that the movie prompted, so the audience didn't ask it. Which is probably why director, Peter Jackson, decided to leave out the last part of the book where Frodo ended up going across the water to live an endless life with the Elves.  Scenes in movie either answer, sustain, or pose questions. For example, beginning scenes typically answer questions about setting, character descriptions, and time frame. They also pose questions that will keep the audience interested for the rest of the film. Scenes in the middle of the movie act to sustain questions by putting off closure. For example, in Remember the Titans, with each passing game that the team won, the audience had a more intense questioning of whether or not the team would resist the pressure to break down, or if they would win the championship. The last scenes of the movie should wrap it all up. It should tell us how things end up and give the answers to all of the questions that have been posed throughout the movie.