Narrative Techniques (Part 1/3)

Cinematic techniques such as the choice of shot, scene transition, and camera movement, can greatly influence the structure and narrative of a short film. These include technique such as montage, foreshadowing,  flashback, binary opposites, and voice-overs.

 Montage In filmmaking, a montage is an editing technique in which shots are juxtaposed in an often fast-paced fashion that compresses time and conveys a lot of information in a relatively short period. Montages cannot create strong emotions. Therefore they are not used to make the audience feel, rather they make the audience know. Montages inform. For this reason, it is often said that characters cannot fall in love during montages. The courtship and romance would be too bland or dull. However, the short film Roshambo, by boho fashion retailer, Free People proves otherwise.

Roshambo is another name for the rock-paper-scissors game. The game itself is like an inside joke or secret between the couple and is sweetly woven throughout the video. The camerawork is mostly hand-held, this highlights the intense physical interactions between the couple. Also it shows a lot of close-ups shot with a wide aperture enabling the audience to focus more on the couple's expressions and actions without being distracted by the background. It is mostly shot at night, often dark due to natural lighting but this also accentuates the intimacy. Finally, the non-diegetic background music fits perfectly as its upbeat sound adds more to the playful nature of the two.

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is a literary tool filmmakers adapt to provide early clues about where the plot is headed. It is a narrative technique that, when used skilfully, gets viewers involved and thinking about the plot unfolding before them because they are picking up hints about what may soon happen.

Skhizein by French animator Jérémy Clapin is a short which tells the story of a man called Henry who comes face to face with a meteorite, the aftermath of which causes him to exist exactly 91cm from himself. In practice this means that when he sits down he looks as though he is floating in the air because his visual presence is 91 cm away from the chair itself.

The title itself provides a foreshadowing of the short film. The word “skhizein” is German for “split.” There is one obvious relation to the video – Henry literally splits into two parts. However, “skhizein” also happens to be the first part of the word “schizophrenia,” schizophrenia being a personality disorder. Henry seems to be the only person who realizes that he has been split. He writes out a blueprint of his house, he makes a make-shift desk at work, and he frequently mentions that he’s been shifted over by 91 centimeters. This could mean that Henry being hit by a meteorite is a metaphor for Henry developing schizophrenia. Schizophrenia also tends to develop over an extended period of time, which is shown in the film by Henry getting hit by multiple meteorites throughout the course of the video. Additionally, social isolation is a defining symptom of schizophrenia. Towards the end of the video, Henry begins to shut himself off from the world – he ignores both his mother and his uncle.