Narrative Time & Space

TIME

Cause and effect take place in time. As we watch a film, we try to put events in chronological order and allow them duration and frequency.

a) Temporal Order
The plot does not always show us events in strict chronological order i.e. the order in which they would have happened in real life. For instance, sometimes a flashback technique is used to show us what happened in the past, or less frequently, a flash forward to events which have not yet occurred. The narrative can also be presented in parallel terms, for instance we watch a scene where a character is getting ready for a party, then we see another scene where a friend is doing the same. The time when this is happening is parallel to each other ‑ it is happening at the same time in real terms. As with all narrative choices the filmmaker has made, we must look at why
s/he has chosen to present events in this fashion and the effect it has upon us as an audience.

b) Temporal Duration

There are 3 distinctions of time within a film:

Screen duration: the time the film takes to show

Plot duration: the length of time the plot covers

Story duration: the length of time the story covers (including all the inferred events we bring to it)



c) Temporal Frequency
The plot of a film may show us an event which happens once in the film but we know to have happened many times in the story ‑ a short‑cutting of information for the viewer. For instance, in a film such as Gladiator, we see the hero fight four battles before his final triumph. We assume that many more battles have actually taken place, but we are being shown the most important ones in whatever respect. Alternatively, but less frequently, a story event may be shown more than one time during the plot ‑ we see an event occur from another angle which may lead us to view characters or events in a different light.

SPACE

Space is important in a film because the location is usually quite important. The plot sometimes leads us to infer other story space, which we may never see e.g. we know a character has gone off on holiday but we do not see this 'space'.

Screen space selects portions of plot space to show us, just as it selects certain time events and leaves others out. The decisions that are made in terms of film space need to be examined in conjunction with close study of the visual elements of film language.