Crime Story Narrative Exercise

1
Modular Narratives

• Crime Story Experiment

2
Crime Story Experiment

• We took pictures showing a basic crime story plot
  in order to switch around the narrative.
• The plot goes
• Crime committed
• Crime discovered
• Investigation begins
• Crime is solved
• The criminal is caught or escapes

3
Chronological Order
Someone gets murdered.
A passerby find the crime scene.
4
1) Chronological Order
The crime scene is investigated.
The criminal is found
5
Chronological Order
The criminal is found guilty.
This order shows the story the way it happened
and goes forwards in time with no cutting
backwards.
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2) Ending First
The film could start at the trial showing the
criminal being sentenced to prison, the go back
to the start of the film and proceed in the
normal chronological order. This would be an
example of a shark bite as the opening grabs
attention and uses an enigma code to make the
audience wonder what happened to make the
criminal go to prison.
1)
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3) Beginning Revealed Later
The film could start with the crime being
discovered. This narrative is quite enigmatic as
the viewer will have to wait to find out who
killed the victim.
8
Beginning Revealed Later
The plot would then proceed with the
investigation and use action codes to gradually
answer the audiences questions.
Once the investigation ends, there could be a
flashback of the crime being committed, revealing
the culprit. The plot would then proceed with the
arresting of the criminal and the trial.
9
4) Arrest First
The arrest of the criminal could come first,
followed by the trial. This could make it seem
like the criminal is actually innocent.
The investigation could happen in a flashback and
the film could end with the crime itself,
revealing the criminals guilt.
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5) Investigation Last
This version could start at the trial and use
flash backs to reveal how the criminal was
caught, starting with the crime being committed.
This time the film would end with the arrest
after having shown the crime and the
investigation, which would conclude how the
criminal was caught and brought to justice at the
start of the film.
11
Conclusion

• In conclusion, this exercise has shown that a
  films narrative doesnt have to be linear and
  can work in a number of ways that dont conform
  to the conventional chronological order.
• As well as this, by putting the main events of a
  story in the wrong order, it can create suspense
  and enigmas, which keep the viewer interested.