ESSAY - IMAGINING REALITY

Discuss how two moving image works embrace or contest dominant modes of storytelling:

Constructing a narrative is oftentimes the most integral part of film making and there are many constructions in place to create one. Contrary, art films are notorious for straying away from the dominant modes of story telling such as patterns used and the ways in which narrative can progress. To discover if assumptions about art cinema and its relationship with narrative are true I’m going to look at two example of it, HMLTD’s short film HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST (HMLTD, 2018) and Dexter Stokes-Mellor’s series I listen to Blue Monday every Monday (Stokes-Mellor, 2018), and see how they compare to classical methods of conveying narrative.

Typically Todorov’s standard pattern is used to progress and resolve narrative yet in both films there is no disruption so a realisation, confrontation and new resolution never commence.  HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST begins with a journey that is depicted with a long shot of their van moving through the road which is overlaid with clips from along the journey. If the location wasn’t clear from the title, we are soon enlightened with the information that the first destination is Paris. The second segment is the group in a television studio and we are then faced with a rotating globe and the next segment commences. The members of HMLTD appear in Brokenhurst which here, is only implied by the title. A few seconds show a transition to the next show where one affiliate is doing their makeup in preparation to go onstage and the final show ensues. Therefore, instead of the formal pattern of equilibrium, disruption, realisation, climax and new equilibrium - the film moves from one equilibrium to the next with no inciting incident. This, accompanied by the fact that the journeys are just as important as the events, also suggests that the film is more documentary than fictional narrative not too dissimilarly to Stokes-Mellor’s series, I listen to Blue Monday every Monday.

In the series there is a constant state of equilibrium as it is a documentation of specific periods of time that have been constructed or forced for the intendment of this trance like ritual. Due to the repetition and organisation of the events documented it creates a meditative space where both the character and the viewer are encapsulated and exceed time. The state of oneness both parties achieve is reflected in the fact that there is just one equilibrium, no inciting incident, no struggle, nothing else in the constructed reality. When a theme is universal, like the state of Being in I listen to Blue Monday every Monday, it transcends cultures and languages and therefore needs not to rely on a strong sense of narrative to communicate.

As the syuzhet concentrates on a single definable locale in Stokes-Mellor’s series, it would be expected that segments would be formed by character entrances or exits, a theatrical liaison des scènes. However, with the addition of only a single character, even this does not occur. The only way phases shift to the next scene is at the cuts where a new date is inserted.

Per contra, HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST comes closer to formulating distinct phases with the use of continuity editing which emphasises the consistency between plot space and story space, or unity of place and time, in the introductory phase. The place, time and relevant characters are all introduced and this coherently develops into a middle scene where all characters engage in a television show in preparation for their own gigs.

In classical narration there is always a beginning, middle and end with an approaching deadline. This deadline is usually implied stipulation but can also be shown with visual clues like clocks or calendars. Although, as an ongoing series, I listen to Blue Monday every Monday, never progresses through time to an end point and the series indefinitely proceeds to never exhaust a deadline. 

Yet dissimilarly, the initial deadline is clear in HMLTD’s film as we can presume that they will perform on the show which will then be televised. The deadline approaches at a faster pace as time progresses via the use of looming music and shorter cuts. The end of the film is signalled with traditional narrative forms. Firstly, members of HMLTD leave the stage, then there is imagery of the Eiffel Tower which suggests both that they have left Brokenhurst and it creates a full circle from start to finish. Thirdly, a boat and ‘Choo Choo train’ move from left to right which we have come to agree is the direction of exit. Finally, discretion is used and we are taken back to the stage where they all bend forwards almost as if to take a bow, which is abruptly cut short by a voice of God assertively calling ‘End’. Although within events linear construction is altered through Eisenstein’s theory of Dialectical Montage, in the grand scheme the events themselves are presented in order.

Alongside the pattern of beginning, middle and end, usually the classical syuzhet presents a double causal structure, two plot lines one of a heterosexual romance and one another sphere, but HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST lacks this in a sense that there are more than two plot lines. There are a chaotic culmination or short snippets of a plethora of plots used to give you a vague impression of what really happened. This is as much staged information as it is documentary truth. The chaotic representation makes the viewer feel how the subjects felt, not what really happened. A lot of information is withheld and this gatekeeping forces the viewer to make up and assume the rest. Traditionally, the two plot lines would coincide at the point of climax but again, HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST fails to ever reach a climax so yet again so fail to embrace a dominant mode of story telling.

I listen to Blue Monday every Monday contests alike. Nevertheless, the alternative is achieved differently. Where HMLTD’s short film has multiple plots, Stokes-Mellor’s series has just one, and to say it has any plot at all is still arguable. Phases are visually presented clearer than in HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST but narratively it is not so. The same narrative is simply repeated copious amounts of times with no conflicting or contrasting binary opposites that Strauss expects.

The characters included in both films differ largely from the norm. Dominant modes of storytelling include characters that are both visibly in shot with a body of some sort, and usually subscribe to Propp’s character types. In HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST it is arguable the traditional character types are not prevalent because all characters are part of a grouping and do not exist as separate entities outside of the group, in essence all parties involved form one cohesive character.

Akin, Stokes-Mellor is the exclusive character in his film series and consequently defies heroic, or otherwise, status, or at least at first glance. As the series is only available online and is not presented in a gallery setting, it is viewed in a completely different manner and it is then possible to consider the viewer themselves as the secondary character. The series is incredibly extensive and the repetitious content becomes boring so the viewer ‘zones out’ and the relationship to the film changes. The viewer starts to mimic Stokes-Mellor and just listens to Blue Monday alongside him and performs similar actions; dancing, tapping out the beat or singing along to parts. Whether the viewer becomes Stokes-Mellor or whether we become an entirely new character is unsure but it is assured that the viewer plays just as an important role as the artist and our realisation or enlightenment of our importance is actually when the next phase of the storytelling begins.

Penultimately, Bordwell & Thompson suggest that a story is simply the events implied or presented with which the spectator can interpret and in I listen to Blue Monday every Monday, we are given conflicting information in relation to time setting which we are then unable to interpret. This is where a sense of clear narrative is predominantly lost. The titles include the full date - 2018, as does the opening screen which we can only assume is true. Yet the mise en scene often juxtaposes this with props including stacks of VHS films which peaked in popularity in the late 1970’s (Glinis, 2015) and most notably the implication of a vinyl turntable introduced c. 1950s (Eil.com, 2018). The song which is at the forefront of the whole series also confuses the viewer further as whilst it does have longevity, it was released as a single on vinyl in 1985 (Blue Monday, 1985). To further the unintelligibility, the artist does not present themselves as particularly modern by way of clothing or hairstyle.

In HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST there are a plethora of events given to us and all are reasonably easy to understand. Where events are implied such as when they play with a dead bird, it is suggested that this is just a short stop in their journey. This is achieved by overlaying the footage in the corner on top of the progression through the road and it appears pretty clear that we do not need to know more about it as it was just a short moment in a dialectical montage to signify a part of their travels that had no significance to the narrative as a whole.

Finally, use of audio fully diverts from classical narration in both HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST and the I listen to Blue Monday every Monday series and both achieve alternative methods through music. Stokes-Mellor uses the playing of Blue Monday as a causal agent yet there is no prior, or indeed final, equilibrium. The song gives purpose to the actions and events and is in essence the whole equilibrium repeated multiple times. It also makes up the entirety of the audio bar a few nondescript diegetic sounds. This is very unusual as often dialogue is used in classical film to create meaning and not just use of audio to provide context and objective such as in this series.

Audio is again, used alternatively to create an aura or general sense of a long period of time in HMLTD’s film via soundscape. The songs of the artists construct the majority of the sound which is used with extreme intent and goes hand-in-hand with the visuals and the montage themes run parallel in both. Dialogue is short, unintelligible and often times irrelevant and does not serve the purpose to which dialogue normally does.

The denouement of the examples relationship to narrative is more varied than one would assume of art film. On a basic level, both HMLTD’S HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST and D. Stokes-Mellor’s I listen to Blue Monday every Monday series embrace the theory that a story is events that can be interpreted and HMLTD’s film also welcomes the idea of progression through phases and time. It is clear that art films largely differ from dominant modes of storytelling but how much so varies.

Blue Monday. (1985). [Vinyl] Tonpress.

Bordwell, Thompson, Smith (2009). Film Art. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cook, D. (1990). A History Of Narrative Film. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Eil.com. (2018). the invention of vinyl records - where it began. [online] Available at: http://eil.com/explore/guide/vinyl_invention.asp [Accessed 5 Jan. 2018].

Glinis, S. (2015). VCRs: e End of TV as Ephemera. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

HMLTD (2018). HMLTD X PARIS X BROCKENHURST. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4syyAHnyII&list=PLbWCEb_VcRhmgI4aAxa-gmF6_uCTt-Bk9&index=124 [Accessed 8 Jan. 2018].

Rosen, P. (2008). Narrative, apparatus, ideology. New York, NY [u.a.]: Columbia Univ. Press.

Stokes-Mellor, D. (2018). I listen to Blue Monday every Monday (series). [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xghf154pNvk [Accessed 8 Jan. 2018].