Linear & Non-Linear Narratives

Story lines in Films and TV programmes can be confusing to write as well as watch because of how complicated the layout is. When watching a linear film you go from start to end with knowing what happens in those certain scenes and how it creates an ending where you are able to understand what happened before hand. But with Non-Linear it mixes up how you see characters interact with each other as well as seeing some of their past/future. It can range from seeing the end at the beginning or mixing the full time line in a number of episodes/hour time slots. This can be effective because it creates a sort of back story for the characters but it also links in with the story/plot lines that combines them all together. 

Many Films/Shows over the past 5 years have been linear and in the correct order, this is because this way it is easier to make sense of it when used as a reference to something else. Linear Narratives consist of a Beginning, Middle and an End that are shown in chronicle order so when it's over it's easy to make sense of. A good example of this would be Soaps and Dramas like Eastenders and Scott and Bailey because each story line that we see is completely in order, there is no flashbacks or episodes where we see something that happened years ago for any of the characters. When we watch this it's easier to see and understand each character and plot because it's shown in an order where we can keep up. There are connotations in Linear Narratives that aren't seen in Non-Linear ones such as we don't see a back story, we don't get to know too much about something that one character had done in their past. We get to hear them talk about it and explain it to other characters but we never get to see it actually taking place like you can in Non-Linear shows.

Non-Linear Shows/Films haven't been seen over the past 3/4 years and it's only just recently been noticed again on our screens. These narratives are quite hard to piece together if you watch the show half way in because you won't be able to understand what's happening to them and how they've progressed. Personally I prefer Non-Linear to Linear because you can create back stories that you can see visually not just verbally. I like how detailed you can make it by including a in-depth look of their life before we see them on screen. Orange Is The New Black (Image Above) is a good example of this because we get to see the back stories of how each inmate had ended up in the Prison. Each character has their own and in Linear Shows we don't normally get to discover much about them because it's set so the story continues from that moment on wards. But what I love about Non-Linear narratives is that you can take them in any direction, by showing more emotions into their stories by showing how they got to that point. In my own work I've actually used a Non-Linear Narrative by having an entire episode dedicated to showing the action before we meet the main character in the pilot episode and this continues throughout the 3 Season run. In my personal opinion you can do so much more with non-linear by making it more into a puzzle for the audience but also making a more entertaining ending.