Tag Archives: conclusions

the problem with no conclusion – week 11

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been jumping around a number of people’s blogs this week and a post bec made really caught my eye. she had some really good things to say about this whole non-linear, no-conclusion thing we’ve been dealing with all semester. because yes, we do need to start embracing the new types of online and social media dominating our world today. but, like bec says, that doesn’t mean that we have to completely disregard everything we’ve had up until now. they’ve been trying to get rid of print and books for years. but they’re still here. people have been telling linear, narrative stories since the beginning of time. obviously they’re doing something right if they’re still around today, and are the most popular form of entertainment out there. so why should we completely disregard this all because of some little non-linear stuff that is really big for a very small number of people? es, maybe that’s where main stream society is heading. but narratives and conclusions will still always stay with us, so it’s important not to completely write them off.

like bec said, we use narratives to escape our lives. they provide answers and conclusions where sometimes our lives don’t. Adrian does always say that korsakow and non-linear mirrors the way we think and how we experience the world, by association. but isn’t that why we have stories, to escape the real world and experience something different? bec has raised some good questions. she’s not saying to completely disregard what we’ve been learning, but just suggesting that we also don’t completely disregard everything we all ready know and have in society as well.

narratives and conclusions, part 2 – week 11

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the lecture this week again was consisting of discussions regarding conclusions, narrative and nonlinear in regards to korsakow. it seems people are pretty hung up on the fact that korsakow is different to what we’re used to. different doesn’t mean worse (it certainly doesn’t mean better), it just means different, it’s not what we’re used to. and this is still getting to some people. maybe they’re just xenophobic (although i never thought xena was that scary. sorry, that was a terrible joke).

people’s main issue appears to be that of a lack of conclusion with the k-film. that you can’t determine how or in what order someone will view it and so you can’t provide the conclusions that you want. this brought up the question, “should you have an end SNU?”. this was a yes and no kinda answer. obviously it depends on the kind of film you’re trying to make and the kind of experience you want your viewers to get. end SNU’s can be problematic because if they come up to early in the viewing of the film then the film will end prematurely without al the right stuff getting out. but an end SNU can also give clarity or information that might be needed ago end the film or deliver the final message of the theme. an end SNU is useful for a film with a strong temporal link or a literary timeline. again, the use for an end arises when we think mostly in linear narrative form. if we want our film to be a traditional narrative then we will want it to have a traditional conclusion and in that situation then yes, have an end SNU. but that’s not what korsakow is supposed to be a bout. it is decidedly different and allows you to be different. so why revert to the traditional when this is the way to do something new, non-linear is the way of the future (according to adrian). my favourite point from the lecture was again about conclusions. we are all hung up on them, on linear storytellings with narrative endings. but not every story has an ending, even ones told in linear fashion. and the example adrian gave was soap operas. soap operas are a story. they tell a narrative in linear fashion for half an hour five days a week. but they have no conclusion. ever. they just keep going. people can stop watching them if they want. and form their own conclusions about what that means or what might have happened. but in reality, thy have no conclusion. and that doesn’t seem to phase anyone. narratives and conclusions relate but they are no code pendant. you can have one without the other and we need to grasp that and understand it because by the look of things, that’s where we’re all headed in the future.

narratives and conclusions – week 10 lecture

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more discussion about k-films in this week’s lecture, we discussed themes, emotions, narratives and conclusions. looks like everyone has the major k-films on their minds. the major point that i took from the whole lecture was about  the k-films not being a way to literally express any point but as a way to experience something for each individual. the point of the k-film is for everyone to interpret the content individually, they become a part of experiencing something without being told exactly what they are supposed to be experiencing.

how important are themes in a k-film? a theme gives us something to work around. like we discussed in one of the previously lectures, constraints are good. they allow for greater creativity. and a theme can do just that. limits that we work both within and around. even without a defining theme, as humans it’s within our nature to try and find any form of pattern or link between things, without pattern, all we see is chaos. our lives are associational because we link everything together so a them in a k-films allows them to feel more cohesive than they may be without one. however, the important part, like in the previous point, is to not always be too literal with the themes. infer a theme or idea without explicitly stating it. give the audience a means to enjoy and experience for themselves. its not so much the theme itself but how the content explores the theme. of course, this also depends on what the theme is, some can be far more obvious than others. for example the theme we have decided on for our k-film is superpowers and reality vs. fabrication. one of these is more obvious with the other and we are using this first theme as a means to explore the latter one. so while the superpowers themselves might seem obvious, the way that they are delivered and the ideas that they are being used for (reality vs. fabrication) will be more inferred than explicit.

does a lack of narrative or conclusion give an unsatisfying experience? the first answer to this was that we really need to move away from the ideas of linear narrative storytelling as a way of communication. that’s not what this course is about. of course, simply moving away from that isn’t that easy, it’s something that we have grown up with as part of society and is pretty much all we know. even though adrian says that non-linear is how we think, that’s how we think sub-consciouly, consciously we live in the world of linear narratives. what was a good point is that narratives and conclusions are separate. you can have one without the other. k-films can end. they can provide a specific ending clip. but even for the ones that are meant to go on forever, they must end. and that is when the viewer gets to decide the conclusion, which in a way makes that conclusion even more powerful because the viewer has decided upon it themselves (even if it’s just because they were bored with the film they were watching). and even without a set conclusion, we will always try to prove some sort of context or meaning to whatever we’re watching. even if the ending doesn’t make sense.  we don’t watch a film for the ending, we watch it for the experience. our k-filsm are the same. another really good point i liked was that the internet is kinda like a giant k-film. its comprised of links in and out, is uniquely experienced by each individual and has no end (except for those decided upon by the user). there is no meaning on the internet, we give meaning to what we see and contribute to it as well.

finally, we discussed the kuleshov effect, a topic that was brought up a couple of times last year too. the kuleshov effect reminds us that when we are making, not just our k-films but anything, that it’s not the shots themselves that meaning anything but rather each shot in its relation to those around it. meaning only comes from relations, the shots or clips themselves have no meaning.