Narrative Structure In Disguise: The Making Of A Short Film

The making of short films can be some of the most expressive and magnificent artistic forms of art. It is the telling of a story through the perceptions of its creator, making it truly representative of the artist’s outlook on life. Anybody with a camera in our day and age can become a short film creator without having to invest in expensive Hollywood standard equipment. ‘Disguises’ is a short film which focuses on a socially awkward jobless young man named Rob, who is demotivated to do many things and likes to keep himself enclosed in his surroundings. He makes it clear in the opening sequence that he was not encouraged to go out and do every day regular tasks. This film bases itself around Rob going to an interview for a job. As he is on

The narrative structure flows swiftly and makes it more enabling for the audience to perceive. “Narrative structure is about two things: the content of a story and the form used to tell the story. Two common ways to describe these two parts of narrative structure are story and plot. Story refers to the raw materials of dramatic action as they might be described in chronological order.” (Cinémathèque, 2016). Torodov then simplified the whole idea of narrative structure while also allowing a more complex interpretation of film texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium, splitting into five stages. He suggests that all narratives follow a three-part structure when they begin with equilibrium where everything is balanced, something comes along to disrupt that equilibrium, and finally reach a resolution, when the equilibrium is restored. In the film Disguises, the equilibrium begins in the opening scene where everything is deemed to be normal. The character Rob gives the audience an insight to become connected emotionally as they follow him on his journey. You can already get an idea of what sort of character Rob is with the setting of the bedroom as there is litter spread all over, giving the audience the feeling of him being unhygienic and

It is the big reveal. This is saying that the recognition of the disorder has occurred. In the short film ‘Disguises’ we soon find out that these people who we haven’t seen the faces of yet, have boxes on their heads. This will make the audience question the film and why this has been done? It releases more information but not too much because the audience need to keep engaged, and in a way they become hypnotized by the whole concept of these people having boxes on their heads. The shots used mainly by this point are close up shots to show to emotion and confusion between the character Rob and the box heads. Rob becomes worried and anxious about how everybody is wearing a box but him and begins to run away. As he is running around a corner, there are stood a line of box heads waiting for him. At this point, the music has escalated dramatically and the shots become shorter, snappier and fast paced cuts occur to be able to capture all the action, all at one time. “Fast cutting - is a film editing technique which refers to several consecutive shot of a brief duration (e.g. 3 seconds or less). It can be used to convey a lot of information very quickly, or to imply either energy or chaos” (Evans,