CHAPTER 5
PLOT, TIME, AND STRUCTURE
So much about film’s appeal is hotly debated, but, “if anything is natural,” says Dudley Andrew, “it is the psychic lure of narrative, the drive to hold events in sequence, to traverse them, to come to an end.”1 Every intended film has an optimal structure, one that best conveys its dramatic issues, their working out and outcome. You begin by deciding how to organize the sequence of events and how to handle time. From this you will recognize the vessel you need to contain your story—its structure. As with all design problems, less is more, and the simplest solution is usually the strongest.
WHAT IS PLOT?
In Chapter 3 we discussed the difference between story and narrative by saying that ...
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