When looking at a film's structure it is important to focus on how the film starts then progresses to the main story and, finally, how it concludes that story. Perhaps most important though is how the film flows through each of those and the transitioning between each of them. Some films directors choose to do this untraditionally, starting with the end, then going through to the beginning and middle or in any other order that may occur. Consequently, it is also important to balance between making a film that makes sense, as in a purely linear film, and trying to be creative and perhaps trying something different.

 

I chose the short film 'The Interview' by Go For Broke Films for my structure analysis because it doesn't go with the usual order of the story, preferring to use flashbacks to outline what happened. This keeps the audience from working out what's going on and why for the longest period of time, keeping them guessing. It starts in the present, with the Russian going to an interview, and has flashbacks to the past, revealing what he has done. These flashbacks are used to explain why he's doing what he's doing in the present, as he's an assassin, ultimately concluding in the present with what he's doing now.

 

While changing the structure can be a good story telling technique, it can also get too complicated and confuse the viewers. 'The Interview' epitomises this done well, and is something we should look at when deciding how to structure out film. Whether a story should be linear or non-linear us often a defining factor in a film's success. For example, the film 'Pulp Fiction' is very successful film that is well known for it's non-linear storyline. It splits up it's narrative into several parts and shows them in an unchronological order and without this the story probably wouldn't work as well. That's why it has to be balanced whether a linear but straight forward storyline would be better or worse than a non-linear and more interesting narrative. As a result, the structure of the film can determine whether it is traditional or going to try something different, which massively affects the overall film. Consequently, it is important for the filmmaker to use structure to their advantage in order to enhance a film for the viewing audience.