Narrative & Editing

Everything we're doing in media is about trying to create meaning.

Narrative is the way you tell a story or way it is said, whereas editing is when you put something in order or together to create meaning.

Supersize Me narrative structure:

we think we see him buy the meal, eat the meal and throw it up. However we don't actually get to see this and we simply believe it because of the editing. We have no way of telling if he even threw up as we do not see it. We simply believe the time lapse. No one says he threw it up, they simply show some stuff on the ground out of the window that looks like sick; how do we know that this wasn't there before or set up. We constantly jump to conclusion and follow and expected narration purely because of the editing.

Supersize Me used ellipses to create this. These are used for when audience has to fill in the blanks with what they expect.

Editing constructs narrative out of footage.

Through getting a bunch of different footage of shots, scenes, lines and key moments etc. you can then edit that footage in anyway to manipulate it in a certain way to narrate a certain story.

We have no independent thought - all manipulation, where we are being told what to believe and think when actually we should question it all.