A Filmmaker's Guide to: Frame Narrative

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Frame Narrative

What is it?

A frame-narrative is where a story is set within another situation. For example: people sitting around a campfire listening to one person tell a ghost story from the past. The main storyline would then take the place of the ghost story from the past.

One of the most famous frame narratives in late 19th Century literature is Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" which begins with a man who takes out his sister's old documents on staying at Bly House with two children who were haunted by the ghosts they knew.

Another example of this is in the various books of Susan Hill. One of them is "The Woman in Black" which is set on Christmas Eve and then takes a step back in time to when Arthur Kipps went to the Eel March House and witnessed the terror of the ghost there. My personal favourite though will always be "The Man in the Picture" (also by Susan Hill) which begins with two men discussing a painting and then, it steps back in time before then going past this frame narrative point into the not-so-distant future of the frame.

If done properly, it is a beautiful way of telling a story, especially in the gothic and ghost tradition. Imagine this, you and me are sitting around a warm fire on Halloween, we're in my house, in the living room and it's all Edwardian WW1 architecture. I begin telling you a WW1 ghost story that happened in this house long ago. We get lost in this story together. If someone were to write that down, we would be presented as the 'frame' to the main narrative - which would be the WW1 ghost story.

What about in film?

It's difficult to do a frame narrative properly in film without making it look ever so slightly cheesy. Frame narratives in film can include:

- A Clockwork Orange (1971)

This one is one in which we are never shown the 'present' of the main character. However, we are told the main story in past tense and so, there would be a 'present' for the main character which would be further away than the movie's main events.

- Fight Club (1999)

Again, another example in which we are never really shown where the 'present' is. But, we are told various pieces of the story in past tense and that must mean that there is a further not-so-distant 'present'.

- The Blair Witch Project (1999)

From the trailer, but not the movie, you will be able to see that this one is part of a frame narrative from the total present. So, we can definitely say that this one is different. At the beginning of the original trailer, we're given a frame narrative which we are not given in the film and I find that really interesting. You can investigate it for yourself and try to develop your own theory about why you think this is.

Further Reading

• Hill, S (2012). The Man in the Picture. UK: Profile Books.
• Hill, S (1998). The Woman In Black . UK: Vintage.
• James, H (2008). The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories. UK: Oxford World's Classics.
• Straub, P (2008). Ghost Story. 2nd ed. USA: Gollancz.