Narrative Simulation for Film Rhetoric Composition With or Without Story and Nostalgia Effects

Introduction

Narrative simulation is a process of composing and designing various kinds of narrative rhetoric and of testing the cognitive effects of that narrative. Many cognitive effects of narrative are caused by the effect of the determinacy and the indeterminacy on the interaction between cognitive process, story, discourse, and rhetoric themselves. For example, the indeterminacy emergent from the cutting techniques for narrative space and time on the narrative film can cause a viewer to experience cognitive transition and intensive cognitive effects. Based on the cutting techniques used to generate the indeterminacy with regards to time, space, or characters in continuous shots, a viewer or a reader can feel less constrained with regards to story comprehension and can reset the viewpoint to subtle elements, such as individual shots. The cognitive transition caused by the indeterminacy of narrative film rhetoric can cause cognitive effects, such as reality or nostalgia effects. The reality of, or the nostalgia effects of, the narrative film can be enhanced or reduced by controlling the determinacy of its story and by controlling the indeterminacy of non-story aspects of rhetoric. This chapter is specially focused on the topic of narrative simulation for non-story film rhetoric composition.

Generally, based on various narrative simulations, one single narrative is produced. However, using computer technology, the diversity and the fluidity of the world of narrative content can itself also be one narrative work. Kanai (2016) argued that computational narrative film rhetoric composition system, in particular with regards to the specific place with or without story and nostalgia effects. Many kinds of nostalgia can be actualized using a strategy that employs both story and non-story cognitive and aspects of rhetoric by the system, by which various kinds of film rhetoric can be composed from the same shots or stories. Thus, the nature of nostalgia and narrative can be studied. The various kinds of computational narrative film rhetoric composition can be considered as being a narrative simulation by which the cognitive effects created through the interaction can be designed and tested. In this chapter, using the film rhetoric composition system, the author provides special analyses of the two types of narrative simulation and the cognitive effects of various edited films as they relate to the indeterminacy and the determinacy from the rhetoric of the film editing and from the three kinds of nostalgia.

The film-editing-based determinacy and indeterminacy can be a key concept for narrative simulation. There are two different aspects of rhetoric in film editing. The difference is very important in terms of the design determinacy and indeterminacy of film cognition and composition: narrative simulation. First, one is a dialectic aspect, in which the totality and the determinacy of the story concepts are important (Eisenstein, 1949). The other one is an irrational cutting aspect, in which the subtle non-story elements, such as editing technique itself are important. In addition to the determinacy created by the stories’ or characters’ goal-directed actions, the indeterminacy created by the non-story elements of rhetoric, and the nostalgia aspects of rhetoric are essential issues of narrative simulation for film rhetoric composition. Based on the indeterminacy, the narrative simulation mechanism can emphasize the non-story rhetorical aspects of films. The aspects of rhetoric can cause cognitive effects that do not arise through comprehending a story but which instead arise through the audiovisual situation itself.

The author classified the editing into 16 rhythm editing categories based on Eisenstein’s four methods of montage theory (metric montage, rhythmic montage, tonal montage, and overtonal montage) regarding the indeterminacy. Next, the author designed 10 kinds of 52-second films using 90-second sequences of 18 shots each from The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) directed by Carl Th. Dreyer, for narrative simulation. Then, the author analyzed the cognitive effects of the edited films.