Linear and Non-linear

Linear narrative follows the story to the end. It has a ordered time scale that it follow, which is like average narratives. in photography it exactly the same the photos tell a story in order.

Paul Graham

 

 

Narrative as understood by film theorists involves the linear arrangement of events, selected and sequenced in a logical order, especially in a temporal sense. Cause and effect is the keynote, a story that proceeds logically and sequentially in time. Films having a beginning, a middle and an end – preferably, from a Hollywood point of view, a happy, or at least a resolved ending. Jean-Luc Goddard agreed with that, but with a decided sting in the tail. ”A film should have a beginning, a middle, and an end,” he famously remarked, “but not necessarily in that order.” That, of course, is nonlinear narrative, (elliptical narrative), defined in a nutshell

 

http://aphototeacher.com/2012/08/12/elliptical-narratives/

 

non-linear narrative Contains elements such as : interruption, circular and unfinished references, chronological anarchy. Examples: "Natural-born Killers" a film directed by Oliver Stone reveals controlled events that are not in order

For example the film Pulp Fiction by  Quentin Tarantino  the film is about the lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster's wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.



 The film begins and ends on the same scene like a circler narrative but the middle of the film is not set in order, this is what I liked about the film it wasn't set in a certain time scale it was different and all works together since the film ends were it began.