In my media aesthetics and analysis class, we just got a reading about narrative structure, with the classic 3-act structure of a story having a beginning, middle, and end. Then, I saw an analysis of the 3-act structure as it is used today in video games (I put the video in the link).
But, I've recently been a bit frustrated by this concept. Media has changed so much since the oral stories of ancient times, and yet, the 3-act structure still exists in storytelling, though the order is sometimes rearranged. Why? Is the concept of everything having a start and end embedded in the human psyche, or can we get past it? Can anyone name a film, TV show, game, whatever that DOESN'T use the 3-Act structure? I can't, and I'm not even sure how to make a story without omitting the elements of start/end or adding anything else. Does anyone else find it scary that we as humans are restricted to understanding the world around us by how things start and end and we ultimately cannot comprehend the universe being infinite in time as well as space? I know, it’s weird to think this, but really…can anyone think of a story of any medium that didn’t use the 3-act structure somehow? I’d like to know.
BTW, I’m Face, a TVR major.
