Filmmaking courses for scientists help promote richer alternatives to chronological narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Scientists have the tendency to communicate their scientific accounts using linearly structured narratives (Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion; IMRAD). Likewise, the linear narrative is dominant – due to force of habit – when scientists prepare films about their research. Yet, this does not necessarily have to be the case for the new generation of scientists-as-filmmakers, who is trained to appreciate and apply alternative narrative structures. We evaluated the narrative structures of scientists from Swiss universities and research centres. Before the filmmaking courses, 94.1% of participants would use the linear narrative structure in their films, while the remaining participants would use one of the other alternative narrative types. However, after participating in the filmmaking courses, the number of potential users of the linear narrative fell almost 11-fold, and this type of narrative became the least popular. By contrast, after the courses the before-climax-backwards narrative experienced a 79-fold increase in potential use. The parallel, frame and end-backwards narratives had seven-, six- and four-fold increases, respectively. The filmmaking courses also dramatically increased the number of types of narratives that participants would consider using. Filmmaking courses for scientists help scientists-as-filmmakers make a clean break from linear narrative structures in favour of other more varied structures.