Narrative Techniques

Linear
A linear film is where it is set out in the order beginning, middle, end. So it is easy for the audience to understand and follow. An example of this is a children's story where it starts with 'Once upon a time' and ends with 'and they all lived happily ever after' with the bit in the middle explaining whats going on to the children making it easy and simple to understand.

Non-linear
A non-linear film is where it is set out differently. You may have the ending shown at the beginning in reverse or starts in the middle before rewinding back to show you the beginning. This may confuse the audience but it creates mystery about whats going on. This makes the audience want to carry on watching to understand whats actually going on in the film.

Omniscient
Omniscient gives the audience a 'god' like perspective about the film as they may of seen the end at the beginning an therefor know how it will end. As well as knowing how it got to ending in that certain way. This allows the audience to come up with there own conclusion about how it will happen before they see it on the film.

Restricted
Restricted is where the audience are kept in the dark about the goings on. They may know a lot about whats happening but they will be kept out of one major part of the film. Giving them a shock once it has happened as they were not expecting it.