Blog Question #6:

The techniques that a filmmaker uses can be similar to those of a short story writer in that both of these artists use presentations by a narrator.  The filmmaker uses the camera.  It can act as a subjective or objective narrator depending on the filmmaker's craft for different shots.  The short story writer presents his/her story using a first, second, or third person narrator.  It's the writers choice plus his/her "voice" that decides the perspective.

In the story "Occurrence at Owl Creek" Bierce begins his story with a neutral omniscience (third person point of view) that objectively relates the scene in front of the reader.  After the scene is set, the writer uses selective omniscience to place the reader into Farquhar's mind.  Finally, the reader is brought into the reality of situation with neutral omniscience.  The filmmaker's "Occurrence at Owl Creek" that we viewed used his skill and camera to place the reader within the story using camera angles, long shots to set the scene as a third-person neutral omniscence point of view and a memorable closeup of Farquhar's eyes to place the viewer into his mind.

As I viewed the film, I found myself understanding the story better.  The filmmaker did the "work" that I as the reader lacked.  "Occurence at Owl Creek" became a 'reality' instead of words on paper fiction.