Narrative approach encoding mental processes — memory, perception, imagination — directly into image and editing. Makes thought structures visible, not just illustrated.
When you're in the editing room and realize that classical editing logic isn't enough—that you don't just need to show a thought, but make the structure of thought itself visible—then you're working with cognitive poetics. It's not about a character remembering and you cutting flashback-style to another time. It's about how the brain actually works: associatively, fragmentarily, in leaps, with overlays.
The practice on set and in editing radically differs from classical narrative patterns. You work with visual metaphors for cognitive processes—not as decoration, but as narrative grammar. This means: the editing rhythm becomes the pulse of attention. Depth of field shows what consciousness is focusing on. An overlay is not an effect, but a semantic operation—two moments exist simultaneously because they collide in the character's mind. Out-of-focus transitions can represent the flow of thought, leaps without a match-cut the inner logic of association.
In dialogue with camera and lighting, the goal is for the visual grammar to follow the thought process, not the real world. If a character has understood something, the editing could suddenly be re-rhythmized—faster, more precise. If they are confused, spatial continuity breaks down. Lighting can express mental clarity or darkness without becoming psychological gestures. This is not expressionism in the classical sense—it is a direct translation of perceptual logic into cinematic form.
The difference from mere visualization of thoughts: you don't make the thinking about the images visible, but visible through the cinematic structure itself. A cut becomes a thought operation. A focus pull becomes a shift in attention. This requires precision in every element—from composition to color temperature. It is craft, not illustration.