Notes
How story telling fits into the big picture of Film, Media Studies.
Without the power to tell a story, you will be automatically labelled as a technical person.
Storyline is where your ideas spark off your entire picture and shoot during preproduction.
The difference between capturing visual images and photos, visual images aren’t stationary but moving. It’s tedious to capture a motion or moment when it’s gone. In a photo, you are ignorant about the rational behind their emotions or what causes that feeling.
When you use story telling, it’s important to use present tense. Scripts are never written in a past tense as present tense gives the assumption that you have not shot the movie yet. For example, a certain motion in a scene of a specific movie has not occured yet. Scripts are written in third person view; it’s the objective way of writing a story where you are not the character.
Visual voice is whatever experience a person has. Visual voice is basically what the audience expects to see on screen when your script is being transferred to a motion picture. Write in a visual voice where you can imagine.
Example- Mark picks up a gun and holds it in his hand and trembles.
It’s tantamount to you hearing a voice from what the character experiences. This third person present tense is a voice over technique. The voice over technique is commonly used in screenplays. The story unfolds as we read it.It fosters a more urgent and immediate feel. The narrator is directing your attention to the action on the screen. It is opposite to the dialogue based of the movie. It is usually used in thriller and suspense.
Example.
Medium Shot of Marian finding the photograph. Marian in a night gown, sentimentally picks up the photograph.
Close up shot of her holding the photograph.Marian brings the photograph to face level, with a saccharine look on her face.
Zoom in shot on the photograph.A pretty lady is shown on the grainy photograph.
Medium Close up Shot of Marian’s facial expressions. Marian looks at the photo, she imagines her face plasted on the photo. Marian has a dreamy and blank look as she stares at the photograph.
Passive voice. Extra bit of information that gives the opportunity for your audience to visualise.Uses weak verbs to tell what’s happening in the character’s head. Creates distance between story and the reader. “She looks at the photo, when she closes her eyes, the camera fades as it zooms into her eyes.” For example, “The sky is blue and it has fluffy white clouds”. “Mark was angry with Jane for tricking him into helping her.”
Active Voice. Uses strong action verbs. Shows the action. Uses an immediate sentence structure. Conveys the story in a lively manner. It’s visually more exciting if there’s an immediate action. For example “Sofrie lashes out on him” “Fluffy white clouds drift like cotton in the ocean blue sky.” “Mark stomps furiously away from Jane, with complete ignorance and contempt in his face. His left fist clenched tightly as though he’s squeezing the last vestigial of his vehement frustration. His right hand reveals a strong and prominent finger, which is rather conspicuous to Jane.”
“Mark storms across the room to pour himself a drink. He slams the bottle down and gulps his drink. When Jane steps into the room. Mark turns around and smashes the empty glass at her feet.” Notice the use of props with actions to enhance the effects of an active voice. Put in a little of details for us to imagine it visually.
Everyone has no problems coming up with a list of excuses for procastination. A rather introverted job for scriptwriters.
Once you get started, it’s easier to go on and follow through. Once you have a writer’s block, take a break and continue later.All writers sleep better after they complete the story. Don’t be too hard on yourself, what you write at the beginning is seldom good. Start writing with an opener or a title, it’s easier and more feasible to continue.
Begin with this opener.
“Leonard walks towards the box…”
Ask yourself,
Whose story am I telling?
What is the point of this story.
How can I engage the attention of the audience.
Exercise one openers, write 12 openers in your blogs under the Openers Page.
“Sally keeps glancing at the watch”.
Assignment,
1) Write your Weekly Article. (Post)
2) Add bit more details to “Leonard walks towards the box..” (Notes page)
3) Page- Openers (page) 12 openers.
Exercise
Leonard walks towards the box hidden at the corner of the room.
An unpleasant smell engulfs his senses, diminishing every vestigial of courage he has initially. Curiosity gives him a sudden rush of confidence, and he reaches out to the lid of the box.
Joel’s Opener
The hysterical Paul takes a water gun out of his pocket and starts to spray water at his friends, making a mess out of the dinner table in the process. His friends stare at his spontaneous and nonsensical outburst as he continues to violate them and the food. Those squirts of water arouses the attention of Jenny who has just come out of the washroom. Blushing red, Jenny gives a provocative smile as Paul directs the gun swiftly at her. A sense of awkwardness and promiscuity fills the atmosphere. His other friends make a rational decision to isolate the both of them. Patches of water stain the glass window planes rapidly as his friends snatch a quick glance back at Paul’s residence. They frown at the sudden change on the colour spectrum of those stains.
Back at the dinner table, Paul’s stamina is diminishing at a fluctuating rate. Jenny has a partial deadpan look, enjoying every single bit of euphoria in her subconsciousness.
Jenny catches her breath and mutters
“I am so glad you bring that exquisite midget of yours, it’s handy eh?”
Paul smirks
“It sure is….”
Conflict.
Conflict can give a positive or negative connotation. Can result internally and externally.
Internal conflict is hard to see on the surface.
Internal conflict might hurt us or someone else emotionally or psychologically. Plot is created via contradiction. Boredom breeds when there’s no disagreement in thoughts. That’s why sesame street and Hi-5 are boring.
Types of conflict.
Dramatic Conflict: Protagonist struggle against something or someone.
-Man Vs man
-Man Vs Environment
-Man Vs System. Man taking on the legal laws and the intricate rules created by society.
-Man Against self. Example, Fight Club.
Variations of conflict can arise from gender, age, religion and culture.
Causes and effects of conflict
Conflict arises when there is change. When a change is instigated, there will be an alteration to the emotions of the characters such as a butterfly effect. Minor changes can exacerbate stuffs as well.
While change is universal and common, it is not always accepted.
Biggest change in location, airport terminal.
Conflict arises when people resist changes. Some changes where you learn to go along with it, or stand up against and fight for your rights.
The intensity of conflict depends on how people react to the change.
People must learn to cope with change if they want to survive.
The action in drama depends on conflict. Insufficient conflict does not really make the film appealing.
Plot cannot be constructed withouit conflict.
Central feature of the screenplay.
As your character attends to reach his goals, they come into conflict with each other.
The end of the story reaches when the protagonist and antagonist approach their goals and the conflict rises to generate maximum excitement and suspense.
Mom does not want her child to be lazy. Conflict between Man and Self.
Screenwriter= storyteller
The cinematic experience is not just made EG of text on paper, but the audiences’ emotional response.
Write to people and not from director to people, writer to people, camera to people. It’s people to people, for people to feel and feel affectionate to it.
To connect the audience to
Themselves
Their unique Vision (Audience to connect with your perspective)
The material. (Relate to the material being used in the story).
The drama.
Others.
Audience wants to be transported to that world.
Form of escapism.
Within yourself eg experiences, memories, emotions.
Practice observing, listening and reading body language of people.
Figure how to connect your viewers to your story through emotions, characters, etc.
When they talk, their eyes connect. Couples who are married , remain ignorant to each other’s feelings deliberately. Those can be shown through body language.
Assignment.
Exercise 2 and your weekly blog.
“50 word stories”.
5 stories of exactly 50 words each, posted to your blog.
Storytelling observation
Observe in a conscious way.
Adopt a Keen Eye. Observe subtly and discreetly.
Develop a natural sense of curiosity.
An observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling.
Who am I writing about.
Who is my character.
The hobbies and behaviour, personalities of your character.
Mindless observation vs true observation
Develop the ability to see and record
Their movements
Their gestures.
How they react to their friends.
Walk into public places and observe passersby.
Eventually one will catch your attention.
Write about as many as possible through observation.
Repeat steps – 5 for a second character.
Transcribe all these details into the people watch page that you will create on your blog.
Character, age, setting interesting observation.
Episode between the meeting of the two people.
1) The bunny girl and the Mat. (Benjamin’s and Sofrie’s people watch, both of theirs are fortuitously consistent.)
The girl, in her 18, dressed up in a skimpy bunny suit entered the packed MRT that was leaving for orchard road. It was probably halloween and she’s not aware of the number of lecherous man staring at her lascivously. It’s as though her outfit gratified the concupiscence they are longing to get for ages. They gradually get bored of it, but not the mat who is desperately trying to get close to her in such a packed atmosphere. The Mat is blasting some saccharine and provocative music on his handphone and he’s gleaming at her as though she feeds his sudden rise in euphoria. The girl avoids his randy gaze, trying desperately to cover the revealing parts of her skimpy outfit with both her hands. High level of anxiety rushes up her face, she turns into a luminous raspberry, coruscating every corners of the Mat’s desire. The Mat tilts his head near the girl’s, the proximity is very minute, he’s conspicuously trying to show off his lip piercings and tatoo. The girl innately reacts by shifting herself away from him. The timing is almost flawless as the Mat’s hand is already placed right below the girl’s buttock. The girl hastily alights the train at the next stop and an immense sense of disappointment crashes on the Mat who is still sticking his yearning tongue out. He starts to shove people infront of him violently, stalking the girl like some hybrid mongrel but unfortunately for him, he gets caught inbetween the sliding doors of train carriage. Struggling like a hankering puppy, the train speeds off with a gradual decline in the levels of the music playing on his handphone. Blood spills over the end of the station and screams pervade throughout both the carriage and the station.
(Week 4)
Aristotle
- Aristotle lived in Greece, between 384 and 322BC.
- Aristotle stated that poetry could be divided into 3 genres, tragedy, comedy and epic. ‘Poetics’ focuses on tragedy.
- Tragedy in an ‘imitation of an action’ according to ‘the law of probability’
6 parts of tragedy.Plot, Characters, Thoughts, Diction, Melody, Spectacle (effects, props, stage design)
Aristotle Tragedy,
Creates a cause and effect chain that reveals what may happen.
Arouses not only pity but also fear, because members of the audience can imagine themselves within the cause and effect chain.
Unity of action is an arrangement of incidents , the way incidents are presented to the audience.
An episodic plot is one which succeeds one another without probability or necessity.
The only thing tying together the events in such that an episodic plot is the fact that they happen to the same person.
Katharsis: purgation/purification/clarification
Mimesis: Imitation/representation
SImple v.s complex plots:
-Simple plot; Has a unified construction of necessary and probable actions which results in a ‘ change of fortune’.
-Complex plot; Has a reversal of intention ‘peripeteia’ and recognition ‘anagnorisis’ which results in tragedy.
* Character supports plot
* Personal motivations are connected to the cause-and-effect chain
* The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned and prosperous, so his change can be from good to bad.
# In the ideal tragedy, the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall–not because he is sinful or weak–but because he does not know enough.
# This lack of self-knowledge is called “harmartia”
* Advantage of working in three act structure is it breaks down the story and makes it more manageable.
* 1st act: Set up (scenario…)
-Story begins with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis.
-The character meets roadblocks produced by the plot and antagonist.
* 2nd act: Confrontation
-Action intensifies
-An event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice.
* 3rd act: Resolution
-Level of effort rises to new heights.
-Both plot and character is resolved.
-But the main character either achieves or does not achieve his goal.
* Katharsis- clarification
* Mimesis- representation
* Anagnorisis- recognition
* Perepeteia- relevation
* Harmartia- lack of self knowledge
* Incorporate principles of tragedy into your writing!
* What is tragedy?
* -doesn’t mean that something bad happens and the story ends.
* -IT MEANS something bad happens as a result of a flaw in your character, and you show how this tragic fall forces your character to learn something about himself or herself.
Week 5
‘Old Boy’ uses Greek tragedy.
If you don’t know what to do about the character, you put yourself in his shoes and his perception.
Ponder about your personal background, and see if your experiences can be made interesting.
Assignment. Good Stories have to be worked and re-worked to perfect your characters and scenarios.
Whenever you can recall childhood memories, jot it down as it might be interesting in the future.
Life is unpredictable. We can and must control the events and sequences so that it gives the appearance of being believable.
If you are creating a story, you should position yourself in the worst situation you can ever imagine to generate conflict.
Assignment
Reflection
Letter to the past.
Maybe you did something wrong in such a way that you are no longer communicating with the guy anymore.
It can be minor issue or a major issue.
Password Protect
Week 6
Review exercise: Letter to the past
Purpose of the exercise:
- The letter is a practical, personal example of how a character-YOU-undergo an inevitable process of change.
- What kind of change will we need to undergo so that it will influence us?
- The process of change is an essential ingredient of any effective story. We want to undergo the change with them. Follow the story.
- In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change.
Storytelling tool 2: EXPERIENCE
- A storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience.
- All people have fragments of stories. We can’t piece it fully together as before.
- These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more.
- Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard.
- Intellectually: More of a emotionally crisis, you want to put yourself into the person’s shoes.
- Good stories are born in the heart, not from the head.
- Remember the role of an audience. (They pay money to go watch your film, think of them when you are creating your story.)
- After all, you ARE the audience.
TIP:
- See how he relates to the world he has been in.
- Plunder in your own personal background!
- The thing that happen to you as you grow up and the things that are currently happening to you make terrific story sources.
Storytelling tool 3: MEMORY
- Your memory, is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you have experienced or been told.
- Sometimes it doesn’t even come back to you even you have been told.
- These memories are points of reference to your own past existence.
TIP:
- WRITE what you do not know because you will find some part of you that does know.
- Don’t write everything that you know, form a convincing story.
- THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR PERSONAL DISCOVERY!
What is the difference between memory and experience?
-Memory is the recollection of your experience.
-Recollection of experience might not be unpleasant/right/exact.
-Memory is what you recall of it.
-You might tweak the story a little bit to attract, or bring the audience into your story. (Make it a little more interesting.)
How do we use memory to build up creative content?
-Use it to adjust audiences emotion to it.
Inventing stories using boring context such as a school.
Benjamin is walking home from the school swimming complex at around 9 pm after his CCA.
A high frequency sound wave struck Benjamin’s Ears directly. The pool has something alluring and provocative as though there’s a naked prostitute in it. It was just suffice to feed Benjamin’s morbid curiosity on weird occurrences. The complex was deserted and ominous but yet there’s a random interval in which this high pitch shrieking sound strikes. It does not actually pervade the environment, it’s a direct blast in his ears. As Benjamin approaches the pool, the sound wave has already clouded and distorted his vision and ability to discern the context. The high pitch sound is stinging, it is something out of the world. There was a vague whirl pool ahead, it was like an anomaly. The magnitude of the sound and the volatile rate at which it strikes creates a very chaotic situation in Benjamin’s mental state, given the silence of the empty complex. When he is hoping for all to end, he gets siphoned by the anomaly gradually, looking at how his hands and limbs disappear.
Week 7.
Without a character, there’s no action.
When there’s no action, there’s no conflict.
No conflict equates to no story.
No story equates to no screenplay.
When developing a character ask yourself
Who is your character
What does he want
What is his quest
What drives him to the resolution of his story.
Create a character
develop your character by giving it a mission or something.
Establish your character by giving concrete details to him. Giving it life. Characters should have a 3 Dimensional Structure.
Physiology and sociology and psychology.
Physiology
posture, appearance, age, deformities, birthmarks, diseases, scar, heredity, facial hair. The physiology of your characters. The husk and shell of your character.
Sociology
Lower mid upper class, occupation, social status, education (favourite subjects), Family Background.
Religion, cultures. Different religions have different conflicts, squeezing a spark to ignite supposingly. Race and nationality can constitute to this. Your status in the community. Political Affiliations. Hobbies, books, magazines, other amusements. Torturing people, that is part of his sociology.
Psychology
Moral standards. Personal Premise. Frustrations and disappointment. Temperament. Complexes are about superstitions, insecurity.
Personality, Introverted, extroverted.
Abilities and qualities and deep and personal secrets (desperate to protect his pride eg.)
These secret things are what make the characters interesting.
Character drives the story and it is prudent to make it mysterious.
Interior Life
Takes place from birth until the moment your story begins.
A process that forms your character, 3 Dimensional points are vital to their construction.
How old is he, his relationship with his parents ?, Does he have siblings?, What kind of childhood he had? The creator knows these interior lives but retract these information to arouse curiosity in the audience. Create mystery so that people want to find out.
Exterior Life.
Anything that takes place the moment your story begins to its conclusion.
Psychology: Sarcasm, attitude to people. Physiology: Haggard and tired. Sociology: Employment. Mid class.
Aristotle’s Storytelling
developing 3 dimensional characters and writing for your audience.
Dialogues
Do not use dialogues unnecessarily. It is not a substitution of action. In hollywood, when they look at page and it’s got too much black, too much ink on the paper. They say: Shit, it’s freeze camera time!
Good Dialogue is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life. It is an illusion of reality. Edit what people are saying, without losing the spirit. Students tend to create radio shows with images
Wife : “Have you ripped off your souls and exorcise every ounce of morality?!”
Husband: “I didn’t mean to……I was drunk…”
Wife: “Oh….I didn’t mean to…urm urm…sorry…Oh fucking bull shit…just shut your trap before I stuff maggots down your throat!”
Husband: “Why the hell are you so worked up for?”
Wife: “WORKED UP?!, Inconsiderate bastard, I nearly spent the eternity of my youth waiting for you to get your ass back”
Husband: “Oh come on dear, it’s a flaw of mine, it will never happen again man..”
Wife: “Oh fuck you and your soothe talking.”
Husband: “Woah, you don’t even have an excalibur. Damn brave aren’t you little chicky?”
Wife: “Whatever”
Husband: “Don’t be shy….come on….heh heh….”
Wife: “Get your hands off me you mongrel”
Husband: “Oooo, this is soft…ummmm Ahhhhh….”
Wife: “Stop being orgasmic for fuck sake!”
Husband: “You are right, come into me….wipe it clean!”
Wife: “Urm argh rum ummm umm ahhh…Umm” (Gibberish)
Husband: “hur hur hur…., I am so sorry dear…ahhhh…ummm…I can never express it in words…..I am sorry for being late.”
Wife: “ummmm ahhhh….ummm ahhhhhh…..the food? How about it? AHHHHHH!”
Husband: “This is a feast dude! hurhur….ignore the food. This is euphoric”
Real husband and wife
Wife: “It’s 12am, I have work tomorrow damn it, get a fucking key”
Husband: “Shut your snobbish trap, what I do is non of your business”
Wife: “At least I have the decency to open the door for you, bastard”
Husband: “Who do you think you are? just fuck off with your downs”
Wife: “I have work tomorrow in the morning and will never entertain with your twisted activities”
Husband: “Watch your tone bitch before I decapitate your head right away.”
Wife: “Well, look who’s conscious, I can stab you with a kitchen knife easily.”
Husband: “Tah Ma de, Cheebye!”
Wife: “Look who’s barking? Immature half brain”
Husband: “I would love watching your dad fuck another dad till they rot and decompose.”
Wife: “Well, I would shovel barrels of dicks down your ass till your cry and lick my boots.”
Purpose of the exercise, we write best of what we know well.
assignment,with the two of dialogues, combine the two into a well crafted piece of writing. Figure out what happens if you mix real people and fake people. Find two people and find them perform this two piece of dialogue.
Location Week 9
Location. Elements within the location that make it a threat. Elements that adds that suspense and create problems for people in the vicinity.
Location’s threat is enhanced by using its element. Location can be threatening and elements can come in the form of weather or natural disaster.
Setting and surrounding that interacts with the characters of fim by adding importance to their actions. How you can utilize various elements other than character scene interaction. An environment which impacts the action and heightens the stakes. Think about how you can make it more difficult or more interesting with elements added to it.
Amusement park in jurassic park, putting the dinosaurs in it are elements that generate fear and threat. The idea of the island being isolated is also a threat.
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