Notes: Lecture Six [241106]

Writing for an audience

• Screenwriter = storyteller
  • The cinematic experience is not just made up of words you might put on paper, but the audiences’ emotional reaction to that information.

Director to the people (X)

            Writer to the people (X)

                        Camera to the people (X)

It is ultimately people to people. (to connect to other people – our grand scheme)

What is the writer’s purpose?

To connect:

• Themselves
• Their unique vision
• The material
• The drama
• Others

Audiences want to be transported by a screenplay. 

Where do you look for a story?

Inside yourself. (from personal experiences or memory)

Everything to learn about other people is already in you.

Now you need to figure out how to connect to it. (To yourself or this vision you have)

Storytelling tool 3: Experience

In experience – you learn something

Are memories true? Not necessarily. Differing perceptions. (to use for reflections)

Memories may change – you choose which to keep hence its filtered whereas experiences actually happen. You cannot filter out what you’ve experienced

• All people have fragments of stories
• These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more
• Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard (experience may not necessarily make a good story but one can add a little more to it)
• Good stories are born in the heart, not the head (when you let it flow, it often it turns out good and its also easier to write)
• Remember the role of an audience (you’re writing to be read)
• After all, you ARE the audience (putting yourselves in the shoes of the audience)

True / False Stories

Two events from your life: (first person)

• One happened
• One didn’t
• Don’t tell us which is which but make sure the audience is able to believe both of them

Review

7 questions – short answer quiz

3 Storytelling tools:

• Observation
• Memory
• Experience

o       Aristotle’s storytelling theories

o       3 act structure

o       Developing 3 dimensional characters (just have a basic understanding of how everything is different from one another)

o       Writing for an audience

Notes: Lecture Five [171106]

Character
♥ Every story starts with a character (a good/strong/memorable character can make up for a weak plot)
♥ It is the heart, soul and nervous system of your story
♥ It is through the characters that the viewers experience emotions (Heart: provides emotions)
♥ It is through the characters that the viewers are touched (There’s no place like home)

♥ Without Character, there is no Action
♥ Without Action, there is no Conflict
♥ Without Conflict, there is no Story
♥ Without Story, there is no Screenplay
♥ Therefore ultimately, No Character = No Screenplay

Developing Character
♥ Who is my character?
♥ What does he want? (what is his goal?)
♥ What is her quest? (things in her way or obstructing her from acheiving her goal/getting what she wants)
♥ What drives him to the resolution of the story? (why is the goal important to the character?)
 

3 Dimensional Character

1. Physiology (Physical)
♥ Sex
♥ Age
♥ Height/Weight
♥ Hair/Eye/Skin Colour
♥ Posture
♥ Appearance
♥ Defects/Abnormalities/Deformities/Birth Marks/Diseases
♥ Heredity

2. Sociology (how he interacts with the society)
♥ Class
♥ Occupation
♥ Education
♥ Home Life
♥ Religion
♥ Race/Nationality
♥ Place in Community
♥ Political Affiliations
♥ Amusements

3. Psychology (his thinking)
♥ Sex Life/Moral Standards
♥ Personal Premise, Ambitions
♥ Frustrations, Chief Disappointments
♥ Temperament
♥ Attitude towards Life
♥ Complexes
♥ Personalities
♥ Abilities
♥ Qualities
♥ IQ
♥ Skeletons in his closet

Interior Component of Life (we don’t see in the film itself)
♥ Takes place from birth until the moment the film begins
♥ It is the process that forms the character

Exterior Component of Life (we see in the films)
♥ Takes place from the moment the film begins until the film ends
♥ It is the process that reveals the character

*You must create your character in relationship with other things or people so that they can interact in three ways:

1. So that they experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need
2. They interact with other characters
3. They interact with themselves

Storytelling tool 2: Memory
♥ Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you had experienced or been told
♥ These memories are points of references to your own past experiences
♥ “WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW” – its easier to write because you know what it is and the emotions felt makes it more realYour memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you had experienced or been told
♥ “WRITE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW” – blending it with what you know will make the story more interesting

Reflections 5: losing the inspiration for this (and for everything else).

today, lets start off with a: 

maybe if this wasn’t considered as homework…

• i wouldn’t feel so stressed about what to write and what not to write.
• i wouldn’t have writer’s block and have ZERO inspiration.
• i wouldn’t be at a loss each and everytime i face this blank white box.
• things would just flow naturally and smoothly outta me.
• it wouldn’t be such a bore.

Okay lets just admit it, i’m no good at this. Thinking about having to reflect makes me groan and come up with all sorts of excuses to avoid doing this. but no.. i know that somehow, one way or another, i’ll still have to get it done. i don’t know what’s gotten into me. i used to have such a flair for writing and it used to brighten my day up being able to get things and issues outta my system, which in a way is a healthy kinda thing. But now for me, i’ve gotten lazy. I’m losing the interest to write maybe cos i have nothing to talk about; or rather, what i CAN talk about, people may not necessarily want to read. i’ve always been more comfortable writing to myself than to an audience; like keeping a diary whereby i’m just plainly talking to myself and i don’t have to fret about what blahblahblah will think of me if i write and voice my opinions about issue XXX. here’s an inside scoop to see how my brain works:

“hmm.. i feel so much like writing about this… but should i?”

“aww cmon.. dont be a wuss! you think anyone will care what you think about that?! no one’ll give 2 hoots!”

“well.. no harm right? i mean if not, i dont have the drive to go write about something that doesn’t interest me but having to pretend it does”

“bullshit. your job here is just to get it done and not worry too much.”

 There. This same conversation (well close to it) goes through my head everytime i’m about to write a piece. like for example, the discussion board for intro to film, this and even things like contemporary issues work we’re given. how much impact can a small being like me have on bigger things out there?

 im sorry if im starting to sound so negative or if this is becoming depressing to read. its just that things have been so down for me lately that everything’s starting to look bleak and i’m starting to have doubts that i’ll ever bounce back to where i used to be. first, my laptop got stolen/lost. then i’m starting to rub off my bad luck to the people closest to me. on top of that, the laptop that i borrowed basically just spoilt (i dont know if its on its own or if im the cause) and this weird thing popped out of the laptop before the hard drive died on me. moreover, my photography assignment was still in the laptop and i had yet to burn it for submission. my ez link card got confiscated by this unreasonable bus driver and im stuck without a card for 5 business days or even more. that means having to bring about a bag of coins and having to pay adult fare from now onwards. ): this is so depressing. talk about an Aristotle tragedy man. -sighs- whats lacking in this tragedy is that there is no turn for the better (yet, i hope) and the protagonist doesn’t have a goal in life to achieve (unless you consider wanting to get out of this whole chain of bad luck). so if this really is similar to an Aristotle tragedy, whats the knowledge that im lacking to get myself out of this dump? is there something that i should be doing or should have done that i have not already? is there something that i’ve offended that i’ve not known about? I need answers man. I need directions or A DIRECTION. I’m feeling so lost and listless now that nothing cheers me up much really. I just want to know how to make it better and what i’ve done wrong so i can do something about it. this is bothering me quite a bit for some time, i’ve noticed but before yesterday, i just couldn’t pinpoint what it was that was bothering me. now that i know, ive got a thirst for more information and knowledge.

well anyhow, we’re supposed to write a letter to someone in our past.

the first kinda thought that came to my mind was that it was going to be emotional; sad and angry at the same time. and that writing it would stir these emotions up in me – i would cry while writing and get all pissed off all over again at the person i’m writing to. my life hasn’t been all merry and happy all along. there were points in time (in fact, many!) whereby i just felt so much. so basically, i think writing this piece wouldn’t be of much difficulty for me. Instead, i would think that sharing it, would be very much harder for me cos everything’s kinda personal and i’m definitely not the type of person to open up very easily to the people around me. i sure hope i don’t get all emotional tomorrow when i read my letter to the past out.

till then, peace out (and hopefully more luck for me, PLEASE!)

Reflections 4: the one thats been long due.

Okay, so I’ve been a naughty girl.

I haven’t been doing my reflections on time.

But hey! I’ve got a perfectly ‘valid’ (in my opinion, that is) reason okay!

The workload is starting to get to me.

“why then are the others able to get their work done on time?”, one may inquire.

You see, different people operate in different ways.

Like say for example if you compare Vivian and myself.

She’s REALLY efficient in getting her work done (no really, I mean it) whereas I, miss yeo, can take eons to get ONE piece of work done!

My speed of working or making progress when doing work is sometimes close to zero even after an hour of working at it.

So you can pretty much imagine how late I stay up till on certain nights to get all my work done while my dear friend Vivian is happily in dreamland.

-sighs in envy-

I cannot help but just envy the lucky her.

So shoot me for being a slow worker.

 

 

Anyway, back to business.

Throughout this past week, I’ve been pondering on what to put in my reflections, be it while poo-ing, brushing my teeth, or bathing even! (Okay, so my brain seems to function at its peak in the toilet… note to self: deal with it you moron!)

So we caught this movie (which I enjoyed) in class – ‘Election’ starring Reese Witherspoon (ahh.. her husband’s so HAWT! –fawns-) and Matthew Broderick about this high school girl who has this immense desire to win the student council election though there is hardly any need for it since initially, she was the sole candidate running for president. –shrugs and rolls eyes the Mr Emilio way- (we also see later in the film that there is only ONE person running for vice-president! – ahh there! See?! There wasn’t even a need for an election in the first place! Gee man.. Was the election for show or something?)

 

 

While doing my very ahem, serious business in the toilet one night, it suddenly hit me that I could talk about my experience in being a school prefect (waaaaaay back in primary school) as well as my thoughts about the student council in the college I went to for a year.

 

 

Well you see… I was one of those stuck-up, snobbish school prefects in primary school (whom all the other kids was certain they would murder, one fine day) who thought we were elites in the school being the “chosen ones” and having the privilege to go through a year of training (prefects-in-training we were before we went through the whole “prefects’ investiture” process and were “promoted” prefects. Oh yayy!)

 

 

I remember being able to get away with absolutely everything just because I was a prefect. Not to forget, the many concessions of being a prefect which comprised of being able to go for recess twenty minutes before the supposed release time (missing close to one period of lessons every day before recess), being able to basically do everything that the ‘commoners’ couldn’t do and get away with… And who could ever forget, getting back at those who did no justice to you (eg: those who disliked us or refused to lend us their pretty pencils and what-not) by finding fault with them and giving them a booking slip thus being about DETENTION. Muahahahahahaha!! –throws back head in evil laughter-

 

 

The most ironic thing was that we were to book those who were running along the corridors and to do so, we ourselves had to run after them to get their details. I recall the times whereby I was running along the corridor (for my own reasons) and was stopped by teachers. I ended up cooking up stories and lies about trying to catch the other girls in front of me who were running; to get their names down for detention. To add to that, since prefects didn’t have to go for assembly in the mornings because we were patrolling the different classroom levels, I hark back to the memories where I would ever so hardworking-ly copy my friends’ homework, scribbling untidily and making sure I got myself covered all the time and kept myself out of trouble.

 

 

It keeps me in awe till today, how my mind at a tender age of 9, worked so miraculously evilly.

 

 

Rest assured though, that the mechanics in my mind have long since slowed down as I age as every day passes, my mind becoming all haggard and wrinkly, that I no longer think and work the way I did as a child.

 

 

 

 

Reckon why?

 

 

Well that’s cause I’ve evolved in a far much worse villain – SEXY SONIA!!

 

HURHURHUR!!!

Notes: Lecture Four [101106]

There were no notes given during the tutorial.

Notes: Lecture Three [031106]

Definition of Tragedy
♥ It is an imitation of an action (mimesis) that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude: in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament: in the form of action not narrative: with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith accomplishment its kartharsis of such emotions…




6 Parts of Tragedy
♥ Plot
♥ Character
♥ Thought
♥ Diction
♥ Song
♥ Spectacle

PLOT is the most important feature of tragedy.




What is Plot?
Story is bigger than the plot itself – things that occurred before the film started/after
♥ Plot is the actual arrangement of incidents that occurs in the film
♥ It is not the story itself, but the way the incidents are presented to the audience
♥ The structure of the play




Beginning
♥ The incitive moment
♥ It must start the cause and effect chain.




Middle
♥ Climax
♥ It must be caused by earlier incidents and itself cause the incidents that follow it.

No longer accurately followed in modern stories (now its usually at the end)





End
♥ Resolution
♥ Must be caused by the preceding events but not lead to other incidents
♥ The end should resolve the problem created during the incitive moment.




Episodic Plots
♥ According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots
♥ The acts (episodes) succeed one another without the probability or necessity
♥ The only thing tying together the events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to the same person

Nothing to do with the rest of the movie on the whole;
doesn’t keep the story focused on the main action.
Just because its episodic, does it really mean its bad??
Thus, is it truly bad to be episodic?
Audience MAY become irritated with not getting what they came for – the plot.




Simple Vs. Complex Plots
SIMPLE:
♥ Simple has only a “change of fortune”

COMPLEX:
♥ Complex has a reversal of intention “peripeteia” (when things change) and recognition “anagnorisis” (moment of recognition) connected with the catastrophe.

Things have changed – something that worked one way now works another way.




Character
♥ Character supports plot
♥ Personal motivations are connected to the cause-and-effect chain
♥ The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned and prosperous (rich and famous), so his change can be from good to bad.
(the fall is greater for the rich and famous as opposed to taking things away from someone who is poor)
♥ 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
(main character is not evil, still morally acceptable, still the hero, just tht he has a flaw. Something about him tht he doesn’t understand about the world and cos of tht he’s gonna be punished a.k.a “hamartia” [when the character doesn’t know enough])
♥ This lack of self-knowledge is called “hamartia”




3 Act Structure
Advantage of working in three act structure is it breaks down the story and makes it more manageable

1st Act: Set Up
♥ Story begins with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis
♥ The character meets roadblocks produced by the plot and antagonist
Someone wants something and its hard to get it – most movies

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 achieves his goal (essentially, the character can lose)




Important Vocabulary
♥ Katharsis – emotional release that the audience experiences
♥ Mimesis – imitation of the real world in art and literature
♥ Anagnorisis – when the character realizes that its his fault
♥ Perepeteia – when things change from good to bad
♥ Hamartia – lack of self-knowledge (goes away when anagnorisis occurs)




Storytelling Tool 1: Observation
♥ Observe in a conscious way
♥ Develop the ability to see and record movements, physical characteristics, and settings.




Homework: People Watch
♥ 2 people
♥ Bullet points
♥ Don’t require full sentences or present tense/active voice

Reflections 3: reflect i shall.

What was your reaction trying to get the stories out? Was it limited? Difficult? How’d it go?

THIS (ryan’s question to the class of course), basically marked the start of week 3’s tutorial session.

Almost half the class found it easy, whilst the rest found it hard keeping to the word limit.
As for myself, I think it was a mixture of both (but I secretly [okay, maybe now it's no longer a secret. ohh bummer.] think i’m more inclined towards the ‘hard keeping to the word limit’ group)
Why?
The reason’s simple.
I’m a helluva nag.
The super long-winded me couldnt get myself to stop at 50.
I just kept going on and on till it struck me that it was only supposed to be 50-words long.
Another barrier was that I found it hard to start.
I tried using the method Ryan taught us on day one.
It didn’t help.
The only source of inspiration seemed (it appeared at that critical point of time) was the toilet, very unfortunately.

Anyhow, a few of us were picked to read out one of our very creative piece of works.
Oh boy was i one of the “lucky” few chosen ones, especially since i was the first to be picked. (i know i know, darn.)
So i read out my ingenius creation – the stalker (which apparently wasn’t so original after all).
the rest of the class was to work on our comments in the following format:

Author:
Title:
What it’s about:
What works:
What doesn’t:

Summary
Dom: Rejection taken wrongly
Colin: Loser trying to get girl, doesn’t get her and kills her.

What works
Vinod: people get the story easily and don’t think of anything else. Situation is imaginable.
Ben: Knife part was interesting (Ben didn’t expect the knife to appear, coming from a nerd)
Dip: the thought of a sixth-grade stalker killing someone; demented, unconventional.
Atiqah: -liked the story-

What doesn’t
Vivian: ending is unexpected/weird (didn’t expect the nerd to kill her)
Ben: its just what the nerd said; you just don’t expect that coming out from nerds.
Ryan: overly cliché – opening. A lil absurd, but its more like a black comedy to him, no issues with age.

With that, I shall try to work on new stuff with their comments and hopefully, it’ll help me write better (:

Out of the other few stories which were read aloud in class, i thought Vani’s flow in her story was really good, and that Colin’s story was really cleverly written (very innovative and fresh, in a way.) Amongst all of our stories, i found myself liking Dip’s the most. His use of language was really good; description – such that he didn’t have to state that it was boxing he was writing about. superb job!

Then we went through the whole Aristotle presentation thing.
Oh boy, there’s just so much ancient-ish stuff going through that guy’s mind man!
I’m finding it hard to grasp all his weird (but good, since it’s recognised by many people) theories and longlonglong (and complicated) names!!

Gee man.. Writing has always been a simple task for me.
However, its starting to become no easy feat.
I’ve lost all my creative juices.
-sigh-

Reflections 2: yet again, i reflect.

Ryan paired us up for the in-class exercise to work on our openers.
I got Ben and he got me (yea, like duh!) so here’s MY work (using his opener of course!):

In despair, he watches the clock tick his life away. It is the dawn of a new day and having little time to spare, Jang-Woon sets off feebly to Mount Jeong-Seum where the secrets of the supreme Loong-Teh lie, hidden deep beneath the rocks. As the enemy nears the treasure, Jang-Woon grows weaker with each passing day, unable to ward off their almighty powers and indomitable strength. Without unraveling the mystery his forebearers died to protect, he will have to vanish from the face of the earth along with his ancestors. The evil troops of Seong-Hee must not be the ones who recover the ancient secret of Loong-Teh for should they do so, no other warrior, no matter his strength and power, will be able to conquer Jeong-Seum and the people will suffer a much worser fate than they are suffering now.

After time for the exercise was up, Ryan raised a question and asked if it was easier doing this week’s exercise (having a variety of openers to pick from) or last week’s (having just one opener); The general opinion was that it was easier this week. For me though, i feel both have got their pros and cons. For example, it is easier if we are given a range of openers to choose from. However, this can also work against us as we may not be able to come to a decision in time and may lack focus on the opener we picked, thinking of the ‘what-if’s. (okay, i hope i’m making some sense here)

Anyway, Ryan asked us to read out our stories from this week’s exercise. I got picked (again! gee man..). My mistakes apparently, was that I lacked the active voice and that I was confusing everyone with all my characters’ korean names (whoops!).

After going through Colin’s as well as Ben’s work, Ryan posted another question to us: Since one of us wrote the opening line and the other filled up the contents of the story, who then, is the author of the story?

Vinod voiced out his opinion that the author is dependent on the type of the opener whereas Atiqah mentioned that the story is still very much ours (the person who wrote the rest of the story) although there was provision of the first line from someone else because despite all that, the content (and meat of the story) is at the end of the day, belongs to us. I would have to agree with the latter on that.

Ryan then proceeded to ask us to evaluate the originality of the story this way, since it is after all, written by two people (the one who wrote the opener and the one who continued the story).

As the lesson progressed, Ryan posted an intriguing question to the class: Who do you think was the first person to tell stories? (he even hinted that it can be traced back to the era of cavemen). Well, after much silence (if i don’t recall wrongly), he finally gave us the answer – Aristotle – a greek philosopher who wrote a 40-page memo that explained how stories are told (and thus being the first person who explained how stories are organised).

We were then left with an assignment – 50-word stories which should have:
♥ distinctive character
♥ complete sentences not necessary
♥ can work with dialogue
♥ the title helps stories

and thus, my reflections come to an end.

till next time, adios folks!

Notes: Lecture Two [271006]

There were no notes given during the tutorial.