Notes: Lecture Eight [081206]

Story is Action
•    Action is any kind of activity, movement, interaction of characters with their surroundings
•    Talking about feelings is not as powerful as illustrating why you feel this way through your actions

sometimes dialogue doesn’t help illustrate anything; its gotta be what the characters do

Film is Behaviour
•    Actions are simply the manifestations of behaviour
•    Human emotions are understood by watching the actions and reactions of the characters

Non-visual way of storytelling a.k.a Lazy forms: voice over, flashback, characters blatantly stating how they’re feeling (eg: I am angry with you)

Dynamic Action
•    Has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by building an emotional relationship between the characters an the audience

Notes: Lecture Seven [011206]

Functions of a Dialogue
♥ conveys messages of the story
♥ explore characters’ emotions
♥ explains characters’ personalities
♥ creates moods
♥ shows relationship between characters
♥ makes the film interesting

Elements of Dialogue
1. Dialogue reveals character
♥ A character talks about himself or herself
♥ other people talk about that character
EG: Usual Suspects – Kaizer Souzeh

2. Dialogue establishes relationships between characters
♥ characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another

3. Good effective dialogue will move the story forward (makes the film more interesting)

4. Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience
♥ it conveys essential exposition (information to the audience – the audience needs to know to understand why everything is happening the way they are)
♥ characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline

5. Dialogue ties the script together
EG: Usual Suspects – Final dialogue between Verbo & police officer; floating back and forth

Dialogue no-nos
♥ sentence structure that creates ambiguous meaning
♥ when characters express exactly how they feel because it doesn’t really happen in reality
♥ trying too hard to amplify details therefore creating something that appears unreal
♥ but if dialogue is too normal, not interesting

WRITE INTERESTING DIALOGUE.

Common Mistakes
♥ dialogue should be used sparingly, never telling the audience what they can see for themselves – Dialogue is no substitute for action

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

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

Notes: Lecture Two [271006]

There were no notes given during the tutorial.

Notes: Lecture One [201006]

Proper Writing Format
Assignments in this class will use:

♥ Present tense – to create an immediate feel
(as though the same events are going on at the moment) – like sitting in a movie theatre watching it

♥ 3rd person (he/she/it/person’s name)
[editorials/scripts/news casters in 3rd person present tense]

♥ Active voice

The 3rd person / present tense
♥ Screenplays use this format
♥ It presents a more immediate and urgent feel to the material.

E.G: “Mark picks up the gun and holds it in his hand. It begins to tremble, as if alive.”




Passive vs. Active voice
Passive Voice

♥ Uses weak verbs
♥ Tells rather than shows what’s going on
♥ Distances the reader from the story

E.G: “The sky was blue with a lot of white clouds” (tells rather than shows)
[subject of the sentence is at the end]

E.G: “Mark was angry at 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
♥ Gives subject something to do/start sentence with subject
♥ Creates a visual image of what character needs to do




Tips for Writing
♥ If you have a work in progress, never stop for the night if you’re stuck.
♥ Always solve the problem and keep going until you are in safer water. A good night’s sleep is important. Sleeping on problems is a myth.
♥ If you can’t get started on a project, start writing anyway. To do this you have to have some words to type.
♥ It doesn’t matter what you write. You’ll soon begin to think and move in your own rhythm/pace.
♥ Note down questions you were asking yourself as you wrote it
– Whose story am I telling?
– What is the point of this story?
– How can I engage the attention of the audience?
– Role of writing the story?




Assignment
♥ Reflection
♥ Write 12 opening statements, ones that should let people feel creative in their writing.
– James paces around the empty hallway…
– Karen opens the envelope. Her hand shakes…