Story, Robert Mckee, my notes
https://dn790001.ca.archive.org/0/items/RobertMcKeeStorypdf/Robert%20McKee%20-%20Story%20%28pdf%29.pdf
My most important takeaways:
Planning - need to learn conventions of genre, and avoid cliche's.
Step outline plot. Then pitch in 10 minutes. When done treatment to understand subtext (60-90 pages). When done screenplay (only then add dialogue)(125-105 pages).
hint at beginning to up, down or ironic ending
Story's inciting incident is where character makes a choice to get their desire, and the universe responds with an unexpected outcome. Protagonist then has to do another action to get what they desire. More extreme action as always start with the easiest least effort (we are human). More extreme = more risk, more on the line. Have to discover which negatives/ positives they value most.
character's true character revealed through dilemma. Choice between two positives or two negatives that reveals truly what they value.
Story event (ideally each scene is a story event) is value charged. That value needs to shift by end of the scene.
Turning points come with action or revelation. Happen at the end of scenes or acts (as the value charge changes from pos or neg to its opposite), most powerful: revelations come at the end of acts (most powerful usually involves reveal of backstory).
The overriding value needs to be explored through its positive, contrary, contradiction and negation of the negation.
The forces of antagonism need to be so great that failure seems likely.
have to work through conscious desire to ultimately achieve unconscious desire
antagonism in 3 stages - inner, social, extra personal
progression by: social, personal, symbolic, or ironic
obligatory scene is CRISIS, a true dilemma (about the ultimate value at stake). leads to climax
then resolution.
Character has more dimensions the more contradictions they have.
The most should be with the protagonist. They should be 'empathizable' with.
---
FULL NOTES
On stories
archetypes not stereotypes
settings and characters so rare that our eyes feast on every detail, while its telling illuminates conflicts so true to humankind that it journeys from culture to culture
within characters we discover our own humanity
do not wish to escape life but to find life
story about mastering the art, not second guessing the marketplace
story is about respect, not disdain, for the audience
the audeince is not only smart, it's smarter than most film
it si all a writer can do to keep ahead of the sharp perceptions of a focused audience
content - setting, characters, ideas
form - selection and arrangement of events
difference for the sake of difference is as empty as slavishly following comercial imperatives
infantile gimmicks on screen shout loook what i can do
a mature artist never calls attention to himself, and a wise artist never does anything merely becauuse it breaks convention
insight into the deepest patterns and motivations for how and why things happen in this world
IMPORTANCE OF STORY
story rivals all activities - work, play, eating, exercise - for our waking hours
Stories are equipement for living (Burke, Kenneth) pg 11
Aristotle in Ehtics: HOw should a human being lead his life
Today who reads Hegel or Kant wihtout an exam to pass
science confuses, religon filled with hypocrisy. As faith in traditional ideaologies diminishes we turn to stories
jean anouilh "fiction gives life its form"
craving for story as entertianment (an escape from rather than an exploration of life)
stories our best effort to make sense out of the anarchy of existentce
when story telling goes bad, the result is decadence
flawed and false storytellling substitutes spectacle for substance, trickery for truth.
Who are these characters
what do they want
why do they want it
how do they go about getting it
what stops them
what are the consequences
STRUCTURE
structure is a selection of events from the characters life stories that is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions and to express a specific view of life
a story event creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character that is expressed and expereinced in terms of a value (AND ACHIEVED THROUGH CONFILCT)
STORY VALUES are the universal qualities of human experience that may shift from postitive to negative or negative to postitive from one moment to the next
examples
alive/dead
love/hate
freedom/slavery
truth/lie
courage/cowadice
loyalty/betrayal
wisdom/stupidity
strenght/weakness
excitement/boredom
moral examples
good/evil
ethical examples:
right/wrong
or charged
eg.
hope/despair
so in effect the SCENE should be in doubt which one of these is reached and then end up at one eg. the stake: survival (life/ death)
A SCENE is action through conflict in more or less continuous time and space that turns the value charged condition of a chcaracter's life on at least one value with a degreee of perceptible significance.
Ideally every scene is a story event
What value is at stake in my characters life at this moment (the start)? Love, Truth etc
- how has that value charged at the start of the scene (postive negative? some of both?)
if the answer is the same at the end, then why is the scene still existing?
a disciplined writer will trash a scene with exposition and weave its information into the film elsewhere
Action use public values such as freedom/ slavery justice/ injustice
education genre turns on interior values such as self awareness/ self deception
life as meaningful/ meaningless
a BEAT is an exchange of behaviour in action/ reaction. Beat by beat these changing behaviours shape the turning of a scene
a SEQUENCE is a series of scenes - generally two to five - that culminates with greater impact than any previous scene.
an ACT is a series of sequences that peaks in a climatic scene which causes a major reversal of values, more powerful in its impact than any previous sequence or scene.
story the great sweep of change that takes life from one condition at the opening to a changed condiiton at the end. This final condiition must be absolute and irreversible.
story climax. A story is a series of acts that build to a last act climax or story climax which brings about absolute and irreversible change.
plot is the writer's choice of events and their design in time
Plots:
Archplot
anti structure
minimalism
archplot
causality
closed ending
linear time
external conflict
single protagonist
consistent reality
active protagonist
most human beings believe that life brings closed experiences of absolute irreversible change
inside this reality events happen for explainable and meaningful reasons
the archplot ... it is human (not ancient or modern, western or eastern)
when audience sense that a story is drifting too close to fictional realities it finds tedious or meaningless it feels alienated and turns away
cannot embrace most structures as metaphors for life as they live it
every tale says to the audience "i believe life is like this"
every moment must be filled with conviction or we smell a phony
write only what you believe
cliche is at the root of audience dissatisfaction
bored by an ending that was obvious from the beginning
(avoid by using the techniques coming up)
SETTING
= period, duration, location, level of conflict
conflict level
unconscious conflcits
personal conflicts
battles with institutions in society
stuggles against forces of the enviroement
we give the fantasy writer one great leap away from reality
eg. a gritty plot may allow a leap. but in a fantasy setting you have already made your one
smaller the world the greater the creatives knowledge of it therefore a fully orignial story and a victory in the war on cliche
explore your past, relive it, then write it down
a working imagination is research
aristotles four basic genres
simple means no twist)
PLOTS
simple tragic
simple fortunate
complex tragic
complex fortunate
norman friedman
education plot
redemption plot
disillusionment plot
must lead expectations to fesh unexpected moments or risk boring them
(82/83 - around there in story- explanation of genres in film)
GENRES
love story
horror
modern epic (individual vs state)
western
war genre
maturation (coming of age)
redemption (good to bad)
punitive (good turns bad and is punished)
testing (willpower vs temptation to surrender)
education (arcs deep change within protagonists view of life (neg to pos))
disillusionment (worldview pos-> neg)
comedy
Crime - different ways of viewing it
social drama - sees problems and demonstrates a cure
action/adventure
historical drama - use history to shine a light on current issues
sport - a cruible for character change
writers homework is to first identify his genre then research its governing practices.
audience knows conventions and excepts them to be fufilled
Genre conventions - settings roles events and values that define genres
break each story down into elements of setting, role, event, and value
then stack these analysis of your genre and ask, what do they always do?
conventions of time, place, character and action
until you discover answers the audience will always be ahead of you
challenge is to keep convention but avoid cliche
true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.
revelation of true character in contrast or contradicition to characterization is fundamental to all fine storytelling
all else is preparation for the climax
premise - idea that inspires the story
controlling idea - story's ultimate meaning expressed through the action and aesthetic emotion of the last act's climax
a perception married to their life expereinces
the more ideas you try to pack into a story, the more they implode upon themselves, until the film collapses into a rubble of tangential notions, saying nothing.
controlling idea has two components: value + cause
chayefsky fashioned his stories by playing idea against counter idea
positive and negative assertions of the same idea contest back and fourth building in intensity until they collide - love real vs not real imporatnce?
take great care to build the power of both sides
in fact if you film ends on the counter idea then amplify the sequences that lead the audience to feel justice willl win out. If it ends on the idea then enhance the sequences expressing crime pays rather than justice triumphs
ironic end
pos neg pos
- work for something, achieve it or don't then realise dont ned it
mkaes a postive and negative statement
plural protagonist
all protagonists must share the same desire
in the struggle to achieve desire they mutually suffer and benefit
if one has sucess all benefit, if one has a setback, all suffer
multi protagonist
characters have seperate desires and suufer/ benefit independently
a protagonist is a willful character
what do they want
how do they work towards it
interesting protagonists may also have a self-contradictory unconscious desire
protagonist must have a chance at attaining his desire (it must seem at least somewhat feasible)
protagonist has the will and capacity to pursue the object of his conscious or/ and his unconscious desire to the human limit established by setting and genre
story is about life lived in the most intense states
a story must build to a final action beyond which the audience cannot imagine another
the audience draws a circle around the characters and their world, a circumference defined by the nature of the fictional reality
protgonist must be empathetic but does not have to be sympathetic (sympathetic = likable)
empathetic = seems real
in story we concentrate on when character takes action expexting useful reaction from world but his action provokes anatagonism
protagonist seeks an object of desire beyond his reach
consciously or not he chooses a particular action motivated by thought or feeling that this will cause the world to react in w ay that will help him achieve his desire. Action seems minimal, conservative, yet sufficient to effect the reaction he wants. but as he takes this action a single or combination of inner life, personal relationships or extra personal world react more powerfully of differently than he expected. Reaction blocks desire. Action provokes antagonism that opens gap between subjective expectation and objective result.
charcter realizes he cannot get what he wants in a minimal conservative way.
uses more willlpower etc, most importantly the second action puts him at risk. He now stands to lose in order to gain.
ask of any story what is the risk?
waht does the protagonist stand to lose if he does not get what he wants
whats the worst that will happen if the portagonist does not achieve his desire
the measure of value of any human desire is in direct proportion to the risk involved in its pursuit
we not only create stories as metaphors for life, we create them as metaphors for meaningful life. to live meaningfully is to be at perpetual risk
a pointless pace killer is any scene in which reactions lack insight and imagination, forcing expectation to equal result
inciting incident,progressive complication, crisis, climax, resolution.
the spine is the deep desire in and the efforts by the protagonist to restore the balance of life
have to work thorugh conscious desire to ultimately achieve unconsicoucs desire
196 diagram of story parts
inciting incident must create a emotional AND rational response. Event must not only pull at audiences feelings, but cause them to ask the major dramatic question and imagine the obligatory scene
Therefore location of the central inciting incident is found in the answer to the question: how much does the audience need to know about the protagonist and his world to have a full response
we consistently underestimate knowledge and life experience of the audience
story goes limp as writer makes protagonist do similar actions that unsurprisngly lead to similar results
life is ultimatley about questions of finding love and self worth, of bringing serenity to inner chaos, of the titanic social inequities everywhere around us, of time running out. Life is conflict. That is its nature. The writer must decide where and how to orchestrate this struggle.
conflict may come from one of three levels of antagonism (inner, personal, extra personal
inner conflict - stream of consciousesss
personal conflict - soap opera
extra personal conflict - action adventure, farce
complexity is when writer brings character into conflict on all three levels of life, often simultaneously
214
limit space and time somewhat
3 act minimum for full legnth works
first act rougly 25% in a feature film
last act should be the fastest, give audeinve a sense of acceleration
act two normally the longest, to make it interesting add subplots
or can have more acts like shakespear but-
the more acts the more brilliant scenes requred for the major reversal in each act
logic and reason can be added retrospectively
story must make dynamic shifts between the negative and postivie in order to fufill the law of diminishing marginal returns
story can go from postiive to postive or neg to neg only if the difference between the two is so great that it seems to make the previous negative seem positive eg. lovers break up (neg) then one kills the other (extremely neg)
clearest thing i have understood so far: character makes a choice and gets an unexpected outcome. Gap opens, has to go to more exteme measures. Each scene something should shift from pos to neg or vice versa. Shifts should get more extreme
logic sometimes best found afterwards
turning point (at the end of each act?) is when character makes a choice
the choices are a dilemma for this to work
nothing is what it seems, this phrase calls for the screenwriter to have knowledge of the thoughts and feelings seen and unseen that are going on beneath the surface, the subtext.
an old hollywood saying goes, if the scene is about what the scene is about then you are in deep shit
actors are artists who create material with subtext
257 - understand a scenes subtext 5 steps
ask what do they desire
what blocks that desire
what value is at stake, and what does it start with? positive or negative charge
a beat is an action/ reaction
what is the character doing on the surface, what are they actually doing underneath
composition is the order of scenes and also what scenes are actually included
serenity peace harmony relaxation
tension challenge danger fear
we can have too much of both
cannot just turn the screw and constently increase the pacing, the audeience will be worn out before we reach the end
build to a climax by building up to climax act one then realeasing and letting audience re gather their energy at the start of act two eg. from tension go to comedy and romance for a bit
we must earn the pause by telescoping rythmn and spiraling tempo
story begins immediately - afecting a few people
by the end progress so that story and actions of character are affecting more and more people
social progression
personal progression
drive progression inwards eg. into the innermost parts of the character
symblic acsension
move imagery from specific to achetypeal, from particular to universal
ironic ascensioon
turn progression on irony
For example:
he finally gets what he wanted, but too late to have it
he is pushed further and further from his goal... only to discover that in fact he has been led right too it
he throws away what he later finds is indispensible to his happiness
to reach a goal he unwittingly takes the precise steps to lead him away
the action he takes to destroy something becomes exactly the steps that are needed to be destroyed by it
he comes into the possession of something that he is certain will make him miserable, does everything possible to get rid of it, only to discover it is the gift of happiness
the key to ironic pogression is precision and certainty
stories of characters who knwo for certain what they must do and have precise plan to follow
that is when life turns around and says it is not their plan ABCDE that happens but rather EDCBA
TRANSITIONS
something held in common between two scenes or counter pointed between them
FOR EXAMPLE
characterisation trait:
cut from bratty child to childish adult
cut from awkward protagonist to elegant antagonist
An action:
foreplay of lovemaking to afterglow. Or from warm chatter to cold silence
An object ... in common: greenhouse interior to woodland exterior. Congo to antarctica
A word. Repeated in both scenes. In contrast could go from a compliment to a curse
Quality of light. Shadows of dawn to shade at sunset. In oppostion from blue to red
A sound. In common: waves lapping sa shore to rise and fall of a sleeper's breath. In oppositon: from silk careessing skin to the grinding of gears
AN idea. In common. A child's brith to an overture. In oppositon: From a painter;s empty canvas to an old man dying
AN imaginative study of almost any two scenes will find a link
Crisis means decsion
Crisis is the ultimate decision
Chinese ideogram for crisis is Danger/ opportunity.
the crisis is the story's obligatory scene
face to face with the most focused powerful forces of antagonism in his existence
the crisis must be a true dilemma - a choice between irreconcilable goods, the lesser of two evils or the two at once
dilemma confronts the protagonist who when face to face with the most powerful focused forces of antagonism in his life must make a decision to take one action or another in a last effort to achieve his object of desire
This scene reveals the story's most important value
willpower is most severely tested. Decisions more diffcult to make than actions are to take, we know from life.
when we finally make a decision we are often surprisied by its relative ease.
crisis causes climax (positive, negative or ironically postive or negative ending)
if as the protagonist takes the climactic action, we once more pry apart the gap between expectation and result, if we can split probablity from necessity just one more time, we may create a majestic ending the audience will treasure.
climax built around a turning point is the most satisfying of all
the crisis decision must be a deliberately static moment
this is the obligatory scene. DO not put it offscreen or skim over it. The audience wants to suffer with the protagonist through the pain of this dilemma
Meaning produces emotion.
Meaning: A revolution in values from positive to negative or negative to positive with or without irony - a value swing at maximum charge that's absolute and irreversible. The meaning of that change moves the heart of the audience.
once the climax is in hand stories are in a significant way rewritten backward
if scenes can be cut without disturbing the impact of the ending they must be cut
best is to climax subplots with the main plot climax
however if not sub plots are best climaxed earliest, followed by next most important, building to overall climax of central plot
william goldman argues that the key to all story endings is to give the audeince what it wants but not the way it expects
who determines which emotion satisfies an audience at the end of the film? the writer, when at the beginning he whispers expect an up ending, expect a down ending or expect irony.
we then give the audience the experience we've promised but not in the way it expects.
this is what separates artist from amateur
fancois truffaut - the key to a great film ending is to create a combination of "spectacle and truth"
spectacle is climax written not for the ear but the eye.
truth means controlling idea.
Key image - a single image that sums up and concentrates all meaning and emotion. it echoes and resonates all that has gone before
when its remembered the whole film comes back with a jolt
resoluition, the fifth of the five part structure,
any material left after climax
has 3 possible uses
logic may not provide an opportunity to climax a subplot before or during climax of the central plot
can be boring, but with comic false twist or other such re bring to life of central plot can keep tension
climactic effects can be shown in resolution
eg. a social event that satisfies curiosity by bringing entire cast to one location where we can see what has changed
film needs a 'slow curtain'
The principle of antagonism a protagonist and his story can only be as intellectualy fascinating and emotionally compelling as the forces of antagonism make them.
forces of antagonism mean the sum total of all forces that oppose the characters will and desire.
we should see that the protagonist is an underdog if we weigh the sum of his willpower along with his intellectual emotional social and physical capactities against the total forces of antagonism from his humanity, plus his personal conflicts, antagonistic institutions and enviroment,
he has a chance to achieve what he wants. but only a chance.
although conflict from one aspect of his life may seem solvable, the totality of all levels should seem overwhelming as he begins his quest.
316
does your story contain negative forces of such power that the positive side must gain surpassing quality?
what is the primary value at stake in your story eg. justice. generally protagonist represents the positive charge of this value
the forces of antagonism, the negative.
there are degrees of negativity
firsly the contradictory value eg. injustice
contrary is in the middle. somewhat negative but not fully. eg. unfairness
eg. bias, nepotism, racism, bureaucratic delay,
even more extreme than the contradictory is the negation of the negation
doubly negative
eg. tyranny
positive is good to better to best to perfect
Love = positive
indifference = contrary
contradictory = hate
negation of the negation = self hate or hatred masquerading as love
when primary value is truth
truth = positive
white lies/ half truths = contrary
contradictory = lies
negation of the negation = self deception
consciousness = positive
unconsciousness = contrary
death = contradictory
damnation = negation of the negation
when value positive = wealth
rich = positive
middle class = contrary
poor and suffering the pains of poverty = contradictory
rich but suffering the pains of poverty = negation of the negation
positive = open communication
contrary = alienation
contradictory = isolation
negation of the negation = insanity
full achievement of ideals or goals
positive = success
contrary = compomise
contradictory = faillure
negation of the negation = selling out
intelligence
positive = wisdom
contrary = ignorance
contradictory = stupidity
negation of the negation = stupidity percieved as intelligence
being there
positive = freedom
contrary = restraint
contradictory = slavery
negation of the negation = slavery percieved as freedom
courage
positive = bravery
contrary = ffear
contradictory = cowardice
negation of the negation = cowadice percieved as courage
loyalty
positive = loyalty
contrary = split allegiance
contradictory = betrayal
negation of the negation = self betrayal
maturity
positive = maturity
contrary = childishness
contradictory = immaturity
negation of the negation = immaturity perceived as maturity
(these dont have to go in order through the story)
sex
positive = sanctioned natural sex
contrary = unsanctioned/ natural unnatural/ sanctioned
contradictory = unatural/ unsanctioned
negation of the negation = grotesque/ abhorrent
if a story does not reach the negation of the negation it may strike the audience as satisfying - but never brilliant, never sublime.
when a story is weak the inevitbale cause is that forces of antagonism are weak
progressions run from the positive to the contrary in act one to the contradictory in later acts and finally to the negation of the negation in the last act, either ending tragically or going back to the positive with a profound difference.
Casablance opens at negation of negation and works to apostive for all three values, so anything is possible
EXPOSITION
menas facts, info about setting, biography and characterization that the audience needs to know to follow and comprehend the story
dramatized exposition:
primary purpose is to further immediate conflict, secondary is to convey information. Anxious novice reverses that order
to dramatize exposition apply this mnemonic principle 0 convert exposition to ammunition. Characters know their world, history, each other,
themselves, let them use this ammunition in their struggle to get what they want.
show dont tell means that characters and camera behave truthfuly eg. don't pan down photos to show something.
Never include anything the audience can reasonably and easily assume has happened.
Never pass on exposition unless the missing fact would cause confusion.
You do not keep the audience's interest by giving it information, but by withholding information, except that which is absolutely necessary for comprehension.
Pace exposition, least important facts come in early, the next most importatn later, the critical facts last.
what are critical pieces of exposition? Secrets. The painful truths characters do not want known.
California scenes are ones where two characters who hardly know each other sit down over coffee and discus their deep dark secrets. People argue that some poeple do this. And I agree. But only in Califorrnia. Not in arizona, new york, london etc" - mckee
save the best for last - is what the wise writer does
if we reveal too much too soon the audeince will see the climaxes coming long before they arrive.
if something has to be know, create the desire to know by arousing curiosity, pu tthe question why? in the fillgoers mind.
337 (in text 339)
aristole's advice to begin in 'medias res'. After locating the date of the climactic event we begin as close in time to it as possible.
we tell stories about people who have something to lose
risking hard won values against the forces of antagonism generates conflict. When thick with conflict characters need all the ammunition they can get. Therefore facts flow naturally into action.
'table dusting' - unmotivated exposition
if you are writing something that both characters already know or should know, ask yourself, is it dramatized. is it exposition as ammunition?
turning points
we can turn scenes only two ways, on action, or on revelation.
powerful revelations come from backstory
backstory= previous significant events in the lives of the characters that the writer can reveal at critical moments to create turning points
need to mix action and revelation
revelations tend to have more impact so we often reserve them for the major turning points, act climaxes
flashbacks
boring unless dramatized
interpolate a minidrama into the story with its own inciting incident, progessions and turning point. a well done one actually accelerates pace
agatha christie arouses curiosity in both directions by starting with crime
tarantino skips over half the inciting incident then jumps back to it whenever the pace slows
do not flashback until you have created in the audience a need and desire to know
narration
ask 'if i were to strip the voice over out of my screenplay, would the story still be well told' if yes keep it in
less is more applies
more impact if less
counterpoint narration
narration offers wit, ironies, and insights that cant be done any other way
jfk is a good study in dramatized exposition
holding interset is impossible task unles the design atracts both sides of human nature, intellect and emotion
344
curiosity is the intellectual need to answer questions and close open patterns
story plays to this desire by doing the opposite, posing questions and opening situations. Each turning point hooks curiosity. As the protagonist is put at increasingly greater risk the audeience wonders what is going to happen next, and after that and above all, how will it turn out.
concern is the emotional need for positive values of life: justice strength survival love truth courage.
the audience searches for the 'centre of good'. we believe we are good or right and want to identify with the positive. we know deep down that we are flawed, but feel our heart is in the right place.
mafia logic is people want prostitution, narctics, illicit gambling. when in toruble they want to bribe police and judges. We deal in realities. We are the good people.
At the very least the centre of good must be located in the protagonist. others can share it, but we must empathize with the protagonist.
good is a judgement made against a background of negativity, a universe that is thought or felt to be. not good.
Mystery, SUspense, Dramatic Irony
curiosity and concern create three possible ways ot connect the audience to the story.
In mystery the audience knows less than the characters
interest through curiosity alone. create but then conceal expositional facts. (from the backstory)
arouse curiosity about these events, tease it with hints of the truth, then deliberately keep it in the dark by misleading it with red herrings. so that it belives or suspects false facts while we hide the real ones.
closed mysetery is agatha christie - murder committed unseen in backtstory. writer must develop at least three possible killers to constantly mislead the audeince to suspect the wrong person. withholding real killer until the climax.
Open Mystery - the audience sees the murder committed and therefore knows who did it. The story becomes, how will he catch him? Writer substitutes multiple clues for multiple suspects. Murder must be elaborate and seemingly perfect crime, a complex scheme involving a number of steps and technical elements. One of these elements, the audience knwos, is a fatal flaw of logic. Detective instinctively knows who did it, sifts through many clues searching for the telltale flaw, discovers it and confrronts the arrogant perfcet crime committer who then spontaneously confesses.
In suspense the audience and the characters know the same information.
combines curiosity and concern. ninety percent of all films, comedy and drama, compel interest in this mode.
Curiosity in this form is not about fact but outcome. suspense could end up or down or in irony. Not like murder mystery which will almost always end up.
whilst protagonist discovers expositional fact, the audience discovers it, but what no one knows is how will this turn out? EMpathy and indentify with protagonist. In mystery our involvemnet is limited ot sympathy. Detectives charming and likable. but never identify as they are too perfect and never in real jeopardy. Murer myseteries are like board games, cool entertainments for the mind.
In dramatic irony the audeince knows more than the characters
interest through concern alone. such stories often open with the ending , deliberately giving away the outcome. Giving audience godlike superiority of knowing events before they happen. In suspense anxiety about outcome and fear for well being in Dramatic Irony becomes dread of the moment the character discovers what we already know. Compassion for someone we see heading for disaster.
Dramatic Irony does not eliminate all curiosity, we cause them to ask "how and why did these characters do what i already know they did" audience encouraged to look deeply into the motivations and causal forces at work in lives of characters. . freed from curiosity about facts an outcome, we concentrate on inner lives, unconscious energies and the subtle workings of society.
Usually writers enrich the telling of suspense stories by mixing the other two. may employ mystery to increase curiosity about certain facts or too dramatic irony to touch the audiences heart.
a certain amount of audience curiosity is essential. You are given the power to conceal fact or outcome in order to keep the audience looking ahead and asking questions. But you must not abuse this mystifying power else the audience will tune out. Rather reward the filmgoer for his concentration with honest insightful answers to his questions. No dirty tricks, no cheap surprise, no false mystery.
False Mystery is counterfeit curiosity caused by the artificial concealment of fact. Exposition that could and should have ben given to the audiecne is withheld in hope of holding interest over long, undramatized passages.
As characters arrive onscreen the audience surrounds them with expectations. This will happen. That will change. She will get the money. He the girls. C will suffer IF what the audeince expects to happen happens, or worse if it happens the way the audience expects it to happen this will be a very unhappy audience. We must surprise them.
Two kinds of surprise. Cheap and true.
True: springs form sudden revelation of the gap between expectation and result. Surprise is true because it is followed by a rush of insight, revelation of a truth hidden beneath the surface of the fictional world
cheap: suddenly cutting to or away from something it doesnt expect to see or soemthing it expects to continue.
in certain genres - Horror, Fantasy, Thriller - cheap surprise is part of the fun.
COINCIDENCE
story creates meaning
dramatize how coincidence may enter life meaninglessly, but in time gain meaning. the anti logic of dandomness becomes the logic of life as lived.
Bring coincidence in early to allow time to build meaning out of it.
do not use coincidence beyond the mid-point of the telling, rather put the story more and more into the hands of the characters.
Never use coincidence to turn an ending. This is deus ex machina, the writer's greatest sin.
it is an insult becuase it is a lie. We have to make our meaning, nothing is coming ot save us.
Only exception is anti structure filsm that substitiute coincidence for causality. begin by coincidence progress by coincidence, end on coincidence
which creates a meaning - life is absurd.
In drama audience continuously looks for the future, COmedy allows the writer to halt narrative drive.
what is the oppostie, what is off the wall from that. From this comic surprise can be found.
POV
Generally it enhances the telling to style the whole story from the protagonists point of view.
hopscotching through time and space can make story sprawl and lose tension.
like limited setting, genre convention and controlling idea shaping a story from the exclusive point of veiw of the protagonist is a creative discipline.
The more time spent with a character, the more opportunity to witness his choices. The reuslt is more empathy and emotional involvement between audience and character.
novel, play and screen are best at one of the thre levels
inner conflict prose does best
theatre does personal conflict best.
cinema does extra personal conflict best
Adaptation
to adapt first read the thing over and over without taking notes until you feel infused with is spirit.
that done reduce each event to a one or two sentence statement of what happens and no more. eg. he walks in to the house expecting a confrontation with his wife, but discovers a note telling him she's left him for another man' - no psychology, no sociology
ask yourself, is this story well told. Brace yourself, nine times out of ten its not.
the tenth it may be too long.
Be willing to reinvent.
to reinvent: reorder novels events from first to last as if they were biographies. from these create a step outline. feling free to cut and create sceens. most testing of all, turn what is mental into the physical. don't fill character mouths with dialogue, but find visual expression for their inner conflicts.
TO learn adaptation study RUth Prawer Jhabvala
start with images of social/ enviromental conflict and lead us into the complexitiies of personal relationships. in all mediums the complexiity is in expressing the complexity of life wihtout telling.
we feel a scene is melodramatic if we cannot believe that motivation matches action.
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if you can forge a link between illogical events and close the hole, do so.
One of the best ways (Terminator, CASABLANCA) to cover a hole is to straight up acknowledge it, and in doing so allow the audience to move on from it.
CHARACTER
william faulkner observed, human nature is the only subject that doenst date
we know characters better than we know our friends because a character is eternal and unchanging.
characterization is the sum of all the observable qualities - physical appearance, mannerisms, style of speech, gesture, sexuality, age, IQ, occupation, personality, attitudes, values, where he lives, how he lives. True character waits behind this mask. at heart who is this person, loyal or disloyal? honest or a liar? Loving or curel? Courageous or cowardly? Generous or selfish? Willful or weak?
True character can only be expressed through choice in dilemma. How the person chooses to act under pressure is who he is - the greater the pressure, the truer and deeper the choice to character
key to true character is desire.
fastest way to get unstuck is to ask what do i want? Listen to thee honest answer then find the will to pursue that desire.
a character comes to life the moment we glimpse a clear understanding of his desire. In a complex role not just the conscious but the unconscious desire as well.
Ask what does this character want? Now? SOon? Overall? Knowingly? Unknowningly?
behind desire is motivation. Why does your character want what he wants?
think though a solid understanding of motive but at the same time leave some mystery around the whys. ROom for hte audience to use its own life expereince to enhance your character in its imagination.
aristotle observed, why a man does a thing is of little interest once we see the thing he does. a character is the choices he makes to take the actions he takes.
what other characters and the character themself say about him/ himself is a clue but not always true
character dimension
dimension means contradiction. either within or between charcterization and deep character eg. a charming thief. contradictions must be consistent.
the protagonist must be the most dimensional character in the cast to focus empathy. If not the center of good decenters
different characters must bring out these different sides of him
Supporting character A provokes saddness and cynicism while support character B brings out his witty hopeful side.
378 character diagram
bit parts should be deliberartely flat but not dull. give characters a freshly observed trait that makes the role worth playing for the moment the actor's onscreen, but no more.
writers don't put dimensions in charcters they're not going to use again. dont cause false anticipation by making bit parts more interesting than necessary.
eg. taxi driver tells lade (first time in new york) how to look after herself, talk, where to avoid ecetera, then drops her in bronx,says its manhattan and charges her 300 pounds. the contradiction is a dimension, a dimension means we have to see them again.
ideally in every sceene each character brings out qualitiies that mark the dimensions of the others.
the comic charcter is marked by a blind obsession.
a shot in the dark: a chauffer is murdered on the estate of benjamin ballon. Enter a man obsessed with being the world's most perfect detective, captain clouseau, who decides that Ballon did the deed and confronts the billionaire in the billiards room. As Clouseau lays out his evidence he rips the felt on the pool table and smashes the cues, finally summing up with: " ... and zen you killed him in a rit of fealous jage." Clouseau turns to leave but walks around the wrong side of the door. We hear THUMP as he hits the wall. He steps back and with cool contempt, says, "Stupid architects."
DOn't overwrite, leave the actor space. They should do the characterization as much as you
AN actor wants to know: what do I want? why do I want it? How do I go about getting it? What stops me? What are the consequences?
Fall in love with all your characters.
No one thinks they are bad
If you can't love them, don't write them
don't let this produce melodrama or stereotype.
COllect peices of life and use it. Record life?
when you ask yourself if i were this character in these circumstances what would i do? the honest answer is always correct.
dialogue is not conversation.
when we talk about the weather the real and only point is saying Im your friend. Lets take a minute out of our busy day and stand here in each others presence and reaffirm that we are indeed friends.
dialogue must have the swing of everyday talk but content well above normal.
speak as common people do, aristotle advised, but think as wise men do.
typically we dont always bother with a noun or a verb, typically as above we drop the opening article or pronoun, speaking in phrases, even grunts.
stikomythia - the rapid exchange of short speeches.
be very judiciious about writing long speeches.
break them into patterns of action/ reaction that shape the speaker's behaviour
excellent film dialogue tends to shape itself into the periodic sentence= a suspense sentence - its meaning is delayed until the very last word. forcing everyone to listen to the end of the line.
simple rule for writing film dialgoue is don't. Never write a line when you can create a visual expression.
it sparks interest because the audience is hungry for it.
Hitchcock once remarked, when. the screenplay has been written, and the dialogue has been added, we're ready to shoot.
constantly discipline with this question, what do I see on the screen?
avoid extra words
not 'the carpenter uses a big nail' but 'the carpenter hammers a spike'
instead of move slowly he (ambles, strolls, moseys, saynters, drags, stagers, waltzes, glides, lumbers, tiptoes, creeps, slouches, shuffles, waddles, minces, trudgees, teeters, lurches, gropes, hobbles)
eliminate is and are throughout.
Most specific avtive verbs and concrete nouns possible even establishing shots come alive.
eliminate all that cannot pass this test "what do i see (or hear) onscreen?"
eliminate we see and we hear. we doesnt exist.
eliminate all camera and editing notations.
split prose into units with white lines.
the fist step of turning any well told story into a poetic work is to exclude 90 percent of reality. Vast majority of objects have the wrong connotations.
An IMAGE SYSTEM is a strategy of motifs, a category of imagery embedded in film repeats sights and sounds from beginning to end with persistence, variation, and subtlety. Subliminal ocmmunication to increase the depth and complexity of aesthetic emotion.
external imagery eg. a cross for christ. teardrop for sadness etf
internal is a meaning that develops connected to something only within the film
eg. water in les diabolique
an image system must be subliminal
*The Room where the bell rings* sam jenkins title?
title should say somehting about the story
inside out vs outside in
typically spend the first of the six months it takes to write a screenplay writing on stacks of three by five cards. A stack for each cact. On the cards they create the story's step outline.
STEP OUTLINE
(HERE STARTS PART ABOUT WRITING PROCESS)
A story told in steps
Southpark creators: should always be 'but or therefore' to connect, never 'and then'
simply and clearly describes what happens in each scene, how it builds and turns.
on the back he indicates what step in the design of the story he sees this scene fulfiling - at least for now. Which scene set up the inciting incident, which is the inciitng incident. first act climax. Does this for central and subplots alike.
Must stay with these cards for months destroying his work. Must create far more material than he can use, then destroy it
does not mean writer isn't filling pages. these are biographies, the fictional world and its history, thematic notations, images, even snippets of vocabularly and idiom. all this while story is disciplined to the step-outline.
Finally after weeks or months he discovers his story climax. with that in hand he re works.
Then he pitches his story to friends. he wants to see it happen there, in their eyes.
Are they hooked by my inciting incident? Do I get the strong reaction I want when I hit my climax?
Must be able to hold interest for ten minutes and pay it off by moving him to a meaningful, emotional experience. Just as the LES DIABOLIQUE pitch hooked and held you.
everything that is wrong with a ten minute pitch only gets worse on screen in the longer form.
Until a good majority of listeners respond with enthusiasm there is no point going forward. enthusiasm means they whisper wow and fall silent.
TREATMENT
to treat the step outline the writer expands each scene from its one or two sentences to a paragraph or more of double spaced, present tense moment by moment description
in treatment we write 'he wants her to do this, but she refuses' but never dialogue. instead we create the subtext, the true thoughts and feelings underneath what is said and done. we dont know what they are thinking and feeling (we may think we do but we don't) until we write it down.
40-60 scenes in a typical screenplay.
treatments expand step outline to sixty to ninety pages.
overall design stays the same, but within structure scenes cut added or reordered is fine.
done until every moment lives vividly, in text and subtext. then move to screenplay
convert treatment description to screen description and add dialogue
our characters have had tape over their mouths for so long that they cannot wait to talk.
may have to go back to treatment and re work the setups. may then have to redo the payoff.
must not skip treatment as event choice and story design must be given free rein to consume imagination and knowledge
turning points must be imagined, discarded and reimagined.
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