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STORY by Robert McKee1/ THE WRITER AND THE ART OF STORY (p1-30)INTRODUCTIONPrinciples, not rules- well made within self-constructed principles (you can break conventions as long as you stay true to your own self-constructed rule system).- anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules; rebellious, unschooled writers break rules; artists master the form.Archetypes not stereotypes- universal experience wrapped inside culture-specific expression.- avoids cliché, formula and fear of limited appeal.- like an explorer – untouched society comprehended and illustrated via story – cliché free exposition where ordinary becomes extraordinary.- fictional reality that illuminates daily reality.- do not wish to escape life but find life in fresh and experimental ways; to flex our emotions, to enjoy, learn and add depth to our days.Thoroughness, not shortcuts- screenplays are not easier than novels – economy is key, but excellence requires extensive planning, research, redrafting, conceptualising through pertinent questioning and most of all, resilience.Realities, not mysteries of writing- telling screen stories looks deceptively easy but it is not abstruse.- a screenwriter cannot hide behind his words like a novelist in authorial voice or like a playwright in a soliloquy – cannot cover cracks in logic with explanatory/emotive language, blotchy motivation and colourless emotion.- camera magnifies any falseness – screenwriting is full of wonders but not unsolvable mysteries.Mastering the art, not second-guessing the marketplace- no one knows what will be a smash or a fiasco – nothing is guaranteed.- agony over “breaking in”, “making it”, “creative interference” – just achieve excellence.- finished screenplays meet little interference – have authority over your topic.- secure writers don’t sell first drafts – patient rewrites until director ready/actor ready.- unfinished work invites tampering, whilst polished, mature work seals its integrityRespect, not disdain for the audience- bad writing 1 = blinded by an idea that you are compelled to prove.2 = driven by an emotion they must express.- good writing = moved by a desire to touch the audience.- power of audience – capacity for response, masks fall away, they become vulnerable and receptive in an exhausting yet cathartic ritual.- IQ jumps 25 in theatre – smarter than most films – perceptive, predictive, judicious, intuitive.Originality, not duplication- confusion of content and form – distinctive choices = shaping the telling.(setting, characters, ideas = content, selection and arrangement of events = form)Content and form mutually influence one another.- A story is not only what you say but how you say it.- Stereotype = conventional, predictable, formulaic behaviours, style focus.- Archetype = innovative, fresh setting and characterisation, substance over style.- Never mistake eccentricity for originality – difference for the sake of difference is still a stereotype.- Well-made formula may choke the story’s voice.- Art movie quirkiness will give it a speech impediment.- Avoid infantile gimmicks – wise artists don’t attention seek when breaking convention.- You can be idiosyncratic (Altman, Sturges, Truffaut, Bergman) – distinctive DNA.- Style inseparable from vision – formal choices echo vision and aren’t unconventional for the sake of it.- Patterning of events – arrangement of events is a master metaphor for the story’s interconnectedness (personal, political, environmental, spiritual) – the how/why things happen the way they do in this world.- Yimou, Lee, Allen, Mamet, Tarantino, Stone, Ephron, Kubrick – all unique.- Go beyond competence and skill – Great films need power and beauty – speak to the jaded generation – ART TRANSFORMS LIFE.- Take command of the craft – express original vision lift talent beyond convention – create films of distinctive substance, structure and style.1. THE STORY PROBLEM: THE DECLINE OF STORYStory supersedes work, play, eating and exercise for its value as a prolific, universal expression.- Why is so much of our life spent inside stories? It’s equipment for living.- Aristotle: how should a human being lead his or her life? We are unsure.- Unpredictable nature of experience = meaningful/meaningless, serious/comic, static/frantic, controlled/chaotic.- Aristotle’s 4 wisdoms = philosophy, science, religion, art leads onto Hegel and Kant’s approach.- Belief that is strongest = the art of story.- World consumption: films, novels, theatre, television, conversation – story is inspiration – it orders chaos and gives insight from life.- Jean Anouilh, “fiction gives life its form” even entertainment is an immersion of story for emotional and intellectually satisfying ends. People concentrate in order to understand story meaning as a cathartic exercise. Story searches for reality rather than escapes it.- “But if was beautifully photographed” – when story goes bad, the result is decadence – substituting substance for spectacle, trickery for truth. Hollywood = extravagant, Europe = decorative. Actors become histrionic, lewd, violent. Sound effects are obvious and tumultuous. GROTESQUE.Honest, powerful storytelling is not glossy, hollow, pseudo-intellectual or degenerative.- Yeats, “the centre can not hold”- The hard to believe truth is that what we see on the screen each year is a reasonable reflection of the best writing of the last few years.- with rare exceptions, unrecognised genius is a myth.- Hollywood has virtually no competition – slow decay of quality European films.- Renoir, Bergman, Fellini, Bunuel, Wajda, Clouzot, Antonioni, Resnais – worldwide acclaim – loyal following but auteurs have lost their box office authority. - Asian cinema is the most dynamic – superb storytelling with substance and beauty.[THE LOSS OF CRAFT]The art of story is a dominant, cultural force and the art of film is the dominant medium of this grand enterprise.- requires diligence, knowledge with creativity, intuition with human nature, venture to compose and a flex of courage.- novice uses experience = overrated.- self-knowledge is key – life plus deep reflection on our reactions to life.- don’t be limited by previous media/story.- Dramaturgy – intrinsic – desire, forces of antagonism, turning points, spine, progression, crisis, climax (story seen from the inside out).- New wave teaching of dramaturgy – moving from intrinsic to extrinsic (language, codes, text – story seen from the outside).- In industry, there is an unfair disdain for screenwriting – final cause for the decline of story age of moral and ethical cynicism, relativism and subjectivism (confusion of values). How do you express conviction to an ever more sceptical audience when there is an erosion of values? The erosion of values correlates with the erosion of story.[THE STORY IMPERATIVE]p18 = The Story Review / Screenwriting analyses = important.Report 1Report 2Nice – description, dialogue, moments, sensitivity, well-chosen words. Great story – gripping, climactic, superb weave of plot and subplot, sublime revelations of deep character, amazing insight into society, moving, Act 2 seemed like the climax but Act 3 surprised further.Poor story, overload of exposition, convenient coincidences, weak motivation, no discernible protagonist, unrelated tensions, no insight into inner lives, lifeless, predictable, ill-told, clichéd, pointless, wandering.270 page grammatical nightmare, poor spelling, tangled dialogue, stuffed with camera directions, subtextual explanations and philosophical commentary, incorrect format, unprofessional.Literary talent is not enough – must be a storyteller.Make dialogue vivid and sharp.Avoid lack of progression, false motivation, redundant characters, empty subtext, plot holes, bland and boring.75% of a writer’s labour goes into designing story.- 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?This is the creative task.Designing story tests the maturity and insight of the writer- story demands vivid imagination and powerful, analytic thought.- self-expressin and the writer’s humanity is always exposed.- doesn’t matter how different or abstract the film – story is its heart.- form does not mean formula – story is far too rich in mystery, complexity and flexibility.[GOOD STORY WELL TOLD]Creative power – inventive development of form – vision, characterisation, exposition, depth.All loves listed next page are not enough without your goal being – GOOD STORY WELL TOLD.Don’t let the conscious block the sub-conscious with subjective questions in drafting like – “Is it good?” = dead end questioning. Mastery of craft frees the subconscious.Rhythm of writer at workPerpetual process – success depends on command of craftEnter imagined worldCharacters speak and act (you write)Evaluate writing in literal worldCritique – impulse – logic – right/left brain analysisReimagineRewrite – harmonise instinct and ideaPalette of ‘Good Story Well Told’:Love of storyLove of dramaticLove of truthLove of humanityLove of sensationLove of dreamingLove of humourCharacters must be more real than people.Fascination with sudden surprises and revelations that bring deep change.The belief that lies cripple the artist.Willingness to empathise with suffering souls.The desire to indulge not only the physical but inner senses.Pleasure in taking leisurely rides in your imagination.A joy in the saving grace that restores the balance of life.Fictional world more profound than the concrete.Every truth in life must be questioned, down to one’s secret motives.To crawl inside their skins and see the world through their eyes.Loves to see where imagination leads – enjoys the unpredictable journey.Love of languageLove of dualityLove of perfectionLove of uniquenessLove of beautyLove of selfThe delight in sound and sense.A feel for life’s hidden contradiction.The passion to write and rewrite in pursuit of the perfect moment.The thrill of audacity.An innate sense that treasures good writing and hates bad writing.A strength that does not need constant reassurance.Deep understanding and insight in semantics.A healthy suspicion that things are not what they seem.Stone-faced calm when met by ridicule.Knows the difference between the two.Never doubts that they are a writer and can love and bear the loneliness of the art.[STORY AND LIFE]Personal story, bad script – equivalent of slo-mo through daisies situation drama. understructured – mistakes verisimilitude for truth – visible and factual. bringing the literal to life is truth with a little ‘t. truth with a big ‘T’ = beyond the surface, holding reality, tearing it apart, isn’t directly observed.Guaranteed commercial success, bad script – thing-that-will-end-civilization-as-we-know-it-today. overstructured – sensory overload – mistakes kinesis for entertainment. focus on technical innovation – exploiting spectacle. CGI is neither a curse nor a panacea – simply adds fresh hues to a story palette.Must understand relationship of story to life – STORY IS A METAPHOR TO LIFE.- storyteller is a life poet transforming day-to-day, inner/outer/dream/actuality into a rhyme scheme of events rather than words.In story, facts are neutral.- story is not just actuality.- truth is what we think about what happens – interpretation is a form of truth.Aesthetics of a film are a means to express living content of story – they must never become an end in themselves.2/ THE ELEMENTS OF STORY (p31-134)2. THE STRUCTURE SPECTRUMBeautifully told story = symphonic unity where structure, setting, character, genre and idea meld seamlessly.To find their harmony – treat elements of story as instruments of an orchestra preparing for a concert. There is no right or wrong sound, just various approaches that have different stages of depth and development.[THE TERMINOLOGY OF STORY DESIGN]There are an encyclopaedic number of story design possibilities – mark of a master = those that select only a few moments but give us a lifetime.Inner life? Tale through thoughts? Awake? Dreaming? Interpersonal conflict with family, friends, lovers? Social institutions conflict in school, career, church, justice system? Against environment – city streets, lethal diseases, bad car, time running out? Combination of all of the above?Complex expanse of life story must become the story told.Story design must be selective – must be able to tell what isn’t referenced – how?Story told is often inside life story – sometimes we get to know past without seeing a play-by-play of those events.[STRUCTURE]Writer must make choices – character? Action? Mood? Images? Dialogue? No one element in and of itself will build story – not just moments of conflict, activity, personality, emotion, witty talk or symbols – the writer seeks events.STRUCTURE is a selection of events from thIe characters’ life stories those is composed into a strategic sequence to arouse specific emotions while expressing a specific view on life.Events have a ripple effect on characters – setting, action, dialogue, energy of conflict, reaction, audience effect – event choices are not random and cannot be – must be composed: what to include, exclude, put before and after what? Know your purpose – why compose them? What is the motive at the core of event choices. Expressing feelings is self-indulgent; expressing ideas could be solipsistic if audience cannot follow. Design of events requires dual strategy.[EVENT]“Event” means change – causes have effects – meaningful, not trivial – to make change meaningful, the change must happen to a character. Downpour outside affects choices of character – s/he would be going outside to fulfil an errand, no longer chooses this because of intensity of rain. Think of more profound examples of this in your storytelling.A STORY EVENT creates meaningful change in the life situation of a character that is expressed and experienced in terms of VALUE.Change is meaningful through the expression of a value that the audience can react to. Values in this sense means story values to the broadest sense of the idea. Values are the soul of storytelling. Ours is the art of expressing to the world a perception of values.STORY VALUES are the universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive, from one moment to the next.Examples tend to be binary oppositions: alive/dead (positive/negative), love/hate, freedom/slavery, truth/lie, courage/cowardice, loyalty/betrayal, wisdom/stupidity, strength/weakness, excitement/boredom, hope/despair.Emotive values: good/evil, right/wrong, ethical/unethical.Contextual example applied and critiqued with counter arguments: - 1980s East Africa, realm of drought value at stake = survival, life/death.- Begin at negative value – risk of death.- Rain is deeply meaningful within this context while it may be trivial or even negative in others.- Rain would switch the value from negative to positive, from death to life.- In this context, rain is the value catalyst.- However, this catalyst is coincidental and so doesn’t count as a STORY EVENT.- Story cannot be built out of nothing but accidental events, no matter how charged with value.A STORY EVENT creates meaningful CHANGE in the life situation of a character that is expressed and experienced in terms of a VALUE and achieved through CONFLICT.Contextual example re-applied:Same story – into it comes man who imagines himself a ‘rainmaker’.Character has deep inner conflict with passionate belief despite no evidence.He has fear that he’s a fool or mad – this is his INTERNAL CONFLICT.He meets a woman, falls in love, then suffers as she tries to believe him, but turns away, convinced he is a charlatan or worse.He has a strong conflict with society – some follow him as if he’s the messiah.Others want to stone him out of town.Lastly, he faces implacable conflict with physical world – hot winds, empty skies, parched earth.Condition: if this man can struggle through all his inner and personal conflicts and social and environmental forces and finally coax rain out of a cloudless sky, that storm would be majestic and sublimely meaningful – for it is change motivated through conflict.[SCENE]Typically forty to sixty story events = film.Story Events are commonly known as scenes.A SCENE is an ACTION through CONFLICT in more or less continuous time and space that turns a VALUE charged condition of a character’s life on at least one VALUE with a degree of perceptible significance. Ideally, every SCENE is a STORY EVENT.What value is at stake in my character’s life? Love? Truth? What? How is the value charged at the top of the scene? Positive? Negative? Some of both? Make a note. End of scene. Where is the value now? Positive? Negative? Both? Make a note and compare. Why is this scene in my script?If the value-charged condition of the character’s life stays unchanged from one end of a scene t the other, nothing meaningful happens. The scene has activity – talking, doing – but nothing changes in value – it is a nonevent.Why then is the scene of the story? The answer is certain to be exposition. It’s there to convey information about characters, world, history to the eavesdropping audience. If exposition is a scene’s sole justification, a discipline writer will trash it and weave its information into the film elsewhere.The ideal = NO SCENE THAT DOESN’T TURN. This is our ideal.Every scene from beginning to end by turning a value at stake in a character’s life from positive to negative or negative to positive.Action genres turn on public values such as freedom/slavery, justice/injustice.Education genre turns on interior values such as self-awareness/self-deception, life as meaningful/meaningless. Regardless of genre the principal is universal.If a scene is not a true event – cut it – a scene where tension escalates and love turns into hate through a series of negative actions. You can shift place too – bedroom to kitchen to garage to highway – these aren’t the scenes, just camera setups. The action dictates the scene not the location.Action usually reaches a TURNING POINT – the midway catalyst to develop the STORY EVENT.Limitations mean if you can limit the location and anything that could develop the cost, you scrap it – the novelist or screenwriter might prefer to travel through the scene establishing a LOCATION TABLEAU or MILIEU – this scene could cross cut with anther scene – maybe a parallel situation or an opposing situation. Variations are endless.[BEAT]Not to be confused with ‘short pause’ that is indicated in a script.A BEAT is an exchange of behaviour in ACTION/REACTION. Beat by beat these changing behaviours shape the turning of a SCENE.Teasing turns to sarcasm to insults to threats to calling their bluff to inciting with ridicule to rage to action to violence to separation to shock – all this could take place in six beats of action/reaction.A SEQUENCE is a series of SCENES – generally two to five – that culminates with greater impact than any previous SCENE.Beats build scenes – scenes build the next largest movement of story design – the sequence.Every true scene turns the value-charged condition of the character’s life – from event to event the degree of change can differ greatly.Scenes cause minor yet significant change – the capping scene of a sequence delivers a more powerful, determinant change.EXAMPLE – three scene sequence – West Side Hotel Under the hotel marquee Mirrored lobby (Park Avenue apartment building)- Business woman story – promotion opportunity – one of six candidates- 1 – A West Side Hotel - our protagonist prepares for the evening, value at stake is self-confidence/self-doubt – fear knots her stomach – she decides to pack it in to save humiliation – phone rings – mum calls with a good-luck toast with guilt trips about loneliness and fear of abandonment – Barbara hangs up – realises Manhattan piranhas are no match for great white shark at home – she needs this job – preparation falls magically into place – plants herself in front of mirror glowing with confidence.- 2 – Under the hotel marquee - thunder, lightning, pelting rain – she didn’t know to tip the doorman five bucks when registering – he won’t go out into the storm to find a cab – when it rains in New York there are no cabs – she studies her visitors’ map – realizes if she returns a certain route she won’t get to the party on time – she decides to do the unthinkable: run through Central Park at night – life/death value – covers her hair with a newspaper and runs into daring situation – she gets surrounded by gang that’s always there – she is a karate expert – she kick fights her way through the gang breaking jaws – stumbles out of the park alive.- 3 – Mirrored lobby – Park Avenue apartment building - value at stake changes to social success/social failure – life/death value resolved = survived – looks in the mirror and sees a drowned rat – blood/mess – self-confidence plummets past doubt and fear into value of personal defeat and social disaster – cabs pick up socialites and leave her – socialites take pity on poor Midwest loser and usher her into elevator – in penthouse they towel off her hair and find mismatched clothes for her to wear – spotlight’s on her all night – she knows she’s lost and relaxes into natural self – chutzpah forms – she tells them about park battle – people are amazed – end of evening: executives know exactly who they want for the job – anyone who can go through that terror in the park is clearly the person for them – evening ends on personal and social triumphs and she is given the job (doubly positive).Each scene turns on its own value(s). Scene 1 = self-doubt to self-confidence.Scene 2 = death to life, self-confidence to defeat.Scene 3 = social disaster to social triumph.THE JOB NO JOB JOBThe job was so important to her that she risked her life over it.The change could have happened very simply but the audience would have missed out on the journey.An ACT is a series of sequences that peaks in a CLIMACTIC SCENE which causes a major REVERSAL OF VALUES, more powerful in its impact than any previous SEQUENCE or SCENE.Scenes turn in minor but significant ways – a series of sequences builds to an Act structure – a movement that turns on a major reversal in the value-charged condition of the character’s life – the difference between a basic scene, a scene that climaxes a sequence, and a scene that climaxes an act is a degree of change and the impact that the change has – for better or worse – character’s inner life, personal relationships, fortunes in the world, some combination of all of these.A STORY CLIMAX is the culmination of a series of preceding ACTS that build to a LAST ACT CLIMAX bringing absolute and irreversible CHANGE.A series of acts builds the largest structure of all: the Story – the one huge master event.The value-charged situation in the life of the character at the beginning of the story, then compare it to the value-charge at the end of the story, you should see the – ARC OF THE FILM – great sweep of change that takes life from one condition at the opening to a changed condition at the end. This final condition, this end change must be ABSOLUTE and IRREVERSIBLE.Changed caused by a scene could be reversed – lovers could get back together, people fall in and out and back in love every day. Sequence could be reversed: the Midwest businesswoman could win her job only to discover that she reports to a boss she hates and wishes she were back where she used to work. An act climax can be reversed – character could die and come back to life – minor, moderate, major change – all that can be reversed. But last act climaxes are IRREVERSIBLE.Make your beats build scenes, scenes build sequences, sequences build acts, acts build story to its climax.Character arc – hardworking, optimistic, honest ruthless, cynical and corrupt[THE STORY TRIANGLE]Archplot, Miniplot and SubplotPlot has become a dirty word – tarred by commercial connotations – internally consistent, interrelated pattern of events that move through time to shape and design a story.A story in which the arc of the film takes place within the mind of the protagonist – TENDER MERCIES – deep and irreversible revolution in his attitude toward life and toward himself.For the screenwriter, these stories are fragile and difficult while a novelist can explore their inner monologue with ease – we cannot drive a camera lens through an actor’s forehead and photograph his thoughts although there are those who would try.Aim = lead the audience to interpret the inner life from outer behaviour without loading the soundtrack with expositional narration or stuffing characters with explanatory dialogue.“Movies are about making mental things physical” – John CarpenterCLASSICAL DESIGNArchplotCausalityClosed EndingLinear TimeExternal ConflictSingle ProtagonistConsistent RealityActive ProtagonistBattleship PotemkinLa Grande IllusionCitizen KaneBringing Up BabyBrief EncounterGodfather Part IISeven Samurai2001: A Space OdysseyFour Weddings and a FuneralThe Seventh SealThelma and LouiseChinatownDr Strangelove(Nashville, The Crying Game, The Fabulous Baker Boys, When Harry Met Sally, Barton Fink)MINIMALISMMiniplotANTI-STRUCTUREAntiplotOpen EndingInternal ConflictMulti-ProtagonistsPassive ProtagonistCoincidenceNonlinear TimeInconsistent RealitiesLa Passion de Jeanne d’ArcTender MerciesZero de ConduiteBlow UpThe Accidental TouristWild StrawberriesIn the Realm of the SensesShort Cuts (nonplot/multiplot)Un Chien AndalouLast Year at Marienbad (nonplot)Persona, That Obscure Object of DesireDiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (nonplot)Wayne’s WorldA Zed and Two NoughtsKoyaanisqatsiLost HighwayStranger Than ParadiseTo PLOT means to navigate through terrain of STORY and when confronted by branching possibilities, choosing the correct path. PLOT is the writer’s CHOICE of EVENTS and their design in time.CLASSICAL STORY DESIGN means a story built around an active protagonist who struggles primarily against external forces of antagonism to pursue his or her desire, through consistent time, within a consistent and causally connected fictional reality, to a closed ending of absolute, irreversible change.[FORMAL DIFFERENCES WITHIN THE STORY TRIANGLE]CLOSED ENDINGArchplots – all questions raised by story answered, all emotions evoked are satisfied – absolute, irreversible change.OPEN ENDINGMiniplots – questions raised are rhetorical and unresolved, but questions must be answerable and resolvable. Degree of closure is possible – unfulfilled expectations present.EXTERNAL CONFLICTArchplot – emphasis on personal relationships, social institutions, forces of physical world. Some inner conflict is present.INTERNAL CONFLICTMiniplot – emphasis on thoughts, feelings (conscious or unconscious) and internal battles despite some external conflicts with family, society and environment.SINGLE PROTAGONISTArchplot – some subplots but a focus on one character’s rollercoaster journey – THE FUGITIVE - Multiplot is an effective offshoot of this.MULTIPLE PROTAGONISTSMiniplot and Multiplot – sometimes external in conflict but emphasis on internal conflicts – THE THIN RED LINE, PULP FICTION, SHORT CUTS – can distort the direction of a narrative with a confusing overload of stories being told at once.ACTIVE PROTAGONISTPursues their desire, takes action in direct conflict with people and the world around them.PASSIVE PROTAGONISTOutwardly inactive while pursuing desire inwardly, in conflict with aspects of his or her own nature.LINEAR TIMEStory with or without flashbacks and arranged into a temporal order of events that the audience can follow.NON-LINEAR TIMEA story that either skips helter-skelter through time or blurs temporal continuity that the audience cannot sort out what happens before or after what is told.CAUSALITYDrives a story in which motivated actions cause effects that in turn become causes of other effects, interlinking various levels of conflict in a chain reaction of episodes to the Story Climax expressing the interconnectedness of reality.COINCIDENCEDrives a fictional world where unmotivated actions trigger events that do not cause further effects and fragment the story into divergent episodes and an open ending, expressing the disconnectedness of existence.CONSISTENT REALITIESFictional settings that establish modes of interaction between characters and their world that are kept consistently throughout the telling to create meaning. As long as the film strictly obeys its own fictional reality, it is consistent.INCONSISTENT REALITIESSettings that mix modes of interaction so that the story’s episodes jump inconsistently from one “reality” to another to create a sense of absurdity.In Antiplot – the only rule is to break rules – Jean-Luc Godard’s WEEKEND.Writers of antiplot include – Strindberg, Toller, Woolf, Joyce, Beckett, Burroughs – Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Stream of Consciousness, Theatre of the Absurd, the antinovel – atemporal, coincidental, fragmented, chaotic, outside recognisable psychology, deliberately inconsistent, overtly symbolic.Films in this mode are not metaphors of “life as lived” but for “life as thought about” – filmmaker’s solipsism explored. Some inconsistent realities can have some unity despite some incoherence. Audiences have to be willing to venture into its distortions.CHANGEMiniplot, Antiplot or ArchplotSTASISMiniplot, Antiplot[THE POLITICS OF STORY DESIGN]In an ideal world, art and politics would never touch – in reality, they can’t keep their hands off each other.The distortion of truth is greatest at the extremes of political opinion.For reasons more ideological than personal we can lose our way in storytelling – keep looking honestly at its specious polemics.Primary political issue in film = Hollywood film vs Art Film – concept maybe outdated but partisans are contemporary and vocal (auteurs vs. guns for hire, big budget vs low budget, special effects vs painterly composition, star system vs ensemble acting, private finance vs government support).Your story = stasis vs. change – you decide.Art film generally means Non-Hollywood – doesn’t refer to farce, porn or gore.Good examples – Babette’s Feast and Il Postino.Hollywood filmArt filmOverly optimistic about capacity of life to change especially for the better.Very high percentage of positive endings.Americans crave change – inherent in their history – escapees from prisons of stagnant culture and rigid class.Focus on external conflictAmbitiously spectacularOver pessimistic about change – “the more life changes, the more things stay the same, or even, change brings suffering”.Old world fears change through hard experience – social transformations inevitably bring war, famine and chaos.Focus on inner conflictAmbitiously internalised about human consciousnessUnderestimate audience’s interest in character, thought and feeling and their desire for witness a subversion of formula and the importance of internal evaluationUnderestimate the intellectual value of spectacle and the societal contribution of cinematic optimism and the importance of narrative external expressionResult = polarized attitude toward story – the ingenuous and insistent optimism of Hollywood versus the equally ingenuous and insistent pessimism of art film – neither are na?ve but each sway each towards change or stasis.The Writer Must Earn a Living- For a writer to survive financially, they may have to compromise their vision.- The audience is less interested in Miniplot and Antiplot.- Archplot is the most popular form of storytelling.- Most people believe life brings closed experiences of absolute, irreversible change.- Most people believe that the greatest sources of conflict are external and believe an active application will be the most important asset in a character’s breakthrough.- People mould their fantasies and dreams into an Archplot rather than a Miniplot or Antiplot.- There is an enthusiastic audience seeking narrative challenge – these tend to be cinephile intellectuals – but they are a very small audience.- A low budget script is no asset for Hollywood.- Those who read your minimalist, antistructured piece may applaud your handling of image but may decline if the story is inconsequential, it is likely, so is the audience.- Art film is high risk, Archplot is lower risk.The Writer Must Master Classical Form- minimalism and antistructure are not independent forms but reactions to the Classical.- Miniplot and Antiplot were born out of Archplot – one shrinks it, the other contradicts it.- Avant-garde exists to oppose the popular and commercial until it too becomes popular and commercial, then it turns to attack itself.- If Nonplot ‘art films’ went hot and raked in money, the avant-garde would revolt, denounce Hollywood for selling out to portraiture and seize Classical for its own.- Cycles between – formality/freedom, symmetry/asymmetry are familiar through history.- Rock’n Roll began as avant-garde movement against whitebread sounds of postwar era.- Archplot likes to takes elements of art and reinterpret it for populist purposes.- Antiplot devices are usually satirical – Un Chien Andalou, To Weekend, to other Bunuel films.- Story techniques that once struck us as dangerous and revolutionary now seem toothless but charming.- Even the masters mastered the Archplot.The Writer Must Believe in What He Writes- Stanislavski asked his actors: are you in love with the art in yourself or yourself in the art? - Examine your motives for what you’re writing.- Do you truly believe life is meaningful or meaningless? Your choice in form should reflect your deep seated beliefs.- Avoid pretention by focusing on what to do rather than what not to do – to rebel for the sake of rebellion or to set yourself apart. Instead, master the form.- Anti-Hollywood writing could end up just being a temper tantrum rather than humane, profound writing – avoid delinquency calling for attention.- Write only what you believe.STRUCTURE AND SETTING[THE WAR ON CLICH?]Most demanding time in history to be a writer. What will you create that they haven’t seen before? Where will you find a truly original story? How will you win the war on cliché? Cliché is at the root of audience dissatisfaction – like a plague spread through ignorance it now infects all story media.The writer does not know the world of his story.Do not make assumptions of the creation of your fictional world – crib scenes, paraphrase dialogue, disguise characters we’ve met before and pass them off as their own.Reheat literary leftovers and serve up plates of boredom regardless of their talents – lack in-depth understanding of their story’s setting and all it contains.Knowledge of and insight into the world of your story is fundamental to the achievement of originality and excellence.[SETTING] A story’s SETTING is four-dimensional – period, duration, location, level of conflict.PERIOD is story’s place in time – is story set in contemporary world? History? Hypothetical future? Unknowable location and irrelevant?DURATION is a story’s length through time – How much time does your story span? Decades? Years? Months? Days? Storytime equals screentimes? Timelessness (Last Year at Marienbad)? Cross-cut/ overlap/ repetition/ slow motion – screentime to surpass storytime?LOCATION is a story’s place in space – Story’s physical dimension – what is the story’s specific geography? In what town? On what streets? What buildings on those streets? What rooms inside those buildings? Up what mountain? Across what desert? A voyage to what planet?LEVEL OF CONFLICT is the story’s position on the hierarchy of human struggles – human dimension – physical, social and temporary domain of setting. Externalized/internalized institutions: political, economic, ideological, biological, psychological forces of society shape events as much as period, landscape, costume. A STORY must obey its own internal laws of probability – the event choices of the writer are limited to the possibilities and probabilities within the world he creates .The Relationship between Structure and Setting – make sure choices are not asynchronous with context of setting – story must obey its own internal laws of probability. Event choices of the writer are limited to possibilities and probabilities of the world he creates.Fictional worlds create unique cosmology – make own rules for how/why things happen within it.No matter how realistic or bizarre the setting, once causal principles are established, they cannot change. Fantasy is the most rigid and structurally conventional. Tight-knit probabilities and no coincidence is the archetype of fantasy the moment a leap from reality is made. Fantasy is archplot.Christopher McQuarrie arrest his wild improbabilities inside the self-constructed law of free association.Audience inspects your fictional universe – possible from impossible – likely from unlikely – conscious from unconscious – learn how and why things happen in your specific world. Audience grasps laws of your reality – feels violated if you break them and rejects work as illogical and unconvincing.Writers try to wriggle out of restraints by refusing to be specific – divorce (vague) – no such thing as a portable story – honest story is at home in one place and time.[THE PRINCIPLE OF CREATIVE LIMITATION]Limitation is vital – first step toward well-told story is to create a small, knowable world.Artists crave freedom – structure/setting relationship restricts creative choices may stir the rebel in you – but the relationship could not be more positive.Setting imposes restraint on story design – it doesn’t inhibit creativity, it inspires it.Crime and Punishment is microscopic.War and Peace is played against a landscape of Russia in turmoil – focused tale of handful of characters and interrelated families.Dr Strangelove = 3 sets, 8 principal characters.You should be omnipotent and omnipresent within your story world as God with creation:- by time you finish last draft: commanding knowledge of setting in depth and detail.Small world does not mean trivial world – separate one piece from the rest of the universe – hold it up so it appears most important, fascinating thing of this manding knowledge does not mean an extended awareness into every crevice of existence.Not that fine artists give deliberate, conscious thought to each/every aspect of life implied by their stories but at some level, they absorb it all – great writers know.Irony of setting versus story is: larger the world, more diluted the knowledge of the writer, the fewer his creative choices and the more clichéd his story – smaller the world, the more complete knowledge of the writer – greater scope of creative choices – result: fully original story and victory in the war on cliché.[RESEARCH] – taking the time and effort to acquire knowledge – research of memory, research of imagination, research of fact. Story’s need all three.Memory – What do I know from personal experience that touches on my characters’ lives? Research is not daydreaming – explore your past, relive it, write it down – written down, it becomes working knowledge – bile of fear in your belly – write an honest, one-of-a-kind scene.Imagination – What would it be like to live my character’s life hour by hour, day by day? In detail – sketch how your characters shop, make love, pray – scenes that may or may not find their way into your story – draw you into imagined world until it feels like déjà vu. Memory gives chunks of life, imagination takes fragments, slivers of dream, chips of experience that seem unrelated, hidden connections merged into whole – find links, envisioned scene, write them down. Working imagination is research.Fact – ever had writer’s block? Go to the library. Blocked because you have nothing to say – talent didn’t abandon you – you can starve your talent into a coma through ignorance – talent must be stimulated by facts and ideas – do research – feed talent – win the war on cliché – key to victory over fear, and its cousin, depression. Everything in life powerfully confirmed – your personal experience is universal (critical) – audience – family is ubiquitous – domestic life is analogous to others – rivalries and alliances, loyalties and betrayals, pains and joys – express emotions that are yours and yours alone – audience will recognise them. Research – families, observation, imagination – limited to finite circle of experience – research in library gives you empirical evidence and depth of understanding adding dimensions to your future story.Characters spring to life – free will – Turning Points – twist, build, turn.Virgin birth is charming self-deception writers love to indulge – writer’s knowledge of subject reaches saturation point – writer becomes god of his little universe and amazed by its spontaneity – research is no substitute for creativity – biographical, psychological, physical, political, historical research of setting and cast is essential but pointless if it doesn’t lead to the creation of events.Story isn’t information accumulation – design of events to carry us to meaningful climax – research must not become procrastination – research should feed imagination – never an end in itself.[CREATIVE CHOICES]CREATIVITY means creative choices of inclusion and exclusion.Write out scenes in full with self-evaluation.Sketch character, action, setting – create questions out of questions.Research world, hang out, observe crowd, get involved in imaginary world.If you’ve never thrown an idea away – your rewriting is little more than tinkering with dialogue.No one has to see your failures unless you add vanity to folly and exhibit them.Genius consists not just of power to create excessive beats and senses, but of taste, judgment, will to weed and destroy banalities, conceits, false notes and lies.4. STRUCTURE AND GENRE5. STRUCTURE AND CHARACTER6. STRUCTURE AND MEANING3/ THE PRINCIPLES OF STORY DESIGN (p135-316)7. THE SUBSTANCE OF STORY8. THE INCITING INCIDENT9. ACT DESIGN10. SCENE DESIGN11. SCENE ANALYSIS12. COMPOSITION13. CRISIS, CLIMAX, RESOLUTION4/ THE WRITER AT WORK (p317-420)14. THE PRINCIPLE OF ANTAGONISM15. EXPOSITION16. PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS17. CHARACTER18. THE TEXT19. A WRITER’S METHODFADE OUT ................
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