Notes

WEEK 1

Story telling is how to engage the audience with you story

Story telling is NOT Script writing.

Story telling is a basis, pool of stories that you can use in your future.

We’ll learn the skills to tell stories.

Writing Format.

Assignments in this class will use:
Present Tense
3rd Person
Visual Voice

3rd Person
A character is “narrating” the story as it is happening.
It presents a more immediate and urgent feel to the material.
Commonly used in.
1.Screen play
The story is unfolding as we read it.
Fosters a more urgent and immediate feel to the story.
2.Thriller and Suspense Genres

Passive VS Active voice.
ALWAYS write in an Active Voice

Passive
-Uses weak verbs
-Tells what’s happening in the character’s head.
-Distances the reader from the story

Active
-Uses strong action verbs
-Shows the action
-Uses an immediate sentence structure
-Conveys the story in a lively manner

Start with emotion, get hook then find out more about the situation.

Tips.
PLEASE GET STARTED!

Never stop when you start something.
Solve or solve to a large extent any problem before sleeping. NEVER sleep on your problems.
If you don’t start, just do. No matter what you write, just get somewhere by starting to write.

Exercise 1A, OPENERS:
Note these Qns:
Whose story is it?
What is the point of the story?
How can i engage the attention of the audience?

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Week 2

Lightning flashes across the room. The door creaks as Shawn opens it. “We shall camp here for the night. It’s raining heavily and there is no way we can find a way out this forest…”

“There is no such thing as a ghost!”, said Gary.

Shawn goes to the creaking door and hangs up his drenched overcoat. His sharp features turn into a heap of gestures as he sees Gary in the dark. Gary is only visible for a second, only to fade into the darkness of the night. Shawn’s skin begins to feel the tingling cold of the night and his pupils feel the strain of the dilating reaction. The lightning continues on with the roar of thunder as the rain beats down on the window silt.

Shawn decides to take up the guard’s position and lets Gary sleep first. As Gary turns into the makeshift bed, Shawn spots a pair of rotten feet, floating beneath the glimmer of light underneath the door.
The Role Of Conflict

Conflict is the central feature of the screenplay.
-man against man
-man against environment
-man against self

It’s variation of sex, age, religion, and culture which provide variety to the conflict.

CONFLICT = CHANGE

Change is common to everyone
Change is universal

As universal as change may be, people often resist it for fear of the unknown.
People must learn to cope with change if they want to survive.
The action is drama depends on conflict.

§Definition

Opposition of persons or forces
It is the interaction of opposing ideas, interests, or wills, and creates the plot.

Plot cannot be constructed without conflict.
As your character attempt to reach their goals, they come into conflict with each other.
The end of the story nears when the protagonist and antagonist approach their goals and the conflict rises to generate maximum suspense and excitement.

Writing for an Audience

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

It’s all about people to people.

Writer’s purpose, To connect themselves, unique vision, material, drama, others.
Audiences want to be transported by a screenplay.
Where do you look for a story?
Inside yourself.
Everything to learn about other people is already in you.
Now you need to figure out how to connect to it.

Assignments
Reflection
5 Stories of exactly 50 words each; posted on your blog.

The Call Home
Man vs man
Man vs environment
Man vs himself

M vs M
Kasi vs supervisor
Kasi vs roommates
Kasi vs family

M vs E
Kasi vs phonecard
Kasi vs Singapore

M vs H
Kasi vs self-esteem
Kasi’s frustration over looking after his family and being able to support him family.

The Secret Heaven
M vs M
Mom vs daughter
Teacher vs daughter

M vs E
Daughter vs Piano
daughter vs home

M vs H
Play time vs piano time

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Week 3
Do constraints help you to be a better writer?
Aristotle
Aristotle defined anagnorisis as “a change from ignorance to knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by the poet for good or bad fortune”
We believe that anagnorisis is the discovery, by a character in the plot, of a matter he/she has not known before. The realization of this matter changes the flow of the story and creates either a pull or push within the characters, helping to further the plot and increase it’s potential.
Storytelling tools 1 : Observation
Observe in a conscious way.
Develop the ability to see and record movement, physical characteristics and settings.
Adopt a KEEN EYE.
Develop a natural sense of curiosity.
Understand people to make good films.
An observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling.
Always ask.
Whom am I writing about?
Who is my character?
What is he/she/it like?
What does he/she/it do?
What happens to him/her/it in the story?
Mindless observation vs True observation
1.Exercise-People Watch
2.Walk into canteen/library, etc, and watch people pass by.
3.Eventually one will catch your attention.
4.Write down as many details as possible through the observation
5.Repeat steps on a second character.
6.Transcribe all these details into a new PAGE that you will create on your blog.

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Week 4

This is the story about two people. Lye Chin and Siok Bee were collecting donations and what not. Lye Chin is rejected and has tons more where that came from. Siok Bee feels the stress and walks over to Lye Chin to comfort her. Lye Chin, however, blew her off and shouted at her, tearing into the heart and kindness of Siok Bee. Siok Bee turns away and does not even bother about Lye Chin. Her concern was paid back by a senseless and mean reaction. Siok Bee decides that it was the last straw. All she had in her mind was to plunge a knife into the throat of Lye Chin. However calm and sweet she may be, she was not to be trifled with. She was a serial murderer and she could do anything that she wants. No one messes with Poh Siok Bee.

6 Parts of tragedy:

-Plot

Plot and story are not the same. Story is presented to you. But a plot is the action plan.

-Characters

engage the audience with the people, reflect the audience with your characters.

-Thought

-Diction(Acting)

Be believable

-Melody

-Spectacle

Cause and Effect.

Arouses pity AND fear in the audience and engages them to imagine and visualize themselves in the cause and effect.

PLOT.

Arrangement of incidents.

Not just the story itself, but the way the incidents are presented to the audience.

Structure of the play.

THREE ACT STRUCTURE

Beginning-

Incitive moment.

It must cause a cause and effect chain.

MIDDLE

Climax.

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

END

Resolution.

Must be cause 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 succeed one another without probability or necessity.

The only thing tying the story together is the character portrayed.

SIMPLE VS COMPLEX PLOT

Simple has only a change of fortune.

Complex has a reversal of intention “peripeteia” and recognition “anagnorisis” connected with the catastrophe

CHARACTER

Character supports plot.

Personal motivations are connected to the cause and effect chain

The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned and prosperous.

In ideal settings, the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall, not because he is sinful or weak, but because he does not know enough. No anagnorisis.

Lack of self-knowledge= “Hamartia”

Katharsis-Cleansing

Mimesis-imitation of life

Perepeteia-change of fortune

Harmatia- lack of self knowledge

Anagnorisis- sudden realisation.

3 ACT STRUCTURE

1st act-set up.

Intro character, goal oriented.

Character meets road blocks produced by the plot and antagonist

2nd act- confrontation

Action intensifies

Event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice.

3rd act-resolution

Level of effort rises to a new height

Both polt and character is resolved

Main character either achieves or does not achieve his goal

Assignment. Reflection

Visual trigger: Find an image and tell a story that comes to your mind as you see it.

Pictures should not be taken for this purpose- use only pictures you can find.

Incorporate principles of tragedy into your writing! Something bad happens as a result of a flaw in our character, and you show how this tragic fall forces your character to learn something about herself or himself.

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Week 6

The process of change is an essential ingredient of any effective story.

Storytelling Tool 2:Experience

A storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience.

Experiences will give you the details that you need to make your story a good one.

Everything about you are in your experiences are unique and irreplaceable.

Many of your experiences are universal and translatable and can be used in any location.

If you don’t know what to do with a character, make him yourself for a while.

See how he relates to the world that he has been thrown into

Plunder your own personal background. Things that happen to you as you grow up and the thing that are currently happening to you make terrific story sources.

Write about the things that your feel, not something that has never happened to you.

All people have fragments of stories.

Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard.

These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more.

Good stories are born in the heart, not the head.

Remember the role of the audience. After all, you are your own audience.

Storytelling Tool 3: Memory

Your memory is a cabinet of past incidents which you have experienced or been told.

These memories are points of reference to you own past existence.

Write what you do not know because you will find some part of you that does know.

Memory is what you make it.

There’s always room for personal discovery.

Memory is how you remember your experience but experience is the actual happening of it.

Use memory to build creative content.

Exercise

Write two short stories.

One is completely true

One is completely false.

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Week 7.

Good stories must be worked and re-worked.

True life stories do not offer neat and relevant endings.

In a story, we can and must control the events and sequences so that it gives the appearance of being like life.

Characterization: Defining the character

Every story starts with a character.

You need to make people associate to your characters.

The character is the heart, soul and nervous system of your story.

It is through your characters that your viewers experience emotions.

Without a character, there is no action. Without action, there is no conflict. Without conflict, there is no story. No story, no screenplay.

Character must have a background and a form

When you develop a character. Ask

Who is your character? What does he want? What is his quest? What drives him to the resolution of the story?

Developing characters.
1.Establish your main character.

Character should have a 3 dimensional structure.
a) Physiology
b) Sociology
c) Psychology

a. Sex, age, height/weight, physical attributes

b. class(lower upper middle), occupation, education, home life, religion, race, place in the community( leader among friends), political affiliations, amusements

c. sex life, moral standards, personal premise, ambition, frustrations, chief disappointments, temperament, attitudes towards life, complexes(obsessions and phobias), personality, abilities, qualities, IQ

What is the deep and personal secret this character has which he is desperate to protect/hide?

Interior and exterior life.

Interior- It is a process that forms character. When you start formulating your character from birth, you see your character build in body and form. The character biography.

Exterior- It is the process that reveals character.

You must create your characters in relationship to other people or things.

All dramatic characters interact in 3 ways.
1.They experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need.
2.They interact with other characters.
3.They interact with themselves.

How do you invent characters?

Try turning them upside down.

Eg. A monk who is devoted to his religion but is a football fanatic.
A serial killer who obsession is to kill other serial killers.
A common street rat who loves to eat and cook only fine food.

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Week 8

Elements of dialogue

We must connect to the content of the dialogue.

Dialogue reveals character.

A character will talk about himself and other people will take about him.

Reveal by other’s response to the dialogue.

Dialogue establishes relationships between characters.

Once you have established your main character’s POV, you can use dialogue with other characters to show that they have other attitudes, creating opposite/alternative POVs.

This helps to create sustain the element of conflict between characters.

Good effective dialogue will move the story forward.

Dialogue communicates faces and the information to the audience.

It conveys essential exposition.

Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline.

Have dialogue in present tense.

Dialogue comments on the action.

Dialogue ties the script together, links the scenes together.

It is one of the devices that you as a writer can use to expand and enlarge your characters.

“If you can see or hear it, don’t write it”

Dialogue should be used sparingly.

Never tell the audience what they can see for themselves.

Dialogue is not a substitute for action.

Students sometimes never achieve a level of competence as they tend to reproduce conventional spoken language, long statements of “real talking”, and defend their decision by telling us that.

Age, gender, educational qualifications, race etc must come into consideration when you set up dialogues for your characters.

Good dialogue is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life.

Good dialogue is the illusion of reality.

Know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit.

Students tend to create radio shows with images.

Use visual mediums.

Exercise: Writing Dialogue

Situation: Middle aged man returns home from work, he had stopped for a few drinks with his friends and forgot to phone his wife to tell her that he’ll be late. Dinner is ruined.

Woman: What were you up to? You were supposed to be home an hour ago!

Man: I was just with my buddies. We were having a few–

Woman: I don’t care what you were having with your buddies! What is wrong with you?! Didn’t you promise me that you’ll be home?!

Man: It’s just a few drinks, you don’t have to get worked up.

Woman: Worked up? I’m the one who’s worked up? Look at yourself you fat slob! All you do is work, go for a beer and come home to laze on that fat ass of yours. Have you ever thought of the kids? Have you ever thought of me?

Man: It’s not like that! I’ve been slogging my ass off for you and the kids. How else will you have the money to shop for the expensive crap that you don’t need? I’ve certainly had enough of this. I don’t go to work, you complain. When I earn money for the family, you complain even more now. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?!

Man exits room, gasps and slams the front door.

Woman: I was just..I was just looking for your love..

Real Exercise: Repeat experiment, but the husband and wife are your own parents.

Get two people to read the dialogue.

Record the reading

Post it to your blog. (via Youtube, Multiply)

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Week 11

We write best what we know well.

DYNAMIC ACTION.

Story is action.

Action encompasses any kind of movement, activity and interaction between the characters and also between the characters ad their surroundings.

Talking about how one feels is not as powerful as illustrating why one feels the way they do through action.

Film is behaviour.

Action is the manifestation of behaviour.

The complexity of the human psyche and interaction is better understood when it is possible to watch the actions, nuances and the reactions of the characters.

Dynamic action has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by heightening the stakes and increasing the tension.

The power of any story lies in the narrator’s ability to project a mental picture for the audience.

Addresses the problem many newbies have to screenwriting: How to convey visually any sense of inner conflicts of emotion.

Story ASSIGNMENT.

Write 1st draft of an original 1-2 page story.

Write in 3rd person narrative/ present tense.

Use 12pt. Courier Single spaced.

No less than 1 page and no more than 2 pages

Besides writing your name, student and tut group. Also label your story as “1st Draft”.

Due week 10! NEXT WEEK. 1ST JULY.

Remember Film as a visual/aural medium.

“Show” VS “Telling”.

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Week 12

Interactive Location.

What is a location?

Physical Place.

The place in your story where events occur and characters interact.

A setting and surrounding that interacts with the characters of the film by adding importance to their actions.

An environment which impacts the action and heightens the stakes.

Location puts everything in context.