Lecture Notes – Week 9

Examples of Dynamic Action from the Movie Dog 

–        White man kicks the dog
Imply: teach the dog to respect the White instead

–        The branch hit the boss, Tembile laughs. The boss takes off his hat and then laughs. Tembile continues to laugh.

Imply : Tembile does not have the approval to laugh, until the boss says so. 

 

Dynamic Action – Every action has a motivation from the character’s action.

Interactive Location

What is a Location?

-         A physical place

-       The place where story occurs and characters interact

-         e.g. Jurassic Park is a zoo/amusement park located on an island off the coast of Central America 

What is Interractive location?

-         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

e.g. The island of Jurassic Park is completely isolated, and anyone on it will be trapped until assistance from mainland arrives

Lecture Notes – Week 8

 Story is Action 

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

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

      -   Lazy forms of storytelling: voice over, flashback, dialogue stating how they’re feeling angry dialogue: scream angry action: clench fist ; sad/sober : Drinking

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

Lecture Notes – week 7

 Functions of a Dialogue 

• Conveys messages of the story
• Explore the character’s emotions
• Shows the relationship of the characters
• Creates moods
• Makes the film more interesting

  Elements of Dialogue 

1)      Dialogue reveals character – A character talks about himself or herself                                              

                                              - other people talk about that character

2)      Dialogue establishes relationships between characters

                                     -  characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposition to one another

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

4)      Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience

              – it conveys essential exposition (information to the audience - the audience needs to know to understand why everything is happening the way they are)

             -  characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline 

5)      Dialogue ties the script together.

Bad Dialogues

• sentence structure that creates ambiguous meaning.
• when characters express exactly how they feel because it doesn’t really happen in reality
• trying too hard to amplify details therefore creating something that appears unreal
• but if dialogue is too normal, it is not interesting

Lecture Notes – Week 6

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.

 

1) The director makes the movie for the people/audience.

2) The writer does the screenplay for the people/audience

3) The cameramen shoots the movie for the people/audience.

 Hence, its ultimately people to people. (to connect to other people – our grand scheme) 

 writer’s purpose? 

To connect:

• Themselves
• Their unique vision
• The material
• The drama
• Others [e.g emotions, experience, information]

Audiences want to be transported by a screenplay. 

Where do you look for a story?

·        Inside yourself. (from personal experiences or memory)

·        Everything to learn about other people is already in you.

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

Storytelling tool 3: Experience

Are memories true? Not necessarily. Differing perceptions. (to use for reflections)
-Memory is just what you remember. Experience you will learn something.
-Memory filter through your mind while experience actually happen. You cannot filter out what you have experienced. 

• All people have fragments of stories
• These potential ideas prompt your desire to know more
• Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you heard (experience may not necessarily make a good story but one can add a little more to it)
• Good stories are born in the heart, not the head (when you let it flow, it often turns out good and its also easier to write[1st draft - Heart, 2nd draft - Brain] )
• Remember the role of an audience (you’re writing to be read)
• After all, you are the audience (putting yourselves in the shoes of the audience)

Lecture Notes – week 5

Character

              – A story starts with a character (e.g. Indiana Jones, Nemo..etc..)

             - The character is the heart (love), the soul and the nervous system of the story.

            – It is through your characters that viewers experience emotions and are touched( Katharsis)

           – Without a character you have no action, hence, there is no conflict, without conflict, there is no Story, hence, there is no Screenplay, and thus, without character you will not have a screen play.

Developing Character
  – Who is my character?

 - What does he want? (what is his goal?)

 - What is her quest? (things in her way or obstructing her from acheiving her goal/getting what she wants)[Motivation] - What drives him to the resolution of the story? (why is the goal important to the character?)

3 Dimensional Character  

1. Physiology (Physical)  - Sex

- Age

- Height and Weight

- Colour of hair, eyes and skin

- Posture

- Appearance

- Defects, Abnormalities, Deformities, Birth Marks, Diseases

- Heredity

2. Sociology (how he interacts with the society)

- Class : lower, middle, upper

- Occupation: type of work, hours of work, income, condition of work, attitude towards organization, suitability for work

- Education: amount, kind of schools, marks, favourite subjects, poorest subjects, aptitudes

- Home Life: parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated / divorced, parents’ habits, parents’ mental development, parents’ vices (immoral act), neglect, character’s marital status

- Religion

- Race, Nationality

- Place in the Community; leader among friends, clubs, sports

- Political Affiliations

- Amusements: hobbies, books, newspapers, magazines he/she reads

3. Psychology (his thinking)

-          Sex Life/Moral Standards

-          Personal Premise, Ambitions

-          Frustrations, Chief Disappointments

-         Temperament

-         Attitude towards Life

-          Complexes

-          Personalities

-         Abilities

-         Qualities

-         IQ

-         Skeletons in his closet usements: hobbies, books, newspapers, magazines he/she reads

Interior Component of Life (we don’t see in the film itself)
 

The interior life takes place from birth until the moment your film begins.
It is a process that forms character. [when you start formulating your character from birth, you see your character build in body and form]
How old is he when the story begins?
Where does he live?
Does he have siblings?
What kind of childhood did he have?
What was his relationship to his parents?
What kind of child was he?
Is he married, single, widowed, separated or divorced?

Exterior Component of Life (we see in the films) The exterior life takes place the moment your film begins to the conclusion of the story. It is a process that reveals character.
Who are they and what do they do?
Are they sad or happy with their life?
Do they wish their life was different, with another job, another wife?

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

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

Lecture Notes Week 3

Definition of Tragedy:

A tragedy is an Imitation of an action (mimesis) that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, in the form of action not narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its kartharsis of such emotions.

  Elements of a tragedy: 

1) Plot -   Most important feature of tragedy
 and is defined as “the arrangement of the incidents”. 

2) Character – Supports the plot and has to be able to evoke pity and fear in the audience.

3) Diction -  “expression of the meaning in words” which are proper and appropriate to the plot,characters and end of the tragedy”.

 4) Thought – Includes ‘themes’ of a play and is found “where something is proved to be or not to be, or a general maxim is enunciated”.            

 5) Song -  Contributes to the unity of the plot and it is  the musical element of the chorus.Aristotle argues that the Chorus should be fully integrated into the play just like an actor. 

6) Spectacle – the production of spectacular effects depends  more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet.   

Simple vs. Complex Plots     

                     -    Simple plot has only a “change of fortune”

                    -      Complex plot has a reversal of intention “peripeteia” and recognition “anagnorsis” connected with the catastrophe.   

Three Act Structure:

1st Act: Set Up

• Story begins with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis
• The character meets roadblocks produced by the plot and antagonist

 2nd Act: Confrontation

• Action intensifies
• An event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice.

 3rd Act: Resolution

• Level of effort rises to new heights
• Both plot and character is resolved
• And the main character finally either achieves or does not achieves his goal.

 Important Vocabulary:

                              -         Katharsis = emotional release that the audience experiences

                              -        Misesis = imitation of the real world in art and literature

                              -    Anagnorisis = when the character realizes that its his fault

                             -       Perepeteia = when things change from good to bad

                             -          Hamartia = lack of self-knowledge (goes away when anagnorisis occurs)   

Audio Recording of Dialogue

The site below is a link to my audio recording:

http://khurshed.multiply.com/music/item/6?mark_read=khurshed:music:6

Reflection (week 7)

This week’s lesson we had a class test. Something that I was not prepared for, as I was busy with all my other assignments and the RED Camp. But anyway, I tried my best. The questions were rather easy, but if only I had studied. If only I had studied like Jordan till 3a.m, I would have completed the paper in about 15 to 20 minutes comfortably. Anyway, god bless me, I hope I can do well for this module.

  

Week 7 was a week for dialogues; we learned the importance of dialogues in a film and what it is used for. Dialogues establishes relationship between characters, characters express attitudes and opinions that are in opposite to one another.

 

We also learned what is sub text, or rather, subutex which some of us got confused with; of course they both are 2 different things, but Mr. Ryan found a connection between the both, just like how drug addicts need and feel the importance of subutex, we should also have the same for sub text, I repeat, sub text and not subutext. Sub text is an underlying message given in a dialogue by characters. For example, the character may say, the bus is moving, I cannot write in your autograph book, the sub text here could be he/she doesn’t want to write in the autograph book.

  

Good effective dialogues will move the story forward and convey essential exposition, in other words, providing important information to the audience about the scene/story. Just like how dialogues tie the script together, we also learned that dialogues should be used sparingly, never telling the audience what they can see for itself, as dialogue is no substitute for action.

 

In this week’s assignment, we were supposed to write a dialogue between a husband and a wife and the couple quarreling, as the husband is late for dinner after having some drinks with his friends. We later improvised the dialogue by making it a little more realistic and getting our parents to react if they had to act to such a scene. I and in fact most of the others would share he same thought with me that our first script was much better as we didn’t had a barrier on it, the second script was a little more of challenge as many of visualised that our parents would not and never react in such as way, hence, we had to cut out most of the over exacerrated dialogues. We were later told to do an audio record the dialogues where a couple is quarrelling, by mixing both the first script of dialogues and the second script of dialogues which was on how our parents would react to that scene. After mixing both the dialogues, the script was not just only good to listen, but also a lot more realistic. I believe that most of us tend to over exacerrate dialogue that it loses its reality; hence, it is better to reflect about the scene and its dialogues by visualising it at a personal level.

Reflection (week 6)

 

This week’s lesson must have been one of the favorite lessons for those who want to become a screenwriter. It was one of the best for me, and no, I don’t mean best because there is no homework given or because I want to be a screenwriter, but because it gave us a sound knowledge of what is most needed in a good film, a good script. We learned “ writing for audience”, I believe this is very important as the audience’s are the main target for any film, they either make or break the film. The audience can make a film from good to bad, by not viewing it at all, or make the film from good to best by viewing it over and over again as well as encouraging others to view it too.

Most of us watch a movie to be transported by a screenplay and all these can be done through observation, experience, imagination, etc, in other words, it’s all inside you. Anyone can make a good script or screenplay by putting his thoughts into words for action.

 

This week’s lesson also taught me that a good story is born from the heart and I totally agree on that. The story is later modified and fine tuned to be a better story by the mind, hence, your first draft of a script or story should come from the heart and later in your subsequent draft it should be made better through using the mind.

 I feel much better after this week’s lesson, I have a lot of personal experience which at times I felt would not make a good story, however, like said during lessons, a good story is something that is inside you. So, with that, I shall write some two recent experiences on a new page and hopefully you would comment and guess which one of it is true.

Reflection (Week5)

  

Today’s lesson we learned something new again, and unlike last week, this time we all got an assignment to do, an assignment that many would find pretty challenging. We all are supposed to write a letter to someone from the past. Now, the challenging part of this assignment comes when we all have to reveal our emotions and feelings.

  

In today’s lessons we learned to establish a main character using the 3 dimensional structure and how to separate the components of the main character’s life into 2 basic categories. The 3 dimensional structure consists of, 1) Physiology, 2) Sociology, 3) Psychology. The 2 basic categories that separate the components of the main character’s life are “Interior” and “Exterior”. This was definitely bettered illustrated with the few short clips we watched during lessons.

  

Today we started off the lesson by going through some of our last week assignment, which was on “People watch”. We then got both the characters that we observed last week during our “People watch” assignment to come in a situation where both characters are in a conflict. Now that was challenging, especially for me because one of my characters that I observed was a rather quiet person, hence, to bring them in a conflict was a little big challenge for me. But anyway, I still tried my best and brought them into a situation where both are in a conflict. My story is as follow…

  

            It is a beautiful Friday morning, the sky is blue and Mr. Ramdell is off for work. He waits very impatiently for the bus to arrive at the neighborhood bus stop. Mr. Ramdell soon boards the halt bus that has finally arrived and makes his way towards the upper deck of the double Decker bus. The bus is a non air-conditioned bus and is crowded with passengers; hence, it is pretty stuffy.

  

Mr. Ramdell moves towards the rear of the bus, on the upper deck. He soon approaches Mr. Chris Tan, a school student who is on his way to school. Mr. Ramdell soon politely says, “Excuse me?” but there is no reply from Mr. Chris Tan, it could be probably he is listening to his loud Mp3 or may be he just does not want to entertain anyone.  Mr. Ramdell once again says, “Excuse me?” But as usual, there is no reply from Mr. Chris Tan.

  

Understanding the fact that no one is allowed to stand on the upper deck, Mr. Ramdell taps Mr. Chris Tan’s shoulder; Mr. Chris Tan quickly turns his head towards Mr. Ramdell as soon as he feels a tap on his shoulder, Mr. Chris Tan then ask, “What you want la?” Mr. Ramdell then smiles and points towards Mr. Chris Tan’s bag which is occupying one whole passengers seat. Mr. Chris Tan than takes off his head phone and ask once again, “What you want la?” Mr. Ramdell gets a little surprised and says, “I need that seat” and quickly points towards the bag, which is occupying the seat.

The passengers on the bus at the upper deck are now having their attention all focused to the back of the bus as there seem to be something interesting going on. Mr. Chris Tan says, “there is no place here, go down, okay, it is illegal to stand on the upper deck” and quickly turns his head off from Mr. Ramdell.

  

The Bus soon reaches Ang Mo Kio and stops opposite the Ang Mo Kio MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) station; Mr. Ramdell was lucky not to have fallen on the ground due to the quick halt of the bus. Mr. Ramdell is extremely embarrassed by what has just happened and now feels he must do something to get that seat. He than firmly says, “You better clear your bag off that chair or it may not be very nice for you, you are being bloody selfish to the other passengers!”

  

Soon Ms. Mary Chia arrives to the upper deck, smiling as always, she makes her way to the rear of the bus. Mr. Chris Tan soon smiles back at Ms. Mary Chia and then slowly turns his head to Mr. Ramdell. Mr. Chris Tan then says. “Fine! I will move this bag” Mr. Ramdell, quickly has a big smile on his face and tries to take a seat, but, it becomes a little too late, by then Ms. Mary Chai, who is Mr. Chris Tan’s girlfriend has seated on the empty seat that had been heavily argued for. Mr. Ramdell is once again very embarrassed and says, “I am a gentleman, the seat is all yours lady”

  

Mr. Chris Tan then hugs his girlfriend and whispers into her ear. The couple then breaks into a giggle and Mr. Ramdell soon makes his way to the bottom deck of the bus.