Screenwriting - Part 2

Here is the current draft: http://atepina.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/atepina_script_v20.pdf

EXPOSITION

Storytelling structure was not the only thing I was trying out with this project. I wanted to do a science fiction movie and those usually require quite a lot of exposition. One has to present the background information about this "new" future one way or another. There are many methods to do this - most famous are, for example, Star Wars' floating letter or the prologue of Lord of the Rings.

Another method would be a conversation between two characters, like the introduction of Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean. However, this can quickly become a problem called "As you know, Bob", which has the characters stating information that is obvious to the people living in the constructed really of the movie. That can be remedied with some clever writing or by introducing a rookie character and explaining him how things work. The audience can take the same journey as the rookie.

On the other hand, films are a visual medium and the most effective way of presenting content is actually showing it. Instead of two siblings calling each other brother and sister, one can show their family portrait in the beginning of the scene and the audience will fill in the blanks. However, this does not always work, especially when a lot of information has to be presented in short time. Like in a science fiction movie. Sometimes it is just better to say it straight and get on with the story.

There is one other method, described in Save the Cat (Snyder, 2005). It is called "the pope in the pool" and it treats exposition dialog like any other, but gives the characters that provide the info, something interesting to do. In the original example, the Pope goes for a swim while receiving some important plot information. The viewer starts the scene by being surprised by the Pope in a speedo, then thinking if the Vatican even has a pool and then the scene is probably finished. It is diverting attention from clumsy dialog. That is the method I choose for the script. Therefore, during scene when a lot of information is explained, I gave the characters something to do. Like have a fistfight while the villains are teleporting the characters from location to location.

CHANGE

One of the key properties of a good script is change. Schechner (1981: 83) calls it transformation. It is the way, the characters change during the performance. Snyder (2005) marks every single scene with "+/-", which designates a requirement for every scene to have the character change from one emotional state to another. This works very well in a feature film, because it is long enough to have the characters change their perspective in every scene, but short movies can be too short for such character development. They can be as long as one regular scene from a feature. It is considered a success if the screenwriter manages to develop the character during a short movie. Moreover, not many directors area able to completely redefine a character inside the limited structure of a short film.

I found myself with the same problems, but I tried to change the protagonist emotional state from scene to scene – from peace to fear, then to doubt, and anger and happiness and resignation and finally rage that cools down after being completely helpless in the last scene. I was also careful the main character grew as a person during the film: from refusing to share personal data, to seeing that some moments are worth sharing. And then completely breaking down the message by exposing our primal urge to share (the quality of the break-down could be argued). Change is crucial to a good movie.

PACING

Short movies frequently fall into the trap of becoming too flat as far as pacing is considered. If there is no change in tone, they become boring. One of the most important pacing tools is tempo and tempo in film is defined by editing. This can be shorter or longer clips or faster and slower movement inside shots. An action scene can be exciting by having a lot of fast shots or having one long take with a lot of movement by the actors. However, faster tempo does not necessarily mean a more exciting movie. Think of a music video that is composed only from fragments of shots. After watching for some time, one gets used to the gimmick and it loses its power. "If the same pace is maintained throughout, it will start to feel slower and slower. In other words, it is the change in tempo that we feel, not the tempo itself." (Lumet, 1995) In addition to other production plans, I also wrote down how the tempo changes from scene to scene (and sometimes even during a scene). I make sure the faster and slower tempo are interchanging as much as possible, with sections of rising and falling in between.

SCENE	TEMPO
INT. Abandoned room – day	Fast
EXT. Istanbul streets – day	Fast
EXT. Scenic Istanbul location – day	Slow
INT. Room – day	Slow
EXT. Grand bazaar – Day	Fast
EXT. Istanbul streets – day	Slow
INT. Abandoned House - day	Rising
INT. Abandoned room - day	Fast + Slow end
EXT. Forest – day	Slow
EXT. Different locations – day	Fast
INT. Computer commenting Interface – day	Rising

MONTAGE

I plan to achieve the rising and falling of tempo with editing techniques describer by Sergei Eisenstein in his essay Methods of montage. There are five core montage techniques: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal and intellectual. I wrote my diploma dissertation and produced my last movie on them. In my current movie, I will only be using metric and rhythmic montage, the former based on the absolute length of the shots and the latter based on rhythm of movement inside the shots. Both techniques build tension by having shorter and shorter shots. The other three will probably not be used, since I will also be using Hollywood's classical editing, which tries to enforce a spatial and temporal continuity. I will explain what that can be important for an action movie in one of the future posts.

SPECIAL MOMENTS

While preparing for the movie I have seen to very distinct French movies. On one hand, Haneke's Amour (2012) has been using painfully long takes, which work beautifully with the emotional tone of the movie. On the other hand, Godard's Breathless (1960) is extremely economic and show only what is crucial, paying attention to only the things that add to the story. Both styles have inspired me and I will use them in my movie. Haneke's long takes for emotional scenes and Godard's merciless cuts for the action sequences. This goes somewhat in the face of continuity montage, but I believe they can be used interchangeably and not confuse the audience.

This actually goes back to Raskin (2006) of whom I have already written about. He advises short movies to have a majority of tightly trimmed fast shots and a minority of emphasized emotional moments with slower editing. Here is a list of moments in the script that carry an emotional impact:

• before reply to the question on sharing her memories
• while aiming at kidnappers
• before deciding to get away from the dead-end
• deciding to attach without a gun
• looking at the gun
• before shooting herself.

These moments are there to give the audience a chance to breathe and to imagine what the character is thinking. Which is probably emotionally richer than articulating it by saying or showing something. The audience has to be trusted to fill in the gaps.

REFERENCES

Godard, J. L. (director). (1960). Breathless [film]. France: Les Films Impéria, Les Productions Georges de Beauregard, Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC).

Haneke, M.  (director). (2012). Amour [film]. France and Germany: Les Films du Losange, X-Filme Creative Pool, Wega Film, France 3 Cinéma, ARD Degeto Film, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR).

Lumet, S. (1996). Making Movies. New York: Vintage.

Raskin, R. (2003). On pacing in the short fiction film. Journal of Media Practices, volume 7, number 2, 159-160, Intellect Ltd.

Schechner, R. (1981). Performers and Spectators Transported and Transformed. Kenyon Review , 83.

Snyder, B. (2005). Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.

Screenwriting - Part 1

I am currently developing a 10-minute science fiction action movie. The structure of the script is a result of a longer study of various screenwriting and general storytelling techniques. My initial interest was sparked by an article on "The Memo That Started It All" written by Christopher Vogler, who used to be a story consultant for Walt Disney Pictures. In the memo he described twelve steps in a hero's journey.

More on Hero's Journey: http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm

The steps were based on the work of Joseph Campbell and his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which is basically an analysis of myths throughout human history. He noticed a development of an interesting pattern – most of the myths have similar story points. From these he developed a series of steps that could be found in almost any hero story.

These story points were later summarized and simplified by Christopher Vogler, first in his famous memo, and later in a book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (2007). The steps have become very prominent in script writing and can be observed in most Hollywood blockbusters. Whenever we feel like we have already seen a movie, it is mostly because the writer was following the steps too closely.

My biggest influence was Blake Snyder's Save the Cat (2005), probably the most famous (and notorious) book on screenwriting. Blake Snyder has studied the twelve original steps and appropriated them for commercial script writing. What he developed is basically a check list, a formula for writing feature films.

More on Blake Snyder's Beats (BS2) http://timstout.wordpress.com/story-structure/blake-snyders-beat-sheet/

All three writers are building on top of each other, the only difference is, how well they are able to break it down to simple instructions. That is also one of the biggest criticisms of hero's journey. Although the theory is presented in steps, this is not a cookbook. Most predictable Hollywood films fall into the trap of following the hero's journey too closely, while it is supposed to server only as a pointer to better understand story structure. You cannot blame the tool for the master.

Snyder has been criticised for being too commercial, but he argues films are an industry and if one wants to do French art movies with innovative story structures, he is welcome to. Just do not expect the movie to be sold worldwide. Snyder tries to advocate a balance between commercial availability and artistic value of a script. A good script respect the steps, but understands them only as guidelines, not a content.

In addition to Campbell's work, Snyder's steps (also called beats) are based on the classical principle of the three-act structure. Below is an comparison, or better said, an aggregation of all the methods mentions above. And some additional. As we can see, they work together perfectly.

Source: http://ingridsnotes.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/the-hidden-agenda-of-classic-design-and-the-heros-journey/

BEATS

One of the first things when writing the script was outlining the film with Snyder's beats. These were originally designed for a 120-minute feature film, but I am experimenting with adapting them to a 10-minute short film. The notes below probably do not make sense without context, so after them, I am also posting the last draft.

Opening image	memory in the eye + gun disappears + fight (*in media res)
Theme stated	doesn't like sharing with her friends (chronological start)
The Set-up	kidnapping, setting up the transfer
Catalyst	gets loose
Debate	problem with the transfer, steals a gun, hides it, figuring out things are disappearing
Break into Two	breaks out from the house and starts running
B story	trying to use her phone to get help, calling police, getting a strange/robotic response
Fun and games	things disappearing, running through the city, running  to another house and starting to fight the captors (*part from the beginning)
Midpoint	false victory over captors
Bad Guys Close In	everything starts disappearing, even people and the room she's in
All is Lost	everything disappears, she finds herself in a forest
Dark Night of the Soul	finds a gun, considers suicide, creates a memory by recording a goodbye for her friends, irony "remember to share, like and subscribe" closes eyes, holds her breath, exhales, shoots
Break into Three	the gun is actually her hand, two "friends" from the beginning appear
Finale	she attacks them, but they are actually programs and she is living inside a VR that requires sharing to work, they reset her
Final image	blinking light in eye

LOGLINE

It is year 2053. Sharing personal memories has become a new form of entertainment. Memory swappers kidnap a woman, who does not like sharing memories. After a daring escape, reality around her starts changing. She does not have long to figure out what is happening to her and why is she chased by these kidnappers.

SCRIPT

Here is the current draft: http://atepina.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/atepina_script_v14.pdf

REFERENCES

Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Novato, CA: New World Library.

Snyder, B. (2005). Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions.

Vogler, C. (2007). The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Studio City, CA : Michael Wiese Productions.

Storytelling – Part 3

In my previous post I took a closer look at storytelling on a more meta level. I will continue with a more specific analysis of storytelling in connection to short films. I will look into some of the characteristics of short films and present a few ideas that could help me with my future work on storytelling structure.

There is no clear definition of what a short film is. Usually it is framed opposite of a feature film, defined by its shorter length. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which also gives awards for the best short films, considers their duration to be 40 minutes or less. However, time is not their only attribute. According to Howe (2004), " [] … shorts are often rich in images, have high and often intense production values, have occluded and often tricksy narrative, and are too often at best twee, at worst about not very much but themselves." Their counterpart from literature would not be a short story, but probably a lyrical poem. Their themes frequently exhibit: "[…] existential moments hermetically sealed off from the world of feature films and often the world we live in." (Howe, 2004) Another characteristic would also be a good story twist at the end.

Short films are an established practice among young directors as a potential future reference or a calling card. Sometimes they are shot as a proof of concept to pitch a feature film idea. Most of the authors are between 20 and 30. This shows in the themes they tackle – they have certain narrative interests. The vast is usually composed from children, young adults and there is a lot of "post office heist" type of movies. Some genres seem more prominently featured than others. Because of this Howe (2004) points out most are much better at style then at storytelling. Personally I must agree. I believe maturity in storytelling comes with life experience which twenty-somethings lack.

There are many theories on story structure. From Aristotle's three-act structure and Joseph Campbell's monomtyh to Blake Snyder's story beats and Christopher Vogler's seven page studio memo, "A Practical Guide to The Hero with a Thousand Faces", they can all work together to make a coherent feature film, but the can be a little unsuitable for short films. However, some of the rules still apply. A short movie should most of the time strive to build its story on three elements: a life changing event, an obstacle and a goal. These are basically really impoverished concepts used by their bigger brothers.

Short films can usually be situation or character driven. To sufficiently develop the latter, one would require more time to do justice to the character's story arc. Hence, it is not used so frequently as the action based situation driven story. However, there is a method proposed by Raskin (2006) that suggest an approach based on careful editing. He presents a combination: "(1) a small number of sustained shots that dwell on faces, thereby deepening the viewer’s involvement with characters at key moments in the story and (2) a vast majority of tightly trimmed shots that move the action forward in as streamlined a manner as possible." (Raskin, 2006)

The first idea takes care of the character portion of the story, allowing sufficient character development and viewer's insight into their psyche. This is mainly achieved by longer shots of the characters during key moments, when the viewer can speculate what is going on in their head. The second idea simply builds on a core editing principle of "less is more" that proposes cutting out everything that is not absolutely essential for the story or aesthetic nature of the film. Another expression that is used is "cutting to the bone". This should not be confused with "killing your darlings", which applies to writing of passages of text that could be of great personal importance to the author, but do not work in the larger context of the book/film.

A combination of these two techniques allows both a situation and a character driven narrative, while at the same time the film works as a whole and is at the same time deep enough to have a more prominent meaning.

One of the biggest criticisms of short movies is their reliance on inambitious writing material. For example, "A short film can be challenging and epic and truly cinematic not just in its imagery but in its intentions." (Howe, 2004) In the future, short films should not be shy to try on some more difficult, feature worthy, stories.

SOURCES

Raskin, R. (2003). On pacing in the short fiction film. Journal of Media Practices, volume 7, number 2, 159-160, Intellect Ltd.

Howe, J. (2004). Shorts and the real world – the relationship between the short and the feature film. Journal of Media Practices, volume 4, issue 3, 177-180. Intellect Ltd.

Storytelling - Part 2

The heart of storytelling lies in oral tradition. In my previous post I tried to define storytelling, but after some research I discovered the closest I came to a correct definition was the story of my grandmother telling me fables when I was young. Many of the ideas I pointed out were close to the truth, for example, the importance of storytelling for socialization of children or the ability to simplify complex issues. However, many of them were also misguided, like the nature of the relationship between stories and information, on which I will comment later.

This will sound really pretentious, but my goal in life is to change the world. I know, how am I going to do that? Well, I plan to use the tools that have been given to me. And for me that is making fictional films. I used to think fictional work has no impact on the way people live – it is mostly just entertainment. I put real value in documentary films and news journalism. This is the work that deals with real issues in the real world, right? However, does reality really have such an impact on the way people think? For example, does a news report about animal cruelty change anything? It is a real example of a real problem. It is a fact. But do people think about animal cruelty after the initial shock value passes? Does this really change the way they see animals? I believe no. On the other hand, a fictional film, something with a story that gets the audience engaged, can have a much greater impact on the psyche in the long run. And that is the power of stories.

A story is like a Trojan horse for ideas. It is a vehicle for the message from the author. And the audience aren't even aware their thinking and behaviour is being altered. This holds true for all storytelling mediums. Story enables an idea to bypass our mental defences without us even knowing. This phenomenon has proven to be very useful in a variety of areas, from education and business to entertainment and religious teachings. That is why I believe I can do more good making fictional films with stories than propagating news facts.

The truth is that the fundamentals of stories are always the same. We have been listening to the same story over and over again. And we know it. At least subconsciously. The difference is the storyteller who acts as an interpreter. Although the fundamentals are the same, the interpretation of them is always different. No just because the storyteller tells it differently, but also because storytelling is an individual experience for every listener and everyone interprets the story differently. Stories are meant to be retold perpetually, constantly changing in details, but at the same time keeping the core of the story alive.

It is an interesting observation that, historically looking, stories were frequently told among people while doing something else. Like spinning thread during long winter nights. Which means that they were not completely listening to the story. Which made retelling it a little bit harder, but at the same time enabling countless varieties.

We could say storytelling is an art of repeating stories. The best stories get passed on through generations. It is a way of conveying memories and life experiences. The fact that a story is many generations old means the original storyteller is most likely dead and that gives a certain weight to the content. Another effect of generational storytelling is that stories and memories start to seamlessly connect to each other. A great storyteller is able to thread a story for as long as he like since he is always able to hide the beginning. Also the nature of stories is that they can always be legitimately continued if necessary. On the other hand, other media usually has to end at a certain point. Which can be really good if one is committed to presenting a strong point. A good example of this is a novel, which really emphasizes the final idea by the finishing at the end of the character's life.

The nature of information and stories is quite different. Before information was widely available via press, stories were the only source on events happening locally and in more remote places. These stories were sometimes mixed with mysticism and not always entirely truthful. Until press came, the tradition of storytelling was blossoming. But after that the scale changed in favour of information which had to be true, or at least plausible, to be considered useful. However, this idea goes against the spirit of storytelling which takes pride in not explaining everything and letting people discern what the moral of the story was.

Everything that is currently happening benefits information, but not storytelling. However, information only has value for a short period of time while it is happening, while storytelling holds its value indefinitely, even increasing it with extra layers and new interpretations. It is now clear to me that information and storytelling are two completely different areas.

While researching the topic of storytelling, I came across much more information which can be seen in the following diagram: http://mrl.li/16vhcS7

Areas I found especially interesting were dealing with the structure of stories, for example, the ideas of transportation and transformation. Another important point for me was a universal presence of conflict in stories. I also read upon how people get absorbed in stories, their brains functioning as that of a participant and not as of a spectator. This supports the claims mentioned earlier on bypassing our mental defences to deliver a message. All of the above will be useful in my further research of the matter and I plan to elaborate on them individually.

Storytelling - Part 1

Storytelling has been a huge part of my life. One of my earliest memories is my grandmother telling me stories while preparing breakfast. We had this morning ritual of her doing stuff around the kitchen and me sitting in my special place and listening to her entertain me while waiting. It woke my imagination and inspired me to tell stories myself.

My fascination with stories continued after learning to read and discovering there was a room filled top to bottom with stories – the library. The next few years were spend filling my head with ideas. And after that came computer games, the Internet and finally films. So as one can see, my personal history has been largely defined by storytelling.

Today, I am a video director and I frequently claim my favourite part of video making is storytelling. However, lately I have noticed I am not very good at it. It is one thing to enjoy and understand a story, but a completely another to structure one by yourself. The thing is, I have never researched storytelling structures and methods. So I decided to look into it during my next project. In addition to theoretical research I will also shot a video based on the concepts learned.

At first I would try to define storytelling as any structured communication with a beginning, middle and end, designed to convey a desired message. However, isn't that the purpose of all communication? What is the difference? Is sending a data package through the Internet storytelling? It is communication, data is structured and it has a message. Well, thinking about it some more, I believe the difference is in the purpose - storytelling aims to inform, educate and entertain through a set of simplified ideas organized in a narrative structure.

Historically, one of the most important functions of storytelling was socialization – transferring knowledge and values through generations. That is why my grandmother told me fables during breakfast. It is also one of the reasons clerics of any religion preach parables based on lives of holy man. It is a way of education and conforming future generations to the way of living in a certain culture. Storytelling is essential to a culture and it can be observed in literally every society from the dawn of man.

But why do we tell stories and not simply the facts? Why do we feel the need to hide real life events in made up constructs? I believe this is a method of simplifying complex problems and concepts into short entertaining lectures. They lose some of its initial complexity, but are in turn easier to comprehend and have a wider area of application. Think of Aesop's Fables, which illustrate this very clearly. More complex problems require a longer treatment, as a novel or a TV series.

Stories help us abstract our problems and ponder them on another level. Just think of a kid demanding the same story every night – there must be something inside it that reflects his struggles in real life. And the same happens to adults re-reading or re-watching books and movies. During elementary school, where I was struggling to fit it, stories from the library were at the same time a getaway and tool to ruminate on my problems.

As we can see storytelling is an important tool in our society – from socializing and education to entertainment and problem solving. And I want to serve all these with my video work.

Film storytelling is a wide area. Basically any film tool can be used to tell, or at least enhance, a story. All choices made during making a movie matter and influence the story. To make sense of all filmmaking storytelling methods I prepared a diagram, which can be seen below.

Film storytelling methods

As you can see there are quite a lot of them and I presented only the most important. I would like to point out not all the terminology used in the diagram is appropriate for the storytelling function they describe. However, for the sake of understanding the complexity of film storytelling, it should suffice.

All concepts can branch deeper into other areas, since basically every title in the diagram is an independent area that requires specific knowledge and is usually done by more than one person. Except the director. He has to be familiar with all areas to adequately understand how they come together to tell a comprehensive story.

My future research into storytelling will be limited just to writing methods. It is my weakest field as can be seen from the empty section of the diagram – writing has no additional methods listed. I am especially interested in how to structure a story for a short film.

Just like creativity, storytelling is one of the basic human characteristics. Even more so, since it's vital to short term (solving problems) and long term (transferring knowledge and values) survival. From my personal point of view, it is also vital to me if I want to make meaningful films that entertain and educate.

Creativity - Part 2

Creativity is a broad term. It has been present thought out all human history – it seems to be one of the defining human characteristics. That being said, it does not mean it is exclusively a human trait – many animals also show traces of it. Creativity is not uniformly described, but the central idea of all definitions describes it as an ability to create something new/original and at the same time worthwhile.

Although creativity has ever been present, the concept is relatively new. Antique society did not acknowledge it, instead all that was new was discovered instead of created. The term came into foreground with the rise of Christianity and God as the "creator". It was not until later, after the Renaissance, that creativity has been understood by the meaning it holds today.

As said above, definition of creativity is as broad as creative endeavour themselves. Its research spans almost every scientific discipline, not to mention arts. It is impossible to do justice to the whole idea, so in this short text I limit myself to one area – education.

It was my impression from material I discovered that a debate started at the break of the century, which emphasizes the decay of creativity in us caused by a misguide education system. Children are creative by nature. And our school system systematically instructs them to repress it and conform to the crowd. Which is logical from the point of an industrial society of the 19th century where our current system originated. Student's minds were moulded just like the product they were crating. But Ford's human conveyer belt is no longer needed - our society has changed and hold little need for repetitive production and repetitive thinking.

It has been suggested children should be thought more creative thinking and problem solving. Not only in traditionally creative disciplines of fine arts, which are looked upon as a waste of time, but also in more logic based sciences like maths and physics. Problems we face today will require solutions that are more "out of the box" and in turn, thinkers that are able to mix ideas from different fields to present new answers. 

Creativity - Part 1

When I was still a kid, me and my cousin used to put up theatre shows with sock puppets and marionettes. We had a script, rehearsals, scenery, proper story acts and even a curtain that went up and down. At that time, I remember being fascinated by how is it possible to present entertaining content when there was none before. Me and my cousin started with nothing, tabula rasa so to speak, and managed to make something just from our ideas. That was for me the definition of creativity.

Creativity - to make something new from nothing. Although, when I think about it, this is kind of misguided. I do not believe creativity exists in a vacuum. This notion that an artist just comes up with things and nobody can understand them is too romantic and naïve. I do not remember creating something without inspiration. But what is inspiration? Some genius idea that just comes to you? No, for me, inspiration are works of other artists. There is a saying, famously repeated by Pablo Picasso and Steve Jobs that goes: "Good artists copy, great artists steal." Either way, nothing comes from nothing, it has to be borrow from somewhere. The difference is in copying or stealing. Good artists simply repeat what they have already experienced, while great artist try to understand the source and what makes it so powerful. So they make it their own, hence, they "steal it".

Creativity cannot be observed only from the artistic point of view.  It is in our biological nature to reproduce, which is also a form of creativity. What about inventiveness – how much modern technology comes from people who were too lazy do to something and took the time to go around it?

I believe creativity is in its core the power to appreciate the world around us which in turn enables us to understand it. This, coupled with our desire to reproduce and enrich our physical and mental ability to survive, leads to creating new things, regardless of their purpose.