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.