Writing for Film /w Miquel

5.9.

Quick explanation on why we use screenwriting software programs (creates a universal standard in script length that can be always trusted to equate around 1 page per = 1 minute on film, and this gives a reassurance of no surprise extra costs etc)

This semester we’re working parallel on Genre and Tools

GENRES

Tragedy vs Comedy

  • Similar in suffering, both encounter issues

  • Harmful vs Harmless

  • Tragedy can then lead to horror (threat, disgust)

  • Comedy can then lead to e.g. slapstick

  • Tragedy/drama is felt in the stomach in a way (according to Miquel most traditionally intellectual films are categorized into that)

  • In the middle is tragicomedy (that leads to genres like satire)

TOOLS

  • Dramatic irony

    —> works well with horror (a monster that the character doesn’t see)

  • Reversal of Intention

    —> e.g. want to do good, becomes bad

    —> good for comedy

  • Dilemmas/Sacrifice

    —> Hero’s sacrifice

TECHNIQUES

  • Plot

  • Dialogue

  • Character

This semester: Three assignments that have to do with above topics

  • if returned on time, A/B/C etc.

  • late from 30min-1 week late, one less grade, aka the highest possible is B.

  • late 1 week until end of semester, E.

Good to read:

—> Story by Robert McKee

—> Directing Actors by Judith Weston (good for writing also in regard to subtext)

How to get from:

  • Synopsis / Idea

    → Step outline

    → Treatment

    → To a script including scenes, actions, images

Excercise:

Jans father died, no money to live, has to decide what to do → how to make this filmable

19.9.

Missed last time, they went through:

  • Reversal of intention

    Action — A A aka through intention to achieve something you come to a conclusion via other means

    Action leads to the opposite of intended, but still the character has to bear responsibility, i.e. Responsibility can be applied to character in case of:

    • Error in judgement

    • Fate

  • Because if something happens by pure accident not put into action via character, they are not responsible.

  • Hubris vs prudency

  • Stories like Oedipus, other pieces with colonial white-saviour mindset etc.

    Reversal storyline progression:

    Expected: A to A-

    Unexpected but possible: A to C

    Unexpected impossible: i.e. Sudden halt to everything, comedic

    TASK: write these three examples into a situation in vaccination in an African village. More tragedy.

  • Expected:

    A millionaire seeking to better his own image by ”helping the poor” sends out a tv-celebrity doctor and his team he hasnt vetted properly. People die because they dont hold up to proper hygiene. They wanted to use the villagers for PR, locals begin to campaign against them. They are dragged internationally.

  • Unexpected P:

    A Mormon guy goes on a mission to a sparcely inhabited country in Africa, works with the church to give vaccinations to people willing to get baptised. People begin to revolt and the village decides to enforce their own animistic religion unto everyone who decides to stay. The mormon guy stays, converts, hopes to eventually begin to spread his gospel, but as years pass, he becomes a fervent believer of this animism.

  • Unexpected I:

    A young nurse, full of dreams and life arrives to work as a volunteer in Africa, for a company she hasnt researched properly (the company is very sketchy, the medicine they give isnt good). As she is beginning her first day at a clinic, the ground shakes. The terribly built clinic building comes down around her. She is spared, a moment of silence passes, and a big tree falls on her.

A clip of the ”Elephantman” by Lynch

  • Reversal of intention by undermining the Elephantman; they train for an interview which makes him nervous, because his teacher doesn’t think he is actually smart.

  • Turns out he can actually read and has memorized passages throughout his life

  • He is seen as a capable man finally, creating bitterness and pity in the viewer of behalf of him for all the mistreatment

  • Aka reversal of interntion by error in judgement

Another clip of the film, where the elephant man visits his teachers house, has tea with his wife.

  • The wifes internal dialgoue cracks when she sees the picture of his mother; expecting a mother of a monster to be a monster, yet she is beautiful. She sees the pain in him and has to bear responsibility of her misjudgement of him, and begins to cry.

Similar error in judgement in Taxi driver, when the main character wants to treat a woman he met to a porn theater (aka this is the way he thinks earnestly to be nice for her, which reveals just how disturbed he is, and through that very tragic)

Clip of some avengers film, where Ironman sacrifices himself to save earth (but doesnt actually die because deus ex machina he is saved)

ASSIGNMENT / DUE 25.9. 2PM

1 scene

2, 3 beats

Reversal of Intention

Result has to open the door for responsibility in the next scene (so doesn’t need to materialize in this scene, but maybe character sees this coming or something similar)

Has to be tragic

You can include 3 lines that include context for the scene (not mandatory)

Max. 2pgs

Can be about anything but reversal of intention has to be included, and has to be tragic

Written in screenplay format, prioritize by telling actions.

Ruusa is a teenage girl who has been studying abroad in Japan for the past few months. Ruusa speaks decent Japanese but can’t write. Her new friends have invited her to eat at their home one evening but lose a track of time, and Ruusa asks help from her Japanese friends in writing a text to her host-mom before making her way back home.

1st beat the bangs upstairs, creates worry and uncertainty.

26.9.

Many assignments were written in a similar pattern; describing the scene is 80%, 10% is setting the suspense, 5% solving, 5% ending the scenario.

When it should be 20% set up, 50% suspense,

The hope should be clear as well.

Read many many many examples, couldnt concentrate. Read more on your own.t

10.10.

More on conflict analysis, conflicts vs expectations

example, movie about a hurricane coming

Character goals

Good character 1 - wants to leave / use the moment to divorce/

Good character 2 - wants to find their dog / bring family together to cat

Aka noncompatible goals

How are the characters true to themselves?

Whats the intention behind e.g. Escaping away from the hurricane with your neighbour John, not your family?

  • Abandoning family/responsibilities

  • Wanting to have an affair with John or kill him (depending on context)

What is the subtext?

Beats

Beat is a pattern of action and reaction.

Monotonous beats = subtext stays the same, can become dull (i.e. Arguing scenes)

The law of diminishing returns = things lose power when repeated.

E.g. Taxi Driver, scene at the porn cinema

Woman figures out He is a freak, leaves by being polite, making excuses, turn him down softly

  1. Beat ”I have to go now”

Aka Escape

  1. Beat ”I dont like these kind of movies”

Aka Rejection.

  1. Beat ”These the only movies you go to?”

Aka Attacking, Accusing, instead of are you a fucking pervert

  1. Beat ”Taking me to a place like this is as exciting as ”lets fuck””

Aka Insult, Confront

  1. Beat ”We’re just different”

Aka dismissal

  1. Beat ”I have to go”

Aka escape

  1. Beat ”Now I’ve got two”

Aka Insult? Dismiss?

She goes from escaping to attacking, he goes from chasing to defending and imploring.

Written through how she would say these things. She wouldnt say fuck you etc.

Focus on beat progression in the dialogue, that theres progression, and that the lines are TRUE to the characters, that there is consistency.

Ways to develop characters:

  • Monologues from the characters perspective

  • Develop a large, detailed backstory

  • Develop character traits

    • We have less ways to show what the character does and says.

    • These have to reflect these key character traits.

    • Traits that create NUANCE.

E.g. For Waker, negative traits: avoidant, discontented, pessimistic (overcomes these by enacting her own justice and by winning her own fear of the repercussions)

Scene from Woman under the Influence (Pick up subtext)

  • whose idea was this

  • I remember your wife, i dont remember you

  • Whats your name

  • Im Mabel, I live with Nick

  • Toasts

  • Arent you gonna ask where the kids are?

  • Its in the air

  • Lets dance /Handsome man

  • Thats enough - Sit your ass down

    • Dismissal - Extinguished

Goals of Nick and Mabel

  • Mabel: to be noticed, to be a part of the group. To get more intimacy, to get closer.

    • Awkward, fixated on being good. Shes been sidelined, has to take all initiative in being a part of the group. Her actions dont fit the norms of their society. Shes only allowed to have fun and be weird if she follows the social rules.

  • Nick: Patronising, showing off. Protect social convention.

    • Wants to be the dominant one, becomes embarrased by Mabel. Puts her in her place in trying to control the situation.

assignment:

write a 2 (max) page *setup* through dialogues..

2-3characters with traces

-incident

-setup a goal of each character

under every beat write the key verb of the subtext

DAISY: secretive, self-centered, organized, fickle, confident

ANNA: insecure, naive, understanding, melancholic, diplomatic

A couple in the 90’s, Anna wants answers from Daisy about her not being home much anymore. Daisy is complacent regarding Anna, doesnt think she will leave her, doesnt put in the effort.

Anna asks if Daisy brought the magazine she asked her to, Daisy says she forgot

Anna asks what is happening

Daisy laughs, deflects, just the job yk

Anna says she knows, she appreciates her, but she just hopes she could adjust her hours

Daisy questions this, what about the money? What about her goals at her job, she needs to work more

Anna says she knows she works hard but pleads for her to understand, she is alone in the house with no way to go anywhere (live in the countryside, she cant drive)

Daisy says thats not her fault, and that Anna doesnt appreciate her work.

Anna backs off, immediately says she appreciates her and loves her but she just wants to see her

Daisy puts her arms up, clearly you dont understand. You wouldnt ask for impossible things

Anna begins to cry, Daisy gets even madder. Why are you crying?? What good does it do?

Anna explains she just wanted to feel needed, to be wanted.

Daisy says she is

Anna gets serious, clearly not enough.

Daisy slaps her. This surprises the both of them. Daisy leaves, Anna sits on their livingroom couch and stares into nowhere.

7.11.

LAST TIME: High-concept in Film

“High concept” basically means that you would be able to sell tickets based on the concept alone.

A dinosaur theme park run amok (Jurassic Park). An elite team that commits heists…in dreams (Inception). An average man who discovers his life is a beloved TV show (The Truman Show). The Substance falls into this as well.

= a Premise defines the Film aka not character driven. Introducing other big/complex factors kills the concept. It’s a small world, and you work within it. The Heros Journey is there, but it is there to allow the concept to work, it doesn’t itself affect the concept (very western, for example in Africa they end up in poetry, cryptic)

(“Low-concept” is the opposite. A teenage girl navigates life in 2002 Sacramento (Lady Bird). Two young travelers fall in love in Vienna (Before Sunrise). An intelligent janitor develops a friendship with an unconventional therapist (Good Will Hunting))

In western culture, the climax goes into a moralistic turn; punishment, sacrifice, big moralistic rules (very Judeo-Christian). In other cultures the climax is more abstract (to the western viewer). The emphasis in outside western storytelling might go towards the idea of collective unity and its importance, there might be miltiple stories that reveal poetry when they all have ended (to the analytical viewer)

Western Story Structure:

Conflict Bigger Conflict CLIMAX

I————I——————I———————I——————I

Daily Life New Daily Life

Set-up Build-up “All is Lost”/ Realisation

Final Push

Clip: Six-Stage Plot Structure (Michael Hauge)

  • Ancient greek literature/poetry has influenced western storytelling of course, but we are very blind to what is “there”, because the growth of christianity has happened between then and now. It cannot be understood exactly as they would have understood it.

  • There are some examples; like in communist Russian beginnings of cinema (Potemkin has different heros through out, as they all embody the proletariat and revolution). But still, the symbolic transformation is there.

New Assignment: A High Concept that you can say in two lines + write the major story beats (step outline-ish)