story & theme

parker’s creative matrix: story and theme

  • story and the importance of character

  • different types of themes

  • theme as a structural device


back to the future creative matrix:

  • the set up

    • introduction to characters (very economical opening scene); marty considered a ‘slacker’ and dysfunctional family; marty fears rejectionl doc asks marty to meet him at twin pines mall; doc has invented time machine

  • the complicating act

    • doc’s experiment interrupted and he is shot by terrorists; marty travels back in time and meets his father and mother; marty finds the doc and convinces him he is from the future and agrees to help get him back to the future

      • crucial turning point

        • marty hit by the car instead of george

  • the development

    • marty tries to convince george to ask lorraine to the dance; marty chased by biff; doc reveals plan with clocktower; marty reveals plan with lorraine; marty tries to warn doc about the night he gets shot

  • the climax

    • events at the dance to achieve marty’s main aims and additional benefit (gains confidence); doc’s aim achieved'; doc is rescued by marty’s letter

      • short epilogue

        • doc returns the delorean to take marty and jennifer back to the future


the creative amtrix

  • story → the pattern of events which act as the frame of motivation for characters

    • stories are patterns audiences recognize which enables them to marshal all the disparate information the screenwriter places before them. stories reflect in a basic way human experiences, which is why they work across cultures and languages and why audiences expect a certain pattern of development

  • theme → the big idea, the emotional frame and value of the narrative. what’s it really about?

  • form → length; structure; time

  • plot → the way story and theme are dramatically revealed; active questions

  • genre → a set of narrative patterns that the audience recognizes

  • style → a pattern or set of narrative decives which are used to form a unifying bond between the disparate narrative element; tone


character: key component in the creative matrix

  • story → what motivates the character?

  • theme → what big idea does this character’s story create?

  • form → how is the narrative shaped to tell character’s story?

  • plot → what active questions keep us interested in the character?

  • genre → does the character conform to a particular archetype/is recognizable within a familiar narrative pattern?


narrative ←→ character

  • aristotle: dramatic action = “the movement of spirit of psyche that produces the character’s behavior

  • dramatic situation created by habitual behavior being placed in unusual situation → ordinary people in exceptional circumstances


researching character

  • make sure you know your character very well

  • how well do you know your character?

  • a character is more than what a person may look like; their age; their job, etc

  • a character needs an internal reality

  • we can only know the inner life of a character by how they act


theme

  • parker: theme ‘addresses the central issue of why will any human be interested/affected by this narrateive?’

  • theme works on an emotional level:

    • ‘this relationship withi emotional experience is the power of theme, which holds an audience to a narrative and ultimately provides the emotional satisfaction at the end.’


parker’s 8 types of themes

  • the desire for justice

    • injustice needs correcting; crime/trillers

      • eg: spider-man homecoming

  • the pursuit of love

    • emotional need not be alone

  • the morality of individuals

    • choice of doing something good or bad

  • a desire for order

    • how chaos is addressed collectively/individually

  • the pursuit of pleasure

    • desire to share in experience

    • comedies

  • a fear of death

    • reminder of mortality

    • horror

  • fear of the unknown/unknowable

    • place of human in the world

    • horror/sci-fi

  • the desire for validation

    • a sense of individuality vs community

    • drama

      • eg: easy a


beginning a story idea with a theme

  • “the difficulty for writers is that the theme of the project often emerges as a project develops and, crucially, the ending of the narrative ultimately confirms or denies what the narrative is about, not the beginning”

  • eg back to the future — some key aspects of the theme can change as a story project develops

    • earlier drafts having different dynamics between characters


theme as a structural device

  • story = motivational framework (linked to character)

  • theme = emotional framework

  • latter is illustrated through use of repetition

    • this repetition is created using the ‘strand’

      • “having established in the narrative that something is important, we return to it on several occasions and on each occasion show it in a different light. this may be achieved literally by seeing it from a different angle, by creating a new sub-text for the image, statement or scene, or by juxtaposing it with different imagery”