Writing the Screenplay

1. Writing the Screenplay Comm2339electronicmedia.wordpress.com

2. History and structure • All good movies depend on a well written and structured screen play. • This involves: • Characters • A world • Action • Events • Dialogue • Theme • Must be organized and have some sort of unity to them.

3. Aristotle • Philosopher (384 to 322 B.C.) that taught in Ancient Greece. • Issues he discussed were logic, biology, metaphysics, ethics and politics. • He also dabbled in the study of theatre. • For Aristotle – he believed that tragedies and comedies had a basic structure.

4. Aristotle’s Poetics: • He approaches the story line like a science – • The components of drama he said are: • Plot: The arrangement of incidents. • Character: The personalities. • Diction: Modes of utterance. (how you speak). • Thought: The ideas or themes behind a story. • Spectacle: Costumes or effects. • Song: Largely irrelevant now a day – except in musicals or bollywoods.

5. Aristotle Cont… • Each of the components must have unity – they must all come together to bear on a single subject or “spine.”

6. Where to find Unity? • Comes from the likelihood and necessity of each incident. • The incident (set ups) must be probable and essential to the story. • Probability doesn’t come from real life. It comes from internal logic of a story. • Cause and Effect between incidents.

7. Stories that do not contain unity • Are called Episodic: Which Aristotle regarded as the lowest form of story telling. • Episodic: In which the episodes or acts succeed one another without probable cause or necessary sequence. • Sitcoms – each episode is usually unrelated.

8. Aristotle defines drama - • People’s lives happen by accident. • Drama doesn’t and it is well crafted. • Therefore, there needs to be something that holds the plot together and the characters together. Otherwise the whole story falls apart. • Order and Magnitude – This forms the beginning, middle and end.

9. Structure of Greek Tragedy • Beginning: Protagonist leads a good life, but he or she has a character flaw. • At the end of the beginning there is a reversal of fortunes. This is brought on by the character’s own flaw.

10. Structure of Greek Tragedy… • Middle: Protagonist fights against his change in fortune. • After denying it’s his fault for a time and blaming everyone and everything else the light bulb turns on and he/she realizes it’s he/she who needs to change. • He changes in ignorance and knowledge but it’s too late.

11. Structure of a Greek Tragedy… • End: There is a catastrophe that brings great suffering and soul cleansing in the protagonist and for the audience. • The world, once unbalanced is now in order.

12. What to write about… • Aristotle argued that in order to make sure a good drama flowed well, you had to make sure you limited your story telling to a limited scope of the story, or the character and not try to imitate an entire life. • He said, you only need to look at one small part of a life and find a sequence of incidents that have a beginning, middle and end to it.

13. For Aristotle • It was not whether or not the story was good or bad – but rather if it worked.

14. George Potiri’s 36 Dramatic Situations. • This was published in 1921. • For Potiri there was only 36 themes in a drama that you could pick and choose from and modify. • Plot: Was based on limited range of human emotions and therefore there was a limited number of structures or ideas.

15. LajosEgri and the Art of Dramatic Writing. • 1940. • Considered an essential in Hollywood circles. • Egri argued that: • Plot: grows naturally and out of premise, character and conflict.

16. Joseph Campbell and The Hero’s Journey. • Details how plot structure of most heroic quest and myth – no matter what country or what culture – are all virtually the same.

17. The Hero’s Journey: 12 Steps • 1. The ordinary World: A myth begins with the hero in his own element. • 2. Call to Action: A problem or challenge is presented that will unsettle the ordinary world of the protagonist. • 3. The Reluctant Hero: Hero balks at the edge of adventure. He faces his fears.

18. The Hero’s Journey: • 4. The Wise Old Man: Hero acquires a mentor who helps him make the right decisions. • 5. Into the Special World: Hero makes decision to undertake the adventure and leaves his own familiar world behind to enter a special world of problems and challenges.

19. The Hero’s Journey • 6. Test, allies and enemies: The hero confronts allies of his and opponents as well as his own weaknesses. He takes action while dealing with the consequences of his actions. • 7. The Inmost Cave: Hero enters place of great danger. World of the antagonist. • 8. The Supreme Ordeal: A dark moment occurs. Hero must face a crucial failure, defeat – which he will achieve the wisdom to succeed in the end.

20. The Hero’s Journey. • 9. Seizing the sword: The hero gains power. With his new knowledge or greater capability he can now defeat the enemy. • 10. The Road Back: The hero returns to the ordinary world. There are still dangers and problems as the antagonist or his allies pursue the hero.

21. The Hero’s Journey. • 11. Resurrection: The hero is spiritually or literally reborn and purified by his ordeal. • 12. Return with the Elixir: The hero returns to the ordinary world with the treasure that will heal his world and restore balance.

22. Examples of Hero’s Journey • Batman Returns • Star War’s Luke Skywalker. • The Hobbit • Lord of the Rings • Harry Potter • Also another common theme – most of these hero’s have been orphaned in some way or grew up raised by somebody else.

23. Exercise: • Pick a movie (drama) and using Aristotle's theory of how a Greek Tragedy is structured describe who the protagonist is, what their character flaw is, the trials they face, etc. • The Hero’s Journey: Pick a movie with a heroic theme. • Label the 12 steps in the film.