SCRIPTWRITING: TOOLS & RESOURCES

1. SCRIPTWRITING: TOOLS & RESOURCES

2. FOUR KEY GUIDELINES Consider the script ‘holistically’ Balance strategy and creativity (redefine ‘market’ & ‘commercial’) Differentiate between filmmaking, scriptwriting and storytelling Be careful about applying the same strict rules in different cultural contexts

3. Storytelling Dramaturgy Scriptwriting Filmmaking FOUR DISTINCT CRAFTS

4. STORIES: BUILDING BLOCKS CONFLICT (presentation of predicaments that require a decision or resolution => what will generate CURIOSITY and TENSION) CURIOSITY / EXPECTATION (what’s going to happen? => intellectual response) TENSION / SUSPENSE (hope, fear, anger, sadness about what might happen=> emotional response) FLUCTUATION BETWEEN WHAT YOU GUESS, HOPE OR DREAD MIGHT HAPPEN NEXT

5. What makes a story a story?We don’t live inside a story, but we turn everything we experience or remember into a story.And we don’t usually tell it like this:THEN…AND THEN…AND THEN…but rather like this: THEN…BUT…THEN…BUT…THEN… We use time, tension and dramatic stakes

6. 1. Telling a story => narrative content (the facts)2. Telling a good story => semantic content (the meaning)3. Telling a story well => dramatic content (the tension)

7. 1 (facts) + 2 (meaning) + 3 (tension) = You’re on the right track!

8. Format (what does it look like?) Genre (what are the codes?) Theme (why?) Time (when?) Location (where?) Plot (what?) Structure (how?) Characters (who?) Dialogue (what do they say?) What makes a script a script?

9. Spirit(theme)Brain (concept)Heart (characters)Sex (dramatic tension)Muscle (plot)Skeleton (structure)

17. DRAMA (Romantic, family, personal, erotic) COMEDY (Romantic, family, personal) DRAMEDY (Dramatic comedy) MELODRAMA THRILLER (Psy thriller) EPIC SATIRE NOIR / CRIME / GANGSTER / COPS HORROR (Vampires, zombies, ghosts) GORE (Slasher, torture) WAR SCIENCE-FICTION FANTASY ACTION / ADVENTURE BIOPIC DOCUMENTARY MOCKUMENTARY DOCUFICTION FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT / KIDS Genres

18. A genre is not a theme (‘war’) A concept or a sentiment are not themes (‘revenge’ or ‘love’ ) A character is not a theme (‘Big Lebowski’ or ‘Michael Jackson’ ) A place or a time are not themes (‘the Amazon forest’ or ‘1492’) It’s what you feel about each of these, and you want to pass on to your audience The theme is an emotional enactment of an idea, not a didactic statement ThemeWhat is your story about? (Or why do you want to tell it?)

19. Conflict Chain reaction (causes and consequences) Consistency (narrative, dramatic, thematic) Plot & Story

20. One or more characters start from point A and ‘travel’ through the plot to point B. What happens on the way? What moves or prevents the character(s) from moving? Are they external or internal factors? A PLOT IS A JOURNEYIt involves time, space and movement

24. Structure Chronology: linear, reverse, mosaic Ellipses Parallel storylines & intercutting (meanwhile…) Genesis/Development/Resolution (= three acts…?) Information management (when you give it, how and how much) Contrast (pacing, mood, light, sound) Flashbacks Voice over

29. Characters “Somebody wants something badly and is having difficulty getting it”. Frank Daniel’s definition of 'The Dramatic Predicament'.

30. Listen to your characters What do they need or want to do? What would they logically do in the situation your story has put them? If it doesn’t make sense, alter either the story or the characters, but don’t try to force them into a plot they don’t want to be in

31. Give characters: nuances inner conflicts dilemmas and tough choices something to lose if they win or viceversa motivations that are universally understandable, though not necessarily universally shared

32. Audiences don’t have to agree with, approve of or justify what a character does. They need to understand and relate to it. If someone cries and I don’t know why, I’ll feel sorry (and may cry too: mirror neurons) If someone cries because their religious belief has been mocked, I might not feel much If someone cries because their baby child has died, I’ll probably cry with them

33. The way characters speak in a film needs to be in keeping with the genre, the style, the degree of realism, the period, and the overall coherence of the film. Dialogue

34. Dialogue is not meant to reproduce the way people actually speak but to make the words sound believable in a given environment.

35. Dialogue is also: what characters do not say what characters do while they speak what characters do instead of speaking what characters mean rather than what they say how good it sounds (musicality)

36. TWO INTERESTING EXAMPLES OF GOOD DIALOGUE Scenes from Bob Fosse’s ‘CABARET’ and Roman Polanski’s ’CHINATOWN’

37. Strong dramatic stakes: what do the protagonists stand to lose (even if they win)? What would I do in the character’s place? What would my priority be? Contradictory feelings: I disapprove morally or intellectually but empathise emotionally What makes a story memorable?

38. The Kuleshov Effect: the projection of personal feelings onto a character The Dramatic Intensity Scale: depending on how identifiable and powerful an emotion, you need to stress it more or less A WORD ABOUT DRAMATURGY

39. An identical facial expression will be interpreted differently according to what we assume or know the person is witnessing or thinking The Kuleshov Effect

41. Dramatic Intensity Scale

42. Telling backstoryA major scriptwriting challenge Use referential knowledge Less is more: trust your audience AND…

43. TRUST YOUR STORY!