Notes

Week 1

Storytelling

-3rd person

-Present tense

-Visual voice

Commonly used in:

1.screenplays

• The story/film

Passive vs. Active voice

Passive

• Uses weak verbs
• Tells what’s happening in the character’s head
• Distances from the reader from the story

Active

• Uses strong action words
• Shows the action
• Uses an immediate sentence structure
• Conveys the story in a lively manner

Tips for writing

• Everyone will not have problems coming up with a list of excuses for procrastination.
• The biggest problem is getting started.
• If you have a work in progress, NEVER stop for the night if you are stuck.
• Always solve the problem and keep going until you are in safer water. A good night’s sleep is important. Sleeping on problems is a myth.
• If you cant get started on a project, start writing anyway. To do this, you need to have some words to type.
• It doesn’t matter what you write, you’ll soon begin to think and move in your own rhythm/pace.

Exercise 1A: OPENERS

Wearing Spongebob Squarepants boxer shorts, Caleb walks towards the NP bus stop with a blood red face.

Upon reaching the bus stop, he dials a number and angrily whispers so as to not draw more attention to himself, “where are you?!”

• NOTE DOWN QUESTIONS YOU WERE ASKING YOURSELF AS YOU WROTE IT

-Whose story am I telling?

-What is the point of this story?

-How can I engage the attention of the audience?

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Week 2

ELEMENTS OF DIALOGUE

• Dialogue Reveals Character

-A character will talk about himself and other people will talk about him.

• Dialogue Establishes Relationships Between Characters

-Once you have established our character’s POV, you can use dialogue with other characters to show that they have other attitudes , creating opposite/alternative POVs.

-This helps to create and sustain the element of CONFLICT between characters.

• Good Effective Dialogue Will Move The Story Forward
• Dialogue Communicates Faces & Information To The Audience

-It conveys essential exposition.

-Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline.

• Dialogue Comments On The Action
• Dialogue Ties The Script Together

-It is one of the devices that YOU as a writer can use to expand and enlarge characters.

“If you can see it or hear it, don’t write it.” -Neville Smith

• Dialogue should be used sparingly
• Never tell the audience what they can see

<<Dialogue is no substitute for action>>

In Hollywood, when they look at a page and it’s got too much black, too much ink on the paper, they say:

“Shit! It’s freeze the camera time!!!”

• Common Mistake

-Students sometimes never achieve a level of competence as they tend to reproduce conventional spoken language, long statements of “Real Talking”, and defend their decision by telling us that: “It’s how the character speaks.”

• GOOD DIALOGUE is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life.

-If that was all there is to it , you can just push a button on the tape recorder and then go collect your Oscar.

• GOOD DIALOGUE is the illusion of reality.

-You’ve got to know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit.

• Common Mistake

-Students tend to create radio shows with images.

<<Film is a visual  medium>>

A Screenplay is a story told in pictures.

EXERCISE: WRITING DIALOGUE

THE SCENARIO:

• A middle-aged man returns home from work.
• He had stopped for a few drinks with his friends and forgot to phone his wife to tell her he’ll be late.
• The dinner is ruined.

THE EXERCISE:

• Write a short scene composed of dialogue between husband and wife.

Husband: Uhhmm… I’m home! Sorry I’m late, I just stopped over at the pub to have a few drinks with the guys. I kinda lost track of things and forgot to call and tell you that I’ll be late, sorry about that.

Wife: It’s nearly 9 and I prepared your favorite. Now the food’s all cold and dinner is ruined, I hope you’re happy.

H: What’s that supposed to mean, it’s not like I intentionally forgot, it was just a mistake. How about I take you out for dinner tomorrow? Would that make up for it? Errmmm… and thanks for making my favorite.

Mom: You better take a shower, you smell. You got a meeting tomorrow morning.

Dad: Can you make some fried rice please?

M:Ok.

Storytelling Tool 1: Observation

• Adopt a KEEN EYE
• Develop a natural SENSE OF CURIOSITY

-An observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling.

• Whom am I writing bout?
• Who is my character
• What is he/she/it like?
• What does he/she/it do?
• What happens to him/her/it in the story?

• People rarely observe familiar people or things closely
• Most people pass through the day with 20%-30% awareness

MINDLESS OBSERVATION vs TRUE OBSERVATION

• Observe in a conscious way
• Develop the ability to SEE and RECORD people:

-Their MOVEMENTS

-Their PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

-The SETTING/PLACES they’re in

EXERCISE: PEOPLE-WATCH

1. Walk into the canteen/library, etc. and watch people pass by.
2. Eventually, one will catch your attention.
3. Write down as many details as possible through observation
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for a second character.
5. Transcribe all these details into the “people-watch” page that you will create on your blog.
6. describe, and explain why you think they are doing that.

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Week 3

CHARACTERIZATION: DEFINING THE CHARACTER

• A story starts with a character

- A character is the heart and soul and nervous system of your screenplay.

- It is through your characters that viewers experience emotions. It is through your characters that they are touched.

<Without a character, there is no action>

<Without action, you have no conflict>

<Without conflict, you have no story>

<Without story, you have no screenplay>

DEVELOPING CHARACTERS

• When developing a character, ask yourself:

-Who is your character?

-What does he want?

-What is his quest?

-What drives him to the resolution of the story?

1. Establish your main character.

Characters should have a 3 Dimensional Structure.

a) Physiology

Age, sex, height, weight, eye, hair and skin, posture, appearance, defects, abnormalities, deformities, birthmarks, diseases, heredity

b) Sociology

Class: lower, upper, middle

Occupation:type, condition and hours of work, income, condition of work, attitude towards organization, suitability for work.

Education: Amount, kind of schools, marks, favorite subjects, poorest subjects, aptitudes.

Home Life: Parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated/divorced, parents’ habits, parents’ mental development, parents. Religion, race, nationality, place in the community; leader among friends, clubs, sports, political affiliations amusements: hobbies, books, newspapers, magazines he/she reads.

c) Psychology

Sex life, moral standards, personal premise, ambition, frustrations, chief disappointments, temperament: choleric, easy-going, pessimistic, optimistic.

Attitude towards life: resigned, militant, defeatist.

Complexes: obsessions, inhibitions, superstitions, phobias.

Personality: extrovert, introvert

Abilities: language, talents

Qualities: Imagination, judgment, taste, poise

I.Q.

What is the deep and personal secret this character has which he is desperate to protect/ hide?

1. Separate the components of his life into 2 basic categories:

a) Interior

b) Exterior

>> Interior

The interior life takes place from birth until the moment your story begins.

It is a process that forms character. [when you start formulating your character from birth, you see your character build in body and form]

• How old is he when the story begins?
• Where does he live?
• Does he have siblings?
• What kind of childhood did he have?
• What was his relationship to his parents?
• What kind of child was he
• Is he married, single, windowed separated or divorced?

>> Exterior

The exterior life takes place the moment your story begins to it’s conclusion.

It is a process that reveals character.

• Who are they and what do they do?
• Are they sad or happy with their life?
• Do they wish their life was different? Another job, another wife?

>> You must create your characters in relationship to other people or things.

All dramatic characters interact in 3 ways:

1. They experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need. [eg, need money - Rob and band, rob a store, rob a person]
2. They interact with other characters. [Either in an antagonistic, friendly or indifferent way]
3. They interact with themselves. [eg, he overcame his fear of being caught by pulling off the robbery successfully]

CONFLICT

• Definition
• (Opposition of persons or forces)
• It is the interaction of opposing ideas, interests, or wills, and creates the plot.

THE ROLE OF CONFLICT

• Conflict is the central feature of the screenplay

- man against man

-man against enviroment

-man against self

• It’s variations of sex, age, religion and culture which provide variety to the conflict

CONFLICT = CHANGE

• Change is common to everyone.
• Change is universal!
• Bodies change
• Seasons change
• Lives change
• Relationships change
• Feelings change
• Locations change
• technologies change

• As universal as change may be, people often resist it for fear of the unknown.
• People must learn to cope with change if they want to survive.
• The action in drama depends on conflict.
• Plot cannot be constructed without conflict
• As your characters attempt to reach their goals, they come into conflict with each other.
• The end of the story nears when the protagonist and antagonist approach their goals and the conflict rises to generate maximum suspense and excitement.
• The protagonist and antagonist must be locked together with no possible compromise between them.
• This is done by having characters of strong conviction and purpose who will fight for what they want.
• The more evenly matched they are, the stronger the battle will be and the more suspense will be aroused.

EXERCISE: 50 WORD STORIES

• Write an essay of exactly 50 words
• Post 5 stories each on a “50 Word Stories” page on your blog

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Week 4

Review exercise 3: 50 word stories

>>Purpose of the exercise

• Breaks down the myth of handling only 1 idea at a time
• Encourages precise and concise writing
• Teaches basic script editing skills, to focus and reveal the essential elements

Dynamic Action

<<Story is action>>

• Action encompasses any kind of movement, activity and interaction between characters and also between the characters and their surroundings.
• Talking about how one feels is not as powerful as illustrating why one feels the way they do through action.

<<Film is behaviour>>

• Action is the manifestation of behaviour .
• The complexity of the human psyche and interaction is better understood when it is possible to watch the actions, nuances and reactions of the characters.

<<Dynamic Action>>

• Has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by heightening the stakes and increasing the tension.

Moving pictures

Exercise: translating emotional responses in to actions.

• 2 Students are to act out their emotion set by a simple narrative.
• We guess!

- The couple ave just met. This is their first evening spent together. He is very shy. She desires him.

The power of any story lies in the narrator’s ability to project a mental picture for the audience.

>>Purpose of the exercise

• Addresses the problem many newbies have to screenwriting:

How to convey visually any sense of inner conflict of emotion.

<<Dynamic Action>>

• Has the potential to enrich the experience of the audience by heightening the stakes and increasing the tension.
• Location is:

- A physical location

- A place in which events occur and characters interact.

• Interactive location is

- A physical setting and surrounding that interacts with the characters of the film by positively heightening their action.

• It can enhance the impact of the action and heighten stakes.
• Eg.

Storytelling Tool 2 : Memory

• Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of past incidents which you have experienced or been told.
• These memories are points of reference to your own past.

Tip:

• Write what you do not know because you will find some part of you that does know.
• There is always room for personal discovery!

Excercise: Letter to someone from the past

• This might be a person to whom you can no longer speak to
• Couls be someone you completely lost touch with
• Even someone who is dead

You should describe yourself exactly as you are in present time and then try and contrast that image with how you were earlier, when you and he recipient were together.

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In dramatic writing, the very essence is character change.

• A storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience.
• Everything about you-where you were born, what food you eat, the bump on your forehead-your experiences are uniqe and irreplaceable

• Many of your experiences are Universal and Translatable and can be used in any location.

• If you don’t know what to do with a character, make him yourself for a while.

• See how he relates to the world he has been thrown into.

Plunder your own personal background!

The things that happen to you as you grow up and the things that are currently happening to you make terrific story sources.

A true story is not a neccessarilly a good story.

Good stories have to be worked and reworked

True life stories do not offer neat and relevant endings

• Life is unpredictable
• In a story, we can and must control the events and sequence so that it gives the appearance of being like life.

Review 1-5

• Week 1

-Writing in third person, present tense and visual voice.

• Week 2

-The role of conflict/creating conflict

- Elements of dialogue

- Storytelling tool 1 : Observation

• Week 3

- Characterization : defining the character

- Developing characters

• Week 4

- Dynamic action

- Story is action = film is behavious

- Interactive location

storytelling schematized

- storytelling tool 2: memory

• Week 5

- Storytelling tool 3 : Experience

- Summary of the 4 storytelling tools and techniques