Breaking Story from Plot

In response to my catch-all statement that good ole Aristotle once said "Plot before Character", my tutor put me onto these great internet links about the mechanics of Story and Plot and how fundamentally different they are, how they relate, but exist as separate parts of the foundation of a... Story Mind (which takes us back to Dramatica, doesn't it)... Let's not reinvent the wheel... here are those links:

• http://voxcrock.blogspot.com/2005/05/nabokov-on-difference-between.html
• http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/05/writing-plot-and-story.html
• http://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/intranet/englishbasics/Plot01.htm
• http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html

Five Stages of Loss, Death and Dying

I'm nipping in and out of Rachel Ballon's Breathing Life into your Characters at the moment, and came across a brief section on the five stages of death quoted from one Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (a psychiatrist no less). The idea of the book is to get the writer to engage with their emotions when they are writing so as to create characters with greater depth, provide the reader with more emotion and build better arcs of conflict and motivation for the characters. The five stages are:

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

And, as Baron says, as with all rules there are exceptions - some people don't hit all the notes, some get stuck in a cycle. Just as with Syd Field's discussion on 3 Act Structures, as developed by Hauge, et al, we can look at the five stages as simply being another play on Beginning, Middle and End.

Characterisation

This from Jon Mcgregor's If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things:

The boy with the wide trousers is quiet, he's looking at the girl next to him, a beautifully unslim girl with dark curls of hair falling down over a red velvet dress, he's looking at the laces and straps and buckles and zips of her complicated footwear and he looks up at her and says so how long does it take you to get those boots off then? She looks at him, this girl, with lips as red as the fire inside a chilli, she looks at the tight spread of him across the bed and she says

I don't know I've never taken them off myself.

First of note, I believe, is the Hemingway style of rolling on the sentences with the use of and, which keeps the reader going, and despite the length of the sentence as a result, the reader doesn't pause or lose interest. We're caught up completely.

Secondly is the characterisation of the girl, first through her chilli lips, which sets up the notion of who she is, and then the pay off of her words, immediately taking us back to the thought of chilli's and hot. It's like setting up a joke and her words are the punchline - our payoff.

Screenwriting 102(3) - Hauge's Motivations and Conflict

Whilst Hauge has related to Syd Field's 3 Act Paradigm, see Turning Points, Hauge's personal Paradigm relates to the 4 Primary Characters, their Motivations and Conflicts. Field looks at the overall structure of plot whilst Hauge looks in depth at the script itself. His primary characters are (and this, as my tutor pointed out, is pretty reductive, as much of Hauge's language seems to be, and labels shouldn't be taken exactly as read)...
Note: We'll look at this with An Officer and a Gentleman as reference.

• Hero (Zack Mayo)
• Nemesis (Drill Instructor Foley)
• Reflection (Sid - Zack's buddy)
• Romance (Paula - Zack's love interest)

Each of these four characters has Motivation and Conflict, and it is Conflict which is crucial to drama. In both M and C, there are Inner and Outer levels.

Motivation

A character's Outer Motivation regards what they physically want to achieve. In Zack's case, this is to become an Officer. In my case last night, it was to attend my class and learn about Character Motivation and Conflict.

A character's Inner Motivation regards why they want to achieve their Outer Motivation. In Zack's case this is because he wants to belong, and he wants to be better than his father. In my case it is to hopefully write the next best screenplay and make millions.

• Outer Motivation (Physical Achievement) = Plot
• Inner Motivation (Why?) = Theme

(I'll be looking at theme later).

Note (and this is important): Characters can share the same Outer Motivation, but they will have different reasons for wanting it. Their Inner Motivation will be derived from a different place. For example: Both Zack and Sid want to become Officers. However, Zack wants to belong, but Sid is Other-driven. Sid is doing it for his parents and his dead brother. Both Inner Motivations are different and yet they relate to the movie's theme.

Conflict

The general rule of Conflict is:

• Outer Conflict = Nemesis
• Inner Conflict = Self

The Inner and Outer Motivations directly relate to the Inner and Outer Conflicts, and until the Inner Conflict is resolved, the Inner Motivation cannot be achieved. Similarly, until the Outer Conflict is resolved, the Outer Motivation cannot be achieved.

Dito Montiel (writer and director of A Guide to Recognising Your Saints) says that there is always a character (at least one) who is lying about their Outer Motivation. In the case of Zack, he tells everyone he wants to Fly Jets. This dishonesty can often work on an inner level, where the character is in fact lying to themself, whilst their actions show/prove otherwise.

Paula does this also, telling Zack that she meets with Officers because she wants to improve and enjoy herself. Yet she wants to fall in love, and she does do with Zack, despite, later, reaffirming that she just wants to spend time with him.

Robert McKee says that if a scene is about what it's about, then you're in big trouble. If the dialogue and the action are doing the same thing then the dialogue is essentially on the nose (which is a bad thing). The dialogue and the action should be working against each other, generating the conflict. In the later scene, Paula is cooking Zack breakfast, she's vased some flowers and she's looking at him all doughy-eyed, and yet still professing that she just wants to have fun.

Dialogue that is on the nose doesn't sit right with the audience. Saying exactly what is intended by a character makes for a boring scene. Any character who admits what they want must have earned that privilege. When Zack admits to Foley that he has nowhere else to go, this has been earned. It doesn't feel so easy on the audience when Paula sobs to her mother that she loves Zack - Boo hoo!

- Inner and Outer Motivation : An Officer and A Gentleman

The important thing about generating this information is that, particularly with Outer Motivations, you shouldn't overcomplicate. These should be nice, basic, grounded, crystal-clear ideas that the audience can grasp and run with.

In An Officer and A Gentleman the first half of the script focuses on the Outer Motivation, and then, bang on the midpoint, it switches to the Inner Motivation (this is the same for Thelma and Louise). Not until the scene where Foley breaks Zack, and tells him to stop the "Bullshit" about flying jets. Foley wants Zack's character, and more importantly for Zack to realise this... his Inner Motivation.

Becoming a Gent

In Romantic Comedies in particular, the story is about a hero overcoming their issues so as to become worthy of their object of affection. In An Officer and A Gentleman, Paula is already emotionally developed, and it is Zack's character who needs to develop to match her and be worthy of her. Zack's Inner Conflict is deep, whereas Paula's isn't - hers is in fact a positive conflict.

The ending, in which Zack whisks Paula off her feet and carries her out of the paper factory and away from her horrible future, is etched on Hollywood history; an iconic image that epitomises why the film is one of the top Chick-flicks. But, should we accept what it first appears - that Zack is saving Paula?

Whilst this might physically and visually be the case, the truth might be considered in reverse. The opposite is happening. Paula, and her continued efforts for Zack's affections, has saved Zack. Paula is saving Zack from becoming his father - just as in Thelma and Louise, where the last frame freezes on a positive note, with the car still on the incline - the last shot, the frozen frame, is on Paula removing Zack's hat and placing it upon her own head - symbolism? I think so.

But, lets take a couple of steps back. A well-worked narrative often relates where the Hero is at the end of the film back to where they began, giving the audience a bookend. When the Officers graduate they all go off to their families, leaving Zack alone on the field, with no one to share his success with, and then, as he's riding off, he stops by Foley drilling the new recruits, replaying the same old sayings. We have Zack as he is now, an Officer, looking back at where's he's come from, seeing who he was - the Hero's Return.

Screenwriting 102(2) - Desire

Scrounging around on Michael Hauge's website, I cam across a page dedicated to a protagonist's desire. He says: the "essential component of all successful movies is the hero’s pursuit of a compelling desire"

1. The desire must be visible (to both audience and protagonist)
2. The desire must have a clearly defined endpoint (audience must be able to envision what the end might be)
3. Your hero must desperately want the desire
4. Your hero must actively pursue the desire
5. It must be within your hero's power to acheive their desire
6. Your hero must put everything on the line to achieve their desire
7. Your hero's desire must be resolved at the climax of the film

Read the full article here: http://www.screenplaymastery.com/desire.htm

An Officer and a Gentleman

Next week's assignment is all about an Officer and an Gentleman. We're going to be analysing character and themes (if my tired head is right - which, by 8pm on a Wednesday night before a 2 hour drive home, probably isn't).

Wikipedia says:

The film begins with Zack Mayo receiving his "graduation present" from his
father, a brash, womanizing career U.S. Navy Boatswain's Mate formerly stationed at Subic Bay in the Philippines. Mayo moved in with his father there in early adolescence when his mother committed suicide. Aloof and taciturn with repressed anger at his mother's suicide, Mayo surprises his father when he announces his aspiration to be a Navy pilot. Once he has arrived at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill instructor Emil Foley. Mayo — or "Mayonnaise" as he is dubbed by the irascible Foley — is an excellent officer candidate, but a little cold around the heart. Foley rides Mayo mercilessly, sensing the young man would be prime officer material if he were not so self-involved. Zack becomes friends with Sid Worley, a well-to-do boy from the "good side of the tracks". Both Zack and Sid meet two factory workers, Paula and Lynette, who bed the cocky officer candidates, and secretly want to escape their hometown and become "aviator" wives. Zack's affair with Paula is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself. Only after Mayo's best friend Sid commits suicide over an unhappy romance with Lynette does Zack come out of his shell and mature.
In the well-remembered last scene of the film, Ensign Mayo goes to the factory where Paula works, takes her in his arms and walks out holding her.

Ooh! Fortunately I've been able to buy it second hand from Amazon.

Screenwriting 101(2) - The 1st 10 Minutes

Alongside the analysis of Thelma and Louise in regards to the 3 Act Structure, we looked at the importance of the first 10 minutes/pages of a screenplay in getting the reader's attention and really bringing together all the necessary elements of what the film is about, its tone, and the direction its taking.

We looked at the first 10 minutes of Thelma and Louise, pausing the film everytime we had a point to raise, an observation to make:

We see Louise first. She's a waitress (a little older than the others) but she's dependable, a working girl, who can multi-task. Whilst serving coffee her mothering side comes through as she chastises two girls about smoking. "Ruins your sex drive" In the next clip she herself is instantly lighting up.

She phones her friend Thelma, and immediately identifies her as "little housewife". Through their conversation we see their relationship as Louise is the mother/guy and Louise the daughter/girl. Louise is derogative towards Thelma's husband and urging her to tell him that they're both going away for a two day break.

Thelma, by contrast, is a failing housewife - a bit of a slob - her house is decked out in cookery books, post it notes, and a whole host of crap. She is literally drowning in domesticity. She's a child, or at least immature, and that comes through in her mannerisms, speech and actions. She rushes around ineffectually, and we hear that she is afraid to tell her husband, Darryl, that she's going away.

That fear isn't serious fear, and we know, as Darryl arrives, that he's a buffoon of a character, thinks highly of himself, and is easily pissed off at Thelma if she gets in his way. He thinks he has Thelma pegged, though he's too full of himself and getting his own way to truly understand. She is manipulative (a little foreshadowing for her persona change later) and tests the water with Darryl about asking him if she can go away. When he shoots his mouth off at her, she decides not to ask him at all. When he says he'll be home late, she makes the statement that it's funny how he sells so many carpets late on a Friday, when everyone would rather be going home that buying carpets - her insinuation is that he's playing the field. He, however, doesn't get it and again shoots his mouth off at her - we have her motivation now. She is in a loveless marriage.

Darryl leaves and Thelma calls Louise back at the diner. She has decided not to tell Darryl, but will leave him a message. A waiter picks up the call and tries a momentary wooing - every male in this film is trying to chat up Thelma. Louise comes second. Whilst talking to Louise, Thelma keeps flitting in and out of the fridge. She has a chocolate bar in there which she keeps snacking on and putting back. She's compulsive, scatty, sassy and lacks willpower. She wants the chocolate (for breakfast?) and yet a voice in her head (probably Darryl's) keeps telling her to put it back. So, after every bite she puts it back and shuts the door - willpower! But, as she's leaving, she goes back and takes it with her. She can make up her own mind.

We then have a montage of Thelma and Louise getting their bags packed - Louise is methodical, planning, clean and practical. Her items are bagged up, everything is tidy, her house is pristine and everything in its place (she is controlling and obsessive compulsive). We then have her call Jimmy on the phone. He's out and she gets his answer phone. In retalliation she puts down the photo of him on her dresser -This sets up that she has a boyfriend. We know now she isn't single. Also, their relationship is separate; she assumed he'd be there, and though she feels that attachment (she called him to tell him she was off), her putting the photo down reasserts to herself that she can't rely on him, and only on her self. Has he let her down? This contradicts Thelma's relationship and also relates back to Louise's smoking and her comment to the girls about smoking ruining sexual drives.

And of course, Thelma's manner of packing involves every bag in the house and throwing all her clothes, higgledy-piggledy into them - no structure or order. She hasn't a clue about what she'll need. Then she takes the gun, holding it like a rat's tail, and dumps it in one of the bags - it's hers, it was in her drawer, and she feels she'll need it, but she doesn't know how to handle it (has never handled it).

Note: Chekov's rule on guns

Chekhov's gun. If you put a gun onstage in Act I, Chekhov once wrote, you must
use it by Act III. A Chekhov's gun is a fictional element (threat, character,
mystery, prize, challenge) introduced early and with fanfare and in which the
author expects the reader to invest. That investment must pay off with
deployment later in the story even if the Chekhov's gun then disappears offstage
for a long interval. (CSFW: David Smith)

- http://www.foolquest.com/fooltrek_faq/glossary-sfwa.htm

Louise collects Thelma, and they pack the bags into the trunk, with Louise catching herself wanting to do it all for Thelma. Thelma scattily advises Louise about psycho-killers, and they take a photo of themselves before getting in.

We get a brief exposition of where they're going to a lodge of Louise's friend; he's separating from his wife, she gets the lodge in the settlement so he's allowing all his friends to use it - setting up a theme of divorce and separation - Louise responds to Thelma's comments about not telling Darryl by saying: "You get what you settle for. " which foreshadows how the two are escaping.

Thelma dumps the gun on Louise, and though Louise is shocked, she takes it. Thelma again reasserts - psychokillers. Thelma then puts her feet on the dashboard and her dress billows up (Marilyn Monroe style), which Louise tells her to stop because of the kind of attention it will bring - another foreshadowing that Thelma's actions (though not neccessarily self aware) are going to lead to something.

Thelma badgers Louise to let them stop somewhere for food, and though Louise finally agrees, the point is that this is all because of Thelma's inability to keep her willpower in check - beyond the 10 minute mark we'll see her drinking excessively, picking up a man she's doesn't know, dancing with him, and then letting him take her outside, where he tries to rape her. (Ooh'er, responsibility?!)

So, they stop off at a truckstop, The Silver Bullet (apt name - though it was the real name of the place before the filmakers arrived). Tons of men and tons of trucks. The trucks appear throughout the story. The road is laden with them, man's world. Here are two women trying to escape men, to emasculate men and take control of their own lives, and yet men are all about them, and here they are, 10 minutes in, going into the most male area possible.

----------------

That is a hell of a lot to pack into the first 10 minutes/pages of a screenplay, but it gives us characters, location, time, tone, genre, foreshadowing... so much stuff.

Unnatural Movements

Just been reading Solvejg's blog: http://www.themaggotfarm.blogspot.com/ and his latest post on Spiders. He makes the point about unnatural movements, or movements that change between characters...

I've made my chief antagonist in the opening of The Library Book expressed in terms of her spells (snake-like) and her physical appearance (tree-like). I might... er... will need to go back and make sure I keep ramping this up for all her movements from Rodan's pov, but more importantly I must keep giving my witches (the antagonists) these strange animalistic/other worldly references to their manners and movements. Something has altered the way they exist amongst other men. Is it the magic? Or is it just the fearful projection of the goodies?

New thought:

Great stone tablet of a book at the library centre, in a room with no entrance or exit. Upon it is catalogued every activity that occurs inside the library... but what if it is written hours before it happens?

There is a subplot emerging in my mind relating to time travel, the loss of your soul to the being who controls time... and an origin story!