Foundations of Story Blog 7: Principles and Techniques of Story Writing

The process of writing a movie is a very complicated thing, and can be gone about in a nearly infinite amount of ways. No way are really right or wrong, but there are some principles and theories that I’d prefer to use than others. I like McKee’s idea of characterization and character, and that a person’s true character is only revealed when they have to make a touch decision – That can add a lot of drama to a movie. I feel like the decision in my group’s story isn’t good enough or hard enough or telling enough to really matter. The change in him almost seems unwarranted, and the explanation given through the story for it isn’t all that good. Having a choice that defines this character and hits him to the core would be very beneficial for his arc, which itself is really the biggest problem we had with our idea. We kind of had to jump through hoops to make him jump his own hoop – one that might have been placed ridiculously high for a short film – and it ended up feeling flimsy. We also had trouble really deciding what the tone for the film was going to be. I chose The Social Network as a good comparison to what I personally wanted it to be: A movie with a tone of relatively straight drama with some comedy in it, but considering how well the small amount of comedy that actually made it into my treatment worked (In my opinion), we’re thinking of taking it in the direction of a dark comedy now, which should be interesting.

The idea of set-up and pay-off is also a sure-fire way to make a good story. However, it’s becoming increasingly hard to do nowadays and the trappings of a short film means it also might not be the best thing to put in my group’s idea. Even so, I like it a lot and would like to sprinkle it and subtext throughout any screenplays I may attempt to write in the future, since a lack of complexity is a major problem I have with my own ideas for movies.

Egri’s idea that every story needs a premise is useful. Knowing what your project is about could really help you decide, well, what your project is about. I imagine that what I would do would be to write much of a screenplay, and then decide from that what I think the premise it, write the rest accordingly, and then go back to the beginning to see if I want to change anything. His character bone structure also looks like an important tool – you may need to know more about your character than you actually show in the movie to portray them correctly.

A principle I don’t see myself using too much is that of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. It’s really just a condensed version of the Hero’s Journey, which is much more useful anyway, it’s the classical story structure and every writer should look to it for guidance when they’re writing any sort of story.

Foundations of Story Blog 6: Egri's Character Bone Structure for George Costanza

George Costanza

Physiology

1. Sex: Male

2. Age: 36-45

3. “Short, stocky” as described by Elaine

4. Black hair, brown eyes, Caucasian

5. Normal

6. Appearance: Closer to ugly than good-looking, somewhat overweight, neat. Round head.

7. Defects: None, physically

Sociology

1. Class: Middle

2. Occupation: Many short-lived, modestly-paying jobs. However, his longest career was with the New York Yankees, for which he seemed to have made a high salary. Likes jobs with lots of free time.

3. Education: Graduated high school, grades unknown though presumably average.

4. Home life: Parents living, they had high earning power but put most of their money in the bank. George’s parents are very neurotic: both have short tempers and his mother is overbearing. George is a widower, but he is not very jaded by it.

5. Religion: Latvian Orthodox, but does not observe at all.

6. Race, nationality: Caucasian, half-Italian.

7. Place in Community: The “first mate” within his groups of friends, no clubs or sports.

8. Amusements, hobbies: Enjoys watching sports.

Psychology

1. Sex life, Moral standards: Has had many girlfriends for short periods of time, with only one lasting long enough to form a real relationship. Despite this, George’s mind is said to be focused on sex much of the time. Low moral standards, will lie and sacrifice the good of others for his own (often petty) good.

2. Personal Premise, ambition: Wants merely to have a relaxing life with no work and a lot of money.

3. Frustrations, chief disappointments: His plans rarely work due to his flawed logic and bad judgment.

4. Temperament: Choleric.

5. Attitude towards life: Militant in his pursuit of the freedom to be lazy.

6. Complexes: Narcissistic despite his shortcomings, extremely temperamental, fear of diseases, odd affinity for nice restrooms.

7. Extrovert-leaning.

8. Abilities: An extremely talented liar.

9. Qualities: A good imagination used to create plans and lies, bad judgment, average taste, deficient in poise.

10. Slightly lower than average, but was high when he stopped thinking about sex for an extended period of time.

Foundations of Story Blog 5: The premise of "Without"

Regardless of whether I liked it or not, I found Without to be a pretty confusing movie. Things happened that were never resolved – The moving of the iPhone, the welts on the main character’s back, the picture of the other caretaker, the walking into the forest, and a few other things in the movie that were merely implied but not explained – But since I’m tasked with figuring out the film’s premise, I’m going to assume that these occurrences either were explained and I missed them, or were intentionally left as open as they were. If this weren’t the case I imagine the movie wouldn’t have been shown in class in the first place.

So in order to understand the premise of the movie I feel like I should go over the plot –Joslyn, a 19-year-old who I think was said to have completed her first year of college, travels to a small island town in order to take care of a catatonic old man, Frank, while the family he lives with is away on vacation. Much of the movie is her alone with the old man, and with no internet and not much human interaction, she goes a little crazy. Eventually it’s revealed that this is the town where Joslyn’s girlfriend came from – a girlfriend who has semi-recently committed suicide. Shortly before the family returns, Joslyn goes to the house of the girl’s mother and talks to her. She also has some sort of tryst with a local guy, and experiences various weird happenings in the house. When the family comes back, they get mad at her for making a few small errors, and she breaks down in both tears and laughter, exclaiming “I miss her so much.” Then she leaves.

I think the main focus of the movie is Joslyn’s craziness as she is alone in the house. It seems to me that this would be the third part of the premise, i.e. “_____ leads to insanity.” So what’s the first part? The most obvious guess would be loneliness. Joslyn is not only without the internet or a TV of her own, but she is also “Without” her former girlfriend. When the parents confront her about her, er, transgressions, it seems like “I miss her so much.” Is being stated as the reason for them, though to us it’s not just the reason for putting knives in the dishwasher but also the reason for acting sexually towards the old man and doing NSFW things in front of a webcam (I think it’s worth noting that we never see the computer screen while the latter happens).

So the most likely premise to Without would be “Loneliness leads to insanity.” But I think it might be good to consider adding something else to that premise: guilt. What makes me think that Joslyn had a lot of guilt over her girlfriend’s death is the line “Did you know that she felt this way?” That the girl’s mother says to Joslyn when she visits. We know that Joslyn tried to console her girlfriend through chats on her iPhone, but this and the line imply that Joslyn wasn’t actually there for her, and that she never tried to get the girl help. It seems to me that these two things would cause a great amount of guilt, and I also think it would be weird to go to a dead person’s hometown for an extended period of time just to remember them. Joslyn probably went in order to talk to the girl’s mother and get over her guilt, which, judging by her laughter, she seems to have done at the end of the movie.

Even after some thought, I still have no idea about most of the weird occurrences. The only one I can think of an explanation for is that, all but once, the iPhone appeared on the windowsill near the other side of the bed – Where a lover would sleep. This says to me that the phone’s movement was just Joslyn sleepwalking and thinking of her girlfriend. Other than that I haven’t a clue, which probably means I’ve failed in achieving what was intended in this assignment. But I’m quite sure that the movie’s premise is “Loneliness and guilt leads to insanity.”

Foundations of Story Blog 4: The Character Arc

A character arc is definitely a great thing to have in a film. It can be very gratifying for the audience to see change in a character that they’ve been following – or to see this character cause change in others. In District 9 (to give a somewhat recent example), we want the unfeeling, selfish bureaucrat to realize that the aliens are just like him, and that sectioning them off (in a parallel to apartheid) is wrong, and we are happy when he puts his life on the line for them. In Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane has a character arc in the opposite direction: He goes from being a man out to help the people of America to being just like (or even worse than) every other rich fat cat – He wants everything in his life to be perfect, and even sacrifices his relationship with his wife to help his political career. This arc makes the realization at the end that all he wanted was the true happiness of his childhood all the more effective.

But is a character arc needed in a movie? Can there a movie where no characters change at all be just as compelling as a movie where a character shows noted change or growth? I think the answer is yes, but that it would be a very hard thing to actually do. It’d be tough to have a character remain unchanged in a movie – or to tease change or trick the audience into thinking the character has changed, only to reveal that the change has not happened without making the audience feel robbed of something they deserved. Would The Game have been more compelling if Nicholas stormed into the CRS building demanding the location of his money instead of the location of his brother? Probably not, but it might be if the audience is lead to believe he’s doing it for his brother until, say, the scene on the rooftop. That’s just my opinion, though – I like twists, and I would especially like one that play not just with our expectations of what would happen in that movie, but what would happen in all movies.

I can say, though, that Erin Brockovich wouldn’t have been as interesting if George and Ed Masry hadn’t become more compassionate, or that Seven wouldn’t be seen as nearly as distinctive as it is if John Doe didn’t win in the slightest at the end, and Mills, his wife, and Somerset had gone skipping off into the sunset. So, yes, not including a character arc and managing to make the audience not feel cheated would be a hard thing to do, but it’s possible, and I would like to see someone try it, or watch a movie where someone did (I can’t say I’ve seen or heard of one).

Foundations of Story Blog 3: Story Review

The story I chose to review is the one where the main character has dreams about his female friend that died years ago (who he could never admit his love for while she was alive). Even though the actual story was emotional, I feel like it could be even better – I remember it (thought my memory of it may not be exactly right) as being just a transition from real life to dream to real life to dream (unknowingly this time) to real life again, which I feel was a little boring and undeveloped. If this were adapted, there would need to be something to make the real life scenes more than just waking up and thinking about it – maybe the character having a girlfriend and how his dreams have changed his opinions on their relationship.

There should also be some flashbacks to show how important the female friend was in the main character’s life – To make it less confusing, he could merely be talking about things she did for him with someone else instead of the setting shifting again into the past.

I’m not sure if the first dream really needs to be changed – If I remember correctly it was a quick, but effective look at the female friend on a sidewalk or something similar. I’m having trouble remembering how it ended, though. Did she get hit by a car here? Was that how she was supposed to have died? If that’s not in the story already, it might be effective to add that, to show how in the first dream he was not able to save her at all (he wasn’t really in the second dream either, but I’m about to talk about that).

I also don’t remember exactly what led up to the parking lot scene where the action starts in the second dream, but I definitely like the fact that we don’t know this one is a dream. It makes the audience feel like the main character can now actually help his friend and tell her he loves her, only to have those hopes whisked away again at the end. But that’s something I don’t quite get: I remember the protagonist being happy that he declared his love for the girl, and tried to save her, but should he really be happy? It was all just a dream; the situation is still exactly as it was in real life. I’m not sure what could be done to fix this, and I definitely like the happy ending we got, but it feels weird. Perhaps he could find some old possession of hers that brings closure, or something less cheesy (though it would make sense as a sort of “Seizing the Sword” moment).

Something that might also need to be better is the situation of the second dream. In real life, things in our dreams represent things in our lives, and the dreams in this story should be no different. I remember very clearly that the protagonist sees another girl running across the parking lot, shouting “They’ve got her!” This girl should have some sort of importance – It could be someone he knows in real life, maybe even that current girlfriend I suggested. And the dream’s shady villains too – maybe these people could represent some archetypes.

Though I should note that, despite all this criticism, I still thought it was a very good story.

Foundations of Story Blog 2: Regret

Most of my regrets wouldn’t be fit for this blog: They’re either personal, or regrets for things I didn’t do, but one memorable, easy-to-talk about regret that works somewhat well with the Davis story format is my decision to go to Toys-R-Us on the night of Black Friday 2009. This was not exactly Black Friday, but Thursday night, where all the stores are open late so people can take advantage of the deals early.

My main impetus (I suppose this would be the “main character” part of Davis’s format) for going to Toys-R-Us was to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game that came out the past Tuesday. It was likely going to be one of the biggest gifts of the season, so I wanted to get my hands on it early. That, combined with my like for being in “real-life adventures” (and excursion to a popular store on Black Friday counts as one of these) mad me eager to go and experience the craziness, ending with me triumphantly holding the game in my hands. I did end up holding the game, but I wasn’t quite as enthused as I imagined I would be.

So I asked my mother to take me (I didn’t drive, and don’t to this day), and we drove there. It didn’t take very long, though I think it may have taken awhile to park. Since the lot in front of the large toy store was probably full. We parked and walked up to the entrance, and saw a long line of people coming out of it, extending far back. Far back. Out of the complex surrounding the store and into some random alley. This was trouble coming, and we should have known. But no, we got in line and chatted with a few people about the situation and what they were getting. We waited for awhile until they opened the store, and the line moved quickly inside. It never moved quickly again.

This is the crisis stage of the story. For around three hours we waited there, slowly proceeding in line in directions that took us all around the store – the line weaved a strange path through it. We talked to each other and other people, but eventually this got old, and we just had to wait. I was confident that the line would speed up, but it never did. We thought about leaving at one point, but we didn’t want to have gone there just for nothing, so we stuck around. By the time the line ended and I got the game, we were all tired and bitter, especially my mother (rightfully so, of course). We took our one game and got out of there. I guess around here was when I got insight and realized that maybe we should have left early, because the game was going to be so huge anyway that they probably pressed a million copies of it and they wouldn’t have run out by the time I would have gone to the store the next day. I didn’t even get to play the game until the next day anyway. I never really got any affirmation or resolution to this; they were just logical thoughts. The next time I went out on Black Friday, my mom did not come with me. And it still kind sucked.

Foundations of Story Blog 1: Insight

One of the biggest things I ever realized about myself is that I’m to blame for a lot of the things I do wrong – We all are, 90% of the time. I had this realization in 8^th grade when my grades were at the worst they’ve ever been. I cant’ remember exactly what they were but there was more than one D or F in there. I had been getting similar grades to this throughout much of my middle school career, but I never blamed myself – I attributed these pratfalls to things like evil teachers and short deadlines, along with blaming the work for being just plain hard. But as the end of middle school approached and my grades didn’t get any better, I finally realized that I had no one to blame by myself, for my short attention span and general lack of enthusiasm for school. It was hard to accept the truth, but once I did I was able to finally get out of that rut, by getting serious about it and focusing on school. I took responsibility for my own bad grades and righted the wrongs I had committed in that area.

Now, whenever I’ve gotten into a patch of bad grades in high school, I’ve been able to get out of it by quarter’s end – Most notably when I turned three Cs into Bs with barely any time left. And since then, I’ve been able to take responsibility for other things I do wrong in my life as well – Like not going to bed on time, a problem that plagued me throughout my high school years (though, as I said, I was able to pull through), and one that I aim to fix in college (success incoming).

The most similar situation to this that I can think of takes place not in a film, but in the manga One Piece by Eiichiro Oda. Awhile into the still-unfinished opus, one of the main band of pirates, Usopp, quits the crew once he learns that they want to replace their old and weathered ship (given to them by a treasured friend of his) with a new one. This incident almost breaks up the entire crew, but, after Usopp uses his sharpshooting skills to save one of them in a critical spot, the captain is ready to take him back. However, the crew’s stern first mate convinces him that Usopp must not be let back into the crew unless he realizes that their split happened due to his poor judgment – If that doesn’t happen, it’s possible that he could leave the crew again at a time where they need to be together. As the crew begins to set sail in their new ship, Usopp arrives and says he’ll gladly rejoin the crew, but his friends do not respond. At almost the last possible moment, Usopp breaks down crying and admits that he was a fool. He apologizes, and the crew accepts his apology and lets him on the ship with open arms.

Like how Usopp couldn’t have noticed and fixed his tendency to get angry and jump to conclusions If he hadn’t left the crew in the first place, I couldn’t have fixed the my own problems if they hadn’t caused something to important to me as bad grades. If it was not for that insight, I may not even be in college right now, so I am proud of myself for facing the truth.