Week 4 Workshop and Practical

Workshop

• Watched a short clip from the beginning of We Need to Talk About Kevin. The film, similar to Usual Suspects or Memento, jumps around in time: non-linear narrative. It doesn't rely on the traditional 3-act structure. The structure reflects the emotions of the character: reflective, nostalgic, etc.
• In the event of the 'unreliable narrator' the point of view is subjective. We don't know if the audience has more, less or the same amount of knowledge as the protagonist. In the Shawshank Redemption, the narrator is not the protagonist.
• Watched the short film Robbie which was made entirely out of archival footage from NASA and narrative voice over. Plot point 1 is when the robot gets sent into space, and plot point 2 is when he gets left alone on the space station. 
• A story is the set of all events in a narrative, whether presented or not; while the plot is what is shown to the audience. The opening raises expectations - perhaps foreshadows ending? The patterns of development can be goal-oriented, temporal patterns, or spatial plot patterns.
• 15 minute rule: if it doesn't engage within the first 1/4 hour, then people will become uninterested.
• Our 10 minute script needs understanding and application of the classical structure - don't diverge!
• We looked at the diagram of film paradigms and compared various stories of films to it.
• We watched a video with Dustin Lance Black, giving tips about his screenwriting process. He talks about how he makes an entire research project around writing historical films. He likes to make his characters specific and real.