Post 7 Creating your own script

We began our lesson by being told that we all had to individually state what we had done the previous night for one minute. When being given the task it sounded somewhat easy, however when it came to it the majority realised it was not as easy as we had once thought. It seemed evident that we all rushed through the event of the previous evening and failed to talk for the full one minute. The one thing that none of us had included was the small details and we only came to realise this when out teacher described what she did even unfortunately including her daughters 'Poo filled nappy'. After she was perfectly able to talk for the full one minute it became clear that she added the small detail that we all lacked. This is linked to Narrative that is defined as ‘The coherence/ organisation given to a series of facts’ as well as ‘everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end.’ When Reciting our events we all used narrative to help explain our events and placed them in order of importance or in some cases in time.This is supported by another quote that says by using narrative 'We understand and construct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous texts.’ When telling our stories we chose to leave out what we thought was irrelevant for the audience to hear, this was done by using our passed experience, for example telling fellow peers and knowing what the audience will find interesting to listen to.

An easy way to get to grips with the theory is by following this explanation ‘story is the irreducible substance of a story A meets B, something happened, order returns'. While narrative is the way in which the story is related and told, 'once upon a time there were three bears'.When creating our scripts we had to think very carefully about the ways in which we want our storyline to be portrayed. The different ways in which the narrative can be interpreted is done through the audience. Julian McDougall warns us not to ‘Clumsily apply a formalist model’ as it ‘does little in terms of understanding our roles in constructing narratives, and how narratives carry discourse that appear natural.’ The substance of the script holds great importance however i believer it is the way in which its told which really attracts the audience.

Following on from this we looked at the different models of narrative from Propp, Todorov, Levis-Strauss and Barthes. Each had very different ideas about narrative, however all agreed that audiences have their part to play in interpreting narrative. Propp believed in Russian fairly tails and proposed that there are 8 different types of character that are always present in story's, these are A Hero, Villain, Princess, Helper, Donor, Dispatcher, False Hero, Princess Father, he further added that there is only ever thirty one different actions that these characters can do. In contrast Todorov produced that there will always be equilibrium the normal narrative, dis-equilibrium something that will change the narrative and then new equilibrium the change within the narrative, this is a state of rest or balance, for example equilibrium represents balance in the narrative where as disequilibrium represents a break of that balance. Following on from this he suggested at the end the story will always reach new equilibrium. Levis-Strauss proposed that there are always Binary Opposites for both the past and present tense,  for example Good Vs Evil, Hero Vs Villain, and it is through these binary opposites that the narrative develops. Finally Barthes proposed that there is always Enigmas which raise questions and the audience will carry on watching to answer this question. However as an audience everyone will have a different interpretation.

Finally we were asked to look at another short film called Signs, an upbeat and generally more lighthearted short film in comparison to the others we had watched. To look at the narrative in this short film we watched it in sections and paused the film to try and guess what was going to happen next and as a audience what are we conditioned to think. We discussed this as a class and it was interesting to listen to the different opinions of what people though would happened next. When looking at this short film we thought about what makes a ‘good’ short film this is quite controversial as everybody has different opinions.



Following on from this lesson we were asked to brain storm all the different places we could think of where we could get ideas for our own scripts, there are many different ways in which you can start to get ideas for your script.  For example one of the first things you need to do is establish the world in which the character lives in, then the main Character and what kind of personality and characterises they are going to have, finally the problem you have to establish, what kind of problem is going to get in the characters way and prevent them from carrying out their task. Once you have created these three things you need to next think of another three things, the first is a want, what is going to be their motivation throughout your story line, next  a need this can be anything they feel they must have, then finally an obligation what must the character feel they have to carry out.

In contrast to this another way of writing a script is by completing the Four Steps to writing a script.

1. Find the ending of your story
2. Then find the beginning
3. The first turning point, this could be an event that gets the story going
4. Finally the second turning point, this can swing the story around and sets up the ending.

If this has not worked then the final plan is to use the  ‘Making Short Films Eight Point Guide.' This method is far more detailed than any others.
1.Introduce the character, set the scene
2.Give the character a problem
3.Let character work out the problem
4.Before setting out to solve the problem , there may be a moment of doubt that will require the hero to seek advice. Let audience know more about the problem and weigh it up in own mind
5.With new resolve (oftener a magical gift from the mentor) Hero sets out to overcome the problem
6.Overcoming the problem, will meet extreme opposition from the rival will usually have greater or different strengths and will bear similarities to the hero
7.Hero will appear to fail in his quest. Glimpse defeat, even death, will require superhuman effort to overcome the daunting final task
8.Hero wins the final battle, the journey has made them a different person will never go back to the way they were.

An example of the 8 point guide when looking at a story such as Goldilocks And The Three Bears is shown below,

1. An introduction into the Three Bears
2. The problem of the porridge being to hot
3. Try to solve the problem by leaving it to cool down and go for a walk
4. The introduction of Goldilocks, where there is a moment of doubt
5. Goldilocks eats the porridge, breaks the chair and sleeps in the bed
6. The three bears arrive back home and try to overcome the problem by telling Goldilocks to leave
7. The Three bears seem to fail in there quest as Goldilocks is still in their house and have broken the chairs
8. Goldilocks leave and the Three bears carry on