* 2007-2009
cine101.com 2009 & After : anatoly.org

Dramatic Analysis, script and structure for writers, directors, actors. Film & Stage.

TOPICS: drama + comedy + postmodern + time + space + death + self + imdb + history + scripts + amazon.com/kindle
"Always make the audience suffer as much as possible." Hitchcock
The basics of "Grammar of Drama" in 200X Aesthetics (Aristotle's Poetics and etc.)

Updates & Comments are here -- on your right: [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Film Pages are used for theatre classes as well theatre webpages for courses. First, because of the dramatic structure basics.

Second, because I teach both.

Third, I have to sort out the navitation for Theatre and for Film.

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Dramatic Literature List: subscribe!

I do not teach script-writing, the only chance you have to learn it from me is to get enrolled in Virtual Theatre Special Topics in the Spring of 2001. This is a workshop-style course and will include all -- directors, writers, actors. Class Project is the webcasting "The Story of David Z." -- hyper-text for theatre I wrote in 1995-97. Subscribe to vTheatre Forum and become a part of the process!

See more on drama @ Theatre w/Anatoly (Virtual Theatre, formerly GeoAlaska) -- use the frame-table on the left.

Intelligence learns from its mistakes… …BUT TRUE GENIUS LEARNS FROM OTHERS' MISTAKES.

cinema-philosophy
new : A Guide to Narratological Film Analysis Manfred Jahn

How to Read a Film: DVD $39 0966974433

Summary

This page is about dramatic analysis of film, not filmic analysis; for Film Analysis you should go to film.vthetre.net. More about the language of drama is at vtheatre.net.

Questions

StageDirections

Notes

Sight, Sound, Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics Developed at San Francisco State University, this textbook isolates the five fundamental image elements of television and film--light and color, 2D space, 3D space, time/motion, and sound--examines their aesthetic characteristics and potentials, and structures them in their respective aesthetic fields. The fourth edition adds sections on inductive shot sequences, electronic cinema, and alternative storytelling techniques. ***
Devils
The Possessed 2003
Virtual Theatre w/Anatoly
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I use this page in both THR334 Film analysis and Film directing Classes: dramatic composition (Fall 2005) of Chaplin (Dog's Life) and Godfather (exposition, climax, resolution - describe and prove!)

Film Art

"Art isn't easy" -- Stephen Sondheim

Dramatic Composition > Visual Composition (Stage)


fragments on this page : list

Pulp Fiction


dramatic structure paper ***


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"The world is out there, but descriptions of the world are not." (Rorty, CIS)

LavaLamp Animated This is a "pre-historical" page (music, silly graphics) was built long ago before the script.vtheatre.net pages (and 200x Aesthetics where the discussion of "dramatic" analysis takes place (vs. "filmic" analysis, the connection between the two languages is the most interesting subject...) Anatoly 2005.

2006 pages -- ?

DRAMATIC

ANALYSIS

Only on Film, for Theatre Reading go to T-Books
Film Theory & Criticism Section
Reference, Dictionaries
Book Page: old and messy, but only the good books
Federico Fellini
Film Links (for Film & Drama, Film Directing and Film-North classes)

Film has its own language, but it uses all other languages, including -- drama. This is page is for that ancient level of communications.

Mostly analysis of dramatic structure. Perhaps, for you, writers. And directors, of course. This is where film (visual) structure begins. No matter how far Film could departure from the Script, it's still in need of the old dramatic narrative.

Categories:
[For more go to the Glossary or to the dictionary at Theatre with Anatoly. Of course, there is difference between Play and Script, but overall dramatic laws are the same. Exposition, Rising Action, climax, Resolution. Episodic Structure in drama is covered on Brecht's Epic Theatre. For nature of film dialogues go to Realism, or Chekhov and Ibsen. The best advise is to visit Dramatic Literature.]

Setting -- The time and place in which the film's story takes place, including all of the complex factors that come packaged with a given time and place: climate, terrain, population density, social structures and economic factors, customs, moral attitudes, and codes of behavior.

Scene -- A clearly identifiable, organic part of an event. It is a small structural (action) or thematic (story) unit, usually consisting of several shots.

Sequence -- The sum of several scenes (or shots) that compose an organic whole.


Script

DRAMATIC COMPOSITION (1-2-3)

Sometimes I call it "ABC of Composition" (based on Aristotle)
You don't "write" movies, you see them.... and then you write down what you saw. Writing is not that important (except for dialogues), nobody outside of the crew and cast will ever read your script. You are not a writer, not really. But, listen, listen to that -- ten, hundred, thousand times more people will see and hear it. If you want to write, write novels or at least plays, not scripts. But if you want to make money.... oh, that's another story all together!

Alright, the same old stuff, again....

1. Exposition:
Information that the audience needs to know to understand a story. Introduction of a conflict, character(s), theme(s) (style, genre and etc.)

COMPLICATION The section of a story in which a conflict begins and grows in clarity, intensity, and importance.

RISING ACTION The plot developments, including complication and conflict, that lead to a plot's climax.

2. Climax:
The point at which the complication reaches its point of maximum tension and the forces in opposition confront each other at a peak of physical or emotional action.

DENOUEMENT A brief period of calm following the climax, in which a state of relative equilibrium returns.

3. Resolution:
Last part of a plot, in which the act or dramatic process breaks into resolving previous conflict and determines as to future action.

From [The Megahit Screenplays]:

"The difference between story and plot lies in the conceptual distinction between actions and events. In constructing a story, actions are what characters do, events are what happen to characters. Therefore, the story consists of the series of actions performed by the characters, while the plot consists of the series of events that happen to the characters. The inciting event happens to the protagonist early in the story, and forces him to pursue his primary objective. Subplots run parallel to the main plot, usually involve minor characters, and contrast with the main story in terms of values and codes of behavior. A plot arena is that historical period or subculture in which the events occur. Plot twists are necessary to make the plot exciting and unpredictable, and are conceptually connected with sub-goals that fail to bring about their expected outcome. Plot organization explicates ways of arranging the events, one of which is the standard three-act structure. The distinction between the plot climax and the story climax rests on the distinction between the final event (plot climax) concerning the dramatic objective that was pursued by both the protagonist and the antagonist, and the final choice (story climax) made by the protagonist that reveals his true values and code of behavior. The concepts of instrumental values and terminal values are explicated and their essential connection to the methods of story construction are discussed."
Script Girl I, following Chekhov's advise, tell students to think about story in terms of a narrative -- HOW the plot is presented. There are no "great" plots, only great stories. "Crime and Punishment" basic plot could be found in any newspaper. Also, the full separation of plot and story is dangerous exercise -- one can't get into "double" climax or ending. The same could be said about sub-plots, which presence is motivated by the needs of the story.

QUESTION:

Is the dream in the opening of "The Wild Strawberries" a part of the story or the plot? In the Bergman's screen-play ("Four Screen Plays") this segment is not impressive as in the film -- the story is the way we see events on the screen. All the elements of film -- angle, shot, cut (including "style") -- are the elements of story.

HOMEWORK:
In Dream Segment identify 1-2-3 of dramatic composition: Exposition, Climax, Resolution (name the shots).

DRAMATIC ANALYSIS of film is the easiest. It's only one METHOD, the new powerful ones are belong to Postmodern studies and Culturology.

"Today no single discipline owns the study of culture. This is an expanding field of analysis across philosophy, anthropology, sociology, cultural and media studies, literature and film studies, history, political economy, and more. We inhabit a cultural world in which globalisation may homogenise, but in which multi-cultural identities, hybridity and fundamentalisms define and redefine 'culture'." (From RESEARCHING CULTURE
StageDirections
Writers Links:

World of Fiction INKSPOT
More? Script Page

Dialogue (must be viewed in context of the scene and entire story, themes and characters analysis) -- Pulp Fiction:

VINCENT: So if you're quitting the life, what'll you do?

JULES: That's what I've been sitting here contemplating. First, I'm gonna deliver this case to Marsellus. Then, basically, I'm gonna walk the earth.

VINCENT:What do you mean, walk the earth?

JULES: You know, like Caine in "KUNG FU." Just walk from town to town, meet people, get in adventures.

VINCENT: How long do you intend to walk the earth?

JULES: Until God puts me where he want me to be.

VINCENT: What if he never does?

JULES: If it takes forever, I'll wait forever.

VINCENT: So you decided to be a bum?

JULES: I'll just be Jules, Vincent -- no more, no less.

VINCENT: No Jules, you're gonna be like those pieces of shit out there who beg for change. They walk around like a bunch of fuckin' zombies, they sleep in garbage bins, they eat what I throw away, and dogs piss on 'em. They got a word for 'em, they're called bums. And without a job, residence, or legal tender, that's what you're gonna be -- a fuckin' bum!

JULES: Look my friend, this is just where me and you differ --

VINCENT: -- what happened was peculiar -- no doubt about it -- but it wasn't water into wine.

JULES: All shapes and sizes, Vince.

VINCENT: Stop fuckin' talkin' like that!

JULES: If you find my answers frightening, Vincent, you should cease askin' scary questions.

VINCENT: When did you make this decision -- while you were sitting there eatin' your muffin?

JULES: Yeah. I was just sitting here drinking my coffee, eating my muffin, playin' the incident in my head, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a "moment of clarity."

VINCENT: I gotta take a shit. To be continued.

Vincent exits for the restroom.


@1999-2004 film-north *


Pi

by

Darren Aranofsky

[Originally featured at: Screensource]

Shooting Script September, 1996

TITLES EXPLODE TO WHITE

SLOW FADE TO:

EXTREME CLOSE-UP of MAXIMILIAN COHEN'S eyes popping open.

INT. MAX'S APARTMENT -CHINATOWN FLAT – NEW YORK CITY - NIGHT

Max jolts his head from his desk and tries to orient him-self in the darkness. He has intelligent eyes set in an exhausted, good-looking face.

Then he notices the blood dripping from his nose. Max wipes it.

Max's voiceover begins:

MAX (V.O.)

Monday, September first. Six-fifteen.

INT. BATHROOM - DAWN

A pull-string light flips on. Max examines his bloody nose in the mirror.

MAX (V.O.)

The alchemist awakes.
(Imitating)
"Turn lead into gold, Max,
lead into gold." Today, I find it.

TIGHT ON

Max's hand as three unmarked, circular pills hit his palm. Then, he slams the pills into the back of his mouth.

Max replaces the cap on a plastic bottle of unmarked prescription drugs. He drinks from the sink and splashes a generous amount of water onto his head and face, cleaning his nose.

He wipes his nose and examines the last remnants of blood on his fingertip. Then, he dips his finger under the tap.

INT. MAX'S APARTMENT - MAIN ROOM - DAY

Max's room is constantly dark because the windows are blacked out. He flips on his desk lamp.

A tiny ANT crawls across his desk. He looks at it for a moment before getting angry and squashing it.

Sitting on the desk are three computer monitors, which Max flips on.

Then he pops on more lights and more switches. We pull back revealing that Max's apartment looks more like the inside of a computer than a human's home.

The room is knee-high in computer parts of all shapes and sizes. The walls are covered with circuit boards. Cables hang from the ceiling like vines in a Brazilian rain forest. They all seem to be wired together forming a monstrous homemade computer.

This is EUCLID, Max's creation. The computer is alive with sounds and lights.

Max works on Euclid with his solder and drill. He cares for the machine as if it were his dream car

MAX (V.O.)
Heat's been getting to Euclid. Feel it most in the afternoon when I run the set. Have to keep the fans on all night from now on. Otherwise, everything is running topnotch. The stack of 286's is now faster than Columbia's computer science department. I spent a couple hundred dollars. Columbia's cost? Half a million? (Small snicker) Ha...

Max checks the peephole on His front door. No one is there. He unbolts the five lock and slides into the hall.

... film.vtheatre.net FILES

[ sample ] Fellini Fellini : 8.5

rate 2005-2006 Theatre UAF Season: Four Farces + One Funeral & Godot'06
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