• Dialogue reveals character
  • A character will talk about himself and other people will talk about him
  • Dialogue establishes relationships between characters
    • Once you have established your main character’s POV, you can use dialogue with other characters to show that they have other attitudes, creating opposite/alternative POVs.
    • This helps to create and sustain the element of CONFLICT between characters.
    • Good effective dialogue will move the story forward
    • Dialogue communicates faces and information to the audience
      • It conveys essential exposition.
      • Characters will talk about what happened, establishing the storyline.
      • Dialogue comments on the action
      • Dialogue ties the script together
        • It is one of devices that YOU as a writer can use to expand and enlarge your characters.
        • “If you can see it or hear it, don’t say it.” –Neville Smith
        • Dialogue should be used sparingly
        • Never tell the audience what they can see for themselves!!!
        • Dialogue is no substitute for action

In Hollywood when they look at a page and it’s got too much black, too much ink on the paper, they say,

“SHIT! IT’S FREEZE THE CAMERA TIME!!!”

• Common mistake
  • Students sometimes never achieve a level of competence as they tend to reproduce conventional spoken language, long statements of “REAL TALKING”, and defend their decisions by telling us that:

“It’s how the character speaks”

• Dialogue is sometimes affected by:
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Educational Qualification
  • Race
  • Good dialogue is not somebody’s ability to write authentic speech as heard in real life.
    • If that was all there is to it, you can just push a button on the tape recorder and then go collect your Oscar.
    • Good dialogue is the illusion of reality.
      • You’ve got to know how to edit what people say without losing any of the spirit.
      • Common mistake
        • Students tend to create radio shows with images.

<<FILM IS A VISUAL MEDIUM>>

A screenplay is a story told in pictures

The Scenario:

• A middle-aged man returns home from work.
• He stopped for a few drinks with his friends and forgot to phone his wife to tell her he’ll be late.
• The dinner is ruined

The Exercise:

• Write a short scene composed of dialogue between husband and wife.

Role-play:

• 2 students to play the roles from their stories.

The REAL EXERCISE:

• Repeat “The Experiment” but:
• Husband and Wife are YOUR own parents.
• Get two people to read the dialogue.
• Record the reading
• Post it to your blog (using Youtube, Multiply, etc.)

Purpose of the exercise

• Life is unpredictable
• In a story, we can and must control the events and sequences so that it gives the appearance of being life like.

Every story starts with a character

• The character is the heart, the soul and the nervous system.
• It is through your characters that the viewers experience emotions.
• Without a character, there is no action
• Without action, you have no conflict
• Without conflict, you have no story
• Without story, you have no screenplay

When developing a character, ask yourself:

• Who is your character?
• What does he want?
• What is his quest?
• What drives him to the resolution of the story?

Establish your main character.

• Characters should have a 3D structure.
  • Physiology
    • Sex
    • Age
    • Height, Weight
    • Colour of hair, eyes, skin
    • Posture
    • Appearance
    • Defects, abnormalities, deformities, birth marks, diseases
    • Heredity
• Sociology
  • Class (lower, middle, upper)
  • Occupation: type of work, hours of work, income, condition of work, attitude towards organization, suitability for work
  • Education: amount, kind of schools, marks, favourite subjects, poorest subjects, aptitudes
  • Home life: parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated/divorced, parents’ habits, parents’ mental development, parents’ vices, neglect, character’s marital status
  • Religion
  • Race, Nationality
  • Place in the community; leader among friends, clubs, sports
  • Political Affiliations
  • Amusements: hobbies, books, newspapers, magazines he/she reads
• Psychology
  • Sex life, moral standards
  • Personal premise, ambition
  • Frustrations, chief disappointment
  • Temperament: choleric, easy-going, pessimistic, optimistic
  • Attitude towards life: resigned, militant, defeatist
  • Complexes: obsessions, inhibitions, superstitions, phobias
  • Personality: extrovert, introvert
  • Abilities: language, talents
  • Qualities: Imagination, judgment, taste, poise
  • I.Q
  • What is the deep and personal secret this character has which he is desperate to protect/hide?
  • Separate the components of his life into 2 basic categories:
    • Interior
      • The interior life takes place from birth until the moment your story begins
      • It is a process that forms the character. (When you start formulating your character from birth, you see your character build in body and form)
        • How old is he when the story begins?
        • Where does he live?
        • Does he have siblings?
        • What kind of childhood did he have?
        • What was his relationship to his parents?
        • What kind of child was he
        • Is he married, single, widowed, separated or divorce?
• Exterior
  • The exterior life takes place the moment your story begins to its conclusion.
  • It is a process that reveals character.
    • Who they are and what do they do?
    • Are they sad or happy with their life?
    • Do they wish their life were different? Another job, another wife?
    • You must create your character in relationship to other people or things
      • They experience conflict in achieving their dramatic need. [E.g. Need money – Rob a bank, rob a store, rob a person?]
      • They interact with other characters. [Either in an antagonistic, friendly or indifferent way]
      • They interact with themselves. [E.g. He overcame his fear of being caught by pulling off the robbery successfully]
      • How do you invent characters?
        • Try turning them upside down.

Storytelling Tool 2: Experience
-True happening.
-A storyteller should be concerned with the potential of every experience.
meaning: an experience can spark off an story idea.
-Everything about you- where you’re born, what food you eat- is unique and irreplaceable.
you can’t write from someone else experience, because you don’t know what they’re feeling.
-Many your experience is universal and translatable(language, setting, culture) and can be used in any location.
e.g 1st Day at School, 1st/puppy love, loss of a loved one, hanging out with friends

Storytelling Tool 2: Tips
-If you don’t know what to do with a character, make him yourself for a while.
-See how he relates to the world he has been thrown into.
-Things happening/has happened to you as you grow up lets you create a terrific story.

Storytelling Tool 2: Fragments of a Story
-Those potential ideas prompt you desire to know more.
-Respond emotionally and intellectually to what you’ve heard.
-Good stories are born in the heart, not the head.
-Remember the role of an audience. You ARE the audience.

Storytelling Tool 2: Memory
-Might be manufactured or might be true.
-Your memory is a wonderful cabinet of  past incidents which you have experienced or been told.
-They’re points of reference of your own past existence.

Storytelling Tool 2: Tips 2
-Write what you do don’t know because you will find some part of you that does know.
-There’s always room for personal discovery.

Difference between Memory and Experience. 
-We use memory to build creative content.

Short Story Screening:
Les Mistons, 1957
Sunat, 2006

Assignment
Part 1
Write 2 short stories
-One completely True
-One completely False
Only the author knows which is which.
Present Tense, 3rd person.
Post this by Tuesday 3 June, 1000h.

Part 2
After posting your story, visit 3 classmate’s stories and vote for which is True or False.
Comment : I think story A/B is true/false because…

• Reflection
• Visual Trigger: Find an image and tell a story that comes to your mind as you see it.
• Picture should not be taken for this purpose use only pictures you can find.

Principles of tragedy

Incorporate principles or tragedy into your writing!

What is Tragedy?

Tragedy doesn’t mean that something bad happens and the story ends.

It means something bad happens as a result of a flaw in your character, and you show how this tragic fall forces your character to learn something about herself or himself.

Review exercise: People-Watch

• Take 1 character from the person above you on the bloglist.
• Take 1 character from the person below you on the bloglist.
• Write a story about how these two people interact.
• Don’t forget the most essential element of drama…. CONFLICT~

Professional writers face problems like:
•    Constraints of time
•    Pressures of deadline
•    Lack of ideas
•    Casting complications
•    Creative difference between writers and directors

Storytelling Tool 1: OBSERVATION
•    Observe in a conscious way
o    Body Language
o    Speech Patterns (words they use , articulation, speed)
•    Train yourself to see and record:
o    Movements
o    Subconscious movements (tapping table, shaking legs)
o    Physical Characteristics
o    Settings (acting different alone and in a group)
•    Adopt a KEEN EYE
•    Develop a natural SENSE OF CURIOSITY
o    An observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling.
o    For e.g when you observe a couple having a meal yet totally not talking……What questions come to mind?
•    Whom am I writing about?
•    Who is my character?
•    What is he/she/it like?
•    What does he/she/it do?
•    What happens to him/her/it in the story?

Exercise: AWARENESS LEVEL
•    People rarely observe familiar people or things closely.
•    Most people pass through the day with 20%-30% awareness.

Mindless Observation vs. True Observation
•    Observe in a conscious way.
•    Develop the ability to see and record people:
o    Their movements
o    Their physical characteristics
o    The setting/places they’re in.
Exercise: People-watch
•    Walk into the canteen/library, etc. and watch people pass by.
•    Eventually, one will catch your attention.
•    Write down as many details as possible through observation.
•    Repeat steps 1-3 for a second character.
•    Transcribe all these details into the ‘People Watch’ page that you will create on your blog.

Conflict

• Definition

1. serious/not so serious disagreement.
2. hostile encounter
3. mental/emotional
4. physical struggle

• Opposition of persons or forces
• Can result internally or externally
• It is the interaction of opposing ideas, interests, or wills that creates the plot.

Types of Conflict

• Dramatic conflict is the protagonist’s struggle against something or someone.
• man vs man.
• man vs environment
• man vs system
• man against self

-variations of conflict can arise from gender, age, religon and culture.

Causes and Effects of Conflict

• conflict arises when there is change.
• changes may be major or minor

MAJOR                                         MINIOR

1. death                           1.  looks
2. divorce                        2.  schedules
3. loss of job                   3.  move house
4. school results

• while change is universal and common, it is not always accepted.
• examples of changes: ~seasons, lives, relationships, feelings, bodies, locations, technologies.
• conflict arises when people resist changes
• the intensity of conflict depends how people react to the change.
• people must learn to cope with change if they want to survive.
• the action in drama depends on conflict.

Importance of Conflict

• plot cannot be constructed without conflict
• central feature of the screenplay
• as your character attempt to reach their goals, they come into conflict with each other.
• the end of the story nears when the protagonist and antagonist approach their goals and the conflict rises to generate maximum suspense and exitement.

THE CALL HOME.

directed by, Han Yew Kwang

written by, K.S.A Shah, Raj.A.Pillai, Subra V.S, Rachel B.Kaur, Han Yen Kwang

2001, Singapore, 31:00

THE SECRET HEAVEN

written and directed by: Sun Koh

Singapore, 2002, 16:00

Writing for an audience

• Screenwriter=storyteller

~the cinematic experience is not just made up of text on paper, but the audiences’ emotional reaction to that information.

DIRECTOR TO PEOPLE     WRITER TO PEOPLE

PEOPLE TO PEOPLE.

To connect the audiences:

• themselves
• their unique vision
• the material/issue
• the drama
• others

Audiences want to be transported by a screenplay.

Where do you look for a story?

Within yourself eg. experience, memories, emotions.

Practice observing, ‘listening’ and reading body language of people.

Fiigure how to connect your viewers to your story through emotion, characters, etc.

Assignments

5 stories of exactly 50 words each, posted to your blog.

(word count is needed)

Proper writting format.

• present tense.

• 3rd person view

• a visual voice

The 3rd person/Present tense.

~a character is “narrating” the story as it is happening.

Commonly used

~Screenplays.

• The story/film unfolds as we read it.

• a more urgent and immediate feel to the story.

~Thriller and Suspense Genres

~passive v.s acive voice

passive voice

• uses weak verbs
• tells whats happening in the character’s head
• create a distance between the reader from the story

~active voice

• uses strong action verbs.
• shows the action
• uses an immediate sentence structure.
• conveys the story in a lively manner

Tips for writing

• everyone has no problems coming up with a list of excuses for procrastination.
• the biggest problem is getting started.
• get starded is the hardest. one begin.. ideas will eventually flow.
• begin with a short description of the story.
• when you have a writer’s block, take a break, find inspiration then continue until you derive solution.
• all writer sleep better when they solve the problem in their stories. sleeping on the (writing) job is a no-no.
• dont be too hard on yourself, what you write at the beginning is seldom good but eventually..

EXERCISE 1A. OPENER.

• begin with this opener.

Leonard walks towards the box……….

~ask yourself.

• whose story am i telling?
• what is the point of this story
• how can i engage the attention of the audience?

Story Comment

• its credibility
• passages drawn from reality or experience
• passages created artificially to keep the narrative flows.

~write 12 opening phrases in your blogs under te openers page.