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Monday, 18 May 2015
Saturday, 16 May 2015
Week 13: Classical Narrative
So I've emailed out the slides from today's class. What follows are a few other links to pursue around this issue of narrative conventions.
For Monday's class, we looked at a film by this director. His interviews with Francois Truffaut are available online, and great listening if you're interested in this man's work.
Resources
There are some who say that no one's thought better about the why's of drama than Aristotle. Fear not, his thoughts aren't exclusively carved in Ancient Greek on the columns of the Parthenon, they are very freely available. (If you do find the unity of time and the unity of place in there, let me know -- I can only find the unity of action.)
More recent books. For a regular, highly-opinionated take on the ways of being a screenwriter, the Script Notes podcast is essential listening. (When I think of what some gurus charge for screenwriting advice, the wealth of material these guys give away amazes me.)
For a take on Hollywood storytelling with a strong sense of narrative design and filmmaking technique, David Bordwell (see his blog also) is the critic to go to. The Way Hollywood Tells It is the key book, and if I'm not mistaken, there should be a free chapter of it available online here.
The thing Bordwell gets right is that it's very hard to separate 'pure narrative' from the way you frame it, the way you express it through music, through performance. In the end, the story is told through sounds and images. The form has to express the content.
Which is why another book is well worth going through at some point in your filmmaking life. (The earlier the better.) Cherry Potter's Image, Sound and Story jumped out at me one day in a second hand book store, and is valuable for the same reason as Bordwell's.
The Gurus
You should be aware of some of the other writers in this area, and I've learned a lot from them all. Look at one or two of these books - you don't need them all. If they come to town and give a seminar for $400 a person, keep in mind that much of what they say will probably be in their book, often available for $20-$30. The book might require a bit more initiative on the reader's part, but you'll have saved a lot.
Firstly, there's John Truby, who wrote The Anatomy of Story. This is his website. He puts a lot of emphasis on developing the web of oppositions, the designing principle and the scene weave that will express your theme. In the end, he comes back in the end to '7 basic structure steps' that appear in all narratives. Some of his audio lectures on genres alerted me to quite a few things I didn't know I knew.
(Maybe there's something in that -- this stuff shouldn't fight your intuition. You're figuring out how to tell stories after a lifetime of being on the receiving end. Pennies should drop if these authors have cottoned onto genuine truths.)
John Yorke's book Into the Wood: A Five Act Journey into Story felt like one of the strongest of these when I surveyed the field back in 2013. Accessibly written by a working writer, and a tendency to go beyond the 'whats' and entertain the 'whys' of storytelling.
The original 'three act' man was Syd Field. His 1979 book Screenwriting first presented that three act convention that is discussed so casually by script editors and screenwriters alike to this day.
There are others: Christopher Vogler (particularly if the name Joseph Campbell means something to you), Robert McKee, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge, Linda Aronson. Many working writers are profoundly skeptical about what these gurus have to offer. My own attitude is if it's the way you discover aspects of the craft, and it doesn't cost more than it should (the cost of a book or two), there's nothing really wrong with it. (Just don't dogmatic about it - use what works.)
I can't speak for Blake Snyder (Save the Cat), or any of the others. There are too many books in this area given the common ground between them.
Addendum
Look, it's got nothing to do with classical narrative -- really, nothing at all -- but I was struck again by the array of beautiful images this director and his teams have given us.
For Monday's class, we looked at a film by this director. His interviews with Francois Truffaut are available online, and great listening if you're interested in this man's work.
Resources
There are some who say that no one's thought better about the why's of drama than Aristotle. Fear not, his thoughts aren't exclusively carved in Ancient Greek on the columns of the Parthenon, they are very freely available. (If you do find the unity of time and the unity of place in there, let me know -- I can only find the unity of action.)
More recent books. For a regular, highly-opinionated take on the ways of being a screenwriter, the Script Notes podcast is essential listening. (When I think of what some gurus charge for screenwriting advice, the wealth of material these guys give away amazes me.)
For a take on Hollywood storytelling with a strong sense of narrative design and filmmaking technique, David Bordwell (see his blog also) is the critic to go to. The Way Hollywood Tells It is the key book, and if I'm not mistaken, there should be a free chapter of it available online here.
The thing Bordwell gets right is that it's very hard to separate 'pure narrative' from the way you frame it, the way you express it through music, through performance. In the end, the story is told through sounds and images. The form has to express the content.
Which is why another book is well worth going through at some point in your filmmaking life. (The earlier the better.) Cherry Potter's Image, Sound and Story jumped out at me one day in a second hand book store, and is valuable for the same reason as Bordwell's.
The Gurus
You should be aware of some of the other writers in this area, and I've learned a lot from them all. Look at one or two of these books - you don't need them all. If they come to town and give a seminar for $400 a person, keep in mind that much of what they say will probably be in their book, often available for $20-$30. The book might require a bit more initiative on the reader's part, but you'll have saved a lot.
Firstly, there's John Truby, who wrote The Anatomy of Story. This is his website. He puts a lot of emphasis on developing the web of oppositions, the designing principle and the scene weave that will express your theme. In the end, he comes back in the end to '7 basic structure steps' that appear in all narratives. Some of his audio lectures on genres alerted me to quite a few things I didn't know I knew.
(Maybe there's something in that -- this stuff shouldn't fight your intuition. You're figuring out how to tell stories after a lifetime of being on the receiving end. Pennies should drop if these authors have cottoned onto genuine truths.)
John Yorke's book Into the Wood: A Five Act Journey into Story felt like one of the strongest of these when I surveyed the field back in 2013. Accessibly written by a working writer, and a tendency to go beyond the 'whats' and entertain the 'whys' of storytelling.
The original 'three act' man was Syd Field. His 1979 book Screenwriting first presented that three act convention that is discussed so casually by script editors and screenwriters alike to this day.
There are others: Christopher Vogler (particularly if the name Joseph Campbell means something to you), Robert McKee, Linda Seger, Michael Hauge, Linda Aronson. Many working writers are profoundly skeptical about what these gurus have to offer. My own attitude is if it's the way you discover aspects of the craft, and it doesn't cost more than it should (the cost of a book or two), there's nothing really wrong with it. (Just don't dogmatic about it - use what works.)
I can't speak for Blake Snyder (Save the Cat), or any of the others. There are too many books in this area given the common ground between them.
Addendum
Look, it's got nothing to do with classical narrative -- really, nothing at all -- but I was struck again by the array of beautiful images this director and his teams have given us.
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Scene Analyses (Task 4)
As you're thinking about how to approach Task 4, the proliferation of video essays in the last few years provides a lot of examples of ways to take apart a scene. (Note: there are a lot of text essays around -- I'm just focusing on video essays below as they allow you to see what the author is discussing while they're discussing it.)
From 1848 Media, an extensive piece on one of the beach set pieces of Jaws. (Note how many of the techniques we saw in Schindler's List's nightclub sequence are active here.)
A recent video essay on exposition in the opening sequence of Fincher's Se7en.
From Antonios Papantoniou, wordless shot-by-shot analyses of The Untouchables (I showed part of this in the editing class), Cape Fear and others.
Matt Marlin offers video essays on Whiplash (strong on editing and cinematography in emphasis), Boogie Nights (very good on sound) and others.
A strong dissection of the influences of Inception and its status as 'surrealist'.
Tony Zhou, Jacob Swinney and Kogonada tend to be more about aesthetic arcs or visual motifs across a whole film or many films than specific scene breakdowns, but they're a good model to look at as well. The latter's 'What is neorealism?' must be one of the most valuable video essays yet produced.
From Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey through American Cinema: 'The Smugglers' (those who snuck subversive ideas into mainstream entertainment); The Western (a genre study).
Turning the camera on Scorsese, here's Mark Cousins' Scene by Scene (a TV series from the mid-90s). Cousins is also the director of the majestic Story of Film series and A Story of Children and Film.
Also consider these: Pulp Fiction (breakfast scene, Nicolas Eason), Psycho (opening, Max Cannon), Citizen Kane (specifically the blocking, Mind on Film), Raising Arizona (IB Film II), No Country for Old Men (Landrey Lemons) and the ending of the same film (Rolling Bottle).
From 1848 Media, an extensive piece on one of the beach set pieces of Jaws. (Note how many of the techniques we saw in Schindler's List's nightclub sequence are active here.)
A recent video essay on exposition in the opening sequence of Fincher's Se7en.
From Antonios Papantoniou, wordless shot-by-shot analyses of The Untouchables (I showed part of this in the editing class), Cape Fear and others.
Matt Marlin offers video essays on Whiplash (strong on editing and cinematography in emphasis), Boogie Nights (very good on sound) and others.
A strong dissection of the influences of Inception and its status as 'surrealist'.
Tony Zhou, Jacob Swinney and Kogonada tend to be more about aesthetic arcs or visual motifs across a whole film or many films than specific scene breakdowns, but they're a good model to look at as well. The latter's 'What is neorealism?' must be one of the most valuable video essays yet produced.
From Martin Scorsese's Personal Journey through American Cinema: 'The Smugglers' (those who snuck subversive ideas into mainstream entertainment); The Western (a genre study).
Turning the camera on Scorsese, here's Mark Cousins' Scene by Scene (a TV series from the mid-90s). Cousins is also the director of the majestic Story of Film series and A Story of Children and Film.
Also consider these: Pulp Fiction (breakfast scene, Nicolas Eason), Psycho (opening, Max Cannon), Citizen Kane (specifically the blocking, Mind on Film), Raising Arizona (IB Film II), No Country for Old Men (Landrey Lemons) and the ending of the same film (Rolling Bottle).
Saturday, 9 May 2015
Week 12: Task 3 (Scene Analysis) and Task 4 (Research Case Study)
Today we outlined the two remaining tasks for Story through Sound and Image. Here are the slides for today's class.
Task 3 - Research Essay (individual work; due week 15, week 16 at the latest)
We sent you a long email describing how the research process was meant to work for this. Along with it went another soft copy of the subject outline (correcting some date errors in the original), and some attachments, including a list of films we suggest focusing the assignment on, a suggested reading list, and a couple of previous successful essays.
One resource to consider: Cinephilia and Beyond
Let me know what films you are interested in covering next week.
Task 4 - Scene Breakdown (group presentation; presented in week 16 or week 17)
In each class - week 12 - week 15 - I'll be taking scenes (usually out of the films we've been watching), and providing analyses of them, as examples for what you want to be looking at. Today we focused on the opening scenes of Schindler's List. On that note, if you want a closer look at Steve Zaillian's screenplay for Schindler's List, click here.
Task 3 - Research Essay (individual work; due week 15, week 16 at the latest)
We sent you a long email describing how the research process was meant to work for this. Along with it went another soft copy of the subject outline (correcting some date errors in the original), and some attachments, including a list of films we suggest focusing the assignment on, a suggested reading list, and a couple of previous successful essays.
One resource to consider: Cinephilia and Beyond
Let me know what films you are interested in covering next week.
Task 4 - Scene Breakdown (group presentation; presented in week 16 or week 17)
In each class - week 12 - week 15 - I'll be taking scenes (usually out of the films we've been watching), and providing analyses of them, as examples for what you want to be looking at. Today we focused on the opening scenes of Schindler's List. On that note, if you want a closer look at Steve Zaillian's screenplay for Schindler's List, click here.
Saturday, 2 May 2015
The Music Class
Welcome back from your shooting period. Probably the one thing you don't want to think about now is what the camera needs now, so this week's subject is about as far away as could be: music in film. We talk about the different types of music, some of the practical issues around the process, and how we can make use of this powerful tool as storytellers.
Perhaps the best way to measure what music can do is to take it away. What would Star Wars be? Or Goodfellas for that matter? (So much for it being all about that steadicam shot.) Or poor Britney? Film music is a nuclear weapon. (Sometimes those win wars.)
Another way of measuring what an underscore can do is to look at what other music might have contributed in the place of something we know well. This reconstruction of how Alex North's rejected score for 2001: A Space Odyssey might have been intended to work is worth seeing for this reason. (Film scores are the one aspect of the filmmaking process where rejection of work is reasonably common. Some high profile rejected scores include The Exorcist, Mission: Impossible, Troy, King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean, Drive - reasonably common in other words.)
Other online resources:
- Andrew Ford's series The Sound of Pictures contains a lot of gold. Interviews with director Peter Weir, the maestro of maestros Ennio Morricone, and others (find links through those) can be listened to online, but are also available as transcripts in Ford's excellent (entry level) book.
- Composer roundtable from The Hollywood Reporter's annual series: 2015, 2014 and 2013.
- Film Music Notes - This site's annual series on the Oscar nominees for Best Score goes beyond gushing and gets into the thematic mechanics of the scores. Great work.
- Few working composers get the sort of time you'd need to explain your creative decisions in detail to a lay audience. Somehow Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, Constantine) finds the time.
- Coffee table books tend not to be the cheapest way to get to know an art form. Matt Zoller Seitz has put out a couple of books on Wes Anderson's films, and the latest on Grand Budapest Hotel contains an interview with Alexandre Desplat that amply illustrates why he is the film composer par excellence of our time. If you don't want to buy that book, look at this piece on Imitation Game instead.
- Speaking of Desplat, his cues are beautifully intricate. This deconstruction of the Imitation Game main title should open your ears if all you hear when you listen to scores is 'songs without lyrics'.
- From another age of the internet (2006 HTML!), Film Music on the Web. I only mention it because I was its last editor, writing many of the gushing-yet-critical reviews that dotted its front page.
Scenes considered in Monday, 10am: Trois Coleurs: Bleu, Shanghai Triad, Once, The Great Gatsby, Gravity, Octopussy, Planet Earth (Otters), 2001: A Space Odyssey, 'Duck Dodgers and the 24 and a half century', Infernal Affairs, Girl on the Bridge, The Leftovers, Masters of Sex.
Scenes considered in Tuesday, 10am: Trois Coleurs: Bleu, Shanghai Triad, Les Intouchables, Gravity, Planet Earth (Otters), 2001: A Space Odyssey, 'Duck Dodgers and the 24 and a half century', Star Wars, The Leftovers.
Perhaps the best way to measure what music can do is to take it away. What would Star Wars be? Or Goodfellas for that matter? (So much for it being all about that steadicam shot.) Or poor Britney? Film music is a nuclear weapon. (Sometimes those win wars.)
Another way of measuring what an underscore can do is to look at what other music might have contributed in the place of something we know well. This reconstruction of how Alex North's rejected score for 2001: A Space Odyssey might have been intended to work is worth seeing for this reason. (Film scores are the one aspect of the filmmaking process where rejection of work is reasonably common. Some high profile rejected scores include The Exorcist, Mission: Impossible, Troy, King Kong, Pirates of the Caribbean, Drive - reasonably common in other words.)
- Andrew Ford's series The Sound of Pictures contains a lot of gold. Interviews with director Peter Weir, the maestro of maestros Ennio Morricone, and others (find links through those) can be listened to online, but are also available as transcripts in Ford's excellent (entry level) book.
- Composer roundtable from The Hollywood Reporter's annual series: 2015, 2014 and 2013.
- Film Music Notes - This site's annual series on the Oscar nominees for Best Score goes beyond gushing and gets into the thematic mechanics of the scores. Great work.
- Few working composers get the sort of time you'd need to explain your creative decisions in detail to a lay audience. Somehow Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica, Outlander, Constantine) finds the time.
- Coffee table books tend not to be the cheapest way to get to know an art form. Matt Zoller Seitz has put out a couple of books on Wes Anderson's films, and the latest on Grand Budapest Hotel contains an interview with Alexandre Desplat that amply illustrates why he is the film composer par excellence of our time. If you don't want to buy that book, look at this piece on Imitation Game instead.
- Speaking of Desplat, his cues are beautifully intricate. This deconstruction of the Imitation Game main title should open your ears if all you hear when you listen to scores is 'songs without lyrics'.
- From another age of the internet (2006 HTML!), Film Music on the Web. I only mention it because I was its last editor, writing many of the gushing-yet-critical reviews that dotted its front page.
Scenes considered in Monday, 10am: Trois Coleurs: Bleu, Shanghai Triad, Once, The Great Gatsby, Gravity, Octopussy, Planet Earth (Otters), 2001: A Space Odyssey, 'Duck Dodgers and the 24 and a half century', Infernal Affairs, Girl on the Bridge, The Leftovers, Masters of Sex.
Scenes considered in Tuesday, 10am: Trois Coleurs: Bleu, Shanghai Triad, Les Intouchables, Gravity, Planet Earth (Otters), 2001: A Space Odyssey, 'Duck Dodgers and the 24 and a half century', Star Wars, The Leftovers.
Monday, 6 April 2015
Class 7: The Soundtrack
I will fill in this entry a bit later in the week with some links and observations.
Filmsound.org is a website that gave me hours of fun when I first found it.
Andrew Ford's book The Sound of Pictures offers a nice window for listening to the music and (to a slightly lesser extent) the sound of films. One of the highlights is the interviews with filmmakers and composers he conducted for the text. His interview with the late Rodney Holland can be listened to at ABC Online.
The sounds of Tarantino's films.
Films shown in class: Gunshots (Collateral, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Great Gatsby, Infernal Affairs, Miami Vice, Godfather), Footsteps (Tracks, Mon Oncle, Looney Tunes, Blue is the Warmest Color, Manhunter), Atmospheres (Ran, Shanghai Triad), Voices (What Maisie Knew, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The Grey, House of Cards, Enduring Love), 'Truckstop' from 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Filmsound.org is a website that gave me hours of fun when I first found it.
Andrew Ford's book The Sound of Pictures offers a nice window for listening to the music and (to a slightly lesser extent) the sound of films. One of the highlights is the interviews with filmmakers and composers he conducted for the text. His interview with the late Rodney Holland can be listened to at ABC Online.
The sounds of Tarantino's films.
Films shown in class: Gunshots (Collateral, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Great Gatsby, Infernal Affairs, Miami Vice, Godfather), Footsteps (Tracks, Mon Oncle, Looney Tunes, Blue is the Warmest Color, Manhunter), Atmospheres (Ran, Shanghai Triad), Voices (What Maisie Knew, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, The Grey, House of Cards, Enduring Love), 'Truckstop' from 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould.
Friday, 27 March 2015
Class 6: Movement and Editing
Notes for this week's class are bundled together with the notes for week 5 & week 7 here.
Movement
Tony Zhou showcases the role of different types of movement in the films of Akira Kurosawa. He makes a good point that movement tends to draw the eye more than any other anomaly in an image. He also provides a list of types of movements that can play a part in shots: (i) movement of nature; (ii) movement of groups (of people); (iii) movement of individuals (characters); (iv) movement of the camera (the one we focused on today); (v) movement of the cut (matching and contrasting movements).
A recent article on the balance between shot rhythm and cutting in Birdman, famed for its smooth, long-take photography. (See the section halfway down on Technique.)
Screen Direction
Another Tony Zhou piece, this time showing a recent sterling example of screen direction from Bong Joon-Ho's graphic novel adaptation Snowpiercer.
Editing
For more on Walter Murch: 6 principles.
Murch's books In the Blink of an Eye and The Conversations (actually Michael Ondaatje's book) are essential reading for aspiring editors.
This vimeo contributor provides solid, detailed expositions of the shot-by-shot rhythms of key film sequences. Here he tackles a sequence that tipped the hat to Sergei Eisenstein's 'Odessa Steps' scene, The Untouchables' train station shootout.
Much of this analysis of a critical sequence in Jaws brings it down to editing rhythm.
A recent article on editing Grand Budapest Hotel.
Intensified continuity editing is compared here to the older continuity editing system using two versions of the same story, both adapted by Hollywood. (The 'IC' idea is Bordwell's really, which is why so many of the links in this post are to his articles.)
Eye Trace
A thoughtful contribution of the path of the eye and how we can motivate those eyes towards different things. (Note in particular how viewers asking different questions see different details first.)
Films Covered in Week 6
Monday class: Ran, Solaris, Mic-macs, The Horse Whisperer, The Red Balloon, The 400 Blows, Shanhai Triad, The Godfather, Tree of Life, Remains of the Day, All the President's Men, Pride and Prejudice, Once Upon a Time in the West, F for Fake, Red Road, Colombiana, 2046, Undertow (nail in foot), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Untouchables, Walkabout, Trois Coleurs: Bleu.
Some others were played on Tuesday: Vertigo, Psycho and Nostalgia. (Note: several of the above weren't played, due to the greater emphasis given to these three.) Also we started with Upstream Color.
Suggested reading (in addition to the above)
- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (chapters on editing)
- Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time
- Pudovkin, Film Technique
- Karen Pearlman, Cutting Rhythms
Movement
Tony Zhou showcases the role of different types of movement in the films of Akira Kurosawa. He makes a good point that movement tends to draw the eye more than any other anomaly in an image. He also provides a list of types of movements that can play a part in shots: (i) movement of nature; (ii) movement of groups (of people); (iii) movement of individuals (characters); (iv) movement of the camera (the one we focused on today); (v) movement of the cut (matching and contrasting movements).
A recent article on the balance between shot rhythm and cutting in Birdman, famed for its smooth, long-take photography. (See the section halfway down on Technique.)
Screen Direction
Another Tony Zhou piece, this time showing a recent sterling example of screen direction from Bong Joon-Ho's graphic novel adaptation Snowpiercer.
Editing
For more on Walter Murch: 6 principles.
Murch's books In the Blink of an Eye and The Conversations (actually Michael Ondaatje's book) are essential reading for aspiring editors.
This vimeo contributor provides solid, detailed expositions of the shot-by-shot rhythms of key film sequences. Here he tackles a sequence that tipped the hat to Sergei Eisenstein's 'Odessa Steps' scene, The Untouchables' train station shootout.
Much of this analysis of a critical sequence in Jaws brings it down to editing rhythm.
A recent article on editing Grand Budapest Hotel.
Eye Trace
A thoughtful contribution of the path of the eye and how we can motivate those eyes towards different things. (Note in particular how viewers asking different questions see different details first.)
Films Covered in Week 6
Monday class: Ran, Solaris, Mic-macs, The Horse Whisperer, The Red Balloon, The 400 Blows, Shanhai Triad, The Godfather, Tree of Life, Remains of the Day, All the President's Men, Pride and Prejudice, Once Upon a Time in the West, F for Fake, Red Road, Colombiana, 2046, Undertow (nail in foot), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Untouchables, Walkabout, Trois Coleurs: Bleu.
Some others were played on Tuesday: Vertigo, Psycho and Nostalgia. (Note: several of the above weren't played, due to the greater emphasis given to these three.) Also we started with Upstream Color.
Suggested reading (in addition to the above)
- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (chapters on editing)
- Andrei Tarkovsky, Sculpting in Time
- Pudovkin, Film Technique
- Karen Pearlman, Cutting Rhythms
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