Week I

In the first week we had a lecture under the topic of film narratives. We discussed what it is that makes a good cinematic narrative. A number of examples were given, from a primarily one film story 'Jaws' and then to the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy where one narrative spans multiple films. It was discussed that most successful films are based upon simple ideas, and so it is my intention to apply this thinking to my own film project.

A particularly noteworthy part of the lecture was learning of the three act structure. It is a structure that can be applied to almost all forms of narratives, especially with films. The structure is broken into three acts which are:
Act 1 - Equilibrium
Act 2 - Dis-equilibrium 
Act 3 - Re-equilibrium
In act 1 everything is is as its usual self, presumably how the narrative was before the audience view the film. Act 2 is the disruption, it is the reason for watching the film, the conflict. During this act something happens to disturb the equilibrium, usually in a negative way. Act 3, the final act, is the return to equilibrium, the conflict is solved and order is brought back. This is usually after some form of final confrontation with the villain, with the hero winning. This three act structure will prove to be very useful when I am to write my own narrative for my upcoming film project.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week IV

Week 4 I sat down with a member of my group, and we began script writing. As we were writing the script was more like a screenplay, so we decided to write a screenplay first and then turn it into a script later. With this method, we are taking a more narrative approach to begin with, and then can consider the technical details later, which turned out to be much easier. We started writing the screenplay with a rough idea of the story, but we only had one character so far, and lacked any real depth. However, we knew the beginning and ending, and so were simply writing Act 2 (when considering the three act structure). We went through a number of ideas, spending a few hours getting the screenplay completed.
Read more

Week IX

This week we were adamant to start filming. I had contacted our film projects protagonist and had been assured he would show. However, once my group arrived ready to film, the 'janitor' of our film did not show, and was impossible to get a hold of. My group and I have decided this member has one more week, or else we will replace him.
Read more

Week V

With a completed screenplay it was time to turn it into script form. This was my first time scripting, so I was learning how to do it as I went along. I learnt the correct way to indent, line spaces, font, specifying location, and writing dialogue. I completed the script this week, however, it can only be considered the first draft because the rest of my group have not seen it yet.
Read more