“The Structure of Narrative: the Case of Film Scripts”
We analyze the style and structure of story narrative using the case of film scripts. The practical importance of this is noted, especially the need to have support tools for television movie writing. We use the Casablanca film script, and scripts from six episodes of CSI (Crime Scene Investigation). For analysis of style and structure, we quantify various central perspectives discussed in McKee’s book, “Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting”. Film scripts offer a useful point of departure for exploration of the analysis of more general narratives. Our methodology, using Correspondence Analysis, and hierarchical clustering, is innovative in a range of areas that we discuss. In particular this work is groundbreaking in taking the qualitative analysis of McKee and grounding this analysis in a quantitative and algorithmic framework.
november 19, 2007 – 19:57
Tydligen har jag tidigare helt glömt bort att länka till min favoritguide när det gäller formatering av filmmanus. Hos AMPAS Nicholl Fellowships finns en del påpekanden samt ett manusexempel vilket fungerar som en slags pseudo-interaktiv guide till det idag gängse formatet.
Mer om filmmanus på bloggen hittar du här.
Spider-Man producenten och Marvels ägare Avi Arad om att skriva actionfilmer nu för tiden:
The writers look to use CGI in ways that they previously couldn’t even conceive of. The movie needs five to 10 trailer moments, and those trailer moments better contain some magic. It’s hard to break through the clutter these days.
november 13, 2006 – 11:42
I går läste jag igenom en intervju med Aaron Sorkin och fann följande mycket Hitchcockianska inställning som jag inte kan annat än instämma i:
SORKIN: When you say character development, I don’t know what you mean. I feel like you’re talking about, do I grow their hair longer?
ON WRITING: I guess in terms of how well you have to know them. For instance, when you do a movie or a play, do you have to now those guys inside out to be able to write about them?
SORKIN: There is no inside out. You have to remember that the properties of characters and the properties of people are two entirely different things. You and I both had experiences when we were six years old that are still somehow affecting us now. A character like Bartlet, or Josh, Toby or Sam in The West Wing was never six years old. They were born at the age that they were in the pilot. They were never six years old, unless I am telling a story that involves something that happened to them when they were six. Now they’re six years old. But people who talk about, ”I want to know what this character had for breakfast last week before I can play the scene,” I respect what they’re doing, I don’t understand it. The character didn’t have breakfast a week ago. Characters don’t have breakfast — people do.
(On Writing, februari 2003, vol. 18, WGA East.)
Följande publicerades ursprungligen på IndiPage.com 1996. Artikeln är lätt redigerad, diagrammet nyritat och det föråldrade stycket om programvara borttaget. I övrigt är texten återgivet precis som för tio år sedan.
Läs hela artikeln
Precis när jag själv är i färd med att leta fram och posta mina gamla IndiPage artiklar pingar Fredrik Lindqvist mig via ett email att han bloggar sin nya bok att skriva filmmanus för att testa material på sina läsare.
Medan den alltid lika karismatiskt uppretade Martin Munthe har bläddrat igenom Akademibokhandels filmbokhylla som visade sig vara en stor besvikelse. Inte hyllan i sig. Utan situationen på filmboksfronten: intet nytt.
Min egen introduktion i ämnet återfinns här.