lesson 1

• Creative Media
• Higher Education (degree)

What's your favourite film and why?

Who are the writers, directors, editors, cinematographers, producers in the class? Not sure, just say so.

What is film/cinema? 

"You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul." - George Bernard Shaw

Think of yourself as filmmaker.

Start thinking like a filmmaker. Make it a habit.

What does a film director do?

"What a film director really directs is his audience's attention," Alexander Mackendrick

Always ask, how is it going to land with the audience?

If you can orchestrate an emotional experience for the audience, they’ll love you for it.

Let's watch a film. 

Do you think the film orchestrated an emotional experience for the audience (ie you)? And how?

Writing scripts are easy. 

Let’s look at one and then read it aloud.

I'll need two volunteers.

Three act structure - can anybody tell me what it is?

Three act structure is...

Beginning, middle & end.

Act 1. Setup

Act 2. Confrontation

Act 3. Resolution

Inciting Incident

The inciting incident is an event that sets the hero on the journey that will occupy them throughout the narrative.

Confrontation

 is a clash between two opposing forces that creates the narrative thread for a story.

Conflict occurs when the main character struggles with either an external conflict or an internal conflict. 

Gordie's internal conflict is his struggle to make sense of his grief after the loss of his beloved older brother.

Resolution

...is the end of the story.

Important!!!

Aristotle in his Poetics, the best endings are both "surprising, yet inevitable".

Now it’s your turn…

 

You will create a three-minute short film synopsis with a beginning, middle and end.

It will have an inciting incident, confrontation (exterior & interior) and resolution.