SOOO, we’ve ventured on this journey of attempting to explain the foundational basis of scriptwriting, which much to my liking, I’ve found both interesting and surprisingly doable.  Reading Kathryn Millard’s ‘ Writing for the screen: beyond the gospel of story’ I began to grasp a concept I’ve never truly understood the basis behind: that is the identifier of a ‘good’ story. Millard speaks of script guru Robert McKee, who, in his instruction manual ‘Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting’ (1997), defines it as one in which “structure, character,genre and idea meld seamlessly”. There are moments I experience during the viewing of a film which are jarring; it seems as though the character is somewhat removed from the fictional world which defines their reality. Mckee’s words have allowed me a somewhat more attuned perspective, not only to the salience of creating a complete character, but one who naturally corresponds within this fabricated reality. Don’t get me wrong however, I am focusing my concept around the ‘classical story design’ and not as a universal definition of the character’s role in their world as art cinema tends to focus on questioning our reality and as such, our belonging to that reality.  Millard often quotes McKee who speaks of the ‘classical story design’ , which centers around the protagonist motivated to achieve a goal despite obstacles formed by the reality in which  they exist and the antagonist. This design, as Mckee suggests, occurs in “continuous time”(pp. 45) and a “consistent reality”(pp.45)  for which an absolute ending provides closure. I found I supported Mckee’s suggestion that such a story design is both timeless and trans-cultural. Along with multiple other reasons, I believe the popularity of this design is in its satisfactory endings. It seems I can generalize on behalf of the multitudes as films such as the ‘ boy meets girl, boy falls in love, boy can’t get girl yet ultimately becomes united with her’ satisfy a personal desire for the protagonist to achieve their goals. The reason we support the protagonist is because of an association we form with them, thus vicariously living through the character and experiencing their predicaments with them.

Before committing to this reading I had naturally assumed that the script writing process existed alone within the constraints of pre-production. However my somewhat narrow minded preconceptions of scriptwriting were challenged by the scripting methods of director Wong Ka Wai who speaks of the script creation as part of the production process itself. He speaks of a script as simply foundations which are formulated into a complete script on set. Similarly, Milliard claims that one cannot write all their images on paper. I too agree with the fact that sometimes paper cannot reveal the creativity of an idea, nor can it always produce creativity in itself. Sometimes one must create the basics of the story and, once on a set, be inspired by the visual and sound possibilities that are, to me, as much a part of the film as the narrative itself. Wai plays music on his sets as opposed to delivering a script to his collaborative team. Consequently, the script is developed with inspiration manifesting from the music. I personally think this is a beautiful thing: when a scene has potential for both a rhythmic and poetic quality as a result of story inspiration from music.