Assignment 2 Part I: Audiovisual Storytelling Explorations
“Screenplays should be experienced […] as a form of cinema itself” whereby “both, although via opposite polarities, are audio-visual (the screenplay cueing the images and sounds in our mind)”
- Dzialo 2009, p. 109
Mckee philosophises that screenplays “must contain all the substance of literature but not be literary” (1999, p. 394) and that screenwriters simply describe “the sensation of looking at the screen” (1999, p.395). In a practical sense this is true, but not in a magical sense, which is what audiovisual storytelling is made of.
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I agree with Mckee in that to present credible ideas to a reader, we need to advertently convey the screen – cuts and fades and musical cues don’t just happen without direction. The audiovisual story is deliberately and delicately crafted. However as much as this allows us control in the form, a part of me also sees it as limitation to imagination… I disagree with Mckee in that for a film or scene to feel credible to a reader, the reader must not need to focus or rely on the notion of the screen’s cues, instead action should be described to justify mood/emotional themes. Sternberg argues that linguistic tools like metaphor are more telling than action descriptions as screenwriters can “substantiate moods and emotions”. (Sternberg, 1997, p. 87). (More on this in the Assignment 2 Part III blog).
An exploration of audiovisual storytelling a la screenplay I’m certain on, is the importance of ‘the present’. According to Mckee, “the ontology of the screen is an absolute present tense in constant vivid movement” (1999, pp. 395). In other words, the pertinence of the present is what breathes life into screenplays. Only from the present can audiovisual cues can be moulded into the reader’s mind. Otherwise a screenplay would probably just appear as a novel.
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Voice is then the next important element explored to enunciate audiovisual storytelling. According to Ingelstorm, a narrative does not necessarily only consist of one intratextual narrating voice, but can contain multiple narrating voices. (Ingelstrom, 2014, p. 33). The types of fictional voices can be defined through how much the reader knows about them. (Ingelstrom, 2014, p. 34). This is highly important for communicating with the reader, especially for an audiovisual sequence.
The extrafictional voice can be identified as conveying information that is concerned with the extrafictional real world and thereby addressing the intended reader directly. (Ingelstrom, 2014, p. 35). In other words, the extrafictional voice lives inside the text but outside the story’s fiction. Ingelstrom philosophises that this voice “most directly conveys the thoughts and directions of the screenwriter, and can therefore be regarded as the representation of the writer within the text.” (Ingelstrom, 2014, p. 35). We-formulations are a type of impersonal fiction voice that “provide a way to direct the reader’s visualisation as well as direct, or at least indicate, the reader’s emotional response”. (Ingelstrom, 2014, p. 40)
From identifying the extrafictional (and also fictional) voice in the screenplay Rabbit Hole (2010, Lindsay-Abaire), I have experienced just how voices convey audio-visual cues. When analysing already produced works I learn of new possibilities for my own audiovisual stories.
The Rabbit Hole screenplay overall resonates with the ‘show don’t tell’ visual storytelling notion. This is evidenced in the way it explains character’s histories by showing and not telling:
- (Lindsay-Abaire, 2010, p. 3)
The highlighted line line here is perhaps superfluous, as the dialogue and scene text communicate their fake eagerness vibe.
The impersonal fiction voice is seen through the we-formulation a couple times:
- (Lindsay-Abaire, 2010, p. 1)
This also is an efficient and effective description of world/setting e.g. upscale community which anticipates our visualisation of unseen characters. (re. the first paragraph only ^)
This is my favourite example of audiovisual storytelling from the screenplay (told in fictional voice):
- (Lindsay-Abaire, 2010, p. 3)
I hear the murmured running water and laughing, and can see the frames/camera shots in my mind.
REFERENCES:
Dzialo, C 2009, ‘“Frustrated Time” narration: the screenplays of Charlie Kaufman’, in W Buckland (ed.), Puzzle films: complex storytelling in contemporary cinema, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 107-28.
Ingelstrom, A 2014, ‘Narrating voices in the screenplay text: how the writer can direct the reader’s visual of the potential film’, in Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context, Craig Betty (ed.) Palgrave Macmillan, Baringstoke, New York, pp. 31-45.
Mckee, R 1999, ‘The Text’, in STORY: Substance, structure, style, and the principles of screenwriting, Harper Collins, London, pp. 394-400.
Rabbit Hole 2010, David Lindsay-Abaire, viewed March 22.