“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”

– Brandon Sanderson fantasy and science fiction writer 

 

There are so many questions and thoughts to ponder on at the conclusion of the first two weeks of Semester One 2018.

Through the constructive classes in ‘Picture This’, my peers and I have thought upon many aspects of the screenwriting process and more deeply the story itself.

Recently I purchased a book called ‘Story’ written by renown creative writing instructor, screenwriting lecturer and award winning author Robern McKee.  The book outlines clearly how vital having a strong story is to the entire outcome of the screenplay and the potential film that follows. Throughout the many constructive thoughts discussed through the book, McKee mentions the importance of the writer and how they can use their craft to shape the story for the right intended effects. He mentions that when talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: “they’re moved by a desire to touch the audience. They are focused on the audiences desires, their vision needs to be expressed through their writing.”

The importance to express your vision through your writing can’t be underestimated, through this unique studio I want to learn all of the tools, skills, techniques, history and screenwriting formulas I can adopt into my own writing to bring my vision to life and touch the audience.

I looked closely at the screenplay of ‘Toy Story’ 1995 by Pixar – a tale about Toys at the surface but a strong moral story of the importance of friendship, accepting change, discovering your true identity and the struggles of jealousy. It is a film that changed the film industry being the first computer animated film and Disney Pixar’s first film that inspired an epic run of original animated pixar movies. Toy Story is certainly a film that strongly reached out to me as a kid growing up in the 2000s, a story which easy to connect with but a story which is an emotional rollercoaster the whole way through.

However one of the most pleasing things with Picture This, is being able to engage with previously written screenplays and be critical about the way in which they’ve been written.

Critically viewing the Toy Story screenplay: the character description within the opening sequence of Toy Story in the screenplay is very minimal, it only mentions the the age of the human characters, not interested in characters physical attributes, whereas other screenplays which aren’t animated do provide greater detail in characters facial features, mise-en scene, physical attributes and even a small background on the character’s history to give greater context to a scene.

Perhaps these important missing details were left to the animators entirely but if a director is reading this screenplay, how will they able to accurately detail a scene where the detail is lacking? It leaves a lot up to the imagination of the filmmakers but although this creative freedom may seem encouraging it could leave a lot of plot holes for the audience and many unnecessary questions to be answered across the duration of the film. 

This critical thinking has allowed me already in the first week to begin thinking how I represent through my writing the detail that will appear on screen. It has made me think through looking at screenplays who go entirely to the other extreme with overbearing detail, what the correct amount of description is. Enough details to create and layer a scene and progress a story but enough creative freedom to put the filmmakers own unique image on a story.

Michael Serpell