tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38419392814557173402024-03-07T18:57:13.090-05:00The Moral Premise Blog: Story Structure CraftDiscussion and analysis of screenplays, scripts, and story structure for filmmakers and novelists, based on the blogger's book: "THE MORAL PREMISE: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success".Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger361125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-86791022707572181082024-02-10T22:07:00.008-05:002024-02-10T22:09:58.960-05:00Storytelling Tips 1 & 2 on Irony in Terrence Malik's A HIDDEN LIFE<p> Hopefully, these two short videos speak for themselves. A HIDDEN LIFE is a cinematic masterpiece of storytelling. A significant factor in it's storytelling genius is the pervasive and deliberate use of visual and aural irony. These two videos only scratch the surface of this 3 hour motion picture. </p><p>An earlier post on Malick is <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2022/07/someone-asked-me-to-explain-why-he-had.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</p><p><br /></p>
<div style="padding: 50% 0px 0px; position: relative;"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" frameborder="0" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/911935249?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" title="Moral Premise Storytelling Tip 1 - Irony in A Hidden Life"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script>
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<div style="padding: 50% 0px 0px; position: relative;"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" frameborder="0" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/911934435?badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479" style="height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%;" title="Storytelling Tips 2 - More Irony in A Hidden Life"></iframe></div><script src="https://player.vimeo.com/api/player.js"></script><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-78406555281270561012023-07-23T13:50:00.001-05:002023-07-23T13:50:39.427-05:00Moral Premise Storycraft Podcast Ep. 2: Can Historical Fiction Be True?<p style="text-align: center;">Click Image to Access Audio Podcast on YouTube</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/PET26h_4fcY" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1329" data-original-width="750" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0ch3XFjU4NeTB0wlazg_npdQRrjAVDmWCgVU4R3U_QnCnIy2GOgwHgcHBFe4COrxQyvVZmuf3uKdUy5EIA3tKEZLvhjl3m3dL2mcRrhQNW0mhHEi-mn2hOx9Cg-lEk9ta2lvhJVBfUp74YYZ4T6DiOTYtG1pDvSbl-jcGgsEX9HRKIb2BnLQxtmTPcJe6/w236-h416/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-23%20at%2014.26.35.png" width="236" /></a></div><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-4906711717099887132023-07-06T17:42:00.017-05:002023-07-15T16:10:19.886-05:00Sound of Freedom vs. Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinECRLrnBBcS4KDUuHuxPQDPV_A8YDZhi5bJ6Do7fNXBY9dRRuZD2GNmGOO1WGcEutmsLz5DZ2m1FWLlP-gtUKIs6pvA25KN_1s2kowWVjggrdZ02OLWZ6d7tnXNIO1flu9E55iF3NMbRCzksZSg4JxVkRpsIS-QK7ZMpQBoYwJ8csXb7EmqG0N318sCw5/s720/sound%20of%20freedom.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="486" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinECRLrnBBcS4KDUuHuxPQDPV_A8YDZhi5bJ6Do7fNXBY9dRRuZD2GNmGOO1WGcEutmsLz5DZ2m1FWLlP-gtUKIs6pvA25KN_1s2kowWVjggrdZ02OLWZ6d7tnXNIO1flu9E55iF3NMbRCzksZSg4JxVkRpsIS-QK7ZMpQBoYwJ8csXb7EmqG0N318sCw5/w236-h349/sound%20of%20freedom.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><div>This blog post is a cry for reason in the pursuit of excellence and a plea to destroy the love of mediocrity. The Sound of Freedom movie, starring Jim Caviezel, is a good movie, and I'm glad to see the good it is doing to raise the salience of sex trafficking evil in the world. </div><div><br /></div><div>However, in terms of its story execution and its promotion I believe it could be better. For writing that, I've run amuck of "ideologically" driven Christians. For pointing out things that should've, could've been better I've been called a pedophile, and a MAP. I've been told to STFU, that I'm wrong, and that I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. (BTW: mole hills can break your ankle if you step in one just right; underneath the small pile of dirt is an unseen hole.) The worse argument I've encounter, however, is this: "If it's doing some good, why criticize it?" </div><div><br /></div><div>Why indeed!? Because the end never justifies the means. Because the movie could have done a lot more good. Why settle for affecting six-million minds when you could reach twelve-million? Is that the bane of the human condition? Settle for just good enough...let sleeping dogs lie...don't cause trouble...you can't do anything about it...just shake it off...critical thinking is too hard...go with your gut.</div><div><br /></div><b>A. SANITIZED STORY</b><div><b><br /></b><div>Last week, Pam and I screened <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7599146/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_sound%2520of%2520fre" target="_blank">SOUND OF FREEDOM</a> (SOF) at the local multiplex. My lovely and sensitive wife loved it and wept. I though it was boring...very little action, some scenes were a stretch to believe. The initial luring of children, however, almost had me walking out of the theater. I was easily angered at the gall of the traffickers and the stupidity of the father. But horror of all horrors (in terms of filmmaking) the Act 3 climax (the final and necessary hand-to-hand fight between the hero and the villain) was sanitized by several SILENT and BLACK screens for seconds each...no doubt so as not to offend the easily offended Christian audience. I'm a Christian and I found the sanitized black offensive. Why? Because they hid the real sacrifice that Tim Ballard was making to save the girl, and it hid the real sacrifice called on all of us to stop the evil. It was too quick, too neat, too tidy, too bloodless, too neatly packaged to reveal the reality of the situation. Shame on the filmmakers. (cf: complaints about the violence in The Passion of the Christ)<p></p><p><b>B. EMOTIONAL IDENTIFICATION</b></p><p>SOF tells a true story (documented with actual footage at the end), but it isn't TAKEN (2008 - Pierre Morel, Director, starring Liam Neeson). Both films are rated PG-13. TAKEN went on to earn $226M worldwide over 20 weeks plus several sequels which together earned $928M plus two TV series. Let's see if SOF does that well. The big difference aside from the verisimilitude of the TAKEN story is that SOF is missing the key emotional connection of fatherhood. Bryan Mills (Neeson) is trying to rescue his daughter (whom he had been trying to reconnect with due to a divorce) from the sex traffickers. The SOF filmmakers try to make that connection but fail because Tim Ballard is trying to save children unrelated to him. Yes, it's "based" on a true story. But there is a serious lack in emotional connection with the audience; the audience will NOT emotionally identify with Ballard as they did with Mills. </p><p><b>C. ALEJANDRO GÓMEZ MONTEVERDE</b></p><p>Part of the reason for an imperfect understanding of story structure is that SOF comes from Writer-Director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1920049/" target="_blank">Alejandro Gómez Monteverde</a> whose earlier two films, <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/BELLA" target="_blank">BELLA</a> and <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search?q=Little+Boy" target="_blank">LITTLE BOY</a> (links are to my Moral Premise analysis) tried to appeal to Christian audiences, but bombed at the box office with poor story structure. Otherwise Alejandro is an excellent filmmaker. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqtgwmU5MWS_m6m1BiZoEcT9Q_VauipML47KRV7EOU-45l16OvjC0mZ0yvrljiQGJiCs0dDv0PPnC9mGmzKo4mR5YNDVT2e7-YCsn1AJNDXBxm47nw5T5hBK8n9WqCDBNsTFGw7lsnSq-ngm6l8Mn0BQPIbTxa1cK6PLz2bdyKPTrEOp7cW0NJUHt2NhR/s1350/IJ-TDOD.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeqtgwmU5MWS_m6m1BiZoEcT9Q_VauipML47KRV7EOU-45l16OvjC0mZ0yvrljiQGJiCs0dDv0PPnC9mGmzKo4mR5YNDVT2e7-YCsn1AJNDXBxm47nw5T5hBK8n9WqCDBNsTFGw7lsnSq-ngm6l8Mn0BQPIbTxa1cK6PLz2bdyKPTrEOp7cW0NJUHt2NhR/w231-h289/IJ-TDOD.jpg" width="231" /></a></div><b>D. BOX OFFICE COMPARISONS</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>I also found the filmmakers (and Angel Studios) of Sound of Freedom dishonest in their ballyhooing of how they supposedly beat out Indian Jones: The Dial of Destiny (IJ:TDOD) and every other film on July 4. On the Angel Studio website (the day I wrote this) they claim that SOF was Number 1 at the box office on July 4. While technically true for the <u>domestic</u> box office, it is misleading considering the overall performance <u>worldwide</u> of other films, like the Indy film. When the box office receipts are compared fairly, IJ:TDOD whipped SOF. Here are a few details.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Different Films Not Comparable</u></div><div>The factors are many: The release frames (day and date schedule) were not the same, the genres are not the same, the screen count is not the same, the star ratings are not the same, the balance between drama and humor are not the same, and the release countries were not the same. <p>For starters: SOF opened domestically (2,634 screens) on Wednesday, July 4, 2023 with $14M in pre-sales to their core Christian audience. IJ: TDOD opened internationally (with 4,600 domestic screens) five days earlier on Friday, June 30, 2023 with $124M worldwide. (the number of international screens is not tracked.) </p><p><u>Domestic Comparisons</u>:<br />IJ: TDOD first seven days = $94.7M. SOF first seven days (domestic only) = $45.7.<br />IJ:TDOD per screen/per day average = $2,941. SOF per screen/per day average = $2,479.</p><p><u>International Comparisons</u>: (2X domestic extrapolation)<br />IJ: TDOD first seven days = $189M. SOF first seven days (domestic only) = $45.7.<br />IJ:TDOD per screen/per day average = $5,880. SOF per screen/per day average = $2,479.</p><p><u>July 4 (Opening Day Comparisons</u><br />Opening day for SOF, was Day 5 for IJ:TDOD<br />IJ:TDOD did $11M domestically with $22M projected Worldwide.<br />SOF: $14.2M domestically with no International.</p><p><u>As of Sunday, July 9 (totals)</u><br />IJ:TDOD WW: $249M<br />SOF WW (actually only domestic) $41M. </p><p>Based on these reported numbers the SOM promoters have misrepresented the truth. In a very narrow way one can say that SOF beat IJ:TDOD. But by passing on and repeating this narrow window of comparison, the general impression is that SOF is the better movie by far. </p><p>But that is far from the truth. The SOF filmmakers should stop comparing the the two. When compared at face value the comparison puts SOF at a disadvantage. It's really not possible to compare them fairly because they are so different in many ways. As Jordan Peterson would say, "Tell the Truth, at least don't lie." </p><p>(All numbers from <a href="https://boxofficemojo.com">https://boxofficemojo.com</a> the industry reporting standard, which are also reported on <a href="http://pro.IMDB.com">pro.IMDB.com</a>)</p><p><b>E. DISNEY'S INVOLVEMENT</b></p><p>My take (without inside information) is that the SOF filmmakers also misrepresented Disney's involvement in the film's distribution, and some minor matters of fact which lessen the SOF promoters credibility. According to IMDB Pro, SOF was completed on Nov. 28, 2019, not 2013 as some have claimed. It's also been claimed that Disney shelved SOF because they are supporters of sex trafficking. I think this is a hubris conspiracy theory started by conservatives, if not Christians. In 2018, 20th Century Fox picked up SOF for distribution, but when Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, SOF was put aside. Per Fox Business a Disney spokesperson told Newsweek that Disney had no knowledge of the film given the nature of the international acquisition pre-merger agreement. The SOF filmmakers reclaimed the film from Disney's shelf, and shopped the film around for three years before making a crowd finding deal with Angel Studios for distribution. It is hard to know what or how the actual decisions were made at Disney about SOF. Disney has proved to be morally corrupt in a number of its decisions, both filmmaking and entertainment parks. I can say that IJ:TDOD is far from woke, and an excellent family film with clear emphasis on family and the fight between good and evil. </p><p><b>F. SOCIAL DIALOGUE</b></p><p>Finally, a comment if Instagram thread participants on this topic come here to read this. I participate in an occasional social media thread, but it is very unsatisfying. I'm convinced that most commenters do not read the entire thread of a conversation but react subjectively and ideologically, making wild, irrational and irresponsible remarks to score a point or a like, like those I mentioned at the start of this post. Social media threads have contributed largely to the dissolution of culture and rational dialogue. It would be different if the social media engines would somehow thread together a conversation so it could be logically followed—a difficult task when multiple people are making comments simultaneously. I got wrapped up in an Instagram thread because of the issues I raise above. The real corruption is society is the lack of intelligence.</p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-65631791186811594722023-06-26T10:40:00.001-05:002023-06-26T10:40:40.353-05:00Stan meets Stan Freberg<p>Some years ago in L.A. at CBS Studios where the the BIOLA Media Conference was held for which I was a segment producer and speaker, I was privilege enough to share in the introduction of my one and <u>only</u> Hollywood idol, STAN FREBERG. Stan passed away not long after I met him, but I have several cherished images to remember the day. I also had the presence of mind to bring the LP album jacket, pictured below, and have him sign it...and I brought the cardboard tube...can't believe I have a picture of this. If you're not sure what this is all about, I can only suggest you get the recordings, including Freberg's "Pay Radio" albums ("You have to go into a record story and buy it." ...which I did.) I wore out three of the United States of America LP discs listening to his creativity during my college years. Today you can buy the CD version (Vol 1 and 2). Best humor and sound productions ever created. I should have these images framed and on my wall, which I guess this blog is sort of the same thing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIB5QsgWdNpkn5WcdlsIhEbe6bPsj82Uyk9U3MbcyMjlFp3AsR_cudsnyDUgs4oE8ukOyijlRMtASoHc58oYoN3-g__OjYrdFkOG70uiUuVZjhPQSoI3TZiQcJNeoxDymAl3CTjiDj1Ww-5JHPIpZaAWuz4kSZo1-2IukpG-pAq2_fj4ihWfqYSLwqB08q/s3018/StanFrebergUSOA%20Album.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3003" data-original-width="3018" height="533" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIB5QsgWdNpkn5WcdlsIhEbe6bPsj82Uyk9U3MbcyMjlFp3AsR_cudsnyDUgs4oE8ukOyijlRMtASoHc58oYoN3-g__OjYrdFkOG70uiUuVZjhPQSoI3TZiQcJNeoxDymAl3CTjiDj1Ww-5JHPIpZaAWuz4kSZo1-2IukpG-pAq2_fj4ihWfqYSLwqB08q/w536-h533/StanFrebergUSOA%20Album.jpg" width="536" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bsgNnIei2Px0HK9Sy5du_2oUGdOaIlQWUVvgCqCEAu7xdA1gMzlKGKSem0AH9VpuRb68JPe7XINC_31gfpPYoSl9BuylzzowRkzH8sh3QCoiVPMvrFzb6O8ly4faCFQfDWIxcDfnE-cmNyugZJm9kesE0c6aVozvkrPEge_ZIf9q4aBqau-qNcIEGMtj/s500/IMG_2497-Freberg-and-MP-500w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="367" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bsgNnIei2Px0HK9Sy5du_2oUGdOaIlQWUVvgCqCEAu7xdA1gMzlKGKSem0AH9VpuRb68JPe7XINC_31gfpPYoSl9BuylzzowRkzH8sh3QCoiVPMvrFzb6O8ly4faCFQfDWIxcDfnE-cmNyugZJm9kesE0c6aVozvkrPEge_ZIf9q4aBqau-qNcIEGMtj/w489-h367/IMG_2497-Freberg-and-MP-500w.jpg" width="489" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncV9kHg3oKdzlej19fpG5lFK5N4KcylC1AUtp1aCCrvN1N1NanOoN7gFcBEcric_mVdcVjYeWA0NcnOKcupBq_v2uAntQdK1BXSz-aGdmmEn-YJ6PoSxiHxG939XSpydouBu7dwQC70eQk9e0xEbefArX7AfYDixzzAheSSO7mBHvTI6nWR2J16i9-nOn/s500/IMG_2492-CarboardTube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="375" height="605" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjncV9kHg3oKdzlej19fpG5lFK5N4KcylC1AUtp1aCCrvN1N1NanOoN7gFcBEcric_mVdcVjYeWA0NcnOKcupBq_v2uAntQdK1BXSz-aGdmmEn-YJ6PoSxiHxG939XSpydouBu7dwQC70eQk9e0xEbefArX7AfYDixzzAheSSO7mBHvTI6nWR2J16i9-nOn/w454-h605/IMG_2492-CarboardTube.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-42309810172356379512023-06-20T11:10:00.003-05:002023-07-23T10:08:15.640-05:00The Dilemma of Telling the Truth in Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYWzSSXZeEU2ZTcR43RcCXpuDWDGueJzmt622xbyjGz1_vctHGI0RNzT5C5gLnJKz5mdEp6QoQdM0_6c33zs99ES4j9QJcRn7-Holurs2YLGbatiYFqUD8BXrHb9RVrwp2XGWH19WxkqXg_Swuq05IIRzac3FnGZ2NBswjClKrJh0wJQ5NUXu8haIGqg1/s768/YingYang%20RED.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYWzSSXZeEU2ZTcR43RcCXpuDWDGueJzmt622xbyjGz1_vctHGI0RNzT5C5gLnJKz5mdEp6QoQdM0_6c33zs99ES4j9QJcRn7-Holurs2YLGbatiYFqUD8BXrHb9RVrwp2XGWH19WxkqXg_Swuq05IIRzac3FnGZ2NBswjClKrJh0wJQ5NUXu8haIGqg1/s320/YingYang%20RED.png" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">Writing true stories is a hard and dicey affair. </span><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Recently, I experienced a paradoxical rejection of my historical novel (<a href="https://wizardclip.stanwilliams.com" target="_blank">The Wizard Clip Haunting</a>) principally because it features an important aspect of all story telling—paradox. In this case a paradoxical Catholic priest. The renegade (or vice) aspects of this priest's nature are historically documented. At the same time, the heroic (or virtue) aspects of this priest's nature are also historically true. Yet, because the priest plays a central role in the plot of the story, and because he fulfills the critical narrative nature of being human (that is, imperfection, which allows readers to connect with someone like themselves), a few Catholic readers are hesitant to endorse the novel. </span><div><br /></div><div>This is nothing new for any writer, especially any historical fiction or non-fiction writer. The problem occurs when the subject of your story touches on the beliefs or ideologies of a social subgroup that clings to those beliefs. It doesn't matter if the subgroup is a religious faith (e.g. Catholicism), a political party, professional organization, or a cadre of social activists. You're sure to upset someone, somehow, sometime...even if you're trying hard to tell the truth.<div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Although there is something called "objective" truth, to every social subgroup "truth" is relative and "subjective" to a particular worldview. This is what makes telling the truth difficult.</span> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://wizardclip.stanwilliams.com" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="500" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyU5bp5FHDgMnu5cakPsOuOmfNjnP7TjoBsA8CtYYDFQxT06U3_KwvqfS1amy0RMJ4xACfMWQLGuhgU462FUAsH5XcUEmTKKvkJarVmT844tQgk1psgxEXe9zaBvxwS-XacXZi1xUxGhRYIg5ULTla1oANsGRTOxg-K1EDfRUf5aaJWDNRIDKQ8eMvO4it/w313-h417/WC-books-500W.jpg" width="313" /></a></div>If you have a character that is morally flawed -- and all characters need to be flawed for the story to connect with audiences -- there will be a subgroup in that audience who will cling to an "ideal" of how a particular character should act. And when your human character, who is part of a subgroup thinks, speaks, or acts in contradiction to the subgroup's ideal, although the character is being true to his human nature, members of the associated subgroup will be offended by what you've written. <p></p><p>Have you told the truth? To the subgroup you may not have told the truth...about the reader's IDEAL. But you have told the truth about the character's fallible, human character. The criticism comes because you have not sanitized the subgroup's hero and portrayed he or she as perfect—the central problem of most Christian, so-called "faith films." My conclusion is that if you were to sanitize the hero and make him or her perfect, <u>you would be lying</u>—a lie historically and a lie about the human condition. </p><p></p><p>Thus, writing true stories is a hard and dicey affair. The best stories that resonate with truth of the human condition do not land solidly in the ideal worldview of good and evil, like the red or black realms of the above Yin-Yang illustration. Rather, the best stories that tell the truth reside on the curved line between the two realms. This thin and chaotic border is where all of humanity exists. The Yin-Yang also illustrates the necessity of mystery and the human soul's quest for perfection—the red and block dots.</p><p>------------------</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Going a bit further. </span><span>In an early blog post,</span> <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2022/12/can-historical-fiction-be-true.html" target="_blank">"Can Historical Fiction Be True?"</a>, I described six aspects of telling the truth in fiction. The second aspect describes how multiple stories of the same event can conflict, simply by the storyteller's different perspective. This touches on the logical fallacy known as AND/OR. where one person may claim that a fact is either A <u>or</u> B, when the truth may actually be A <u>and</u> B. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUluAoba6-yQBd1aayHItatkTue-s0hqoWQpXGhv5rKrcafcuMV6olV_gkJ8RVMZlTWFqYfK5nG2sn1aBDqrPmWaJxwH7a9PMfY1EUpv5X9o_PEuCaRv6DvDZk4FJFyf0YXE-g-qYxgu77my5gaU7lAXhF9wZvd-m6pVIRXlEANwYcNnvqmBWWuVMhxNiy/s977/A&B%20Venn%20copy.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="665" data-original-width="977" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUluAoba6-yQBd1aayHItatkTue-s0hqoWQpXGhv5rKrcafcuMV6olV_gkJ8RVMZlTWFqYfK5nG2sn1aBDqrPmWaJxwH7a9PMfY1EUpv5X9o_PEuCaRv6DvDZk4FJFyf0YXE-g-qYxgu77my5gaU7lAXhF9wZvd-m6pVIRXlEANwYcNnvqmBWWuVMhxNiy/s320/A&B%20Venn%20copy.png" width="320" /></a></div>While "objective" truth may exist as a heavenly ideal, human "subjective" truth becomes a paradox—an apparent logical contradiction—that through reason can be explained as plausible. As writers of fiction or non-fiction, we all know that successful stories are based on what appears to be a contradiction or great irony. For example, a man falls in love with a mermaid—something that is logically impossible—but through the skill of storytelling the writer explains how the impossible can be possible, e.g. the hit movie SPASH. (1984, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, John Candy & Eugene Levy. Of course, the all-star cast in front and behind the camera help). SPLASH necessarily lies on the Yin-Yang border or the A&B region. <p></p><p>Thus, all good writing begins with an ironic premise, because the human condition is inherently ironic. At every moment of every day we all want something...but can't have it—the 2 dots in the Yin-Yang. Hope turns to despair, our exhausting effort is always in need of a rewrite, love is lost, and "snakes on a plane." All good stories are about the human condition, which by definition is ironic. The good guy is sometimes fallible, and the villain sometimes noble. </p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Back to those social subgroups that cling to beliefs or ideologies—</span>where "belief" is a logically defensible, and "ideology" is a logically <u>in</u>defensible. Depending on the topic, the subgroup, and the perspective, what is a <i>belief</i> to one is an <i>ideology</i> to another. Yes, irony is ubiquitous. </p><p>Truth hurts. It's the human condition to avoid being hurt, to attack those that do the hurting, or at least ghost such miscreants. But while we are driven toward the ideal, it's the paradox that gives life intrigue.</p></div></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-28571942915443281102023-04-26T07:27:00.003-05:002023-04-26T07:27:45.376-05:00Woody Allen, Theologian<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACJkAWC1d2yt-UQeZ-uf78oD6sVr7jsrJxw814pWq3_PoOYmNEKy4YR2NGRy4HxP1jomlN74elJftBMUYz00eN3hsV4d9XXATkLW9eRoxG58GlJE5CFGjRTVJCO5J0tLIXKgKERvENBXP2Ds5sIUvYvVyRSWiEK_c2OG1npyoUt8mwEmltiiRUC3fiA/s3287/Woody%20Allen%20Film%20Theologian%20of%20the%20Year.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3287" data-original-width="2513" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjACJkAWC1d2yt-UQeZ-uf78oD6sVr7jsrJxw814pWq3_PoOYmNEKy4YR2NGRy4HxP1jomlN74elJftBMUYz00eN3hsV4d9XXATkLW9eRoxG58GlJE5CFGjRTVJCO5J0tLIXKgKERvENBXP2Ds5sIUvYvVyRSWiEK_c2OG1npyoUt8mwEmltiiRUC3fiA/w308-h402/Woody%20Allen%20Film%20Theologian%20of%20the%20Year.jpg" width="308" /></a></div>Yesterday, a friend and script client suggested I watch Woody Allen's <i>Magic in the Moonlight</i> with Colin Firth and Emma Stone. I feel like a sinner in need of Confession...I have NOT screened the more recent Woody Allen films...but then 2014 isn't exactly yesterday.<p></p><p>Pam and I thoroughly enjoyed <i>Magic... </i>Allen's witty dialogue never ceases to impress, well, at least since<i> Annie Hall. </i>I once saw Annie Hall in one of those re-run $1 theaters in Dearborn, Michigan, before the Projectionists Union torched the building, The projectionist mixed up the reels something horrible...and the movie still made sense, and it was funnier. Such were the times. </p><p>The topic of Woody Allen prompted my offering up a paper I wrote for graduate school on Woody Allen as Theologian in American Culture. This was some 20 years after Ben Patterson—the editor of the satirical Christian Youth Specialities magazine <i>The Wittenburg Door (</i>and<i> </i>that IS spelled correctly for you Lutheran aficionados out here)—put Woody on the cover of his magazine and awarded him "Theologian of the Year." It seems that more than any other "regular" theologian in 1974 American culture, Allen got people thinking about God, Sex, and Death. </p><p>Turns out Ben Patterson, today, is a good friend of my friend. Hi Charlie! Hi Ben! Enjoy California's sun, it's still snowing here in Michigan (April 26). </p><p>To the rest of my readers, if you're interested, <a href="https://stanwilliams.com/MORALPREMISE/Woody%20Allen%20Film%20Analysis.pdf" target="_blank">here's a link to the short paper</a>. On page 7 you'll find an interesting bar chart depicting the sum of positive and negative depictions of religion in Wood Allen Films 1969–1993.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-19497510881086541942022-12-19T17:38:00.003-05:002023-03-13T14:20:03.928-05:00Can Historical Fiction be True?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrQYgKcG5baF1bS5RmN9uFXd1JYRqzZZgzan8XKu_sQyhuHxO1tZkoVAJyLE3ZvQmVJOdv6chmsCJHkjBIr9fC18Pdlfw73rPJlacWZG7rDM0OZVzitS8HVFCZ8Bf_kq3Q8OWNA_Rga0YgGL7e01Yt9hWoVVcBgX7VH6JK4LPOL0KZtplvbmGvy4FHw/s1264/3D------Cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46XnHxQ3xuUDFYVI2F8g4VWRt0O_NVIqTNcpxGBvE268VnxaDuiZnbKDUGv3tHvBrqZMH-Gs7mSSz6RMjAW5VdyeQTjfurvH3DP3lD-o4rKWELGvaFazjo-3eThKZ1-68NNuQUzKtSUr26gq9bJ11Hpyd76pP3rAuNH163vrYStsbix8cxbAdLRpclg/s1264/3D------Cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1264" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi46XnHxQ3xuUDFYVI2F8g4VWRt0O_NVIqTNcpxGBvE268VnxaDuiZnbKDUGv3tHvBrqZMH-Gs7mSSz6RMjAW5VdyeQTjfurvH3DP3lD-o4rKWELGvaFazjo-3eThKZ1-68NNuQUzKtSUr26gq9bJ11Hpyd76pP3rAuNH163vrYStsbix8cxbAdLRpclg/s320/3D------Cover.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><p></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">While preparing to print advance review copies of a historical novel I recently completed, I asked my followers for help fine tuning the title and cover design. On the cover was the tag line: "The True Tale of an Early American Haunting." </span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">A follower raised the bane of fiction writers who base their work on historical events. She wrote to me: <i>"If it's a true story it is not a novel."</i></span></p><p class="p1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">My response was less concise.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">==============</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Dear Follower:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">You have served up a delicious morsel for discussion: What is “true” in Historical Fiction, or, can historical fiction ever be true? I think so, for the same reasons I don’t think so called true accounts of history are true. Here are six things to ponder.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">1. <b>Everything, Everywhere, All at Once? </b>In historical fiction the reader is always wondering which parts are true, even as the reader assumes most of the telling is fiction. Why is that? Because it’s impossible to tell a <i>completely true</i> story if by “true” we mean </span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;">all</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> of the facts in the </span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration-line: underline;">true</span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> chronological order...especially, if many of the micro facts occurred simultaneously and were somehow co-dependent on each other. Even to record all of the <i>physical</i> events and their related minutia would require too large of a book or too long of a movie...to think nothing of the internal and invisible thoughts, values, and motivations that caused the physical events. It seems to me that to tell a absolutely true story would require an accurate narrative about all such things, in every conceivable crevice, all at once. Of course, this is ludicrous in a practical sense. So, what really is true?</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">2. <b>Perspective.</b> Since No. 1 is impractical, if not impossible, we, as writers, favor our perspective or bias which can result in a story that some would find totally fiction. The “facts” collected by different people, from different perspectives, even though they are all eye witnesses, always interpret or remember the “true facts” differently. We see this everyday in reports of current events and in scientific interpretations of so called “objective” and “natural” observations, and if we include recent understandings of quantum theory, reality gets a bad name real fast.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In researching the particular historical novel I recently completed I collected over 30 (more like 100) different narratives of the same historical event—some whole, most anecdotal. Some accounts were written by witnesses, others collected from second and third hand or generational sources. In every case they were all different. So what was “true?” It’s hard to say, although the core of the story (the main plot points) are similar.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">In my “fictional” writing, I included as faithful as I could all the documented scraps of the history and wove them together with my imagination so they fit. In such a manner I told a true story...at least my imaginative mind thinks so.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">3. <b>The Victors Write the History. </b>We must remember that most of the time, with notable exceptions, it is the "victors" that write the history. Do the victors always tell the truth? No. There is bias is everything that is written. This is well known in so called "documentary" films. There is ALWAYS A POINT OF VIEW. </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">4. <b>Fiction Pretends to Tell the Truth. </b>In all fiction the storyteller pretends to tell the truth by writing in the imperative mood. That goes for everything from the dialogue to the title, to the tag line. In other words the storyteller, with regard to the physical events described, is lying. But the reader recognizes that or should. If the reader understands Historical Fiction as true history, then the mistake is on the reader’s part, not the author whose intention is to be entertaining.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">5. <b>“Non-Fiction" History is the Biased Retelling of Others. </b>All historians writing about events to which they were NOT an eye-witness, are simply retelling what other historians have told. For instance, Shirer’s <i>The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich </i>while a comprehensive account of Nazi Germany, is the retelling form a hundred accounts of voluminous works written by others. Although the current historian is wanting to tell the truth, his truth is only as good as the previous historians have handled the facts. Consequently, a great deal of history is “presumption” or imagined by the historian.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">6. <b>What is True is Deeper than the Physical Story. </b>The more important aspect of truth in storytelling is the internal moral truth that the story conveys. In a classical sense the conveyance, or story form, is called a myth. While the outward physical story is fiction (about a donkey, a goose, and a frog talking to each other like human beings), the meaning of the story (the moral premise) is true. This is the subject of my earlier book, <i>The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success.</i> The movie, <i>Armageddon</i>, about Bruce Willis traveling to an asteroid to blow it up before it can destroy Earth, is fiction...unless you know someone who has done that. But the moral premise of that story, about the sacrifices a good father makes for the future sake of his children, is true.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">So, in these ways historical fiction can be as true as any documented history:</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">A. The story threads the available historical documentation together and relates them in a fundamentally cogent and reasonable way consistent with the time period. I’m sure many historical fiction writers believe that their telling is as true as any so called history text book written from a biased point of view...which they all are.</span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">B. The story is about a true moral premise, e.g. that natural law exists and if it’s not followed, hell is to pay.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-45996029623743561892022-10-26T10:37:00.002-05:002023-06-20T11:31:44.888-05:00Nadine Labaki - A Benchmark Filmmaker<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjibCII4b8SriOIGepDSip4okmVd9E3-ezyOROWiRQKZa_U7wA9sqA3ZqzUv1yopHHaZ5sPGiEZg5S1-kSUFBfKxsSJRdZjIQ0cHc13JwJQU45PQBY4623fRAkLwPbdLmoEFNCUhMlF53HA1xLvK_hERix4LHjlvquVLOnUwwvvpLwfUecJj71k6-VQ/s1949/20473721_so.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1949" data-original-width="1509" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGjibCII4b8SriOIGepDSip4okmVd9E3-ezyOROWiRQKZa_U7wA9sqA3ZqzUv1yopHHaZ5sPGiEZg5S1-kSUFBfKxsSJRdZjIQ0cHc13JwJQU45PQBY4623fRAkLwPbdLmoEFNCUhMlF53HA1xLvK_hERix4LHjlvquVLOnUwwvvpLwfUecJj71k6-VQ/s320/20473721_so.jpg" width="248" /></a></div><br />I screened Nadine Labaki's <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772424/" target="_blank">WHERE DO WE GO NOW</a> for the second time last night with my wife, Pam, and our house guest, Yi Wang from China. The two ladies laughed and cried throughout the entire movie. And I thoroughly enjoyed every scene even though I knew the story and film well. <p></p><p>WHERE DO WE GO NOW was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2012, and a two-time winer at Cannes and People's Choice Award at Toronto.</p><p>Nadine is a self-taught, Lebanese filmmaker of incredible talent. She's also a beautiful and talented actor. She says: "I'm bored with my own personality. I want to do so many different things, be so many different people, and live so different lives....(filmmaking) is the only place where you can experiment with so many different natures...(without) people thinking you're crazy." Those are her words, but to me she's very comfortable being who she is, and she's very good at it.</p><p>Do buy a DVD or Bluray of WHERE DO WE GO NOW. Here is her DP/30 interview recorded in Hollywood as she waited to attend the 2012 Oscars.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EsKEDWQ3PiU" width="407" youtube-src-id="EsKEDWQ3PiU"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-65101186318304868442022-09-24T07:22:00.000-05:002022-09-24T07:22:02.592-05:00Pope in the Pool<p> Blake Snyder in his book SAVE THE CAT made "Pope in the Pool" famous. For the few of you who are not familiar with Blake's nomenclature, Pope in the Pool is the name given to foreground exposition (in dialogue) with a background story (in visual). Here is a wonderful example that came across in my Instagram Feed yesterday. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='479' height='398' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx4U4L6BT1Dg8Z0eqwF-kCNXpVhH-np20X-kw9wPOSiE7OLP-nI-wRy0EZzHkWKGcOL4BA0cXKwE6xF2R5Pbg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />As a reminder, my 12 lessons (25 webisode videos) Storycraft Training series is available at 50% off until election day, November 8, 2022. You can download or rent anything by using the discount code "Sales50" or "Sale50." Click on the link below for complete content outline and trailers.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://storycrafttraining.blogspot.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="72" data-original-width="360" height="64" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSPoLKparjb-i7A9zYYl02EH4ruusyRIPyMZFP4PO1A8PUi13uB84C1uFJuFywREUHfaAGxY2CzaCjjLYwo1hXCTCVZsu9ciLVhoiZ64KeGQqjxt69teJvanwLYuCZuNM0I2hrntcNhqHU46DmqDhRlyLyB-qQSmZFytA1i_IJHl_7NLf4f4t3hxrjrg/s320/StorycraftTraining-360x72.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-36214129830845475122022-09-11T18:42:00.003-05:002022-09-12T11:50:31.437-05:00Billy Wilder 9 Screenwriting Tips<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf9Igu_zd_Tr_H2EVgwmisMAFSBKipTy0LV5JU-hBOIpFdD31_C_gk_JbhDHHWBejbfRp-eNfYp-nQkEVp39nTH8lTq-brqrxtATxVorpZBw4nIg0bP-jQRPTpJa07YfM3MOGgzMrlwjUlJKMEsA-4nLmGCkhv31AUsCeBNIbsqFzl6X15zWk3FT7NTg/s750/Billy-Wilder.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="750" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf9Igu_zd_Tr_H2EVgwmisMAFSBKipTy0LV5JU-hBOIpFdD31_C_gk_JbhDHHWBejbfRp-eNfYp-nQkEVp39nTH8lTq-brqrxtATxVorpZBw4nIg0bP-jQRPTpJa07YfM3MOGgzMrlwjUlJKMEsA-4nLmGCkhv31AUsCeBNIbsqFzl6X15zWk3FT7NTg/w507-h271/Billy-Wilder.png" width="507" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br />Let me expand a bit on this good Instagram list of nine screenwriting tips supposedly from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Wilder" target="_blank">Billy Wilder.</a></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>1. THE AUDIENCE IS FICKLE.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This does not mean, as Will Goldman famously wrote, "NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING" on page 39 of his "Adventures in the Screen Trade." (BTW: the all caps is Goldman's, not mine.) I don't agree with Goldman on this, but it's instructive. A drive through parts of Los Angeles or an invite to a home or two will tell you that quite a number of individuals KNOW ALOT. But back to the "instructive" part. Reminding us that the audience is fickle means that you have to stay one step ahead of your audience. Like a good horror script, there should be a surprise (a LOGICAL surprise) at least every five pages, if not three. "Fickle" could mean the audience doesn't know what it likes, but it's more reasonable to understand that the audience comes to be entertained, and that they bore easily. Don't bore. Surprise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #274e13;"><b>2.<span> GRAB 'EM BY THE THROAT AND NEVER LET 'EM GO.</span></b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This goes along with No. 1. Another way of saying this is to put your protagonist in jeopardy at the beginning and keep him there until the last frame of the movie. But of course, knowing that the audience is fickle means the jeopardy can rarely be the same from scene to scene. <a href="http://maryconnealy.com/" target="_blank">Mary Alice Moore Connealy</a> is the author of over 70 Christian fiction novels. She specializes in romantic comedy set in the cowboy era of the American west. Mary and I were engaged in an email exchange in 2010 that I was careful to save. In it she revealed how she kills off villains. I wrote a blog <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2017/03/roller-coaster-action-scale-and-how-bad.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> about it. Her Rule No. 2 is this: "You can judge how bad a bad guy is by the number of times he dies." We see this is popular movies—the bad guy keeps resurrecting only to be killed in a more horrific way. Aside from the catharsis rush this gives the audience/reader, it is a perfect example of how not to bore your audience (Wilder No. 1) and how to constantly keep your protagonist is danger (Wilder No. 2). </span></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>3. DEVELOP A CLEAN LINE OF ACTION FOR YOUR LEADING CHARACTER.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"> This is often the difference between a story that involves the audience intellectually vs. emotionally. When intelligent writers send me a script to critique I can easily get caught up in the obscure philosophical quest of the protagonist. But when emotional writers send me a script I don't have time to analyze the scenes, I'm too busy turning pages. Guess which movies get made? General audiences aren't looking for intellectual, philosophical, or spiritual quests (at least not explicitly). General audiences want a story that will carry them away emotionally, which means visceral, physical danger to a likable protagonist. This is why Mission Impossible and James Bond stories are always hits. [The special effects and practical stunts are not just eye candy, but rather reinforce the visceral danger as our hero tries, against all odds, to recover the hard-drive (or similar <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin" target="_blank">MacGuffin</a>) with the list of MI6 secret agents (Sky Fall)]. Bond is always in danger, and his goal is one thing only...to get the hard-drive back or stop the release of its secret list of agents. When we send a protagonist on a philosophical, introspective journey, it's much harder to keep the story emotionally involving. Action is clean. Philosophy is obscure. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">4. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE THIRD ACT, THE REAL PROBLEM IS IN THE FIRST ACT.</span></b> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This is the ultimate issue involving foreshadowing. Everything that happens in Act 3 needs to be set up in Act 1. Everything in Act 3 is the <i>effect</i> of the Act 1 <i>cause. </i>My friend <a href="http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/Drew%20Yanno" target="_blank">Drew Yanno</a> wrote a good book on this titled, as you might expect, "The 3rd Act." It is evidently now out of print since I can't find it or him on the Internet anymore. It's a bright red cover, 175 pages recommended by Will Smith. If your hero is afraid of heights which hinders his capture of the bad guy in Act 3, then his vertigo is revealed in Act 1. If your heroine has a problem with commitment in Act 3, then the wound that caused her fear of commitment needs to be shown in Act 1. If the protagonist risks his life to save a child in Act 3, then in Act 1 he saves a cat. (e.g. Blake Snyder's book, SAVE THE CAT). Yes, it's often the case that when you're writing Act 3 and inventing all kinds of cliff hangers, you are simultaneously revising Act 1. If you don't do this you risk the disastrous anti-plot point called "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina" target="_blank"><i>Deus ex machina</i></a>" (link Wikipedia). <i>Deus ex machina</i> is the opposite of the MacGuffin. Use the latter not the former. </span></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>5. THE MORE SUBTLE AND ELEGANT YOU ARE IN HIDING YOUR PLOT POINTS, THE BETTER YOU ARE AS A WRITER. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This does not translate well, but here's what it means. <i>Narrative</i> is better than <i>didactic</i>. Narrative <i><b>shows</b></i> what happens when a protagonist makes a moral decisions and acts on it. A protagonist can make any decision and take any action he wants. But the consequences of that decision and action are always the result of natural law, and totally out of the hands and control of the protagonist. I have written much on this topic...<a href="http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/Natural%20Law" target="_blank">some blog posts are here.</a> This process in storytelling is much like real life. We lean lessons by such a decision-action-consequence paradigm. We learn by experience, or by the stories told of the experience of others. WE DO NOT LEARN HOW TO LIVE A BETTER LIFE BY ARBITRARY RULES, which is what didactic storytelling suffers from. You may think the Bible is full of didactic rules (e.g. The Ten Commandments). But in reality the Bible is 75% Narrative, which reveals the consequence of not following the rules. Rules shortcut your learning, but you really only learn from experience or stories. This is why Stories are the Crux of Civilization. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A bit more of a didactic (😟) explanation is needed here. Narrative shows what happens and requires the audience in figure out the rule involved (or the moral premise at work). A didactic story reveals the rule but does not necessarily demonstrate the natural law consequence of following the rule or not. NOT HIDING YOUR PLOT POINTS is didactic. HIDING YOUR PLOT POINTS is narrative. The rule here is <i>"Make your audience work. Do not tell them. Show them. Let them figure it out."</i> Audiences love intrigue even if it means trying to figure out what the movie is really about. (Hopefully it's about something like a true, and consistently applied moral premise.)</span></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>6. A TIP FROM LUBITSCH: LET THE AUDIENCE ADD UP TWO PLUS TWO. THEY'LL LOVE YOU FOREVER. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">This is actually a repeat of No. 5. 'Nuff said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">By the way, Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born American film director et al. He co-wrote the Greta Garbo film <i>Ninotchka</i> with Billy Wilder. I'm sorry I don't know anything about this movie, but I will shortly when I screen it. What I do know about Lubitsch is that he made the audience work to figure out what was going on in the character's heart and head. This no doubt came about because Lubitsch's career began in the silent film era when directors were required to SHOW and dialogue was limited to a few dialogue cards. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">7. IN DOING VOICE-OVERS, BE CAREFUL <u>NOT</u> TO DESCRIBE WHAT THE AUDIENCE ALREADY SEES. ADD TO WHAT THEY'RE SEEING.</span></b> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">At the risk of repeating perhaps the best known Hollywood adage, SHOW DON'T TELL. Movies are not novels, but even novel writers know how to show and not didactically tell what's happening. The study of non-verbal communication suggests that 80% of the message is communicated non-verbally, not with the actual words. Thus ,"I could kill you," has many different meanings. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But back to No. 7.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I would add that you don't just want to add to what is being seen, but describe something ironic and quite different from what is being seen. This is also the role of subtext in dialogue. Subtext, of course, is ironic in that it communicates what is not being literally heard, or it is the opposite of the literal words being used. (See this blog post on <a href="http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/Subtext" target="_blank">"Borders and Quarantines, the Essence of Successful Stories"</a>, and <a href="http://storycrafttraining.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Lesson 12 of my on-line Storycraft Training Series on "Writing Convincing Movie Dialogue."</a> for examples.) But back to the V.O. point: While we see a protagonist courageously and fearlessly rescue a child from a raging river, the voice over might add an ironic and intriguing twist if we hear the hero's retrospective thoughts of fear and cowardice. This adds dimension and depth to the character and makes him more believable and real like us. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">A similar occurrence takes place when you write a "Pope in the Pool" scene (see Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT.) A critical aspect of a Pope in the Pool scene is that the background action (the Pope trying to swim in a pool dressed in his vestments), metaphors what is being didactically discussed in the foreground dialogue. The background action ADDS TO WHAT WE'RE HEARING, or the foreground dialogue can be considered V.O. that explains didactically what is happening in the background. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Every element adds to the narrative or its meaning.</span></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>8. THE EVENT THAT OCCURS AT THE SECOND ACT CURTAIN TRIGGERS THE END OF THE MOVIE. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The end of Act 2 plot point is also known as "NEAR DEATH," "FAUX ENDING," "NO GOING BACK," "ACT 2 CLIMAX," and "ALL IS LOST." (Here is a <a href="http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search/label/Story%20Diamond" target="_blank">link to ten (10) blog posts</a> that describe the classical major beats of a story as diagramed on The Story Diamond.) The Story Diamond simply overlays multiple story structures, paralleling the labels to reveal that all successful story structures are simply different ways to describe the same thing. Thus, the second act curtain (or Act 2 Climax) is a critical and very important turning point beat that converts our warrior protagonist/hero into a martyr, who is willing to die for the noble cause, thus endearing the audience to him. The "end of the movie" is all of Act 3, which is 25% of the story. Structure is important here. Audiences love never ending stories...that is a story that seems to have multiple endings, and the Act 2 curtain is the FIRST of multiple endings that come at the audience rapid fire and give catharsis its due. Also related to the importance of the ending is Michael Arndt's <i>Insanely Great Endings</i> in a <a href="http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/search?q=Michael+Arndt" target="_blank">guest post by The Other Chris Pratt, followed by my analysis of Arndt's "Little Miss Sunshine."</a></span></p><p><span style="color: #274e13; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b>9. THE THIRD ACT MUST BUILD, BUILD, BUILD IN TEMPO AND ACTION UNTIL THE LAST EVENT, AND THEN—THAT'S IT. DON'T HANG AROUND. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">I've written enough about Act 3 so 'nuff said about that.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">But "don't hang around," is the Denouement (or "Life After") and it should be very short. Use Act 3 to tie up loose narrative ends in dramatic fashion before you get to the Denouement. See again Michael Arndt's <i>Insanely Great Endings, </i>and my notes on the structure of Act 3. <a href="http://storycrafttraining.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Lesson 9 of my Storycraft Training</a> also covers the important and fast occurring beats of Act 3. </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-15469489839695809052022-07-27T11:53:00.009-05:002024-02-10T22:11:39.055-05:00Terrence Malick and A-List Actors<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVinMJPFlBQNcDstaTEmW9uWW7M8IEX8wxK58acDaUtNYUQ3KtQuLLmKviJIe1LcXDl_qUMsqa_5uyiXQ3GWDt7_FUD3HILDYM_qh2iJw_KJsFGXth_L4ndbkOWKXfSJpQEuuKdeyF8HK3kw5C2IeGA-2alTJw__9zKu3V0I7RaGW5pc6r_BvXcx-Ubg/s2790/A%20Hidden%20Life.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2790" data-original-width="1872" height="481" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVinMJPFlBQNcDstaTEmW9uWW7M8IEX8wxK58acDaUtNYUQ3KtQuLLmKviJIe1LcXDl_qUMsqa_5uyiXQ3GWDt7_FUD3HILDYM_qh2iJw_KJsFGXth_L4ndbkOWKXfSJpQEuuKdeyF8HK3kw5C2IeGA-2alTJw__9zKu3V0I7RaGW5pc6r_BvXcx-Ubg/w323-h481/A%20Hidden%20Life.jpg" width="323" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I was asked if I could explain why a friend had difficulty maintaining his focus while watching Terrence Malick's A HIDDEN LIFE (2019). </span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Two short videos about the pervasive irony in A HIDDEN LIFE can be found <a href="https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2024/02/storytelling-tips-1-2-0-irony-in.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</span><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Pam and I screened the Blu-ray of it tonight and I will proffer an answer, by first commenting about the movie in general, it's structure, and its moral premise.</span></p><ul class="ul1"><li class="li3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">As with other Malick directed pictures, A HIDDEN LIFE (AHL) is driven by powerful visuals that if they don't directly and overwhelmingly evoke human emotion, they metaphor it with the purest example cinematic images of nature. Movies, like all good stories, should command attention to the human condition through emotional portrayals. AHL succeeds in this endeavor where most other films fail. </span></span></li><li class="li3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Ironically, while AHL succeeds in a film's most important category (emotional connection with the audience) it fails at being commercial. Consequently, it will not be seen by nearly as many as a commercial picture that fails to connect emotionally. I cannot imagine thousands flocking to movie theaters to screen AHL, but every minute kept me riveted by his wide-angle portrayal of the fragile human condition.</span></span></li><li class="li3" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Why is it not commercial? (1) The straight ahead, non-clever, obvious from the start plot is revealed in slow motion. It goes exactly where you expect it to go. There are no surprises; no reveals that enlighten. It is exactly like the many shots of the strongly flowing river—there is no escape from its historic pull to destiny. (2) The protagonist (Franz) is a hero character with incredible inner strength and no weakness, as a protagonist character would exhibit. </span><span class="s2" style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">Successful movies, however, even with a strong hero will still arc a little. Franz is not even tempted. (3) Its nearly 3 hour length seems every bit that long, and even for Malick there are sequences that are much longer than they should be. It seems obsessive and repetitive.</span></span></li><li class="li4" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">What is right with the movie: (1) The cinematography is masterful. (2) The structure follows mostly classical lines. (3) AHL shows and rarely does it tell. (4) The moral premise is true and consistent: Executing injustice and brutality leads to enslavement; but hidden goodness while quietly suffering injustice leads to freedom. [Of course "enlsavement" and "freedom" here are spiritual, not physical, which may be another reason the movie is not commercial. Commercial films metaphor the spiritual or psychological by first being physical.] (5) The movie well examples the closing moral theme on a George Eliot title card:</span></span></li></ul><blockquote><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“..for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">For any movie goer used to a fast-paced plot and surprises, reverses, and reveals on every page, AHL will put you to sleep and it will be hard to focus. AHL is a very spiritual and contemplative movie. While the photography is captivating and at times stunning, the story is very much internal, and requires a lot more thinking than the typically Hollywood fare. The characters spend a great deal of time in prayer and self-examination. Such on-screen actions, however, fall far from the cheap, cringe-worthy, virtue signaling we would see in a cheesy Christian faith film. Why? Because in AHL their prayers and self-reflection is not answered in a blaze of glory or narrative reversal. In fact, although AHL is very explicitly Christian and Catholic in many ways, it breaks the mold of a "faith film" in numerous, refreshing ways. One in particular is that in a Christian faith film when the main character consults with his pastor the pastor is always the good guy who pontificates a cheesy, sanctified, Bible perfect truism. In AHL the pastor sides with the Nazis. </span><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><b><u><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Why all the A-List Actors in a Non-Commercial Film?</span></u></b></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">AHL has no A-List Hollywood actors, but the acting is amazing to watch and reveals Terrence Malick's masterful touch at directing. Upon scanning through Malick's nine directed narrative features on IMDB that he had completed as of this posting -- and I know that IMDB is often derelict in being up to date -- it appears that everyone of the pictures failed to produce any significant earnings for the investors, and most bombed, at least in their theatrical outings, and I'm including THIN RED LINE in that claim. </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Why is it then that Terrence Malick can attach a host of A-list actors, when they have a pretty good idea that there will be no backend points coming their way? </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAC9y-0uOzwFd-YnPNIlqIep2CkQOnTR_K8X5dV7lTKiVSSI2gdwHFW2Z2KPmEyTFh0iLlGkr3c4ZuxKk_aOzWzI3ygRLx9VSxULNMcqyqzZUwAYiqL5R9OHdr5bub3E1OPmhaq_1rQ2yidiQKMuIW6bIi9fflxM4EARP1q3DPQJAs3bhw39TjIEqoKA/s1350/Malick-Attachments.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="638" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAC9y-0uOzwFd-YnPNIlqIep2CkQOnTR_K8X5dV7lTKiVSSI2gdwHFW2Z2KPmEyTFh0iLlGkr3c4ZuxKk_aOzWzI3ygRLx9VSxULNMcqyqzZUwAYiqL5R9OHdr5bub3E1OPmhaq_1rQ2yidiQKMuIW6bIi9fflxM4EARP1q3DPQJAs3bhw39TjIEqoKA/w510-h638/Malick-Attachments.jpg" width="510" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I have a theory, but it's an infant one since I am not a Terrence Malick aficionado. Perhaps I should be. I suspect it's because a Terrence Malick directed movie will be cinematically beautiful if not stunning, and A-listers want to be associated with anything that is beautiful if not stunning....the story and its structure being less important.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">[If you don't know, the only real requirement to attaching money to a project is attaching known names. So if Malick can attract a few names, the money will come.]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I also wonder if Malick the director is motivated more by poetic beauty and intrigued by philosophical contradictions and moral dilemmas evident in AHL (Malick taught philosophy for a while before launching his film career) and thus neglects the essentials of narrative that create a successful story structure and a catharsis necessary to produce word of mouth praise and provoke ticket sales. Some of his movies with huge stars attached have not even broken $1M at the domestic B.O. (according to IMDB.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Does anyone have a good answer to this question? Please comment.</b></span></p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-75622792905996322442022-07-18T17:35:00.001-05:002022-08-03T11:53:13.495-05:00Ordeals and Redemption - Video Blog<p><span style="font-size: medium;">Below is a video blog post for my Moral Premise followers based on a recent trip to Europe scouting for a documentary titled <a href="https://stanwilliams.com/ANGELQUEST/" target="_blank">The Sword of St. Michael</a>. The content is about the important concepts of Ordeals and Redemption in successful stories. But the visuals are all from the doc project. Enjoy. (stan williams)</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="393" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8jynAHQ84fM" width="473" youtube-src-id="8jynAHQ84fM"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-37225028601588042082022-05-12T16:32:00.009-05:002023-08-24T10:32:09.459-05:00Behzad Nohoseini on Story Structure<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZC7OLmyPLh-lIvUTXay3OTBHBbm4n0iSMcQfatD0CuBvApnaxy_GR-qqR5Q91MxI0gqFNYdLQ53T-kZdGreAgRQ4rF8-olgUzhTBifuCYsWqhx8oNv1e-XcXqEZcWQG7qCs8g8uFKUxoS2UQIY4KwFvcrkMe5YTc23Jt7rJSknGxYnn50dFVy1HELQ/s225/Alfred%20Hitchcock.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrZC7OLmyPLh-lIvUTXay3OTBHBbm4n0iSMcQfatD0CuBvApnaxy_GR-qqR5Q91MxI0gqFNYdLQ53T-kZdGreAgRQ4rF8-olgUzhTBifuCYsWqhx8oNv1e-XcXqEZcWQG7qCs8g8uFKUxoS2UQIY4KwFvcrkMe5YTc23Jt7rJSknGxYnn50dFVy1HELQ/w432-h432/Alfred%20Hitchcock.jpeg" width="432" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkJjfG-izfM5kWH4WX6aLBF1GFEEyo8IRycVHu0O3-kio8o1hOOUPsB4az6YIPJGFhQgEOoF0UvD-PQAFoHziyOx8MHan61UZ5zoZ12S0DtFfuXRLDI-oBIre0wK5JdU64UhsF9ib_oMo1bVVQKOKRbY7UUWwxsFeyjwh3ZnP1wfO8W1hsaKpG5VpMg/s1024/PJ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="439" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrkJjfG-izfM5kWH4WX6aLBF1GFEEyo8IRycVHu0O3-kio8o1hOOUPsB4az6YIPJGFhQgEOoF0UvD-PQAFoHziyOx8MHan61UZ5zoZ12S0DtFfuXRLDI-oBIre0wK5JdU64UhsF9ib_oMo1bVVQKOKRbY7UUWwxsFeyjwh3ZnP1wfO8W1hsaKpG5VpMg/w439-h439/PJ.jpg" width="439" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Em91gOwE0PsjdXxM0aYZQapdryT4cXSk-88jfJKdMHVkdOtMZ8o0Wcbn5d517MLcqaYt6sKR71tqPaL_AJWmmV8BngLl3rSbkV7yTmRjkG3vrMY864J7k_s2QzOR6dWOLAb7yO3hkFY2dZc6JJ7ncOvpTk4Uu1TMDOZbWwVTCV3d2O_BlmSEQWHrxA/s1024/David%20Fincher.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Em91gOwE0PsjdXxM0aYZQapdryT4cXSk-88jfJKdMHVkdOtMZ8o0Wcbn5d517MLcqaYt6sKR71tqPaL_AJWmmV8BngLl3rSbkV7yTmRjkG3vrMY864J7k_s2QzOR6dWOLAb7yO3hkFY2dZc6JJ7ncOvpTk4Uu1TMDOZbWwVTCV3d2O_BlmSEQWHrxA/w436-h436/David%20Fincher.jpg" width="436" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31JkI0oJoB8EauTtkFcGAvYfgc03bq6WC8btZ6UQahUWxwPHaziySw6W6S8OwIn85AsUaamMTmv7kL8Ku8YrLR_GeozDAelGCLyNMJiHdvM1AbpEidhj_uSmLe0s7kCyg6Xks6_M7jGK4PHlcsU8dlHQK-4OMr5LYwLEdZjdNow8IJ7VfNKvov52Qog/s1024/CN.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh31JkI0oJoB8EauTtkFcGAvYfgc03bq6WC8btZ6UQahUWxwPHaziySw6W6S8OwIn85AsUaamMTmv7kL8Ku8YrLR_GeozDAelGCLyNMJiHdvM1AbpEidhj_uSmLe0s7kCyg6Xks6_M7jGK4PHlcsU8dlHQK-4OMr5LYwLEdZjdNow8IJ7VfNKvov52Qog/w431-h431/CN.jpg" width="431" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjULbwYlwwhngD5Wgqi0JizhCOInDii-KxeCN_q75ycNUaHPjrs7pbxlE7rcsEGVPpvgRjkGso0TxCPMd4KjRTiaBYxxssVJqjw5s_tjo4nUvmfKiLQGGFyUPBkoaoFFjpGoS-dh57bjUPSHybTzR5mIGdb4vDh4BwkoBYdVMxhPFjKhJWPWPrtceTC-g/s225/Woody%20Allen.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjULbwYlwwhngD5Wgqi0JizhCOInDii-KxeCN_q75ycNUaHPjrs7pbxlE7rcsEGVPpvgRjkGso0TxCPMd4KjRTiaBYxxssVJqjw5s_tjo4nUvmfKiLQGGFyUPBkoaoFFjpGoS-dh57bjUPSHybTzR5mIGdb4vDh4BwkoBYdVMxhPFjKhJWPWPrtceTC-g/w430-h430/Woody%20Allen.jpeg" width="430" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-2538601667605563882022-05-11T07:25:00.004-05:002023-07-27T08:21:22.518-05:00You Can't Twist the Fabric of Reality<p>This short segment of a Jordan Peterson talk is an excellent description of The Heart of The Moral Premise concept. "You Can't Twist the Fabric of Reality and Get Away with it."</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="330" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b_gG8_z9wVo" width="397" youtube-src-id="b_gG8_z9wVo"></iframe></div><p>Peterson's point is summarized by an adage I first heard from my good friend Dan Glovak (R.I.P). Dan reminded his daughter and my son of this before they married: </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>You can make any choice you want, <br />but you have no control over the consequences.</i> </span></p><p>In my Moral Premise workshops I use this diagram, which I explain below.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCEsO-_2ei56WWcl3QBOHAjaaHp3htLNJlXXT7OYD1j8qCb_DnszVHRYsgo18OvhyOVZFDfAyK1wSB2jLHNHBmzSijjB4EvnRLr0PoU5gYiWYHSpzCakR1wQ-wgPeuonrYUzKNdfYHlwrC9aKVl1GT7bgQuAIS4Zu2idstK_CTn-n0_yKSJLQsNO_fw/s800/Decision%20Circle%20Color%20Edited.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="800" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimCEsO-_2ei56WWcl3QBOHAjaaHp3htLNJlXXT7OYD1j8qCb_DnszVHRYsgo18OvhyOVZFDfAyK1wSB2jLHNHBmzSijjB4EvnRLr0PoU5gYiWYHSpzCakR1wQ-wgPeuonrYUzKNdfYHlwrC9aKVl1GT7bgQuAIS4Zu2idstK_CTn-n0_yKSJLQsNO_fw/w493-h314/Decision%20Circle%20Color%20Edited.jpg" width="493" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Decision Cycle in Pursuit of a Goal</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A character (or real person, on the left) has a goal they want to achieve (the red star on the right). Typically the path to achieving the goal requires some sort of personal transformation. In reality (Peterson's "fabric of reality") the transformation takes place through <u>a long series of cycles through the following four steps</u>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. VALUE. The person possess certain values and reside deep in their psyche. The person may consciously recognize and be able to articulate those values, or they may not. The values may be either righteous, good, banal, bad, or evil. Regardless, the values are the inner motivations that control the person's decisions and actions. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. DECISION. When a person observes something outside themselves, such as the goal they want to achieve, or an anti-goal they want to avoid, their values kick into action. They may do this consciously or subconsciously, but they nonetheless evaluate, compare, and contrast what they observe (perhaps a behavior of a person or an event in the physical world) outside themselves to their motivational values. Depending on the strength of their values and the largeness or smallness of the observation, the person makes a decision to interact with the observation, or thing outside them. The person decides, perhaps, to change what they observe, or to come alongside it and encourage the behavior or presence of whatever it is. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Both steps 1. and 2. occur inside a person's psyche. They are invisible. But they are real events that happen in the person's mind. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">3. ACTION. Based on numerous factors and conditions, the person translates their values and decisions into the physical realm and takes some action, which as just mentioned either attempts to change or encourage the outside observation....or path the person wants to take toward their goal or anti-goal. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These first three steps are all within the control of the individual. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But once step 3. ACTION occurs, the person is at the mercy of Natural Law, or the fabric of reality. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">4. CONSEQUENCE. For every action there is a re-action. It could be an opposite and equal action as we know about in the realm of physics. Or, in the psychological realm it could be an alignment or encouraging, reinforcing action. But either one is not for the individual to decide or control. The consequence is entirely regulated by Natural Law. It may be a law of physics, like gravity—you can't step off a cliff without falling and hurting or killing yourself. Or, it could be a law of human psychology. If you are disloyal to a friend, Natural Law indicates you have a good chance of losing that friendship. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The result?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After the person experiences the Consequence (and depending on the severity of it or them), the person may adjust their values, hopefully driving them closer to an alignment with Natural Law (The Fabric of Reality), where they will find true peace and happiness. If the person is malleable in this way, given enough of the cycles through those four steps, Natural Law will nudge the person toward what is good, true, and beautiful...unless the person is particularly belligerent and meets a tragic end—the true villains among us. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This diagram and explanation is all very nice, but it's missing the sizzle of Peterson's passion and insight.. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-45339327265593845312022-05-07T14:26:00.006-05:002022-05-07T14:29:33.266-05:00Storytelling and Pop Music<p> Here is a YouTube episode from the popular musical theorist Adam Neely about Céline Dion's performance of All by Myself, a live performance on February 23, 2016. Neely breaks down the music, the physicality, and the storytelling elements in an astounding analysis of why songs and music work. It's meaty, sit up straight and listen carefully. Secrets are about to be revealed.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="393" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/epqYft12nV4" width="473" youtube-src-id="epqYft12nV4"></iframe></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-70215688264186107642021-12-09T07:58:00.002-05:002021-12-09T07:58:52.858-05:00 Tips on Reading and Understanding Screenplays<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCEj4HampH2oztwi6yl-B1IhiZPCouAL4mPfyJ2pBfBKiTh0ZZ_30Rt6iOzrCNqnJ-Vi5Ohj6wsugIqWlj5O22wXzMdpE4iAbG4XfBZXsWdjLSTI6L8h37jM5yGme7Zr6rdm7N-avPEb6jyg6COfRiHKHgDBkFfWp2jAEOYbIlPxNqhJQ5oRka5JbSOA=s456" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="456" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiCEj4HampH2oztwi6yl-B1IhiZPCouAL4mPfyJ2pBfBKiTh0ZZ_30Rt6iOzrCNqnJ-Vi5Ohj6wsugIqWlj5O22wXzMdpE4iAbG4XfBZXsWdjLSTI6L8h37jM5yGme7Zr6rdm7N-avPEb6jyg6COfRiHKHgDBkFfWp2jAEOYbIlPxNqhJQ5oRka5JbSOA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br />Here are some tips for folks who want to read a screenplay but find it confusing and unconventional. If I miss something important, tell me and I'll add it to this post. <p></p><p><b>1. SCREENPLAYS (SP) ARE NECESSARILY SUCCINCT</b>. They're charged with creating emotionally ladened stories and engaging characters in as few words as possible. There are mechanical and well as creative reasons for this:</p><p>Mechanically, the SP should represent the length of the film such that one page equals one minute of screen time. This does not leave room for elaborate descriptions.</p><p>Creatively the succinctness leaves plenty of room for the creative input for actors, directors, art directors, costumers, and the composer. </p><p><b>2. SCENE HEADINGS. </b> Every new location or new time begins with a SCENE HEADING, also called a SLUG LINE. The slug line always begins with INT. for interior scene, or EXT. for exterior scene. Sometimes the actions begins inside and ends outside, INT./EXT. is used. Following this is the location of the scene, and at the end of the line is the time of day in simple terms: DAY or NIGHT, or sometimes SUNSET, or DUSK, etc. Slug lines are always ALL CAPS, sometimes they are also underlined and bolded.</p><p>At the end of some slug lines is the word ESTABLISHING. This means the shot is a WIDE view of the location, usually a building with no principal actors visible. It's a short scene that establishes where the next action takes place, usually an interior room of the building.</p><p><b>3. ACTION DESCRIPTION</b> immediately follows the slug line. These short sentences describe what is seen and heard, but never what is spoken. SUPER: "TEXT ON SCREEN" indicates text on screen. Sounds created in post-production are always CAPITALIZED, but not sounds that can be recorded on the set. ACTION is always written in present-active voice, never past-tense. SPECIAL EFFECTS are often ALL CAPS as well.</p><p><b>4. DIALOGUE</b> is preceded by the name of the CHARACTER. Both are indented from the margin.</p><p>Following the <b>CHARACTER'S NAME</b>, that precedes the words spoken are often abbreviations. If the abbreviations do not follow then the voice is spoken on camera and we see the actor's lips move, although often in the editing room that changes. Lips that move in sync with the picture are in SYNC, a term rarely used in screenplays, but sometimes necessary for clarity. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>V.O. = Voice Over (a voice that is NOT in the scene)</li><li>O.C. = Off Camera (a voice from an actor in the scene but not seen by the camera.</li><li>O.S. = Off Screen is an alternative for O.C.</li><li>SOTTO = the actor speaks the lines softly to him or herself</li><li>CONT'D. = the line that follows is a continuation of the line before separated by an action description of a page break.</li><li>FILTERED = processed voice, possibly to make it sound as if it's coming over a phone.</li><li>SINGS = the lines are sung</li><li>(PRE-LAP) = the line spoken comes from the following scene (after the next slug line). A pre-lap line is concluded after the visual transistion to the next scene. </li></ul><p></p><p><b>5. SPECIAL DENOTATIONS</b> usually justified left:</p><p>INSERT and END INSERT (or BACK TO SCENE) sets off a close up shot of something in the set that needs to be seen up close. An insert does not require a slug line.</p><p>POV and BACK TO SCENE indicates beginning and end of a character's POINT OF VIEW or what the character sees. The camera becomes the character's eyes for a few moments. JAKE'S POV - THE BRACELET. A POV does not require a slug line. </p><p>FLASHBACK followed lines later by END FLASHBACK indicates a scene that jumps back in time. FLASHFORWARD does the opposite. Flashbacks require a new slug line.</p><p>DREAMS and VISIONS are formatted just like FLASHBACKS.</p><p><b>6. TRANSITIONS</b> are justified RIGHT and include CUT TO, DISSOLVE, FADE IN, FADE OUT, etc.</p><p>If no transition is noted, the assumption is a CUT.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-39400672791554548362021-10-02T11:07:00.004-05:002021-10-02T17:23:57.405-05:00How Invisible Moral Decisions Effect Visible Physical Plots<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGEYYSbBFiJdKEhINvNwK6YuW2iuB2vbBV2MlY8-0BnKRYST4KUOOEyylz1Bce0iDRB5LDvGgqk6XmXdS0XXAoGSUNhhIocif0rV_yPUhndSeVzmryel4cOR9jxYqpB_NDZ5SM0O7Sgsd/s1080/Check-Your-Premise.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuGEYYSbBFiJdKEhINvNwK6YuW2iuB2vbBV2MlY8-0BnKRYST4KUOOEyylz1Bce0iDRB5LDvGgqk6XmXdS0XXAoGSUNhhIocif0rV_yPUhndSeVzmryel4cOR9jxYqpB_NDZ5SM0O7Sgsd/s320/Check-Your-Premise.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I'm helping a friend who has ALS write his memoir. He's a retired automotive design engineer who side-lined as arm-chair philosopher. For years he's been active on a few Internet forums that discuss politics, religion, philosophy, and language. He is always reminding people to "check your premise." <p></p><p>Now he's not a story writer, so when he says "check your premise" he's not consciously referring to my book <i>The Moral Premise, </i>this blog, nor is he referring to writers crafting a story. </p><p>Well, that's not exactly true. He IS referring to the person he's dialoguing with and the story they are writing about themselves with their life...in the same way a writer makes "life" decisions for a fictional character. </p><p>In this idea of making moral decisions and checking your premise is the mechanical process that allows audiences to emotionally connect with fictional characters. <i>The moral premises of our characters must accurately reflect how real people interact with the unchangeable laws of the universe</i>. The laws of the universe include both physical and psychological laws—or metaphysical laws often referred to as spiritual and moral. Don't let anyone tell you naturally sourced spiritual and moral laws are relative. Governments can make laws and try to enforce them, but such "laws" are subject to the immutable laws of the universe and human nature. </p><p>Back to my friend.</p><p>His advice to...</p><blockquote><p>CHECK YOUR PREMISE...</p></blockquote><p>lives alongside the concept that</p><blockquote><p>REALITY DOES NOT AND CANNOT CONTRADICT ITSELF.</p></blockquote><p>Neither can your characters live in contradiction to reality. But of course they try. That's the foundation of drama. A character can willfully walk off the edge of a 100-foot rocky cliff, as he attempts to force reality to contradict itself. But since <i>reality does not and cannot contradict itself</i>, your character falls to his death. </p><p>In the same way, if a character lives by a moral premise that lying is a virtue (as some of our legislators believe) reality will catch up with them. Oh, for a time, a law that contracts reality may be passed and enforced, but eventually there will be a reckoning. Reality will have the last say.</p><p>When plotting out the physical beats of a story you must include in the plotting the moral premise (or the value system invisible in the character's head) for the character's physical actions. Mental decisions are part of the plot. Without the mental process you cannot have physical action. Of course, I'm assuming you're writing a story about a moral agent, a person who has the psychological will to act...either in cooperation with reality (natural law) or contrary to it. In every case, the internal, invisible decision, based on a motivating moral premise or value, will determine whether or not the physical consequences will bring pleasure or pain to your character. In order to connect with audiences that consequence must agree with reality. It cannot be in contradiction to reality. </p><p>SUBTLE CONTRADICTIONS</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaF7YVnfkgVKJH-O7ghbxaRsDoyUBdXRyUjYhndWeRdOTzaK32uRa-Qf70voq7K0UFKuKzrq3OLAKV080yPElmy6YpotqtwPCFIo1mSV8L6e0YDH8eKKclhRwqAz3ZlqU7yHuLXqGsmCjp/s1080/Reality+Not+Contradict+Itself+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaF7YVnfkgVKJH-O7ghbxaRsDoyUBdXRyUjYhndWeRdOTzaK32uRa-Qf70voq7K0UFKuKzrq3OLAKV080yPElmy6YpotqtwPCFIo1mSV8L6e0YDH8eKKclhRwqAz3ZlqU7yHuLXqGsmCjp/s320/Reality+Not+Contradict+Itself+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Now, let's take this one level deeper into the sub-conscience, as Christopher Nolan (Inception) might do. Let's assume a character (like a person in real life) commits some contradiction to reality. He breaks a law, or commits a sin, or embraces some vice that is invisible to those around him. Yet it's <u>not</u> something brazen that will eventually be discovered is the physical realm, like an illegal pyramid scheme. Let's assume the contradiction (or vice) is entirely mental on the part of the character—envy, greed, lust, bitterness, hate, arrogance. Of course, any of these can easily be personified, and take the form of physical action. Your character participates in the mental game of envy, greed, lust, bitterness, hate, or arrogance because they believe (perhaps subconsciously) that harboring such thoughts will bring them pleasure. But reality does not allow pleasure to flow from vice. <p></p><p>What happens is subtle. The character knows (consciously or subconsciously) that thoughts of envy, greed, etc. can lead to physical actions that others will quickly regard as wrong. This is where the age-old adage "what you think is what you are" comes into play. Such thoughts lead to guilt, and guilt leads to distraction, or perhaps evil thoughts lead to distraction first, and then guilt. Eventually, the character becomes obsessed with the thoughts and the potential ramifications that even without acting on the thoughts, other activities, even seemingly insignificant ones, like house keeping (making bed), hygiene (brushing teeth), and financial (no tips at a restaurant), lead to a lack of self-esteem, which leads to depression, which leads to some physical act that is seemingly totally unrelated to the original thoughts of envy, greed, etc. Perhaps it's an argument with the lawn service because the grass was cut too short. Perhaps your character drops a jug of milk and it spills all over the kitchen floor. He's late for an appointment (due to multiple distractions that build up) and gets a ticket for speeding, and then argues with the cop and ends up in jail overnight. </p><p>In this way even mental lapses with reality, and just thinking about living in contradiction with reality, can lead to a character's detriment. In this way a complex character can enter into a plot that may at first seem disjointed, until the real problem, a psychological, mental, moral, or spiritual mind set is revealed. </p><blockquote><p>CHECK YOUR CHARACTER'S PREMISE... </p></blockquote><p>...his moral values. Is he attempting to live in contradiction with reality, even if only inside his mind? Remember:</p><blockquote><p>REALITY CANNOT CONTRADICT ITSELF. </p></blockquote><p>Only the government can contradict reality...although not for long. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-60470917421234156262021-10-01T08:05:00.002-05:002021-10-01T08:05:49.976-05:00Movie Material: The Captain's Wife<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI10FntGyzTv0OwTR6gUj9lmegyjgkKJMFjLzAtVLUzE_ruMOfUe2HKxclTeOkXElpdK33Hxz7itJg0AYA7GEG8u1tQdEZXWYcDx4G-8pfpO76ZBLOmgex1sj51rfXh07xfDIg8ZX4ayy/s800/History-Hustle-Mary-Patten-ship-in-sickness-and-in-health-fact.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuI10FntGyzTv0OwTR6gUj9lmegyjgkKJMFjLzAtVLUzE_ruMOfUe2HKxclTeOkXElpdK33Hxz7itJg0AYA7GEG8u1tQdEZXWYcDx4G-8pfpO76ZBLOmgex1sj51rfXh07xfDIg8ZX4ayy/s320/History-Hustle-Mary-Patten-ship-in-sickness-and-in-health-fact.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Here's a post that reinforces what we all know as writers: Write What You Know...or can research and know second hand. </p>On Instagram I follow HistoryHustleOfficial, which posts short blurbs about fascinating but forgotten (or nearly so) events in history. Being a recreational sailor, with two ship builders in my ancestry, I've had a fascination with the age of sail, the ships and the men that risked their lives to make nearly impossible passages and establish worldwide trade and communication. <p></p><p>When the post at right from History Hustle appeared in their feed, I immediately went on-line, found and purchased two books. One was the non-fiction account of the large clipper ship <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Neptunes-Car-American-Paul-Simpson/dp/0244305420/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Neptune%27s+Car&qid=1633093061&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank"><i>Neptune's Car </i>by Paul Simpson</a>. It was well written and included the story of Mary Patten (below). The second was a meticulously researched, well-written, edited, and dramatic novel <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Captains-Wife-Douglas-Kelley/dp/0452283558" target="_blank"><i>The Captain's Wife </i>by Douglas Kelley.</a></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBU_dOiCUyNU8QU86MkN0e-khd1gAn0xj_U6cil6XIBV8hIvRD5k8plpSMK67V9oALZH37QkSe2t4v6T2JE_9pC4GQTA98i2wQv_gEPDQwcnbpHtNmYPhaMfPw7GUdzhVlp9jGFbE21SZj/s2048/IMG_6258+no+red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1328" data-original-width="2048" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBU_dOiCUyNU8QU86MkN0e-khd1gAn0xj_U6cil6XIBV8hIvRD5k8plpSMK67V9oALZH37QkSe2t4v6T2JE_9pC4GQTA98i2wQv_gEPDQwcnbpHtNmYPhaMfPw7GUdzhVlp9jGFbE21SZj/s320/IMG_6258+no+red.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>For the last several weeks Pam and I read Kelley's book to each other after dinner, a few chapters at a time. It captured our imagination and often we didn't want to stop reading. Not only is the story amazing, but Douglas Kelley, who seems to have disappeared from the Internet after this book was published by Penguin/Dutton, did a fantastic job researching the story, the era, and the working of the ships. He rarely tacks or wears from the true story documented by Simpson. <p></p><p>Yes, the book held our attention because we are sailors on the Great Lakes and have been through some storms and bad weather aboard our 41-foot Islander Freeport ketch, which is a heavy, blue-water vessel. But the story appeals to both to men and women since the characters are mostly men (of the roughest breed). Yet it's a quiet but resolved woman who saves them from death on the high-seas while rounding Cape Horn in the winter. <i>Who would do such a thing?</i> Well, many did, and others died trying. </p><p>Pam and I have often read to each other aloud rather than watching movies. We love both. But books last longer than a movie. LOL! And since I'm working on a novel right now (which includes a couple chapters aboard a 1788 square rigger in a storm) it's good to read well-written material similar to what you're trying to write.</p><p>Here's the brief story about Mary Patten from <a href="https://historyhustle.com/mary-patten-faced-down-mutiny/" target="_blank">History Hustle</a>:</p><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></b></p><blockquote><p><b><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />When the Captain Fell Ill, His 19-Year-Old Wife Saved the Ship and Faced Down a Mutiny</span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1856 the captain of an American clipper collapsed of illness, leaving his 19-year-old wife to navigate. Mary Patten commanded for 56 days while pregnant, faced down a mutiny, and studied medicine to keep her husband alive. She earned fame and was awarded $1000 for her heroics. She said she was doing “only the plain duty of a wife.”</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #282828; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In 1853, Mary married a sea captain named Joshua Patten. His ship would take people and cargo from New York to Boston.</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When Joshua Patten took over for a captain on another ship bound for San Francisco in 1854, he took his new wife, Mary, along with him.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mary, was determined to be of help on the ship and she read up on how to sail a ship, and how to navigate, so she could be useful. She also learned “meteorology, the ropes and sails, stowage of cargo, and many other ship’s duties”. And next time, on the second voyage to San Francisco, she again joined her husband, this time pregnant.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As was common in those times, Patten could receive thousands of dollars if he got there in under 100 days. So the captain was pretty angry when his first mate was caught sleeping. He locked him up as punishment. But the second mate was not a great sailor and so the captain had to do the work of multiple men himself.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But he ended up getting sick with a fever. So Mary Patten, in true fashion, read medical books on board and learned how to treat him. She also now had to captain the ship.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The first mate asked her to let him out, but she wanted to respect her husband’s wishes, so she refused. He tried to get the crew to mutiny against her, but she was able to convince them that she could lead the ship and secure the reward money.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When she finally finished the successful voyage, she became a celebrity. She was awarded $1,000, and a fund was created to help out with some costs.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Mary Patten she was doing, “only the plain duty of a wife towards a good husband.”</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #282828; margin-bottom: 1.25em; word-spacing: 0.3px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p>By the way, Douglas Kelley isn't a sailor, but is a corporate pilot, or at least was when he wrote and researched this book. So, the case in point is that if you can't write what you know, you CAN research the topic until you DO know it. Kelley proves the point with <i>The Captain's Wife.</i><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-36368986418062424962021-08-04T07:23:00.003-05:002021-08-04T13:06:49.413-05:00The Virtue of Procrastination<p> Been working on a long-form novel for a long-now time. I already know what happens in every scene... I have very long detailed outline. But HOW things happens in a scene seems only to be resolved by procrastination—doing everything else except writing to give more time to psychologically rummage. I'm posting this blog instead of writing. LOVE this meme:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkoTGABbwT9Z8YNkgLS0p9g2q04pjV_YIan7NZ9gGJhxed-_mb_rOBOriRpxVl7YnYU4JEq4Z7jHQNIHSj9JRhAB5ffFSo_yxUGuLMyZdHaes1LJP8OzTIbQCwTnUplYdpBfJj_prkULG9/s923/Screen+Shot+2021-08-02+at+21.51.43.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="923" data-original-width="612" height="515" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkoTGABbwT9Z8YNkgLS0p9g2q04pjV_YIan7NZ9gGJhxed-_mb_rOBOriRpxVl7YnYU4JEq4Z7jHQNIHSj9JRhAB5ffFSo_yxUGuLMyZdHaes1LJP8OzTIbQCwTnUplYdpBfJj_prkULG9/w341-h515/Screen+Shot+2021-08-02+at+21.51.43.png" width="341" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-30017150728584774642021-08-02T10:50:00.007-05:002022-07-25T17:32:19.339-05:00Protecting Film Investors<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp82uVZpsx1QBb4XNsCVMAD5El4uFLdr7Lra6e0bXGBAt2pBMgcWje-kmEjv8IQkhbU2qFiEY2U3C9o_n39iFb_m3EjIK_BwXR143DClJQmrGamtun78CD631ypPFJR86omG7wonrIibE3/s276/MarkLitwak.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="276" data-original-width="183" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp82uVZpsx1QBb4XNsCVMAD5El4uFLdr7Lra6e0bXGBAt2pBMgcWje-kmEjv8IQkhbU2qFiEY2U3C9o_n39iFb_m3EjIK_BwXR143DClJQmrGamtun78CD631ypPFJR86omG7wonrIibE3/s0/MarkLitwak.jpeg" width="183" /></a></div><br />This from Mark Litwak. I've made use of Mark's digital contracts and a number of his very good books for years. He's a valuable resource. <p></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;">Law Offices of Mark Litwak & Associates</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">201 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Santa Monica, CA 90401</span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Phone: </span><a href="x-webdoc://D0A46CA8-CCA4-4827-A128-705125133871#" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #155368;" target="_blank">(310) 859-9595</a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">E Mail: </span><a href="mailto:Law3@marklitwak.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: #155368; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Law3@marklitwak.com</a></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;">Website: </span><a href="https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001Iw6LK32m7KlHHyLFjU1uzoH62TB1yBZKZFI8FsvyYYnRBnAUbp3aV7PhR0cwQnkndBaErOi2VC01SEtJAi0-EaG__uu7zIIn8n_XEZKo-tWDneK4ZyOHT-JxFw6rRFmODalz1iudddb6z_6JEspUxfeCPD3nR_W3uilmWSUNyRScCAXphKIuNyBMbedg--AxbUFB3dvuNDn3BeMOSyMh_SLGKCRxa0kMvGmDwZXBMCy6ekWucNYRy3rR3AU5TsgXBqw2tqhsTQQLJMtAELR4cHnx6NUuFDUR3xBQit9vyCO5ZTmxKQXcyK-9ZJWZjDfNi2WmGVxwspNCMBI0L40_o9hQXVHcP_89&c=eMikF3EhGc04OpTimvDtJlokqUIhtjakT1HNavkwzKQpg-c-EoB1Wg==&ch=ZYfqL21enhbMwUc4yJ49CQdfjL92SeclV2fteMASpvAOTviaoFWgIQ==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">www.marklitwak.com</a><span style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: purple; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;">A more comprehensive version of this article by Mark Litwalt appeared in the Vanderbilt Law Journal. Mark made it available as a PDF. It's here for your edification. </span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://stanwilliams.com/MORALPREMISE/the_hollywood_shuffle_Mark Litwak.pdf" target="_blank">The Hollywood Shuffle: Protecting Film Investors</a></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: bold;">I have a shelf full of Movie Finance related books, and I've written my share of Film Business Plan using Mark's advice as a template. This is good stuff.</span></div><div class="gl-contains-text" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" class="editor-text subheadline-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #7f7f7f; display: block; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 10px 20px;" valign="top"><div class="text-container galileo-ap-content-editor"><div><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 24px;">Protecting Film Investors</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Film investments have a bad reputation, and deservedly so. There are instances where financiers have been cheated and lost their entire investment. Consequently, some investors simply refuse to consider film-related investments. This is unfortunate because an intelligent investment in a motion picture can earn substantial returns. While film investments are risky, the potential return from a hit can be enormous. No only can the film earn revenue from box office receipts, but there are many ancillary sources of income. These sources include revenue from television, home video, merchandising, music publishing, soundtrack albums, sequels and remakes.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">As an attorney who represents investors, as well as filmmakers, I have learned that there are ways to reduce the risk of film investments. Here is a checklist to guide investors.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">DUE DILIGENCE: </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Thoroughly investigate the reputation and track record of any producer or distributor you contemplate doing business with. No contract can adequately protect you against a scoundrel. Speak to filmmakers and investors who have done business with a candidate. Check court records to see if the company has been sued.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">FULL DISCLOSURE:</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Federal and State security laws are designed to protect investors. Offerings to the public generally require prior registration with the SEC or a state agency. Usually private placements are limited to persons with whom the offeror has a pre-existing relationship. Even if registration is not required, the anti-fraud provisions of the security laws require that the offeror make full disclosure of all facts that a reasonably prudent investor would need to know in deciding whether to invest. The information disclosed should include a detailed recitation of all the risks involved in developing, producing and marketing a movie. Avoid any offering that appears to violate this requirement by making less than full and truthful disclosure. Carefully read the private placement memorandum (PPM) and consult your own financial and legal advisors before making a decision to invest.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">TRACK RECORD: </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Do not back a filmmaker or production team that does not possess the proven skill needed to make a professional-looking movie. Avoid first-time filmmakers. You are safer backing filmmakers whose have completed at least one short or a feature-length work. Partner with people of integrity who bring the skills, expertise and resources to the endeavor that you lack. For instance, if you don't have the knowledge necessary to evaluate a script, bring aboard someone who has that expertise, or hire a script doctor.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">IDENTIFY THE POTENTIAL MARKET FOR THE FILM: </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">There is a very limited market, and modest potential revenue, to be earned from short films, documentaries, black and white films, and foreign language pictures. </span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Certain themes, topics and genres can be difficult to sell. Religiously-themed pictures can easily offend audiences. Cerebral comedies can be difficult to export because their humor may not translate well. Films with a great deal of violence may be shunned by European television which is a prime market for independents. Films with explicit sex may not pass censorship boards in certain countries.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Independent films without name actors are difficult to sell. Of course, name recognition varies around the world. The star of an American television series may be a big name in the United State but unknown abroad. On the other hand, some actors have large following aboard, yet are relatively unknown in the United States. You can consult a source like<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://imdbpro.com/">IMDBpro.com</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for how well known an actor is.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">DON'T BACK DIRECTORS WHO ARE ONLY CONCERNED WITH THEIR OWN VISION: </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">The director of the film is the key person who will determine whether the final product is marketable. If a filmmaker shows no concern about making a movie with audience appeal, you can expect a film whose exhibition will be limited to the family and friends of the filmmaker. This is not to say that the only films you should invest in are low-brow fare like "Dumb and Dumber." A well-made "art" film like "Elizabeth," can win awards and make a handsome return on investment. Filmmakers should give some thought beforehand as to the nature of the film's intended audience. I once watched a wonderful "Lassie" type film spiced with four-letter words uttered by one character. I explained to the filmmaker that his film would never sell in the family market because of the vulgar language, and it was too soft a story to appeal to teens and adults.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">CONGRUENCE OF INTERESTS:</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"> It is best to invest in an endeavor where everyone shares the same risks and rewards. A filmmaker who takes a large fee from the production budget may financially prosper from a picture that returns nothing to the investors. It is better to back a filmmaker willing to work for a modest wage and share in the success of the endeavor through deferments or profit participation. An investor can take some comfort investing in a motion picture on the same terms as a producer or distributor where all parties recoup at the same time. Beware of investing in a project where other parties benefit when you lose.</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">UNDERSTAND THE PARAMETERS OF A FAIR DEAL: </span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;">Usually, investors are entitled to recoup all of their investment from first revenues before payment of deferments or profits. Many times investors are allowed to recoup 110% or more of their investment in order to compensate them for loss of interest and inflation. Profits are declared after payment of debts, investor recoupment and payment of deferments. Profits are generally split 50/50 between the producer(s) and the investors. Thus, investors who provide 100% of the financing are entitled to 50% of the profits. From the producer's half of net profits are paid any third-party profit participants (e.g. the writer, director and stars).</span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"></span><a href="https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001q8gWLSbRHnNuO1CPTsC4PLDUHzYnjWvblxxy1ZoiO6Ym-z3DHPQAgavcZkbpoo6rKQ0WsuZxC7iYxUjvLDbP7m2flUUlYexSKl8E1xYBV04wATqswp4VIvR8Z4ZwMVhTXNg1xD7ZiUwpeqskHkuykzRhCqEfprhaoSbDv-n_5Yw9Ntq0-_EUbEhVTK0qYL7-&c=-xinWflEbvd_-NnzbbidnR2k62x1Sfj2QynwaDcjQne6Qp6iCmbfdw==&ch=N2QBtQTy1cDVPq45AKVymFfN6tZivgKGeMBT9h5EuCmtmce10o_itw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Continue Reading</a></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;"> 1. See section 1268.2, California Code of Civil Procedure.</span></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="gl-contains-divider" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="editor-divider" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" class="divider-container" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="galileo-ap-content-editor" style="border-collapse: collapse; cursor: default; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" class="divider-base divider-solid" style="padding: 9px 0px;" valign="top" width="100%"><table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; height: 1px; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 295px;"><tbody><tr><td align="center" bgcolor="#6F849D" height="1" style="background-color: #6f849d; border-bottom-style: none; height: 1px; line-height: 1px; padding-bottom: 1px;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" hspace="0" src="https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/sys/S.gif" style="display: block; height: 1px; width: 5px;" vspace="0" width="5" /></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="gl-contains-text" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; table-layout: fixed; width: 100%px;"><tbody><tr><td align="left" class="editor-text subheadline-text" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; color: #7f7f7f; display: block; font-family: Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.2; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 10px 20px;" valign="top"><div></div><div class="text-container galileo-ap-content-editor"><div><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif;">Mark Litwak is an entertainment attorney, author and expert witness based in Los Angeles, California. His practice includes work in the areas of copyright, trademark, contract, multimedia law, intellectual property, and book publishing. As a Producer's Representative, he assists filmmakers in arranging financing, marketing and distribution of their films. He is an Adjunct Professor at U.S.C. Gould School of Law.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001q8gWLSbRHnNuO1CPTsC4PLDUHzYnjWvblxxy1ZoiO6Ym-z3DHPQAgc4WQcanDxhFofQH-1Rb-WBzbUP7V26nxUbCCILTOm2x9NIcLhgXI8eNiJSGd3SgfM38b6g4fXhYeoKbp1BRaAYyTRHBy9CKabY_QmjuMdVFdVROI4rhEyCmseK5DKm9p5VPo5bc3eqw-JbqEP-xrPpXCsA4T-77LpanxnOvSeTmXqLRq8K0RkMToh31m3PJ9WHtAb9iSflQfFLWq1IikvcoArt_6lPI7tQbNFpmK3aWOwodY1JiAMvlTlaTLAV3_XDQJJo5KbCjI3uwIftBlp4=&c=-xinWflEbvd_-NnzbbidnR2k62x1Sfj2QynwaDcjQne6Qp6iCmbfdw==&ch=N2QBtQTy1cDVPq45AKVymFfN6tZivgKGeMBT9h5EuCmtmce10o_itw==" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Profile</a></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-35067171595703161372021-07-31T14:27:00.004-05:002021-11-10T05:57:06.504-05:0025 Flawless Movies?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqrve6PtBYwX0bMseF3Sq-xLitwFAALQGD81z6B2D65HO45chiOuYIT2lftH8tmBhlG3xZ61z_xFLP0JGk_nAg6fwrYKACqWJoyO6tck2d32-b-bSLRedJv33zqCXWHWOajZxjFFCvI-i3/s1198/2001.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="950" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqrve6PtBYwX0bMseF3Sq-xLitwFAALQGD81z6B2D65HO45chiOuYIT2lftH8tmBhlG3xZ61z_xFLP0JGk_nAg6fwrYKACqWJoyO6tck2d32-b-bSLRedJv33zqCXWHWOajZxjFFCvI-i3/w342-h431/2001.jpg" width="342" /></a></div>I clicked on one of those advertising "click-bait" sites: "25 Flawless Movies." There are way more than 25 films listed, because there are hundreds of sucker advertisers paying the site owner to get their ad exposed to eyeballs. It's a scam. I never look at the ads, which is about the only content on the pages. It's also a scam because some of the movies listed were terrible, and all had flaws at some level.<p></p><p>But I was inspired to attempt an answer to a frequent question, "What is your favorite movie?" </p><p>My answer is simple. It's <i>2001: A Space Odyssey.</i> During college I saw it 10 times, once with my Senior Philosophy Symposium Class with our instructor that explained <i>Thus Spake Zarathustra</i> to us and what the movie was really about. I still find the special effects the best of any science fiction movie, including Star Wars.</p><p>Below is MY list, in alphabetical order. I tried to cut it down to 25, then to 50, but I couldn't. I think there are 67. I enjoyed all of these too much to eliminate them from the list, even though some did not do well at the box office for some Moral Premise reason, and thus I would claim have flaws. There is really no such thing as a flawless movie, especially since movies (at least the good ones) are works of art and thus subject to subjective judgements. Nonetheless...</p><p>What are some of your favorite movies? Please add them to the comments.</p><p class="p1" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 0px 5px 18px; text-align: left;">10<br />2001: A Space Odyssey (all time favorite)<br />A Man and a Woman<br />Aliens I<br />Amadeus<br />Amistad<br />Annie Hall<br />As Good As It Gets<br />Babel<br />Birdman<br />Blazing Saddles <br />Blind Side<br />Braveheart<br />Bruce Almighty<br />Casablanca<br />Chinatown<br />City Slickers I<br />Close Encounters of the Third Kind<br />Crimes and Misdemeanors<br />Exorcism of Emily Rose<br />Die Hard<br />Dr. Zhivago <br />George Lucas in Love (short)<br />Gone With the Wind<br />Grand Torino<br />Green Mile<br />Ground Hog Day<br />Hail Caesar!<br />Hancock<br />Help, The<br />Hurt Locker<br />Incredibles, The<br />Inception<br />In the Bedroom<br />Jaws<br />Karate Kid V (2010)<br />Kite Runner<br />Lawrence of Arabia<br />Liar! Liar!<br />Lord of the Rings: (all three)<br />Momento<br />Monty Python and the Holy Grail<br />Noah (Aronofsky)<br />Notorious!<br />Once Upon a Time in Hollywood<br />Passage to India<br />Passion of the Christ<br />Precious<br />Pride and Glory (Gavin O'Conner)<br />Purpose Rose of Cairo<br />Pursuit of Happyness<br />Raiders of the Lost Ark<br />Ratatouille<br />Revenant<br />Saving Private Ryan<br />Searchers<br />Secretariat<br />Signs<br />Silence<br />Silver Linings Playbook<br />Slumdog Millionaire<br />St. Vincent<br />Taken<br />Warrior (Gavin O'Conner)<br />What Women Want<br />Where Do We Go Now<br />Where the Heart Is</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-91350030417698656332021-07-29T07:45:00.000-05:002021-07-29T07:45:20.211-05:00Narrative Theory & Beyond Order<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi26HwuhMrYx5QsxVGiy0p3j2xbgjQn0uI7YdEgieGoMzztbXNUo6FfKZjRYVao_VlkJhx9zNq4Cno8YumX_2DAYkrHUsEBTFSq0zArN-SUdS9zfxqb0H5SoP8E55MMVKXg_0x8pIv1V6-e/s983/BeyondOrder.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="983" data-original-width="603" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi26HwuhMrYx5QsxVGiy0p3j2xbgjQn0uI7YdEgieGoMzztbXNUo6FfKZjRYVao_VlkJhx9zNq4Cno8YumX_2DAYkrHUsEBTFSq0zArN-SUdS9zfxqb0H5SoP8E55MMVKXg_0x8pIv1V6-e/w271-h442/BeyondOrder.png" width="271" /></a></div><br />A few minutes ago I finished reading <a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/beyond-order-12-more-rules-for-life/" target="_blank">Jordan Peterson's book <i>BEYOND ORDER: 12 More Rules for Life. </i></a><p></p><p>I normally do not write book reviews on this blog, and I hope this post doesn't turn into one. But I mention it here on the Moral Premise Storycraft Blog because <i>Beyond Order</i> has <u>a great deal to say about Storytelling and Narrative Theory</u>. </p><p>While I enjoyed and heavily endorsed his <i>12 Rules for Life, Beyond Order </i>is better. I think <i>Beyond Order</i> is better written and edited, but it also has more explicit things to say about Storytelling and its importance to culture... things I have said for decades. </p><p>Unlike many people who comment on Peterson's work, his writings have not revolutionized my life, but they have reinforced my worldview and how I attempt to live it. The life principles he examines are very much how I was brought up by responsible parents within a Biblical Christian worldview. But yes, Peterson challenges me (he often sounds like St. Paul) in areas of my life where I am weak and need improvement. Don't we all? In that respect, I hope his words will motivate me to change what needs to change. </p><p>Peterson's view of the world in which we live as a frightfully terrible place should have deep resonance with most of us. It does for me, but then I was born, and my Mother exacerbated, my melancholy-choleric temperament. Peterson's understanding of the malevolence in the world, however, dovetails with a story's need for an overpowering antagonist or villain that threatens the protagonist at every turn. </p><p>In speaking of Friedrich Nietzsche, (who was the philosophical inspiration behind Kubrick's <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, my all time favorite movie) Peterson does a concise and resonant explanation of Nietzsche's famous "God is Dead" pronouncement. Peterson writes: </p><blockquote><p>[Nietzsche's] fear that all the Judeo-Christian values serving as the foundation of Western Civilization had been made dangerously subject to casual rational criticism, and ... the existence of the transcendent, all-powerful deity—had been fatally challenged. Nietzsche concluded from this that everything would soon fall apart, in a manner catastrophic both psychologically and socially. (p. 161-162)</p></blockquote><p>I guess Nietzsche was write. Of course God is not dead in a literal sense, unless your POV is the current social-political culture. Least the importance of that to successful storytelling slip by, this fits well with the concept of the Moral Premise—</p><blockquote><p>Ignoring Natural Law (transcendent reality and the values of Western Civilization) leads to psychological and social catastrophe; but Building up Natural Law et al leads to psychological and social harmony. </p></blockquote><p>If your story deals with the plight of persons trapped in poverty and their grit and determination to claw their way out, Peterson offers this juice fodder for story development.</p><blockquote><p>There are many reasons... why people are poor. Lack of money is the obvious cause—but that hypothetical obviousness is part of the problem with ideology. Lack of education, broken families, crime-ridden neighborhoods, alcoholism, drug abuse, criminality and corruption (and the political and economic exploitation that accompanies it), mental illness, lack of a life plan (or even failure to realize that formulating such a plan is possible or necessary), low conscientiousness, unfortunate geographical locale, shift in the economic landscape, and the consequent disappearance of entire fields of endeavor, the marked proclivity for those who are rich to get richer still and the poor to get poorer, low creativity/entrepreneurial interest, (and) lack of encouragement. (p. 169)</p></blockquote><p>Just the statement of Rule XI, <i>Do Not Allow Yourself To Become Resentful, Deceitful, or Arrogant </i>sounds to me like part of a Moral Premise Statement. Not only does it provide several ideas for the negative side of the moral premise, but it suggests that it is within the protagonist's power to change. </p><p>As a further tease, here are the subtitles for the chapter on Rule XI:</p><blockquote><p>The Story is the Thing / The Eternal Characters of the Human Drama / Nature: Creation and Destruction (see the Moral Premise Statement in that) / Culture: Security and Tyranny (more MPS fodder) / The Individual: Hero and Adversary / Resentment / Sins of Commissions / Sins of Omission / The Existential Danger of Arrogance and Deceit vs The Place You Should Be.</p></blockquote><p>It's a long chapter (pp. 303–353) and a wealth of story themes perfectly laid out with motivations for both the hero and villain involved. I wrote in the margins on page 315 one of the great adages of storytelling: <i>"To achieve our greatest desire we must face our greatest fear."</i> That is true of every protagonist and hero. </p><p>In the midst of that same chapter Peterson provides a case study of a real-life <i>Sleeping Beauty. </i>He essentially writes the treatment for a modern day, true life, live action drama. Someone should do the screenplay (pp. 321-328)</p><p>In short, read this book if you're serious about understanding character and motivations.</p><p> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-8549285066216197132021-07-25T08:49:00.001-05:002021-07-25T08:49:13.433-05:00The Diegesis and Non-Diegetic Sound<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQY6lOFXaUGzjp0GrN3RQwdxtRiS3NH80-MnXw6JCgin9rSrnV7amhafIIaxGwSAW6FdbfEN87JjoW155kPOwbCvwGCdKrNiOHCqzW9qtU7paiMWs0_QEt9QSNdJa6cz9zqRldzBISGnlo/s780/MAKING-WAVES-sound-designer-Walter-Murch.-Courtesy-of-Aint-Heard-Nothin-Yet-Corp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="515" data-original-width="780" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQY6lOFXaUGzjp0GrN3RQwdxtRiS3NH80-MnXw6JCgin9rSrnV7amhafIIaxGwSAW6FdbfEN87JjoW155kPOwbCvwGCdKrNiOHCqzW9qtU7paiMWs0_QEt9QSNdJa6cz9zqRldzBISGnlo/s320/MAKING-WAVES-sound-designer-Walter-Murch.-Courtesy-of-Aint-Heard-Nothin-Yet-Corp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sound Designer at Work</td></tr></tbody></table>The term "<b>diegesis</b>" refers to the fictional world filmmakers create and everything in it. The word comes from a Greek word that evidently means narration or narrative. I don't know this from any study of Greek. I read it in my film school text books. There is more about the terms here at <a href="https://www.dailywritingtips.com/diegesis-and-diegetic/" target="_blank">DailyWritingTips</a>.</p><p>I contribute answers now and then to Quora on the film and screenwriting threads. This morning someone asked <i>"How does the non-diegetic sound contribute to the atmosphere in a film?"</i> This brings up one of those things movie goers take for granted and yet are so important to the experience of going to the movies. </p><p>Screenwriters struggle with communicating the <i>emotional</i> context of a scene. The emotional content of a scene is more important to the movie goers than the intellectual aspects of the diegetic action, although there can be no emotional response without the diegetic making intellectual sense. The interplay between these two is a paradox of communication. Screenwriters must work only (well, 98% of the time) with the intellectual diegetic elements and yet hope to create an emotional response in the audience. </p><p>However, the diegetic intellectual elements by themselves, rarely create the deep emotional response that audiences subliminally crave and that make the movie moment (the diegetic moment) memorable. We can all remember great movie moments and describe them to our friends. But I'll bet you can't remember the non-diegetic elements that triggered your emotional response, which in turn allowed you to remember that scene so well. This is one of the great mysteries of storytelling and especially narrative films.</p><p>Perhaps the single most important aspect of transferring the intended emotional response is NON-DIEGETIC SOUND, which is typically NOTHING that the screenwriter can write. The paradox is that audiences rarely, if ever, can recall non-diegetic sound, unless they buy the Motion Picture Soundtrack CD or tracks and listen to the music. Yes, the music bed that plays in the background (and not from a radio or music source supposedly on the set) is non-diegetic sound. But there is so much more to it, like <i>sound effects</i> and <i>sound mixing</i> of the diegetic sound (e.g. dialogue, Foley sound, and on-camera noise). Screenwriters try to infer non-diegetic sounds, but generally the ideas for such sounds and the genius of creating them and mixing them is left to suggestions by the Director and expertise of Sound Designers, Supervisors, Editors and Mixers. Sound Design is incredibly important to the success of motion pictures and yet as screenwriters we have very little to say about it. Sad but true. Which is one reason skilled screenwriting that can imply such things is so important. </p><p>All that to say Markus Innocenti (a former Supervising Sound Editor), gives a wonderful answer to the above mentioned Quora question, which is linked <a href="https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-non-diegetic-sound-contribute-to-the-atmosphere-in-a-film/answer/Markus-Innocenti?__nsrc__=4&__snid3__=24146623953&comment_id=212549836&comment_type=2" target="_blank">HERE</a>. </p><p>On the linked thread I thanked Markus for his excellent answer and make some remarks, which I have elaborated above. He then wrote this, which should be an encouragement to all screenwriters:</p><p><span style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #282829; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, system-ui, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"></span></p><blockquote>Thank you — and I agree. It is extremely difficult to suggest non-diegetic sound in a screenplay, and to do so is often ‘unwelcome’ given the traditional view that a director interprets a script to conform to a personal ‘vision’. I think it’s true to say that good writers work endlessly on finding ways to “suggest” an interpretation that lies closest to their own — in the full knowledge that, at the end of the day, the emotional impact of the film will rely on the director’s choices as to how the non-diegetic is applied.</blockquote><p></p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-21284849033448743512021-07-18T08:56:00.002-05:002021-07-18T08:59:03.697-05:00The Problem and Solution for Bio Pics<div class="q-box" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="q-text qu-bold qu-fontSize--xlarge qu-color--gray_dark_dim qu-passColorToLinks qu-lineHeight--regular" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #282829; line-height: 1.4; word-break: break-word;"><span class="CssComponent__CssInlineComponent-sc-1oskqb9-1 UserSelectableText___StyledCssInlineComponent-lsmoq4-0 kghFzc"><span class="CssComponent__CssInlineComponent-sc-1oskqb9-1 TitleText___StyledCssInlineComponent-sc-1hpb63h-0 jPnwvF"><div class="q-flex qu-flexDirection--row" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row;"><div class="q-inline qu-flexWrap--wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; flex-wrap: wrap; max-width: 100%; text-align: left;"><div style="height: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOASffXz_56JZ5MyfLsu9o8UeV07KPnrKZsYGHu3hzQOZ-iLSeGc1zr5rXFKhOuW-cqkseuajTC7c8m1GxnqZR0Ndz8DXKUQ1Av7NlZvb-i7ynb6I_CogcMRXcVsMYs80HaU9IFNoxYFL/s1280/Amadeus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOASffXz_56JZ5MyfLsu9o8UeV07KPnrKZsYGHu3hzQOZ-iLSeGc1zr5rXFKhOuW-cqkseuajTC7c8m1GxnqZR0Ndz8DXKUQ1Av7NlZvb-i7ynb6I_CogcMRXcVsMYs80HaU9IFNoxYFL/s320/Amadeus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was asked on Quora: </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">When creating a Movie that's Based on a True Story & the Audience knows what will happen even before seeing the movie. How do you create that moment of Suspense in a specific scene that makes the Audience think that something different will happen?</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Here's my answer:</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br />Bio pics (“true” stories about known people) rarely do well at the box office. There are two fundamental reasons. (1) If you tell the true (physical) story the movie will not be dramatically structured to be entertaining to general audiences and thus it will bore all except for the small number of people who are fans of the person. Solution: enlarge the audience by making the movie suitable as entertainment to a large audience. That leads to the second reasons bio pics do poorly. (2) To structure a story so it appeals to a large audience you must tell the story so there’s a regular emotional rollercoaster ride, that is, you must make it entertaining. No doubt this will require fictionalizing the story, which will alienate the person’s fans and result in bad word of mouth—a death knell for a movie.</span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREsedD953Y7p7ri_vLsr2PhIp3xqGuOzQksMmv1QMYEHxdTF6aINDobjQyeDrXouaPxWQ2s75X4EaER-r28mUv9hACHZM3_3gyH5wG_xCETKBZVUVMPCTfLbhKcudzFqkuQrmXJBxgFzV/s501/Tuohy+Familes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="501" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhREsedD953Y7p7ri_vLsr2PhIp3xqGuOzQksMmv1QMYEHxdTF6aINDobjQyeDrXouaPxWQ2s75X4EaER-r28mUv9hACHZM3_3gyH5wG_xCETKBZVUVMPCTfLbhKcudzFqkuQrmXJBxgFzV/s320/Tuohy+Familes.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Tuohy Family (L, movie; R, real)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />There are two solutions: </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(A) Select a significant moment in the person’s life that changed their life’s trajectory and tell it in such dramatic detail (you’ll have to still fictionalize (add, omit, compact, or exaggerate) to make it interesting) that you avoid the two problems above. The exaggeration was done in the hit movie starring Sandra Bullock titled BLIND SIDE where the personality characteristics of the real-life Tuohy family and Michael Oher’s life were exaggerated. In Amadeus, Salieri’s motivations and involvement was heavily fictionalized. (B) Focus on (and make visual) a significant aspect of the person’s internal, personal, or spiritual life that is typically unknown to the public but nonetheless documented historically but not elaborated upon. Here the filmmakers are fictionalizing the story (probably) but no one can effectively argue with their take on the story.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wXslvjYHssDhi2nt0msOM1uU-FVqGGIGF6QHN00qld8FjHcawM2PG25TgEKIgc6pIrowoOVvWaRY1szapGuEa-6ht6L_aB7rg0cwsRkzr11wQYelVrebiDo5cXqZWj991AR5OUdIe_ds/s980/american-hustle-posters-sony.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="980" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6wXslvjYHssDhi2nt0msOM1uU-FVqGGIGF6QHN00qld8FjHcawM2PG25TgEKIgc6pIrowoOVvWaRY1szapGuEa-6ht6L_aB7rg0cwsRkzr11wQYelVrebiDo5cXqZWj991AR5OUdIe_ds/s320/american-hustle-posters-sony.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">American Hustle</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The last bit of an answer is that IF the above aspects of story telling can be satisfied, the storytellers will focus on not WHAT happened (as everyone knows), but we probably don’t know the back story of HOW it happened or WHY nor the potential intrigue, suspense and conflict that was involved. Heavily fictionalized, a great example of this is AMERICAN HUSTLE that feeds off the Abscam political scandal, and of course TITANIC and many others</span>. So, a good storyteller will focus on something that the audience doesn’t fully know, and then make it true at a moral level.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhSpJQz8kBHhRECOFRNDL5iw3Nb6YwzymUVZIcvTOfLz7spSYzGo2jyMILGue9K4WMsvDryiF3f6fbhcMZXGJLTFHnnXOgqvKzJXPj-GKI08hUf3XXPnyJciUG4pb4ZSpM_s0pKTYW16-/s1540/Titanic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="1540" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhSpJQz8kBHhRECOFRNDL5iw3Nb6YwzymUVZIcvTOfLz7spSYzGo2jyMILGue9K4WMsvDryiF3f6fbhcMZXGJLTFHnnXOgqvKzJXPj-GKI08hUf3XXPnyJciUG4pb4ZSpM_s0pKTYW16-/s320/Titanic.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Titanic</td></tr></tbody></table><br />In the end, all successful movies may be fictionalized externally, but the successful ones are true at the inner moral level. What’s on screen thus becomes a metaphor for the moral journey the character(s) must inwardly travel. Remember, all actions by real people (and characters we identify as real) originate first in the mind as a motivation based on moral values. That’s why all good stories (whether intended this way or not by their makers) are based on a true and consistently applied Moral Premise. </span></div><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(30, 30, 31); color: #1e1e1f; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p></span></div></div></div></span></span></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3841939281455717340.post-75518775912001379612021-07-14T10:40:00.006-05:002021-11-03T10:36:39.753-05:00Are Screenwriting and Hollywood Dead?<p> I received an email from a reader who articulated an oft asked concern about pursuing a writing career in the motion picture industry. The questions he asked, in an email with the subject line that has now become the title of this post, are often asked of me (hundreds of times, perhaps)... as if I have some precognitive, clairvoyant insight. Hollywood legend William Goldman famously wrote of Studio Executives (see the yellow highlight in the photo below):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPHj6MECHrl0MsLmaaDIJ3GYX9b8Vz0Z681Aq7GhYp9-BD35r_6ZRmpQaIJU5lAZlsKbqq_WQQJzKAVQQdQWaayZz2LKsQYGv7Ba3DFmBdBYpTOMLFophptR8F5UtdbrqcH4Ep8hpQ7BP/s2048/NOBODY-KNOWS-ANYTHING.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1609" data-original-width="2048" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEPHj6MECHrl0MsLmaaDIJ3GYX9b8Vz0Z681Aq7GhYp9-BD35r_6ZRmpQaIJU5lAZlsKbqq_WQQJzKAVQQdQWaayZz2LKsQYGv7Ba3DFmBdBYpTOMLFophptR8F5UtdbrqcH4Ep8hpQ7BP/w503-h395/NOBODY-KNOWS-ANYTHING.jpg" width="503" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">For those of you who can't download images, the text says, "Compounding their problem of no job security in the decision-making process is the single most important fact, perhaps, of the entire movie industry: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING. ... Again, for emphasis— NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING. [Goldman, William (1969). Adventures in the Screen Trade. New York, Warner Books. page 39.] I've included the picture from my copy of the dogeared book (a must read for anyone thinking of writing screenplays) to prove that it was not I, but the author who capitalized and centered like an on-screen super: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Now, two things about this famous line have always caught my attention. (1) NOBODY is bad grammar. It's suppose to be "NO ONE," or at least it was in the good-old-days, whenever that was. But then William Goldman is one of the most celebrated and successful entertainment writers... books and screenplays. He's wonderful to read. And, (2) if you drive around Hollywood much and gawk at the mansions or hang-out inside of a few of them, as I have on occasion, it's clear that A LOT OF BODIES KNOW SOMETHING.</p><p style="text-align: left;">On the other hand, I am not claiming to be one of those bodies. I <i>think</i> I know a thing or two. But there are always those that know more. There are also those whose different experience would prove things are different on the other side of Wilshire Blvd, although things are pretty much the same on both sides of Sunset Blvd. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Okay, enough of the wisecracks and disclaimers. But before I get to the question of the day...my reader praised The Moral Premise for it's left-brain practicality, and without shame I need to pass on his kind words:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">I found your book actionable and free of a lot of mumbo jumbo that just kills progress in the writing arts. ... What was great ... it was concise and manageable. I did an internet search today and... glad to see you're not dead. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Are you sure? Let me check. (SFX: padding down body.) Yeah, guess you're right.</p><p style="text-align: left;">THE QUESTION: </p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">My gut feel is that Hollywood is dead and movie making has no place in a short attention span society It seems like short episodic content is all people can handle...bing watching Netflix series etc., or play games on phones. I'm just wondering if I should sink my life into writing in a medium that seems to be past it's heyday. What movies do get made are blockbuster copy films.... I'd want a chance at actually getting my screenplay made into a movie and maybe making a living. </p><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18px; text-align: start; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>I'm not sure really how to approach all this. Before I go all in I wanted to get your advice on possible outcomes and what I'm actually looking at here professionally.</span></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Let me parse this into smaller questions:</p><p style="text-align: left;">1. Due to society's short attention span are long form movies dead?</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">No, for the same reasons that movies did not replace novels. Short attention spans have been around a long time. It may seem that social media (e.g. TicTok) has made attention spans even shorter. But really all it's done is attract a wider audience that had short attention spans to begin with. I like TicTok videos. But I still like long novels and movies. What is to be learned here is that everyone is different (both creators and consumers). I have a neighbor who is a successful entrepreneur. He is highly intelligent, possesses reams of common sense, is energetic, has a strong work ethic, and his ability to focus on tasks is never ending. Yet he falls asleep when he reads a page from a book, or so he says. I've never witnessed his malady. But he'll watch and learn from YouTube all day. He learns differently. So, with each new media invention we widen, not narrow, our audience. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">2. Is short episodic content all that people can handle...binge watching Netflix series for example. </p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">My wife and I have been hooked at times on binge watching Netflix and Amazon Prime content. We also like feature length motion pictures and have a large collection of DVDs and Blurays by our HD video screen in the living room. We have been known to spend 4 hours in one evening binge watching an Amazon Prime series, of one-hour episodes. That is about twice as long as a "long" motion picture. So, at least in one respect "binge" watching is not any shorter than the acts, scenes, or sequences of a motion picture, and often longer. Look at it this way. If you're writing a 500 page novel (I currently am), you have to make EVERY page of 350 words interesting. If you're developing a long motion picture, every scene better have conflict in it, and at the end of a sequence of 12.5 minutes there better be a disaster than propels your audience to watch the next sequence, or the next episode... or turn the page. It's true in writing novels as well as screenplays (whether comedy or horror) there better be a "reveal" or "discovery" or something "good" on every few pages or you'll lose your audience. At the same time, every scene on a script, like every paragraph and sentence in a novel better be well written if not ironic, metaphoric, shocking, or revealing. <span style="text-align: center;"> Now, times do change. There was a time when Noah lived for hundreds of years, and the ark took only a few of those to build. But for the most part he sat around and had nothing to read or watch... and then there was Abraham who wandered in the wilderness for a long time with nothing to look at but sand and camels. Now, do I think social media sucks brain cells out of users? Sure do. </span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">3. Should I sink my life into a medium that is past its heyday?</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">What you should do is not a question I can answer. My advice in terms of your life goals is to follow the advice of Laurie Beth Jones (<i>Jesus CEO, The Path</i>) and Jordan Peterson (<i>12 Rules for life, Beyond Order</i>). The two authors cross paths frequently in their advice, e.g. JBP's Rule V (Beyond Order) corresponds to Jones's Mission concept: "Do not do what you hate... but what you're passionate about." </p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">As to if the medium being past its heyday? No, it's not. Not anymore than Streaming has replaced DVDs. Now, that may require a little unpacking. The sale of DVDs are clearly declined in favor of streaming. But in my situation I hate streaming and love DVDs/Blurays. Why? Well, (first) because although I have an ultra high speed Internet connection, streaming movies in my neighborhood is still fraught with disconnections. The movie stops in the middle and I can't get reconnected. And (second) because DVDs and Blurays have all that extra documentary material on them that is absent with streaming. And, (third) because buying or renting two DVDs a month is cheaper than a movie package from the cable company.<span style="text-align: center;"> </span></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">BUT NONE OF THAT IS MY POINT... which is that stories are never going to be out of vogue. The crux of culture, at anytime in history, and anyplace in the world, is THE STORY.... and the longer the better. You can write and produce for short attention spans or long attention spans. But life is long, and the stories of people's unfold across decades, not seconds. Further, people will be happier and more satisfied with their lives the more they lengthen their attention span, especially for the work that they pursue in their lives (c.f. Beyond Order, Rule VII: "Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens." ... and then there's Rule VI "Abandon Ideology")</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"> 4. What movies that do get made are blockbuster copy films.</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">In a SMALL sense that is true. But such films are few in comparison to the many films that get made and released. Do some research. Get on IMDB and categorize all the movies made in the last year before the pandemic shut down production. List the original movies (even if their antecedent was a book) and those that were copy films or sequels. You'll be surprised. </p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">5. What are the chances that my screenplay can be made into a movie?</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Pretty small. Near zero, if not zilch. Unless...</p></blockquote><blockquote><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You're a very talented writer</li><li>You work very hard and develop your talent over many years </li><li>Your friends are filmmakers and they like what you write</li><li>You live in LA, NY, etc and you're good at selling what you write </li><li>You have access to a lot of money to risk on funding what you write</li><li>You are multi-talented and can produce, director, & fund what you write</li><li>Any combination of the above... the more the better. </li></ul></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"> 6. Can I make a living at writing screenplays</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">Very few people do, unless a few of the bullet points above apply. There are two very apt adages that go along with the movie industry:</p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You can die from encouragement.</li><li>You can't make a living, but you might make a killing. </li></ul><p></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">There are, however, a lot of writers in the industry that make a living at writing for the screen, but they're not what you might call feature length motion picture screenwriters. Well, they are in a sense, but here's what they do for a day job (writing) while working on their passion screenplay that may never get made... although there's always hope and encouragement (see the above adage about death).</p></blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><li>Write for a movie industry trade publication</li><li>Write and produce PPV (VOD) media for Internet (for a company or yourself) </li><li>Write video media for corporations (on staff or independent)</li><li>Write commercials for Internet, TV, or Theatrical release </li><li>Write for television and Internet channels</li><li>Write and rewrite scripts for others without credit (many do this)</li><li>Write for live television shows </li></blockquote><p>There are thousands of writers in the industry (spread around the world) that do the above. and the jobs are more like a regular job, except just about EVERYBODY (ah, EVERYONE) is freelance. I know a couple of full time writers in L.A. who make good money year-after-year, by writing anything that comes along. Literally, they've done all of the above, plus writing for games. You'd be surprised how much a gaming script looks and reads like a motion picture script. </p></ul><p style="text-align: left;">Hope this helps.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Stan </p></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">The Moral Premise (Stanley D. Williams)</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0