Origins of Drama

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Cinema Survey - Lecture 2 The Evolution of
Narrative in the Western Tradition From Caves to
Cinema
2
Stories of the Hunt

• Earliest narrative Cave Paintings of Lascaux -
  17,000 years old.
• Representations of numerous animal scenes, and
  interactions between animals and humans.
• Tools an understanding of causality.
• Awareness of cause and effect relationships
  inspires a search for meaning in everyday life.

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From Meaning to Myth

• Story the search for answers to ultimate
  questions why do we die?
• Our brains are hardwired for belief we see
  effects and seek the causes.
• Myths are sacred stories that express the beliefs
  and values of a particular culture.

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Comparative Mythology

• In 1949, mythologist Joseph Campbell published
  The Hero With A Thousand Faces, in which he
  observed common themes and forms shared by the
  myths of humanitys many cultures. He distilled
  these commonalities into a pattern he called the
  monomyth.
• Campbells model also drew from the works of
  early 20th century pychologist Carl Jung, who
  sought to identify common archetypes present in
  the collective unconscious of humanity in an
  attempt to interpret dreams and mythology.

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Campbells Monomyth

• In the Departure Stage, we meet a central
  protagonist, the Hero, in the ordinary world,
  where he receives a call to adventure and must
  cross a threshold into an extraordinary world.
  The hero may or may not cross the threshold
  willingly.
• In the Initiation Stage, the hero must endure
  trials and overcome obstacles. He reaches a
  greater sense of awareness and receives a reward
  that he must take back with him to the ordinary
  world.
• In the Return Stage, the hero must return to the
  ordinary world and often must face a final trial
  and cross a second threshold. Upon the heros
  return, the ordinary world is better than when he
  left it.

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Development of Drama as Analyzed in Aristotles
Poetics (335 B.C.E.)

• A good story must represent a whole, unified
  action.
• A whole action has a beginning, a middle, and
  an end.
• A unified action includes only those parts that
  are necessary or probable (logically or
  chronologically connected) to itself.
• A good story must have reversals (change to the
  opposite) and recognitions (change from
  ignorance to knowledge).

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Plot Chronology.

• Logically/chronologically related events ?
  presented in a logical/chronological manner.
• A story may be presented in an illogical or
  achronological manner.
• Linear vs. Non-Linear.

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Fabula vs. Syuzhet

• The syuzhet of a story is its presented order as
  constructed and revealed in its telling.
• In constructing the syuzhet, the author makes
  decisions about content and ordering, which
  events can be left out, and which must be
  emphasized.
• The fabula is the world of the story as
  chronologically constructed in the minds of its
  audience.
• In constructing the fabula, the audience inserts
  missing scenes and backstory, rearranges
  flashbacks, etc.

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Linear vs. Non-Linear

• Content / Presentation
• Whole (beginning, middle, end) and Unified (the
  parts must be tied by logic and chronology) ?
  linear presentation.
• Linear story presents the events in a
  chronological and logical order.
• Non-linear story may present the events
  achronologically and illogically, but those
  events are still logically and chronologically
  related.
• If a series of presented events lack logical or
  chronological connections, the presentation is
  Non-Narrative. It is not a story.

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Methods of Achronology

• In Traditional Cinema
• Flashback.
• Dream Sequence.
• In Non-Traditional Cinema
• Random Sequencing
• Non-Linear Chapters

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• William Goldman
• Screenplays are structure.

Howard Rodman Screenplays . . . either become
?lms, or they dont . . . This is why the craft
of teaching the craft of the screenplay is for
many more lucrative than the craft of the
screenplayand why the teaching of structure
has in many venues supplanted the teaching of
writing.
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Traditional Structure Models

• Rigid Three Act Structure that adheres to
  Aristotles principles.
• Archplot (Single Protagonist, Linear)
• 90 to 120 Pages with specific, page-tied plot
  points.
• Mirrors the Heros Journey Monomyth described
  by Joseph Campbell.

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Syd Fields Paradigm for a traditional 2 hour
Hollywood film

• Act I is the beginning, what he calls the Setup.
  It lasts approximately 30 pages (or minutes of
  screen time) and contains the first major Plot
  Point at around page 25.
• Act II is the middle, what he calls the
  Confrontation. It lasts approximately 60 pages
  and contains the second major Plot Point at
  around page 85. It is contains a pivotal scene
  roughly halfway through called the Mid-Point on
  which the rest of the story turns.
• Act III is the end, what he calls the Resolution.
  It lasts approximately 30 pages.

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Syd Fields Screenplay Paradigm
Act I Set-Up
Act II Confrontation
Act III Resolution
Pgs. 1 30
Pgs. 30 90
Pgs. 90 120
Plot Point 1
Plot Point 2
Mid-Point
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Todays Screening DIRTY DANCING

• Consider
• Does the storytelling in DIRTY DANCING conform to
  the traditional rules just discussed?
• What storytelling decisions do the filmmakers
  make to manipulate your reaction to the
  narrative?
• What values are being expressed in the heros
  quest?