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This book explores the stupid as it manifests in media-the cinema,
television and streamed content, and videogames. The stupid is
theorized not as a pejorative term but to address media that
"fails" to conform to established narrative conventions, often
surfacing at evolutionary moments. The Transformers franchise is
often dismissed as being stupid because its stylistic vernacular
privileges kinetic qualities over conventional narration.
Similarly, the stupid is often present in genre fails like mother!,
or in instances of narrative dissonance-joyously in Adventure Time;
more controversially in Gone Home- where a story "feels off" It
also manifests in "ludonarrative dissonance" when gameplay and
narrative seemingly run counter to one another in videogames like
Undertale and Bioshock. This book is addressed to those interested
in media that is quirky, spectacle-driven, or generally hard to
place-stupid!
Off the Page examines the business and craft of screenwriting in
the era of media convergence. Bernardi and Hoxter use the recent
history of screenwriting labor coupled with close analysis of the
screenwriting para-industry-from "how to write a winning script"
books to screenwriting software-to explore the state of
screenwriting throughout the US media industries. They address the
conglomerate studios making tentpole movies, expanded television,
Indiewood, independent animation, microbudget scripting, the video
games industry, and online content creation. This book is designed
to be used by students and writers who want to understand what
studios want and why they want it, but also how scripting is
developing in the convergent media, beneath and beyond the
Hollywood tent-pole. By addressing specific genres old and new,
across a wide range of media, this essential volume sets the
standard for anyone in the expanded screenwriting industry and the
scholars that study it.
This book explores the stupid as it manifests in media-the cinema,
television and streamed content, and videogames. The stupid is
theorized not as a pejorative term but to address media that
"fails" to conform to established narrative conventions, often
surfacing at evolutionary moments. The Transformers franchise is
often dismissed as being stupid because its stylistic vernacular
privileges kinetic qualities over conventional narration.
Similarly, the stupid is often present in genre fails like mother!,
or in instances of narrative dissonance-joyously in Adventure Time;
more controversially in Gone Home- where a story "feels off" It
also manifests in "ludonarrative dissonance" when gameplay and
narrative seemingly run counter to one another in videogames like
Undertale and Bioshock. This book is addressed to those interested
in media that is quirky, spectacle-driven, or generally hard to
place-stupid!
Screenwriting is the second of the 'Behind the Silver Screen'
series of ten volumes, which will together cover for the first time
the full art, craft, business and history of filmmaking from
inception to reality. Screenwriting is where a movie begins.
Written by screenwriters and critics, this innovative book is
devoted to the art of the screenwriter and the business of
screenwriting from Hollywood's silent beginnings to the global
multimedia marketplace. Focusing on key screenplays that changed
the game in Hollywood and beyond and on films from The Birth of a
Nation to Chinatown and Lost in Translation, the book reveals the
profound ways in which screenwriters contribute to films, as they
try to capture the hopes and dreams, the nightmares and concerns of
the period in which they are writing. It is compelling reading for
film lovers, screenwriters & film students, industry
professionals - anyone interested in the creative collaboration
that creates the movies we see on the screen.
"The Pleasures of Structure "starts from the premise that the
ability to develop a well understood and articulated story
structure is the most important skill a screenwriter can develop.
For example, good structure requires a great premise and rigorous
character development. Without clear character motivations and
goals--which are themselves indicative of key structural
beats--your story is going exactly nowhere. Using the simple and
flexible 'W' model of screenplay structure developed in the prequel
"Write What You Don't Know," Hoxter sets this out as its starting
point. This model is tested against a range of examples which are
chosen to explore the flexibility not only of that model but of
movie storytelling more generally. Writers and students often worry
that they are asked to work 'to formula'. This book will test that
formula to breaking point. For example, the first case study will
offer the example of a well written, professional, mainstream movie
against which our later and more adventurous examples can be
compared. So the lessons we learn examining the animated family
adventure movie "How To Train Your Dragon "lead us directly to ask
questions of our second case study, the acclaimed Swedish vampire
movie "Lat den Ratte Komma In "("Let The Right One In"). Both
movies have protagonists with the same basic problem, the same
goal, and they use the same basic structure to tell their stories.
Of course they are very different films and they work on their
audiences in very different ways. Our linked case studies will
expose how simple choices, like reversing the order of elements of
the protagonist's transformational arc and shifting ownership of
key story beats, has an enormous impact on how we respond to a
structural model that is otherwise functionally identical.
"Write What You Don't Know" is a friendly manual for aspiring
screenwriters. It encourages you to move beyond your comfort zones
in search of stories. We all write what we know - how could we not?
Writing what you don't know and doing it in an informed and
imaginative way is what makes the process worthwhile.
Hoxter draws on his wealth of experience teaching young film
students to offer help with every aspect of the writing process,
including how we come up with ideas in the first place. Light
hearted and full of insight into the roundabout way film students
approach their scripts, it also discusses the important issues like
the difference between stories and plots and what your characters
should be doing in the middle of act two. "Write What You Don't
Know" contains examples and case studies from a wide range of
movies, both mainstream and alternative such as "The Virgin Spring,
Die Hard, The Ipcress File, For The Birds, (500) Days of Summer,
Juno, Up In The Air, Knocked Up" and "Brick." >
"The Pleasures of Structure "starts from the premise that the
ability to develop a well understood and articulated story
structure is the most important skill a screenwriter can develop.
For example, good structure requires a great premise and rigorous
character development. Without clear character motivations and
goals--which are themselves indicative of key structural
beats--your story is going exactly nowhere. Using the simple and
flexible 'W' model of screenplay structure developed in the prequel
"Write What You Don't Know," Hoxter sets this out as its starting
point. This model is tested against a range of examples which are
chosen to explore the flexibility not only of that model but of
movie storytelling more generally. Writers and students often worry
that they are asked to work 'to formula'. This book will test that
formula to breaking point. For example, the first case study will
offer the example of a well written, professional, mainstream movie
against which our later and more adventurous examples can be
compared. So the lessons we learn examining the animated family
adventure movie "How To Train Your Dragon "lead us directly to ask
questions of our second case study, the acclaimed Swedish vampire
movie "Lat den Ratte Komma In "("Let The Right One In"). Both
movies have protagonists with the same basic problem, the same
goal, and they use the same basic structure to tell their stories.
Of course they are very different films and they work on their
audiences in very different ways. Our linked case studies will
expose how simple choices, like reversing the order of elements of
the protagonist's transformational arc and shifting ownership of
key story beats, has an enormous impact on how we respond to a
structural model that is otherwise functionally identical.
Off the Page examines the business and craft of screenwriting in
the era of media convergence. Bernardi and Hoxter use the recent
history of screenwriting labor coupled with close analysis of the
screenwriting para-industry-from "how to write a winning script"
books to screenwriting software-to explore the state of
screenwriting throughout the US media industries. They address the
conglomerate studios making tentpole movies, expanded television,
Indiewood, independent animation, microbudget scripting, the video
games industry, and online content creation. This book is designed
to be used by students and writers who want to understand what
studios want and why they want it, but also how scripting is
developing in the convergent media, beneath and beyond the
Hollywood tent-pole. By addressing specific genres old and new,
across a wide range of media, this essential volume sets the
standard for anyone in the expanded screenwriting industry and the
scholars that study it.
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