264 Moving Images: Making Movies, Understanding Media
Breaking it Down
It is always possible for writers to break the story down into smaller parts,
right down to individual scene cards. Th us, motion pictures narrative can be
divided even further for story beats and patterns of smaller actions and confl icts.
Remember that characters have to make choices to create the turning points
which generate the structure. Consequently, a key source of inspiration for many
writers is that the characters drive the story. Quentin Tarantino commented:
“When I start writing, I let the characters take over... I have to write from
beginning to end because the characters are kind of telling the story.”
You learned earlier that narrative is defi ned by connected cause and
eff ect, and storytelling traditions depend on actions that initiate change.
When characters face obstacles to the fulfi llment of their objectives, confl ict
is created. However, there are many factors that impact these very simple
conditions. Who are our characters—what type of people are they, what sort
of things do they do, what are their roles in society? How do we perceive
them and react to their choices? What is the world in which they live? Th e
answers to all of these questions are quite dependent on the cultural values,
ethnic customs, and societal role of the person who is responding.
Th ese perspectives have great impact on the objectives and methods of
storytellers. As a result, when you watch movies from a variety of cultures or
by fi lmmakers with contrasting beliefs or goals, you oft en witness very diff erent
approaches and styles that tend to refl ect the community, nation, or production
context of the author. Th ese factors can aff ect the depiction of individual
characters, groups of people, and settings; the development of storytelling
structure (whether separating the story into two, three, four, or nine parts); and
viewpoints and attitudes concerning societies and individual behavior.
Words and Pictures: Fitting It Together
At the opening of this chapter, you were asked questions about your own
initiatives to make up tales or tell stories from personal experiences. Th e
Figure 7-14 A story can start
in the writer’s mind as a single
dramatic image in which an
action provokes a series of
events. (Courtesy Adam Keker)
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