Moving Images, Understanding Media

Chapter 7 From Page to Screen 273

What to Show? Where to Start?

With the passage with Jimmy and Carrie, it is necessary to ask questions just

as we did with Hector’s scene, particularly when Carrie is introduced waiting

for Jimmy’s call in response to her text message. Should there be a fl ashback?

Would we be able to understand a fl ashback right as the character is introduced?

Are we going to hear her voice? Again, ask the important question: How can

I tell this story visually? What do I want to show to the audience?

For a script featuring Serena from the fourth passage, the author would

ask: is this my starting point? Th ere is clearly a very important and dramatic

series of events relevant to why Serena is sitting in the circle. Will the viewer

see the events taking place from that moment on? Will we ever fi nd out about

Serena’s past, and if we do how will that happen? Or will the screenwriter

decide to move the beginning of the narrative of events back in time from

the moment that is described?

Motivations for the Storyteller

In Chapter 3, you explored basic components of short narrative storytelling,

focusing on character, setting, and structure. To move from initial sparks

of inspiration to a short narrative motion picture, it is useful to explore the

motivations to tell a particular story and then to seek out the most appropriate

way to depict the world it entails. In general, the core elements for a story must

be fi rmly established by the writer to build the strength of the narrative.

For example, the fi nal narrative passage above is an idea based on a simple

circumstance: trying to stop coff ee from spilling. It is the job of the storyteller to

bring alive the details of the situation and to make the discomfort of the main

character familiar to us. Th is brief description could be a start to a complete

narrative: where can it bring us? In this case, we must start with the important

question: Who are our characters? Next: What will happen between Conor

and Dan? What if Conor says, “Look, just slow down!” and Dan replies, “Just

Figure 7-20 An example

of an exposition delivered

directly to the audience to

start the movie.

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