Moving Images, Understanding Media

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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