Another interesting Wednesday.
Mainly, this time it was all about practicing and learning
'STATUS CHANGE'.Mr.Patrick divided us into a group of two and asked one person from each group to give the other person an offer.
< Tinggg... In the drama language 'offer' is known as a 'topic' to talk or discuss on. >
We were to talk/discuss only and only about that particular topic to each other. We did. Overall experience was... boooooring. And that was exactly the point Mr. Patrick was trying to make. Revolving around just one topic will bore the audience. We must change the topic after some time but..but...there should be a logical connection between the topics before switching the topics.
Adding a catalyst is very important for the story to keep engaging the audience. The catalyst can be a new person or a new situation.
The scene stays way more interesting when a person is trying to defeat/stop all the actions of another person than just one person going on trying to get where he wants or get what he wants.
I did quite a few Google searches and read e-books to find a solid definition of 'status change'. But I couldn't find any. So, I'm gonna make up my own.
Status Change - When the current situation projects no hope for anything new to come and change the situation into its state of best to worst or worst to best, then "something" eventually comes along and somehow changes the current situation from 'best to worst' or 'worst to best'. Phewww.
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Glimpses from the screenwriting class.
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Some other very important things that Mr.Patrick taught us:
- Find the baggage - Research, talk to people and try to predict/find the baggage that the audience would be carrying in their minds or hearts while watching the movie.
- Bathos- Using humor to enhance the drama.
- Faceless bad guy, injects fear in audiences mind. On the other hand, Personalized Villains/Antagonists with a clear purpose evokes sympathy(not every time).
- Main character - This is the character who the story is mostly about.
- Protagonist - The character who changes over the course of the story.
- Hero - This is the character who you hope to see "win".
- Mise-en-scene - The arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a play.
Hi RJ, yes – a status change entails a character's status (within a particular relationship dynamic) being completely reversed or switched… as you suggest, from high to low or low to high. Comedy – in particular slapstick – relies heavily on status changes e.g. making (self-)important people look like buffoons etc.
ReplyDeleteAaaahh..Yes. Makes more sense now. 'Status change' is related to the character.
DeleteThank you Sir.