Screenplay: The Abstract Ideas Behind the Story (spine) & some quality related issues February 23, 2014 at 6:35pm SLFTVA Blog F. Ganda 2/22/14 My whole motivation in this whole thing is raising the standards of the video movies produced by the Sierra Leonean movie industry - to tell meaningful stories – besides this creative art is my calling. There is no compromise on that bottom-line of quality improvement, and why should there be? These works have got to become more intelligent and impactful, or I prophesy that the industry will suffer the plight of the vestigial prehensile tail; it will atrophy. And why should that happen when we are blessed with faculties so great? The world is now a global village and goods and services produced in one locale are subject to comparison with goods produced on the other side because they end up on the same markets. Products that are not globally marketable are so because they do not have requisite transcendent fundamentals. Our audiences have been watching and they are the jury that has dropped the anvil on the case; quality now, by all means possible, not maybe and not somehow. A great starting-point is the screenplay, because once it goes wrong, the whole project becomes unsalvageable. Now that we have that out of the way, lets move forward. The movie is not just about the images and dialogue unfolding on screen, if yours is as such, you are denying yourself access to a great resource that will enrich your work. There are powerful ideas, both deep and personal, behind the story that drive the story, perpetually in conflict with one another until the story resolves into a powerful synthesis. These abstract ideas that are not presented in dialogue, plotting or any other instance in the story, are what the story really is about. The viewing audience has a hard time telling what these ideas are - but they can cumulatively infer them if theyre applied during scripting, - they can easily comprehend the subtext. Most screenwriters, especially amateurs, are not even aware of this missing link that can help inject deeper meaning into their work, let alone that they do not know how to apply them. This level of storytelling is complex and requires that the writer operate by instinct in the idea world, working in abstractions and acting as a psychologist, mathematician, engineer, and more, to navigate the inner workings of the story. None of our Sierra Leonean screenwriters have yet been able to conquer it. Said differently, none of our movies reflect subconscious ideas behind the story that drive it. Our stories are what they are about, superficial. Flat. The characters are conspicuously underdeveloped with unclear motivation, goals, stakes, spine, types of death... the audience has a hard time identifying and empathizing with them viscerally because they are not multi-dimensional - lacking the key flaw (explored throughout the screenplay as the basis for the moral dilemma) desires, dreams, traits, quirks, mannerisms, habits, et cetera. The conflict is not multi-layered or complicated. And these are a few amongst numerous other critical components that are also not established... at least not in concrete story terms. In fact, even finding a Sierra Leonean screenplay in the public domain is difficult because there is a great degree of secrecy involved - maybe it is embarrassment, who knows? It does not have to be that way, and we can change it by a conscious effort. Unveiling these screenplays will be greatly beneficial to the stakeholders as well as those they seek to serve, because experts will be able to dig in and define all sorts of problems inherent in them. I for one would welcome such an opportunity. Navigating this mysterious process of spine requires great tools for developing your magical idea into a simple concept; creating a story premise and adding a clear theme... from there, stay with your draft until you can begin to figure out the crystallizing thematic ideas - these ideas must be at the level of a universal truth, which is a rigorous standard. Kate Wright, in Screenwriting is Storytellng (2004 p71), asserts that The standards for universal truth are even more rigorous, because lurking inside the spiritual world of universal truth there are transcendent fundamentals, principles, or ideas that speak to all human beings, regardless of culture. One should stay with their draft, twisting and turning, plotting and churning, remembering that there is a system behind this mysterious process - constantly negating the thematic idea (story concept) in order to generate ideas behind the story. Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis. Now, distill the ideas behind the story and reduce them to a dynamic principle (spine) and go ahead and morph characters into your story based on it (create). The resulting character behavior from this morphologic process makes up the story spine. Continue to create characters based on the main characters inner needs, demons... characterize them to dramatize them, and do not overdo it. Spine is a dynamic process and is the guidepost for the story. Character behavior is dynamic and human when derived from spine therefore, you cannot generate a good story until you know how this process works. It is key and nothing else can compensate the lack of it. Movies that do not resonate with audiences are most likely the products of bad screenplays to start with. Tough as it may sound, it is essential if you want to create an A-List Screenplay, one that can lead to a powerful movie. The alternative is to continue producing flat, meaningless works whose biggest accomplishment is reaching the DVD stage. The screenplay cannot fail or everything else fails. This is the biggest key in regards to what is missing in Sierra Leonean stories and African works. I say, biggest because there are numerous other avenues that need to be explored for filmmaking success. We are lying to ourselves when we act as if there is a shortcut; there is none and we will have to study hard in scripting classes, digging deep into the visceral level and layers of screenwriting, just like we will have to do with the other areas like editing and cinematography. Spine is so important, ever so critical because it represents the transformation of the main character and reveals the depth of the story. The story, after-all, is about the transformation of the main character. Theme is the dialectic idea that is the basis for the inciting incident or story premise, and spine is the dynamic idea that grows out of the main characters moral dilemma. Be clear on the definitions of both. You have to start by creating a theme before moving on to address spine. Your big ideas must support the struggle of the la condition humaine (human condition) and this is where the audience emotionally attaches themselves into the story through the main characters spine and cumulatively and subconsciously infers your abstract ideas about life. Not paying attention to this requisite tool and not heeding this caveat, will mean that you are shortchanging yourself, and denying the audience what is due them. After-all people watch movies to learn something about life and you must resonate in their psyche with your work. To be a bit more nationalistic, our glorious country can be improved if we master the art of the story, and tell our own meaningful stories that move people emotionally, and cross our borders for the first time. Besides, we will be better off producing 10 movies a year that reflect powerful thinking than releasing 50 that most of the audience members cannot comprehend - not because theyre too dumb but because the stories are rudimentary. Making movies belongs to the professionals and not just anyone who receives a crush course. Survivalist moviemakers, in-it only to pay bills, make the worst movies and bring along bands of other survivalists on their journey. How many of our movies have you seen with loads of the same faces, over and over, and the movies - if we can even call them that - are totally horrible? I am sure, many. I have been on the receiving end, too. The realm of storytelling craft can be learned, absolutely, it can be taught to diligent folk, step by step, screenplay by screenplay, but be prepared to struggle and for years to even pass before you can effectively deploy it. You will hardly get very good until many years have gone through, the best thing you can do for yourself, your family, your country is to commit yourself to designing this as a career, one built on years of deliberate practice. Personally I can say that I need to see other deep minds come about to do their part to increase the quality of our stories. Just because someone at school told you that you write good essays, or because you tell good stories in the evening, does not mean that you can master telling stories for the silver screen. It is a totally different beast that requires more than raw talent or manic energy. In Geoff Colvins book, “Talent is Overrated,” (7) he grants that, The factor that seems to explain the most about great performance is something the researchers call deliberate practice. Exactly what that is and isnt turns out to be extremely important. According to him, the practice for practice sake of it is not what deliberate practice is about. Examples of practice for the sake are numerous, there are loads of people in millions of offices who have worked for many decades and have never gotten better at anything they do. Colvin assesses that the chief constraint is mental, regardless of the field. In our context, this deliberate practice will not mean shooting one flopped movie- determining oneself and shooting yet another... a flop, and so on. Let us return to the screenplay process and study it, it is the movies blueprint after-all. It is a high time that we start joining hands with those who are ready to spend the necessary time, investing in learning, to become experts in screenwriting in order to reach great heights. And why not do this in a school that we build? I am very amazed at some of our people who can just jump up one day and say that they are becoming a moviemaker. This is a simplistic approach that does not reflect serious thought or the understanding that filmmaking is a profession. It is in fact one. I really encourage that we invest years in studying the craft before launching full throttle into “moviemaking” careers. Think there is nothing to study? Ask the audience if they are truly emotionally moved by whats out there! From what I understand, on a visceral level, they are not impressed, at all. Do not feel frustrated, because the bigger African industries also release over 99% of works that reflect no ideas behind the story - “Tsotsi” Gavin Hood (South Africa, 2005), “Cry Freedom” Richard Attenborough (SA, 1987), “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” Justin Chadwick (SA, 2013) - Which then brings me to another point: If you want to get to the Hollywood standard, do NOT follow the Nollywood/Ghollywood productions; they have no spine/ideas behind the story. The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou FESPACO countries like Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and so on, also do not reflect this requisite element. Please investigate spine much further. *In several months to come, I will be releasing a thesis document that will detail where we are, and how to navigate ourselves to the promised land of telling impact-filled stories, conceived with ideas lurking underneath the surface. *Frenard is an alumni of the New York Film Academy with Kenyan/Sierra Leonean origins and is currently working on 1 book about the Sierra Leonean movie industry and 1 movie curriculum book to be released sometime next year. Input towards my project in the way of topic suggestions and pertinent information are very welcome through my email address: frenardganda@yahoo. Lets build this industry intelligently, hand in hand. Please stay tuned.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 03:42:23 +0000