Bringing together an understanding of cinematic technique and creative choices, this book explores how directors make the technical choices to tell a story in the best and most effective way. Analyzing examples from films throughout, it demonstrates how to practice analysis and application to take your storytelling to the next level through creative choices.
This book provides a model to bridge the gap between theory and practice by analyzing famous scenes and breaking them down not solely for critical value and within historical context, but primarily for practical value and application. Author Hong illustrates how an understanding of dramatic storytelling and the dramatic context behind scenes allows filmmakers to produce impactful and powerful stories. Foregrounding reading film and media to allow you to engage with films in a critical and perceptive way, this book will help you make films to connect with your audience. Through looking at complete scenes as the primary unit of drama, it teaches how to analyze story movement across a scene to build better stories, pulling practical lessons from these famous moments in cinema to enable better work across preproduction, on set, and during post-production.
Serving as a guide through a single semester-long class focused on direction and production, this book is aimed at advanced students and aspiring filmmakers. It is essential reading for filmmakers wishing to build on their creative and technical skills and enrich their storytelling.
Author(s): Will Hong
Publisher: Routledge/Focal Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 211
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Illustrations
1 Why Scenes?
Introduction
Read/Write Capability
How to Use This Book, Ideally
Notes
2 The Rules of Enchantment—Aristotle’s Poetics
A. Aristotle’s Project
B. The Pleasure Is Universal
C. Character Action Leads to Emotional Impact
D. What’s Important and What’s Less So?
E. Actions and Consequences
F. Get In Late, Get Out Early
G. Up the Stakes
Probable Impossibilities Are Preferable to Implausible Possibilities. —Poetics, 10.5.
H. Unity of Time and Space
I. The Two Rs
J. With Intentions Must Come Formidable Obstacles
K. The Key Ingredient
Methodology—Our Approach to Reading Scenes
Key Takeaways
Notes
3 The Playground Scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963)—Believing Is Seeing and Constructing Subjectivity
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Scene
Execution of the Scene
Scene Coverage
Crow Sequence
Editing
Sound Design
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—Play With Audience Expectations
Notes
4 The Death of the Thief Scene in Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954)—Space, Time, and Efficient Exposition
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Scene
Execution of the Scene
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—Block a Scene Using Kurosawa’s Four-Dimensional Approach
Notes
5 The Dôme Café Scene in AGNÈS Varda’s Cléo De 5 À 7 (1962)—Real Time and Real Life in the Service of Fiction
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Scene
Execution of the Scene
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—One Hundred Photographs/Shots
Notes
6 The Wall of Fame Scene in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989)—Shaping the Scene for Complexity and Payoff
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Scene
Execution of the Scene
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—Explore Difficult Subject Matter, Dramatize It, and Resist Offering the Easy Answer. Environment—use It!
Notes
7 The Roadhouse Slaughter Scene in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark (1987)—Invigorating Genre Through Subversion and Making the Familiar Strange Again
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Scene
Execution of the Scene
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—Subvert the Genre
Notes
8 Why Bother?
Note
Bonus Chapter: Taylor Swift’s Music Video for “Shake It Off” (2014)—Micro Behaviors, Macro Humility, and Moving Toward Real Inclusion
Production History
Dramatic Function of the Video
Execution of the Video
Key Takeaways
Dramatic
Technical
Thematic
Exercise—Make a (Watchable) Music Video
Notes
Appendix: Where to Watch the Scenes
(As of 2/4/22)
3: The Playground Scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963)—
4: The Death of the Thief Scene in Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954)—
5: The Dôme Café Scene in Agnès Varda’s Cléo De 5 À 7 (1962)—
6: The Wall of Fame Scene in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989)—
7: The Roadhouse Slaughter Scene in Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark (1987)—
Bonus Chapter: Taylor Swift’s Music Video for “Shake It Off” (2014)—
Acknowledgments
Selected Texts
Index
