What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay PDF
Preview What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay
What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay A structured perspective on the crucial interface of director and screenplay, this book encompasses twenty-t wo seminal aspects of the approach to story and script that a director needs to understand before embarking on all other facets of the director’s craft. Drawing on seventeen years of teaching filmmaking at a graduate level and on his prior career as a director and in production at the BBC, Markham shows how the filmmaker can apply rigorous analysis of the elements of dra- matic narrative in a screenplay to their creative vision, whether of a short or feature, TV episode or season. Combining examination of such fundamental topics as story, premise, theme, genre, world and setting, tone, structure, and key images with the introduction of less familiar concepts such as cultural, social, and moral canvas, narrative point of view, and the journey of the audience, What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay applies the insights of each chapter to a case study—the screenplay of the short film Contrapelo, nominated for the Jury Award at Tribeca in 2014. This book is an essential resource for any aspiring director who wants to understand how to approach a screenplay in order to get the very best from it, and an invaluable resource for any filmmaker who wants to under- stand the important creative interplay between the director and screenplay in bringing a story to life. Peter Markham is a creative consultant, teacher, author, and former directing head at the American Film Institute Conservatory. His alumni, award winners at major festivals, have notable careers in film and TV. Prior to teaching, he was a director in the UK, and worked with filmmakers including Anthony Minghella and Martin Scorsese. What’s the Story? The Director Meets Their Screenplay An Essential Guide for Directors and Writer- Directors Peter Markham First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Peter Markham The right of Peter Markham to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Markham, Peter, 1952– author. Title: What’s the story? the director meets their screenplay : an essential guide for directors and writer-directors / Peter Markham. Description: London ; New York : Routledge, 2020. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020024639 (print) | LCCN 2020024640 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367415891 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367415877 (paperback) | ISBN 9780367815363 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Motion pictures–Production and direction. | Motion picture plays. Classification: LCC PN1995.9.P7 M327 2020 (print) | LCC PN1995.9.P7 (ebook) | DDC 791.4302/32–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020024639 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020024640 ISBN: 978- 0-3 67- 41589- 1 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 0-3 67- 41587- 7 (pbk) ISBN: 978- 0-3 67- 81536- 3 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Newgen Publishing UK To Barbara Tfank, for her unwavering belief and support Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 PART A The approach 3 1 What’s the story? 5 2 Premise 10 3 Theme 16 4 Genre 21 5 World/ setting 39 6 Cultural, social, and moral canvas 43 7 Tone 49 8 Structure 55 9 Passage of time 63 10 Character 69 11 Narrative point of view 85 viii Contents 12 Introduction of the protagonist and main characters 99 13 Key images, objects, and motifs 106 14 Opening image, frame, shot 110 15 Closing image, frame, shot 119 16 Endings 124 17 The 5-step creative analysis of the screenplay 131 17.1 A brief summary of the scene 131 17.2 The journey of the protagonist 131 17.3 The journey of the audience 132 17.4 The turning point of the scene 133 17.5 The function of the scene 134 18 The director’s statement 135 PART B The case study—Contrapelo screenplay by Liska Ostojic and Gareth Dunnet- Alcocer 137 19 Screenplay 139 20 Contrapelo case study 162 21 Conclusion 181 References 182 Bibliography 183 Index 184 newgenprepdf Acknowledgments I would like to give my thanks to the following, without whose inspiration, insights, guidance, and encouragement I could not have written this book: Dubois Ashong, Ari Aster, Zal Batmanglij, Pieter Jan Brugge, Lee Citron, Richard Cottan, Paul Cronin, Neil Dickson, Aihui Dong, Sabrina Doyle, Joseph Garrity, Julian Higgins, Dean Israelite, Mick Jackson, Asher Jelinsky, Leqi “Vanessa” Kong, Stefan Kubicki, Perry Lang, Tal Lazar, Moya Lee, Shiyu “Rhyme” Lyu, Rebecca Maddalo, Manjari Makijani, Theoline Maphutha, Jim McBride, Joel Novoa, Chloe Okuno, Joseph Oppenheimer, Matthew Pancer, Philiane Phang, Charlie Polinger, Asaph Polonsky, Justin Rhodes, Barry Sabath, Daniel Sawka, Chris Schwartz, Omer Ben Shachar, Matthew Specktor, Rob Spera, Courtney Stephens, Greg Takoudes, Tomas Vengris, Max Weissberg, Amelie Wen, Hao Zheng, Quan Zhou, Shu Zhu, Dr Mahlet Zimeta, others whom, with my apologies, I have no doubt omitted to mention, and the many Directing Fellows and those of other disciplines I was fortunate to come to know during my career at AFI Conservatory. I also wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Steven Holt for his meticulous, informed, and enlightening copy-e diting. I am indebted to Gareth Dunnet-A lcocer and Liska Ostojic for allowing me to use their screenplay of Contrapelo as the case study. Note: several categories in chapters 5 and 6 are taken from the class handout of Robert Boyle (1909– 2010), AFI Conservatory Production Design Faculty and Production Designer whose credits include North by Northwest, The Birds, and Marnie. Of all the remarkable guests to my class, Bob was surely the most distinguished, and I owe him a debt of gratitude for the insights I was able to put to use in these chapters. I hold the memory of AFI Conservatory colleagues Gill Dennis and Frank Pierson, who taught me so much, similarly dear.
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