Gathering Material:
- an overarching idea
- snippets of writing
- outline of the whole idea
- images/objects that inform the project
- character sketches
- lots of details, ideas, people, images etc.
First Stage of Organizing
- Treatment/Spec :
- How to write a treatment – approach for traditional screen plays
- Game Design Documents
- More on Game Design Documents
- Bible:
- Create the perfect series bible: screencraft.org
- short video from studio binders
- Storyboarding:
- Flowcharting
- Structuring Ideas with Cards:
- John August’s Hints useful for plotting, long-forms
Experimental artists/Experimental Forms
- Robert Wilson article in theater life with Einstein on the Beach 8 min excerpt
- Meredith Monk – cellular songs with embedded videos
- Lorna Simpson – 31 – multichannel video
Script Formatting Conventions
- Graphic Novel/Comic Books
- TV
- Screen Play – look at Three Kings Draft
- elements of cinema advice
- movie outline advice
- fight scene
- other scripts at The Daily Script
- Stage Play
- Interactive Text
- Storm Castle Advice – writing a video game
Story Structures
- Kurt Vonnegut on
- the Shape of Stories – Vonnegut is describing the emotional arc of a story. 4 min video
- 17 min video
- Syd Field, Robert McKee, et al.
- Syd Field deconstructed the typical hollywood film and introduced his paradigm for structuring film (plot points etc).
- This writing school is spoofed in the film, ADAPTATION
- McKee’s “Story:Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting”
- McKee On Character
- The setting – youtube ~5 mins
- Bad Writer’s Have Nothing to Say ~6 mins youtube
- Don’t Mistake Words for Writing ~6 mins youtube
- The Destructiveness of Formulaic Screenwriting ~3 mins youtube
- The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet – in a similar hollywood film tradition
- Interactive Story Structures by Ira Nayman
Dialog and Subtext
- 5 Golden Rules for Writing Authentic Dialog – Writer’s Edit
- Chas Harris – subtext
- Penny Penniston – subtext speaks
Color
GIVING FEEDBACK
- Look for positives and negatives – feedback sandwich
- Constructive but not TOO reconstructive
- Ask questions.
- Summarize – this is what I thought was going on.
- What is writer trying to do? identify it – say it write it down
- How successful is it?
- What else is happening – out of writers control?
TAKING FEEDBACK
- DO NOT DEFEND YOUR WORK
- you can answer direct questions but maybe just note them down.
- Listen, take notes.
- Later – determine whether it’s useful, or not.
Writing Resources
- Charles Bernstein writing experiments.
- Huffington Post (best creative writing exercises)
- Dialog Workshop by Holly Lisle
- Interactive Story Structures by Ira Nayman
- Fifteen Fun Writing Exercises to Improve Writing Skills by Pamela A. Zinkosky (for kids)
- Interactive Story Software
- TED talk Andrew Stanton, The Clues to a Great Story
- Online Screenplays
- Philomena Script
- Philomena Trailer
Prelim Poetics/Mateas
- recap of Aristotelian principles via Brenda Laurel: explain/define
- Enactment vs. Description
- Intensification vs. Extensification
- Unity of Action vs. Episodic Structure
- Janet Murray’s categories for games: explain/define
- agency
- transformation
- immersion
- Look at diagrams
- explain material/formal cause
- what has to be added, according to M, for interactive work
Agency and Immersion/Frasca
- What does Frasca mean by ideology and simulaton?
- How does Frasca characterize Brecht/Boal?
- What can be brought to video game design/play by Brecht/Boal?
Provoking Thing/Anstey, Pape
- What narrative/dramatic strategies do they use to:
- build an AI agent/actor
- control/constrain the user