Dear folks, including Jacob Krueger Studio alumni, there’s been a lot of discussion and comparatives related with literature vs cinema. Having understood essentials of more complex scenic action, today I would like to express my points and proposals of what I consider the unification of literature and screenwriting…! Many of us for example have used indirect speech in screenplays but I believe there is a thorough analysis and discussions behind the unification consideration.
We’ve been taught about the necessity or not of juggling information, explanation, description and action in our screenplays. We’ve been taught that too much behavior vs action may be considered passive, about sneaking details in on action and that in screenplays we write only what we hear or see.
But how can we transplant glory in screenwriting? How can we make screenplays be bathed with stardust?
I would like to point out a few key elements I’ve been taught as a litterateur student in Book Laboratory IANOS!
We know for example that narration is being distinguished on the aspects of time and order in terms of linear, circular and non-linear narration. Non-linear is especially true when parallel plots inside the initial one and diving into dreams take place, flashbacks, etc.
There’s the suggestion of applying these in properly formatted structure of screenplays, still audio-visual but more complex storytelling in movie scripts. Can it happen? It’s about craft!
We also know in literature that narration based on time is being distinctive in terms of whether we begin from start or the middle. The first case is being baptized with the name ab ovo narration, the second one with the name in medias res.
Can they happen in screenplays? Properly formatted structure and action, can make this dream come true as well. Again, it’s about craft!
We’ve been taught about the necessity or not of juggling information, explanation, description and action in our screenplays. We’ve been taught that too much behavior vs action may be considered passive, about sneaking details in on action and that in screenplays we write only what we hear or see.
But how can we transplant glory in screenwriting? How can we make screenplays be bathed with stardust?
I would like to point out a few key elements I’ve been taught as a litterateur student in Book Laboratory IANOS!
We know for example that narration is being distinguished on the aspects of time and order in terms of linear, circular and non-linear narration. Non-linear is especially true when parallel plots inside the initial one and diving into dreams take place, flashbacks, etc.
There’s the suggestion of applying these in properly formatted structure of screenplays, still audio-visual but more complex storytelling in movie scripts. Can it happen? It’s about craft!
We also know in literature that narration based on time is being distinctive in terms of whether we begin from start or the middle. The first case is being baptized with the name ab ovo narration, the second one with the name in medias res.
Can they happen in screenplays? Properly formatted structure and action, can make this dream come true as well. Again, it’s about craft!
Litterateurs use inclusion of stories in their stories, what we Greeks know as “εγκιβωτισμός ιστοριών”, meaning sub-stories inside the main one…
If there’s communication in action, a lot of things can happen in screenplays, meaning that we can apply this notion as well in the movie script as a result and a byproduct of creativity and craft!
Direct and Indirect Speech as well is being found in Google search and described as a visionary technique in movie writers as a study to be applied in scriptwriting. Again, craft has the upper hand in terms of not embedding unnecessary description in indirect speech.
We move on in literature with structure, meaning the architectural conception, what exists in the story and what not. Here there’s not the tiniest innuendo that this is not an element of screenplays as well. Moving beyond the previous status quo of scripts boosts fantasy!
In literature there are distinctions in terms of time and space. Different time frames and different spaces enrich storytelling. This is being shown in terms of how we set up scenes and how we do scenes in screenwriting. Again, the possible unification outcomes depend on craft!
To understand the big picture, Pen Densham in his book Riding the Alligator discusses through an interview of John Watson that every story in literature as well is being defined by a few critical events known as “Islands of Sanity”!
Here we care about a few bullets not in terms of being static, but that through the continuous shaping of the story inside and out of these key points, we understand their logic, their emotion or even better their rationale and level. Are they mesmerizing for an audience?
That’s the processing and the analyzing part of literature whereas the screenwriter has the option to use the “show don’t tell” technique and land himself as well on what is known in literature as islands of sanity. Again, that’s not mere craft but it’s art and craft simultaneously!
To say the truth, unification of literature and cinema matters for the complexity and dimensionality of the characters and the script. What the audience sees in movie theaters is still explicitly audio-visual but it’s the writer’s technique that makes the story compelling.
Conclusively, having talked about the intellectuality of screenwriting and the visualization of literature, we are now asked as writers to determine where we stand in the above framework and what’s our power with these concepts.
At the end of the day and as a result of an ongoing communication process, what’s the dynamic of a movie idea?
