SCR 100 Lesson 1.
Script Idea: The Motif of Scriptwriting
By Perfect-Mcsnup.
Contents:
What is Motif
Lietmotif
Mechanical (inorganic) scriptwriting
Organic scriptwriting
Lesson Notes:
Every scripts begins with a motif, just as in Music, the motif is the root idea, giving birth to the entire piece structure, form and artistry. The motif do not only provide the basis for everything, it also orders the direction of everything else, it is the smallest unit, like the biological cell. However, it is the most important, the very beginning of the entire process! All else proceeds from the motif, keeps it's view always in perspective and nothing leads so far away from it, that does not soon after retraces, pointing back to it... The entire pictures moves as though there's some kind of centripetal force, which attracts the script back to the center, regardless how long, how vast, how much (the cast: number of characters), the motif stays on. Closely working to the end of the motif is the lietmotif, the lietmotif is a recurring theme in scriptwriting, just the same way it works in Music, only more expressive (apparent) in this case, the lietmotif in scriptwriting is not a constant K figure, nor is it a constant K structure, that way, it will be extremely inorganic (a quality of bad scripts: purely mechanical, not real, as far from real life as possible, such is no script at all...). The student of scriptwriting must bear in mind that the most important single quality of a professional script is it's organicity, that is how close throughout, to real life is every motion of the picture: remember it is motion (moving) pictures... For instance, here is an example, (to be explored more, in the workshop session):
Mechanical script:
Jason: how is my angel doing today?
Angela: Daddy I'm not responding to treatment at all...
Organic component (same line...):
Jason [looks troubled, yet speaks cheerfully, his aim is to shake off his own worries]:
(looking gloomy) how...'s (puts on a frail smile) Mon Angelita doing today...?
Angela (turns, quite wearily towards him): (sneezes) Daddy (spoken, in such manner, like there's cough down her throat) I'm not res...(sneezes again) responding (coughs, as in clearing up her throat) to treatment at all...
So, you see, the difference between the inorganic and the organic, that's what we mean, things should be kept as close to real life as possible, some would argue, that this way, the scriptwriter, is trying to do the work of the film director, but, to that our response is that, of course, the first directing should be done by the owner of the motif (script idea), so unless, where the scriptwriter is not the copyright owner of the motif, even in that case, the point remains: things should be kept organic, not mechanical! 'Amateur(?)' movies, even in the actings, are largely mechanical, not real! Remember that the words actors and hypocrites are from the same Greek root meaning, therefore the actor like the hypocrite pretends to be whom they are not, the only difference is that one does that in real life (the hypocrite) and the other (the actor) in the theater (entertainment or screen). More on the most important single element later...
So, it begins with the motif (that is the script idea), and the lietmotif recurring in a simple service of pointing us back to the centre, that is back to the motif.
The quality or nature of the motif therefore, could immediately tell us, what to expect with the final work, and the more tasking aspects of the scriptwriting business is to try to keep the script living up to the Motif.
Return to the classroom after reading this lesson notes for class discussions.
Perfect-Mcsnup is a Musical and Scriptwriting Educator at ReHearsal House.
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