STORYTELLING: Beginnings, Middles, Ends and Moments (Lecture)

Tin Men (opening) -
https://www.cineplex.com/Movie/tin-men/Photos

This afternoon we had another session with Steve Coombes about beginnings, middles and ends of stories and in the second part, about moments in films. He also told us that dramatic irony was good to try and include in our stories, as all characters need big 'buts' and they have to make hard or bad choices because of the 'buts'.

For example, he said about maybe two bald men fighting over a hairbrush, or a police officer who burgles places.
This made me think about the idea Simon gave me about switching my idea so the detective ends up as the serial killer.

Psycho (middle) - 
http://nathananderson25.blogspot.co.uk/
2015/03/analysis-of-psycho-shower-scene.html

This would make an interesting turn of events and would be a good 'but'.
Knowing it might make my story more interesting I'll consider changing the idea but that means my pitch would need to be changed.

Toy Story 3 (ending) -
http://www.alivenotdead.com/
urbanae/--profile-1057080.html

The most important 'buts' in a story are the beginning, middle and end. In the beginnings, you must know the endings. Not how you're going to get there but just the end at least. You must also have a big 'but' at the beginning too. In the middle, the audience thinks they know where they are but then the story gets flipped. Finally, the end is the biggest 'but' you can manage. You start
with this at the end and then the other 'buts' for earlier in the story become easier. Today was a really useful session as I learnt what should be in each section and I think it will be easier to write my script if I think of it in these parts.

Casablanca (ending) -
http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/film-
screening-casablanca/

We looked at different beginnings, middles and ends of different films, ones which Steve considered the best types. For the beginnings we looked at Rain Man and Fleabag, the middles we watched Psycho, Tin Men and the first Toy Story. The ends we watched Toy Story 3, Lord of the Rings and Casablanca.

Moments
The next part of the session we talked about moments of films. Steve said that we must have some moments in our screenplays, this has made me rethink my whole script to find some good moments. These are so important because the audience will notice moments more than the plot, dialogue and story. If they notice those things then we've gone wrong somewhere with the moments. I learnt that it is also good to start the screenplay on a moment that will then set us up for the rest of our story.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/160651911680581189/

http://giphy.com/search/the-bridesmaids

Last week Steve asked us to think of moments in our favourite films. This was difficult for me as I don't have a favourite film so I didn't know which one to choose, I decided to chose one that made me laugh a lot and an iconic scene in this film. In the end I chose Bridesmaids. This is a chic-flick comedy with Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Rose Byrne and directed by Paul Feig. This is one of my favourite films along with Just Go With It and Friends With Benefits. In Bridesmaids my most favourite scene and one which sent me crying with laughter was when they go to the wedding dress shop after eating a dodgy meal at a meat restaurant. They the try on a few dresses when they start to feel ill. They all start being sick and needing the toilet, while the bride-to-be decides to go outside to find somewhere to use the toilet. However, she doesn't make it and has to sit down in the middle of the road while still wearing a very expensive wedding dress and use the road as a toilet. It is slightly gross but so funny all you can do it laugh. This is why this is my moment from one of my favourite films.