how writing affects acting

10
How Writing Affects Acting + Myth and the Hero’s Journey No Country for Old Men (Cohen Brothers, Writers) The Counselor (Cormac McCarty, Writer) Robert McKee / Joseph Campbell

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From a Performance in Film and Videogames class at University of Calgary.

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: How Writing Affects Acting

How Writing Affects Acting+ Myth and the Hero’s Journey

No Country for Old Men (Cohen Brothers, Writers) The Counselor (Cormac McCarty, Writer)

Robert McKee / Joseph Campbell

Page 2: How Writing Affects Acting

Three Tips on Writing Characters for the Screen

1. Leave room for the actor. 2. Fall in love with all of your characters.3. Character is self-knowledge.

Robert McKeeStory: Style Structure Substance and the Principle of Screenwriting

Screenwriting

Page 3: How Writing Affects Acting

Javier Bardem as Anton Chighur

No Country for Old Men, Cohen Brothers, Writer/Directors)

• Based on a novel by Cormac McCarthy

Javier Bardem as ReinerThe CounselorMcCarthy/Scott, Writer/Director)

• Based on McCarthy’s own novel.

Page 4: How Writing Affects Acting

Spike Jonze Writer/Director• Her: Love in the Modern

Age 2013 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

• Other writings; Jackass TV Series, Where the Wild Things Are.

• Directed Her (2012), Adaptation (2002)

Clip 1:04:00

Page 5: How Writing Affects Acting

Joseph Campbell Scholar and Writer

Myth -- basically serves four functions. 1. The mystical function, experiencing awe

before the mystery of being.2. A cosmological dimension showing one

the shape of the universe in a way that the mystery comes through.

3. The sociological one – supporting and validating a certain social order

4. But there is a fourth function of myth …

Page 6: How Writing Affects Acting

Fourth Function of Myth

4. The pedagogical function. By establishing rites of passage into critical stages of life (or through a “story"), myth provides guideposts and beacons to serve as a reminder that there is a purpose. This is to allow a sense of comfort in the entire process, as the individual remembers that he is not the first not the last to embark upon this Hero’s Journey.

Page 7: How Writing Affects Acting
Page 8: How Writing Affects Acting

Protagonist’s Quest (McKee)/Hero’s Journey (Campbell)• The protagonist’s quest carries him through Progressive

Complications until he’s exhausted all actions to achieve his desire, save one.

• His quest takes him to a crisis decision. His next action is his last. No tomorrow. No second chance.

• This turning point is the moment of greatest tension in the story as both the protagonist/hero and audience sense that the question, “How will this turn out?”

Writing and Hero’s Journey

Page 9: How Writing Affects Acting

Apocalypse Now Story Structure

Escalating Action Plotline Schematic (From McKee)

Willard’s Quest(Spine of the Story)

What’s at Stake? Progressive Complications.

Unconscious Object of Desire?

X Inciting Incident Getting his assassination orders

X Crisis Decision (Turning Point)

X Get on the Boat – With Consequences

X Get off the Boat -- Consequences

X Get off the Boat -- Consequences

Do I fulfill my orders or not? Kill him or join him?

X Get off the Boat -- ConsequencesX Get off the Boat -- Consequences

X ClimaxKilling Kurtz

X Escalating Actions

X Resolution“The Horror, The Horror.”

Conscious Object of Desire isTerminate Col. Kurtz

Freedom from the darkness of his soul?

Page 10: How Writing Affects Acting

Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)• During the Viet Nam War,

Captain Willard is sent on a mission along the Nung River to assassinate the renegade Colonel Kurtz.

Martin Sheen as Cap’t Ben Willard, Marlon Brando, as Col. Kurtz