Vogler’s intention during the May workshop in Toronto was to completely transform us and send us out to transform the rest of the world through what we do. And he succeeded!
Part 2
- Alfred Hitchcock – the master of intent. Storyboarded – considered every single dot on the screen in terms of its impact, what it said about character and plot. He uses positions, shadows, etc. To mean something – another language in his films – a shadow across someone’s face means they are in trouble, doubtful, deceiving, their soul is lost – depends on where it falls, e.g., on chin, forehead, eyes, etc.
What he’s trying to do is make the invisible things, visible to the audience – feelings, moods, inner realities, etc. Objects transmit the inner workings of characters.
- Cinematic technique: Use objects to describe something. Giving a gift is usually symbolic – represents a desire to make a connection with another person, e.g., win loyalty, confirm friendship, build power – an externalizer proof when something passes from hand to hand. Audience will wonder what happens to it – becomes the centre of collecting emotional feelings.
Transformation: helpful to know what your story is about – THEME…boil it down too one word. Force yourself to discover what it is – as you write, it may change over time – ensure that every scene in the structure says something about that quality – REINVENTION – how does each scene relate?
IS THERE ONE WORD THAT KEEPS COMING UP, e.g., trust, confidence, etc. You can use different angles in different scenes – how does x regard trust, how does y regard trust – everybody has a viewpoint or set of experiences with that quality
Example, ‘regret’ – most people have an inventory of references – can be motivating for the audience because it is familiar but your skill is to present it in a fresh way…
- Premise: an expanded theme. Sentence about the THEME or human quality. What is your point of view about a human quality? Becomes your hypothesis, e.g., you can’t expect others to trust you until you trust yourself.
Do a word search to see how often your theme word appears.
- Change: Yin & Yang - whatever you are, the seeds of the opposite are in you. The movement from one side of emotion or action creates TRANSFORMATION – it goes on all the time.
- Transition: from one state of existence or from one world to another – sunrise to sunset. We automatically select a point in someone’s story when they are in a state of change – why do we look at them unless they are about to transform? A ‘crossing the log’ moment – transitioning from childlike innocence to a more mature approach to the world – stand jump for yourself, take your rightful place.
This kind of examination should clarify things for the reader – clear away the film of life – gets the reader to resonate – either they have experienced it or it’s missing from their life
- “It’s all about the vibes, man.” Everything you see and hear around you is vibrating fast. Your book is charged with your vibrations – everything you’ve learned, some X factor you tap into that’s beyond your experience. Should cause the reader to go through a little bit of a shift or transformation – could be entertaining, informative, etc.
Most people come into a book jangled, distracted, bored, tired – the writers takes the reins of their mental and perhaps physical processes for a brief period of time – you interfere with their vibrations in a positive way – tune them like a staticky radio. Take them from fatigue and cast a spell to get them to a new state. There is a possibility in our work to get people centred again for a brief time, as they turn from one page to the next – e.g., answer a question, take them to another level of understanding.
As they get involved with your characters, you take them on a wave-like journey – the characters have good days, bad days, really worse days, best days – builds in intensity to the point where it shatters expectations – so exciting or cathartic that it attacks the whole framework of their previous existence and sends them off in another direction or to a new adventure – make the character sympathetic, interestingly flawed with lots of problems – but there has to be a progression that leads the reader to follow.
How the character enters the story is important – sets the tone, catches interest. Principle:
contrast should be used more. Use element of surprise. What is the emotional load in each scene?
How can you better externalize what is happening internally? Can you give the reader shivers because of how you portray the truth of the moment? Insert some mystery – hold something back. Props can be used as visualization of deeper meanings, e.g., wrestler doll on dashboard, source music that reflects what’s going on emotionally.
Details are filled with possibilities, even seemingly insignificant ones. Play around with the readers’s expectations – lead them to believe X but deliver W that reveals something about a character’s nature.
CHAKRAS:
the subtle body relating to internal organs. Invisible, thought forms – there is a progression from the low-level stuff – survival, sex, power on the lower or animal world levels. Most people toil on those basic levels. Stories can get into the system and either open up or close down those chakra centres up and down the spine. For example, when you are helpless, powerless – Root chakra: you feel that in your gut.
Good movies lift us from the Root and Sacral or solar plexus chakra and stimulate them to the heart chakra (love), throat (musicals, overcoming fear and telling your truth – could have a shocking effect but it necessary to character development.
Third eye – we see characters experiencing the unknown or spiritual; side of life or having intuition), e.g., in crime stories, the hero is knocked unconscious somewhere in the middle of the story. Reorganizes their thinking. When he comes to, he has an insight – I’ve got a hunch. [after Kenora falls over the ladder and is assaulted]
Crown chakra – very rare in life or movies. About someone’s whole picture of life opening up – enlightenment when they see the vision of their entire life.
Chakra examples tend to occur in pairs that create circuits, e.g., open in power chakra (want control) and throat chakra (strong ability to express ideas and convey power). Common theme in stories – people who cannot express themselves or tell the truth until an event happens to open them up. Open people – smile, ready to connect with others. Closed – solitary, confine themselves to situations they can control, do not engage.
Sound vibrations can affect chakras . We’ve all experienced music that ‘touches you where you live’.
- RELATES TO MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEED – EVERYONE HAS NEEDS AND DRIVES and varying desires to express them – everybody in your story must know what their Prime Directive is, e.g., the default is not to upset anyone or have them angry at you, urge toplease (may be unconscious but is important to know). For some, it is being first, being in the background, being considered competent, etc.
WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS’ PRIME DIRECTIVES? Are they extremes or middle of the road? ME first; me last or me too? What is at the top of their list? What might serve them better?
... check out Part 3
