HG Wells

Radio: most of the radio is advertisement now

The radio format is now on iTunes, pod casts, streaming audio

• We listened to 1938 War of the Worlds: by HG Wells, spoken by Orson Wells
• Time period:
• Coming out of depression 
• Strong socialist movement 
• People were scared. 
• Painting pictures in your head with WORDS.
• We want to change people with their words and knowledge.  

War of the Worlds:

• Didn’t sound scripted 
• Background noise echoed emotion
• Lingo matched interviewers
• Radio guy lingo
• Military guy lingo
• Scientist guy lingo
• Used descriptive words:
• Dripping wet
• Smooth leather
• Had radio cut aways:
• This made the time go faster in our head. 
• Cutaway to music or to network guy.

How to improve dialogue

How to Improve dialogue  

• Read it aloud. 
• Your work is meant to be read, so don’t fret letting people read it. 
• No long passages 
• Audience will tune you out or fall asleep. 
• Use distinctive dialogue 
• Give each character their own voice. 
• Get into the characters.. I.e., wear their shoes. 
• Speak their language. 
• If your character is a cop, use cop terms.
• Habitual phrases
• Things that help identify and make your characters unique. 
• Cut dialogue that doesn’t serve a purpose. 
• Listen  to people.
• You can get ideas about dialogue. 
• Try not to use slang
• Avoid stereo types. 
• Model others
• Download screen plays you like, or get some books that you enjoy reading and look how they use their words, how to they communicate their message.

Barton and Fink

Dialogue: should echo the emotion of the scene. 

We watched Barton and Fink and analyzed two scenes of dialogue. 

Full Metal Jacket

Dialog: moves the story along.

Information = story

Mistakes that often times come up in dialog: 

1. Too much yack yack yack (talking)
2. Monologging: i.e., james bonds where the evil man always monologs before killing james and it ends up bad for evil. 
1. Be careful not to put to many words into your characters mouth. 
3. Make it sound to real: this makes the audience feel like its fake. 

1. Grammar shortcuts and complete information.

1. Don’t use names two often. 
2. Telling me what I all ready know. 

1. Don't use dialog to keep telling what the audience already knows. 

1. Don’t make everyone sound the same. 

1. Education 
2. Culture
3. Accents
4. Age
5. Gender
6. Race.
7. All of these effects the way we sound. 
8. Lingo makes a huge difference in characters. 

Scene:

1. Intro
2. Transfer of information that moves the story forward. 
3. Light bulb: revelation from information. 
4. What’s next: make sure character doesn't say to much at once. Break it up.

Creativity

Creativity: 

1. Hunt and gather ideas. 

1. We are hunter and gathers. 
2. As story tellers we have to go hunt and gather them. 
3. Find different groups
4. Each group has a different story to tell. 
5. Use the news.
6. Religion.
7. Don't go to the same old places for story ideas

        2. Play with the idea. 

1. Put it in a different time frame. 
2. Make it happen in the snow.
3. Have different variations of the story and see which one you like. 
4. Play with the messages.

        3.Let it stew. 

1. Helps get you away from 1st level of creativity. 
2. Lets it gather more flavor. 
3. Don't skip this step. 

        4.Eureka!

1. Get it all over you. 
2. Grab it, own it, run with it. 

        5. Just do it. 

1. Laziness keeps us from doing it. 
2. Fear is your worst enemy 

10 types of stories

• Story
• Manufactured 
• Recipe
• Blue prints
• Language: 
• We need to sell it.

10 types of stories: which can boiled down to 1 

3 little pig character ideas

• What is the message?
• What are my options?
• Don't use cliches. 

Using simple stories like the 3 little pigs we can change it up and throw out the cliches. Making it your own with a message. 

• Wolf: Protagonist,
• Goal: to over come his pig eating addiction. 
• Monkey: Antagonist,
• Goal: needs the wolfs power to keep him in control.

Beat Sheets

• Beat sheet- outline of your story
• A beat= an action
• Start thinking about major actions

Start with:

• Hook- “start with the snake” if the story is about snakes then start with the snake. 
• Get with the action
• This is a great way to identify the hook
• I.e., x-files, film noir, CSI, house.... All start with a hook. If its all about a murder then it needs to start with the murder. 
• In the (3 act structure) the hook is the dog attacks the ice cream man. 
• Next is Act 1:

Example:

• Hook- the dog attacks the ice cream man.

Act 1:

• Joe is sweltering 
• He wants ice cream but is afraid of the dog.
• Joe decides to step outside and give it a go. 

Act 2:

         

3 Act Structure

• People fear the unknown but when they know it, it doesn't seem so scary anymore. 
• The most powerful enemy’s are our selfs. 
• All conflict is a struggle for some form of power. 
• “If only...” “what if...”

• You have to defeat the antagonist in order for the protagonist to grow. 
• You can not be saved from above. 

Antagonist vs. Protagonist

Characters:

• Need to be essential 
• Characters and characterizations 
• Need to be Real, and believable. 
• Unique
• Connected
• Characters are looking for some form of power (goal) motivation. 
• Fact check your characters
• Don’t talk about characters that you don’t know about. 
• If you dont know a cop then when you talk about one it will seem fake, and unrealistic. 
• Lingo needs to be authentic and seem real
• If you cant find a authentic cop, teacher, pilot, use google and research. 

The Hero’s journey.

• Joe Campbell- researched mythology and wrote the Hero’s journey.
• Came up with 5 concepts that were similar in many different mythologies. 
• 1. Call to adventure. 
• Common joe and something calls them out for adventure. Something that will prove himself to others. 
• Given choice to accept or decline. If they accept it means the character is active. 
• Can use decline to show a weakness.
• 2. Road of Trials:
• Along the road we have many successes and failures. 
• 3. Achieve Goals:
• Which leads to some kind of self-knowledge. 
• 4. Has to return to the real world. 
• Leads to not fitting in. 
• Either they take the head seat of the table and lead the tribe or they have to leave. 
• 5. Application:
• Where they don’t think your a weirdo anymore. 

Antagonist: Make them worthy of your protagonist. 

• Characters communicate the message. 
• Make sure that your antagonist can connect with your protagonist. 
• Your worst enemy is yourself.