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Screenwriting as monkey business

By Don Groves
if.com.au
July 28, 2015

Screenwriters who want to think outside the conventional
narrative box can learn a lot from neuroscience studies
of monkeys.

Huh? Yes, that's the subject of a lecture to be delivered
in Sydney on July 30 by writer, director, actor and
educator Steve Vidler.

His keynote talk at a StoryCode event at the Academy of
Information Technology in Ultimo is entitled ‘What
monkeys can teach us about screen story- or how I learned
to stop worrying about 3 act structure and love
neuroscience.'

Vidler, who has a PhD in screenwriting at Macquarie
University and lectures at AFTRS, will ask attendees,
"How many screenplays have you read, and how many films
have you seen that suffer from the same problem? Screen
stories that are conventionally ‘properly' structured,
and yet are devoid of meaning.

"The big problem shared by most approaches to screen
storytelling is that they're based on the assumption of
some kind of ideal external form: 3 act structure; 8
sequence structure; the Hero's Journey; and Truby's 21
steps.

"There is another kind of map available to us, a non-
structural map. But it takes a little more mental effort
to learn and a little more creative thinking to apply.
This map lies in the evidence from the sciences.

"Studies from a range of sciences reveal that beneath and
beyond conventional structure there are four core
principles that drive our engagement with, and
understanding of, story."

Vidler names this quartet as immersing character and
viewer in a specific environment; character engagement;
how to ensure audiences derive meaning from stories; and
satisfying audience's desire for a coherent structure.

He will quote from three studies that scientists
conducted with monkeys, illustrated with clips from the
movies Midnight Run, As Good As It Gets and Bridesmaids.

Continues at:

http://if.com.au/2015/07/27/article/Screenwriting-as-monkey-business/ROKXYRWMBZ.html

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

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