A few of my favorite things ...

I may have posted this to the wrong blog. And the other post I made probably should have appeared here. You can be the judge and let me know.

The Story Experience

Lots of books, articles, and story consultants get into the technical parts of story:
1. Beginning, Middle, End
2. Inciting incident, Crisis, Climax, Resolution
3. Act I, II, and III
4. Premise, Theme, Conclusion
etc.

That is what story looks like from an analytical view point. It's as if you wanted to know what an orange was and you put it under the microscope and analyzed the acidity and talked about the skin and rind. Nothing in there would tell you about the orange experience: how it tastes, the juiciness of it, the fresh smell from the broken skin.

I realized, after reading a lot of books and articles and listening to a lot of podcasts, that there's something else at work here. There's a flavor, a flow, an odor and a substance to story. It's not just about the bones or what you can see from the outside.

It's not even about some backwards process where you write the whole story and then decide what it's about. It's like having someone ask about your boyfriend and you say things like, "He wears a size 12 shoe, has  brown hair, likes to tango, and drives a 2002 Saturn." These little descriptors do not provide the experience of being with your boyfriend. It tells you what he's like on the outside.

Here are my four (so far) categories of the story experience.

1. The Decision Tree. This is a story that goes from incident to incident like an adventure game with the protagonist making a choice at each crucial juncture. Examples are "Star Wars: A New Hope", "Hitch", "The Mask", and "High Fidelity (the movie)." The protagonist may have more than one choice at each juncture. This is a linear story going from A to B with pauses along the way. There is something nearly predetermined about this story. No matter how many twists and turns there are, you know things will work out, because each decision narrows the options for the next decision.
2. Interwoven Arcs. In this story each person, animal, element, and item has an arc. Their arcs are independent of each other yet they interact. In "Notting Hill" the eyeglasses move around, get lost, get replaced by prescription goggles, and are found. Each character has it's own arc that interacts with each other characters. Even the seasons are involved as they move through their turns. The arcs show the passage of time, reveal the characters, move the plot along, all while interacting. You could remove each arc, like whole threads, and reweave them. The key in this is that the story is not linear. There are a lot of stories. Other examples are "Slaves of New York" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
3. Interacting Systems. Unlike arcs, systems have energy centers. Energy moving out from the center causes events. The centers move around pinging off each other, causing other events, making the characters react. Systems can be people, events, or things – even energy itself. Disaster movies are often like this. Something blows up and that unbalances characters who blow up and then perhaps lots of tiny explosions happen until the energy dissipates. "Die Hard", "Independence Day", and "The Fifth Element" are examples of this. Comedies also do this, as in "The Pink Panther" with Inspector Clouseau bumbling around, exploding, and causing other explosions which then move the story into other directions. You could probably think of this as the triangular or pent-angular story depending on how may energy systems you have.
4. Wormholes. If the decision tree is linear, then wormholes are fields. In this type of the story, the events and characters are avoiding. It's as if the story is walking on stepping stones across the field or moving through wormholes, dropping in one place and emerging in another. Much is unsaid and must be figured out as you watch the movie. A lot of mysteries are like this. Examples of this are "Amadeus", "Phantom of the Opera", "Premonition", and "Kate and Leopold."

Maybe I've just renamed categories already out there somewhere. Important for me is that these are descriptors of the experiential process of making the story, not the bare, dry bones of analysis.

I sure hope this helps. I hope, that when I'm doing my usual seat-of-the-pants writing, I can look at what's happening and say, "Hey! This is a Decision Tree or Interwoven Arcs (or whatever)" which will help me recognize what structure I've got so I can build a better story. Or at least get all the way to end of it, for a change.

C'est would be bon: a little difference of opinion

Art courtesy iTunes.

Fascinated with Yves Montand's singing, I purchased C'est si bon for it's classic lilting melody and Yves classic presentation. I first heard him late in his life when he sang with and to Barbara Streisand in "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever." If I had heard him younger (and when I was younger), I would have been a great fan.

I looked up the lyrics and apparently there's some sort of conflict about the official lyrics and their translation. The lyrics Yves sings match the song I purchased. It's lovely poetry in appreciation of women and their effect on a man in love. Quite lovely. My amateur word-for-word translation is:

It is so good

I don’t know if there is anything more beautiful.

If there is, it’s not for me.

Love is really all the joy of the world.

My life begins as soon as I feel it.

And I say, “Oh!”

And I say, “Ah!”

Love is so good,

Nothing can make me leave.

One arm above, One arm below,

Singing songs.

They are so good,

those sweet little nothings

That say so much.

Seeing us so delighted

Passersby in the street envy us.

It is so good 

to watch for that marvelous hope in her eyes

that gives me shivers.

They are so good

These little feelings.

Better than a million [dollars]

So much, so many, so very good.

You can guess at this happiness which is ours,

And if I love, you understand why.

It makes me drunk and

I want no other

Because all women everywhere are in this one woman.

And I say, “Oh!”

And I say, “Ah!”

It is so good,

Being able to embrace it and

to start with the least little occasion.

They are so good,

to play piano

All the way along one’s back

While we dance.

The allure is amazing.

I can’t speak of it without saying 

They are so good.

When I hold her in my arms,

I have to say all that.

Love is with me forever.

It is so good.

And if we are crazy

It is because it is so good.

Because it is so good.

Because it is so good.

Since the "it" referred to as "so good" (C'est Si Bon - It is so Good) becomes a sort of nebulous referent, I changed the italicized words to make the referent concrete. 

Art courtesy iTunes.

Now, the conflict comes in with this page (with misspellings) which shows different lyrics in both the French and English versions with a more monetary meaning. I have to believe these are bogus lyrics because they have little to do with Yves' sung version in the 1950's. In fact, when Eartha Kitt and Barbra Streisand sing the lyrics, they only sing the first half of the song which is the unmangled part. Dean Martin has his own version, as well, which also leaves out the wishes for a rich woman.

It's just crazy! I've no idea why someone added in those strange lyrics about finding a wealthy woman, replacing the wonderfulness of a woman in love and the references to love's buoyant effects. Perhaps due to the lack of instant communication we have now or the strange way that copyright was enforced. Or perhaps Andre Homez's real lyrics were about finding a rich woman ... but I don't believe it.

Anyway, it's there for your consideration. I hope you find it worthwhile.
-------------
Song of the Day: C'est si bon - À Paris

Reluctant Endorsement of Horror

He looks nothing like Viggo! Excellent!
(not that Viggo's bad looking or anything ...)

One night (a couple weeks ago) I couldn't sleep. I reached over, unslept (unsleeped?) the iPhone, and dialed up the PBS app. There wasn't anything on Masterpiece I felt like watching, so I scrolled down to this program called Tavis Smiley. Turns out Tavis is a real man (as opposed to the main character in a show) and an excellent interviewer who talked to David Cronenberg about "A Dangerous Method."

Awhile back I gave up on the whole Cronenberg/Mortenson duo. "A History of Violence" followed by "Eastern Promises" was too much violence for me. However, I still have a solid respect for Cronenberg as director, so I watched the Tavis interview.

A bit of the slanted distorted face jiggle. And good job
getting a smoker to play a man with a cigar.

During the dialogue they showed clips from "A Dangerous Method." I knew Viggo was involved and yet as I watched the clip I didn't recognize him until he did that characteristic distorted face jiggle. And it was right in character! Not only was it in character, but he refined it to the point that you just know Freud had that mannerism. He did such a fine job in that clip that I am now looking for a volunteer to go to the movie with me. I need someone to  text me when the voyeuristic sex scene is over so I can enjoy the rest of the show. (I hope that's the only land mine.)

Another good interview with Cronenberg is the one with Elvis MItchell on KCRW's podcast The Treatment. Also, a nice companion interview (since we're into horror now) is Elvis's talk with John Landis about Monsters in the Movies. Which can take you (as it took me) to the book. And in the book is another interview with Cronenberg by John Landis. It's a good book full of pictures of monsters and interviews with horror's major creators.

Although I don't mind a touch of horror, like the way Neil Gaiman uses it, I don't like horror for horror's sake. After watching "Aliens" I swore off for good. Well, until Viggo came along. I'm still off horror and still into good acting, so if you'd like to volunteer to be my censor for Cronenberg's latest, leave a comment and we'll work something out.

Movies I Love, explained

Shades of immortals!

To expand on my tweet about #moviesilove, here is what makes my favorite movies worthy of love.

1. Slaves Of New York: Wondering what it's like to be an artist? Reminds me a lot of my art school days at Virginia Commonwealth University. And no wonder! Screenplay and book by Tama Janowitz who wrote about the world of Andy Warhol during the era when I was in art school. Heart warming in a satirical kind of way.
2. Defending Your Life: Albert Brooks' subtle humor gets better with rewatching. Even the concept is funny: purgatory as resort. Meryl Streep balances Albert nicely. Eating all you want and never gaining any weight? Puh-leese!
3. Galaxy Quest: I save this up to watch during the winter holidays every year.There's a parallel between the insanity of creating a universe based on fake science and families at Christmas. Everyone thinks they're doing the right thing but it all works out anyway. "... by Grabthar's hammer... by the Sons of Warvan..."
4. The Princess Bride: A lovely fairy tale for adults. A funny one. Full of sweet silly innuendoes. Sending up the fairy tale genre with a noble pirate, a gutsy princess, and a pretty villain. "Do you think it will work?" "It would take a miracle."
5. Star Wars: Do I really need to explain this? And, yes, I like them all in spite of "the phantom plot", other flung pejoratives, and JarJar Binks. I particularly enjoy seeing extra footage of Jabba the Hutt in the digital remake and being able to jump from III to VI to see Vader turn around. Although, it's kinda weird to see a young Hayden Christensen as the unmasked Darth Vader.
6. Harry Potter: I was dragged kicking and screaming into reading Harry Potter by my daughter who agreed to read all of The Lord of the Rings if I read HP – a mutually beneficial exchange. This series brought me understanding of the differences in storytelling technique between books and movies. I like each in their own way as great stories. Movie 6 (... The Half-Blood Prince) is so incredibly artsy. It even got a Cinematography Oscar nomination. 
7. Notting Hill: Most amazing long shot of changing seasons to the tune "Ain't No Sunshine." Lovely will-never-happen romance between a scuzzy book seller and famous actress. I hope Working Title won't flame me for telling you that I use this movie to go to sleep with every night. I watch it on my iPhone, enjoying all the little nuances that can only be noticed after 84 viewings. This title slid into seventh place because the number of tweet characters remaining precluded a lot of other favorites. Other options for 7th place: The Lord of the Rings, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bridget Jones' Diary, Amadeus, Phantom of the Opera.

With Script Frenzy coming up I thought this an appropriate post. I am in a mild panic because I can't settle on an idea or even characters. I'm the Municipal Liaison for Richmond this year so I have to finish. Nine days to figure it out. Wish me luck. Or a broken leg or something.