Man has been telling stories much before he learned to
write. Through cave paintings, through epics passed on to
generations as oral tradition, and then subsequently
through different forms of the written word, poetry, plays,
novels, operas, songs, comic books, photo features and
eventually cinema, the human urge to tell stories has never
been satiated, nor has our desire to listen to one. Between
all these forms or media of communicating a story there
have been some common elements, and then there have
been story elements unique to a certain medium. Similarly,
what type or kind of stories will work on one medium vis a
vis another is also something we have been discovering all
this while. For me, personally, it has been a matter of great
fulfilment to try to understand the dynamics of cinematic
storytelling and how telling a story on film is different from
other forms of human expression. In this post, I have tried
to briefly summarise some elements of storytelling with
respect to the motion picture. This, in my opinion, is only
an introduction to the world of cinematic storytelling. So
here they are, the eight narrative elements of film:
1. Character: If there is one element of good stories that is
common through all ages and narrative forms, and if there
is one unbroken rule of successful storytelling, it is this -
creating compelling characters whose story the world
would want to listen. We, and our society, are obsessed
with this incorrigible need to create heroes whom we can
look upto, heroes whom we can admire, care for, whose
wins matter to us, whose losses we hate to endure.
Creating an unforgettable, relatable, likeable protagonist,
and making him or her face a ruthless, mean, unforgiving
antagonist has been the most common recipe of several
great stories. And then, you need to add to the mix an
interesting ensemble of supporting characters, an
'orchestration' where the individual parts complement each
other like different musical instruments playing together to
create a moving symphony. Think of any film you love, and
you can be certain that it has great characters. Even
writers who have broken different rules of film writing, read
Quentin Tarantino et al, have not been able to break this
one absolute rule. You want to write a film that the world
loves? Make the audience invest in your characters, and
the sooner the better.
2. Plot: A story is
always a journey that its characters take. Whether it is a
self-reflective, internal monologue of a novel, or an
adventure ride of a movie - the characters, especially the
protagonist(s), undertake an emotional or physical journey
that causes some change in them by the end. The course of
this journey is marked by events - incidents and
experiences that the protagonist faces. The plot is the
series of these events, from the beginning, through the
middle, until the end, that gives us the feeling of the forward
motion (or motionlessness) of the story. The most
important events of the plot are often significant
irreversible incidents that change the course of the plot and
push it further ahead. These events are called Plot Points.
When Neo Anderson takes the red pill and decides to
understand what is wrong with him, when Bhuvan accepts
the challenge from the British Captain on behalf of his
village, when Simran meets Raj on the first day of her
Europe trip, when Jack saves Rose from committing
suicide over the deck of the mighty ship - we know their
respective stories have changed irreversibly and moved
ahead. These are all examples of Plot Points. The plot can
be thin or thick, but it is this that forms the body of your
story.
3. Conflict: Imagine what would have happened if Bhuvan
and the villagers already knew the game of cricket and
easily defeated the British to get rid of their taxes. If Jack
were of the same social status as Rose and the ship had
sailed smoothly to reach its destination, if Simran enjoyed
absolute freedom and she and Raj had no friction
whatsoever when they met and her Dad had no problem
with him as his son-in-law, or if Neo had a doubtless,
riskless journey of realising that he was 'the One' - these
stories would be as dead as logs of wood. Conflict is the
bread and butter of drama. The more you can involve the
audience into the conflicted situations of your characters,
the more problems you can create for your protagonists
and make them overcome those one by one, the more
successful your storytelling will be. Also, any level of
conflict or drama starts appearing redundant, repetitive or
lukewarm unless you keep increasing the stakes and keep
coming up with bigger conflicts. Especially as a storyteller
on film, we need to keep raising the tension and thickening
the action to make sure the collective attention and interest
of hundreds of people watching the film stays with us. How
to do it without making it look manipulative or convenient
is something we have been trying to learn for all these
years. And this is something that each film writer struggles
with, even after years of experience.
4. Resolution : So how does it end? If you have told a
gripping story, it better end well, or the audience will feel
terribly cheated. In cinema, particularly, the ending is very
important because hundreds of people are going to react
together to it as they exit the theater. And their 'Exit Door
Reaction', or EDR - a word that I have coined, can make or
break your movie on which crores of rupees are riding. I
have read several good novels that have weak final act, but
perhaps none of the great movies suffer from this. A
climactic resolution to the already thickening plot, a final
confrontation of the protagonist with the antagonistic
forces, a final Plot Point, that is emotionally, dramatically,
and visually the high point of the film is very important to
complete your movie experience. And this closure, this
resolution of the primary conflict of the film, or the lack of it
(as is the case with tragedies), often brings forth the 'point
of the movie'. The resolution should also, generally, cause
a significant change in the life of the protagonist. After all,
is a story worth telling, if it is not signifcant for its own
protagonist?
5. Structure: "A story should have a beginning, a middle,
and an end, but not necessarily in that order." This
wonderful quote by Jean-Luc Godard is perhaps the
simplest way to put across the importance of structure.
Also, the pleasures of structure are more apparent and
impactful in a movie than any other form of narration. From
'Citizen Kane' to 'The Killing', from 'Mystery Train' to 'Pulp
Fiction', from 'Irreversible' to 'Memento' to 'Amores Perros'
and '21 Grams' - playing with time, twisting the plot, and
constantly challenging the audience has been a wonderful
game moviemakers have been indulging in. But I would
also like to insist that a simple, linear narrative is at times
equally powerful, if not more. Imagine the timeless story of
'Bicycle Thieves' told in flashback when the last scene has
already been played and then the entire film is an
explanation of that. Would that ever cause the heartbreak
that the film's simple, linear design does? Determining the
correct structure for your story is like deciding on how to
dress yourself for a certain ceremony. From your reputation
to the impact you can make may depend so majorly on
that. Personally, I find this, determining the structure of a
film I am writing, the most exciting stage of film writing.
6. Scenes : A scene is
the building block of a screenplay, its most basic unit that
has its own independent, whole existence. Technically
speaking, everything happening at one place at one time in
the film is a scene. The moment you change the location or
jump time, you have entered a new scene. It is this
wonderful ability of a scene to actually make you feel that
"you were there" is what makes cinema a "live" emotional
experience. Unlike all other forms of narrative, cinema is
very much a "real" experience, even when it is telling an
outright fantastical tale. So the importance of scenes as its
units can never be stressed enough. When does the scene
begin (it may enter the 'event' or the 'incident' a little late)
or when it ends (we may leave earlier, abruptly, leaving
something for the imagination) is as important as the
internal dramatic structure of the scene and how the events
unfold in it. Also important is the transition from one scene
to the other. If scenes are stitched together to form one
seamless whole, we very willingly lose ourselves into the
universe of our characters. Scenes from great films also
create unforgettable moments that gain iconic status in
cinema history. Rose and Jack standing together with her
arms wide open on the bow of the ship as it pierces the
heart of the mighty ocean is an image that will live forever.
A moment or scene as cinematically powerful as this can
also be among the biggest motivations for the creative
talent involved in the tedious filming process.
7. Dialogue : From creating characters that we worship
forever to conveying the biggest plot truths, from bringing
out the internal and external conflicts to establishing the
significance of a powerful resolution, from constructing the
internal drama of the scenes to being wonderful transitional
devices, dialogue or spoken lines are one of the most
conspicuous elements of film narrative. Each line spoken in
a film may serve several functions - from entertaining and
seducing the audience to making them empathise with
even the coldest of characters, and dialogue, as well as
conscious and economical lack of it, forms a major part of
our movie-viewing pleasure. However, more often than not,
bad dialogue also completely ruins the film. "Show, not
tell" and "Less is more" - these rules are perfectly apt for
film writing. "In a novel, a character thinks . In a play, he
talks . In cinema, he does" - this is another broad
generalisation that I love. Cinematic dialogue is so different
from any other narrative medium. And if done well, smart
and tasteful dialogue becomes an inseparable part of
popular culture more succesfully than any other story
element of films.
8. Visuals : Perhaps the most unique of all narrative
elements discussed above is something that is most
integral to motion pictures - the visuals. It is no wonder
that cinema is the youngest human expression - it had to
wait hundreds of years, until photography was invented.
And thanks to this "real" reproduction of images, cinema
could actually become this powerful and impactful form of
mass communication. Apart from making the story appear
real and inviting, the visuals in cinema transcend time and
cultural boundaries. I so often feel thankful to cinema for
having shown me different cultures and lands and people
when I have never stepped out of my country. Well-done
compositions, purposefully designed color-palettes, and
metaphoric use of images not only enhance the aesthetic
pleasure of watching a film, they also give film its own
unique grammar, form, and expression. It is important to
mention 'visuals' as one of the narrative elements of
cinema, although its depiction mainly depends on how the
film is shot, because a film writer has to understand the
visual potential of this medium. And unless the film writer
imagines it, great and unforgettable visuals will never be
created. And if not for the visual spleandour that cinema is,
we would remain contented with the good old novels and
fables and folk tales.
P.S. Apart from these eight basic elements of cinematic
storytelling, there is one more that some writers and many
viewers put a great deal of importance to. It is the 'theme'
of the film, the 'moral of the story'. Often during
discussions on a film, we tend to emphasise so much on
its philosophical message or its socio-political
implications. I, personally, do not consider this as an
essential element of film narrative. I do not believe in
making films to change the world, although I accept the
power this medium possesses. I also do not find it an
obligation to tell stories with certain moral obligations. For
me, the only approach to take while creating a screenplay
is to find interesting characters who have got something
going on in their lives that is so universally appealing that
it will always find audience. And also, I believe, each story
that is well told, carries a moral or a theme, whether the
writer intends to convey it or not.