JazzBox Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Ciao! I have an idea for a web series: I read some books ("How to Write a Movie in 21 Days", "Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting" etc...), but all talk about a feature film.I'm planning a series of 6 episodes of 5 minutes each: do you think it is better to follow the 3 act structure in each episode? I was thinking also to divide this structure in 6 episodes, but probably it would be boring, because every episode needs a climax and an ending... I have the subject, I wrote all the (few) characters, but I don't know how to make each episode self-sufficient and still to narrate a whole story trhough all 6 episodes. How would you write for a series? Thank you very much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axel Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm planning a series of 6 episodes of 5 minutes each: do you think it is better to follow the 3 act structure in each episode? I was thinking also to divide this structure in 6 episodes, but probably it would be boring, because every episode needs a climax and an ending...I don't think so. Very few books on screenwriting actually are worth a straw. They claim to have 'discovered' the ancient receipe for drama (Aristotle) in selected examples of famous films. But their application of the structure is arbitrary, and on closer inspection the theory crumbles. Scripts that are tailored around this structure are all banal, stereotyped and boring. This short article by Paul Schrader might interest you.What isn't true for feature films (I recently watched Godfather I-III again, and while doing so, I thought about it again), is absolute rubbish for modern mini series. What everybody just misses is that Aistotle also wrote on epic drama, which can develop it's plot lines freely.In traditional mini series, the ending of each episode had a cliffhanger, and very often you saw through it instantly. The hero hangs from a cliff? Okay, next week someone will rescue him. Breaking Bad, True Detective, The Killing: More often than not they just present a few possible threats at the end, full stop. They don't promise a climax, never. They promise further developments. Of action. But more important: of characters. The more complicated (and often misleading) the narration becomes, the more interesting and engaging. You have to interweave conflicts and just foreshadow crises that may come. The future of storytelling turns back to the roots of what stories are about. Descriptions and concepts of our lifes. Not compact moral tales ... JazzBox 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JazzBox Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Thank you very much Axel! I really appreciate your comment!While I'm quite positive that limitations help to be more concentrated on the main focus (i.e. bringing 12 lenses on set is maybe more time consuming then choosing 3 lenses to shoot with and trying to adapt all the shots with them) I don't like to have too many rules when creating: I read all those books about screenwriting, but they remember me when I was a jazz student and in the school they told me which scale was supposed to use on which chord... So, I want to be free to tell my story, but this is my first screenwriting narrative experience, because I only shot shorts as camera operator, not as director. I wrote some stories for music videos, but that's way more simple I'm going to read the article by Paul Schrader, thank you very much Axel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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