Narrative Paradigims and 21st century narratology Essay

Narrative Paradigims and 21st century narratology - Essay Example Equally important is our understanding of the audience pulse and how they have evolved in their tastes and expectations and how technological developments have improved over time. In this essay, we are going to attempt to understand these concepts and how to apply the same techniques, within the framework of scriptwriting which is the most important aspect for any good story. Christopher Booker (2005) in his scintillating book titled ‘The Seven Basic Plots’ sheds light on the art of storytelling, explaining that stories impact upon us in a more significant and deeper manner than we ever realize. Christopher Booker (2005) However, on examining the different plots of films, he explains that there are seven basic plots which are rags to riches, a quest, the hero depicted as a monster, voyage and return and rebirth etc. According to Booker, plots are only the gateways through which we travel to find the ‘hidden universal language’ Christopher Booker (2005) of wh ich stories are made. Freddie Gaffney sheds light on the layout of a ‘Master Screen script’ and the techniques used to make it more effective. He takes into consideration the layouts for both film as well as television explaining that the commonality between the two is the absence of camera direction. Though screenwriters could offer a few suggestions contributing to a particular shots, yet framing terms for camera direction such as CU, MS, LS and camera movements like ‘Crane,’ ‘Track’ ‘Crab’ etc. and in- shot changes such as ‘Zoom’, ‘Angle’, ‘Focus’, ‘Canted’ and ‘Pull’ are solely the premise of the director and cinematographer. While editing, a suggestion such as ‘Montage’ from the screenwriter, to draw disparate shots together in a coherent presentation, is considered to be valid, but otherwise editing is best left to the editor and director. The prima ry aim of the ‘Master Scene Script’ is to provide a detailed and clear description of every scene. It gives the identification of all the characters in the story, and describes their speech and intonation clearly at different points in each scene. After reading a good screenplay, the characters within the story become life-like within our mind’s eye, while the movie runs through our head, proving that there was a good Master Scene Script, which is nothing but a blueprint of how the story should appear on screen. An excellent Master Scene Script will inevitably create a positive impact on producers, agents and production companies. No matter how good the content of a script is, yet the magic lies in the way it is formatted and presented in ‘The Master Scene Script’. Initial effort and time spent on ‘The Master Scene Script’ would save precious time in the future and does not encourage re-writing of any kind because every sequence in the s cript is well thought out and executed on paper. Freddie Gaffney. (2008) also enlightens us on the format of writing a good screenplay. He explains that the ‘Master Scene Script’ should always be presented in a single column format with the pages numbered consecutively on the top right near the Header. The Footer of each page should have the letters ‘mf’ (more follows) in the bottom right corner. The last page of the script should have the words ‘Ends’ which should be centered. The title of the screenplay should be written in capitals and centered on the first page of the script which should always be single sided. Below the title on the left side the words