People Watch – Week 3

Storytelling Techniques – Week 3
(Make-Up lessons with Miss Phuah)

REVIEW EXERCISE 2: 50 WORD STORIES
– Difficulties – What were they?
>> Keeping on word limit.
– Restrains – Did they help?
>> It helps to focus on the main idea.

Do constrains help you to be a better writer?
>> It helps to be more creative.
What constraints do professional writers face?
>> Professional writers face datelines, casting problems…

STORYTELLING TOOL 1: OBSERVATION

– Observe in a conscious way – watch with awareness

– Train yourself to see and record:
– Movements
– Physical Characteristics – are important because it shows how they carry themselves.
– Settings – how they behave in different situations

– Adopt a KNEE EYE – to be aware
– Develop a natural SENSE OF CURIOSITY – be interested in people in events, but not intrusive.

~ An observed event, when subject to simple questions, can set up a sequence of possibilities that will develop into a story worth telling.

For eg, when you observe a couple having a meal yet totally not talking…. what questions come to your mind?
– Have they just had an argument over something?

– WHOM AM I WRITING ABOUT? –Which character, whose point of view are you telling about.
– WHO IS MY CHARACTER?
– WHAT IS HE / SHE / IT LIKE?
– WHAT DOES HE / SHE / IT DO?
– WHAT HAPPENS TO HIM / HER / IT IN THE STORY?

EXERCISE: AWARENESS LEVEL
– 2 students
– Back to back
– DESCRIBE each other ACCURATELY

Assignment:
ARISTOTLE

– You are to answer the questions on the handouts
– As a group, prepare a PowerPoint or keynote presentation.

1. Review the list of questions in groups of 3
2. You have an hour to complete your research
3. Avoid presenting just facts or theories. Support your answers with interesting antidotes or tales about Aristotle.

Presentation by our classmates during lesson
Problems writers face
– Deadlines
– Plagiarism
How to solve: read up more and watch more movies, copyright your work.
– Casting Problems
– Creative differences with other writers/directors

Watch what is people doing and not just what is said
(See the actors)
Observing what people do as well as what they say