Visual Storytelling: From "Sunrise" to "The Artist," Leitmotifs to Visual Characterization (Screenwriting Blue Books)
William Martell
Language: English
Pages: 191
ISBN: 2:00215132
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Show Don't Tell - But *How* Do You Do That?
Film is a visual medium, and screenwriting is *writing for the screen* - in this Blue Book we look at various techniques to tell your stories visually, using Oscar Winning Films and Oscar Nominated Films as our primary examples: from the first Best Picture Winner "Sunrise" (1927) to the Oscar Nominated "The Artist" (which takes place in 1927) with stops along the way Pixar's "Up" and Best Original Screenplay Winner "Breaking Away" (a small indie style drama - told visually) as well as "Witness".
Our other primary example is "Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes" - which creates a thinking and feeling chimpanzee through actions, situations, and many other techniques. Seeing is believing - and this Blue Book is filled with 63,000 words of techniques you can use today to turn your words into pictures... and learn how to tell your stories visually.
About the Author:
William C. Martell has written seventeen produced films for cable and video including three HBO World Premieres, two Made For Showtimes, three CineMax Premieres, two films for USA Network, and many others. Reviewer David Nuttycombe of The Washington Post calls him "The Robert Towne of made for cable movies" and he was the only non-nominated screenwriter mentioned on Siskel & Ebert's 1997 Oscar Special "If We Picked The Winners". He doesn't teach screenwriting, he writes for a living.
The naval warfare action film "Steel Sharks" (HBO) stars Gary Busey and Billy Dee Williams, and was made with the cooperation of the US Navy and Department Of Defense onboard an actual aircraft carrier. "Hard Evidence" (USA) was released to video the same day as Julia Roberts' film "Something To Talk About" and out-rented it, landing at the #7 position nationally while the Roberts' film ended up #8 ("Hard Evidence" was the better reviewed film). Submarine thriller "Crash Dive" (HBO) starred Frederic Forest, and introduced "JAG"s Catherine Bell and Christopher Titus from Fox's sit-com "Titus". "Treacherous" (Cinemax) Starred Tia Carrere, Adam Baldwin and C. Thomas Howell. His family film "Invisible Mom" starring "ET"s Dee Wallace Stone won Best Children's Film at the Santa Clarita Film Festival. Mr. Martell is currently working on several projects for major studios.
fear. Max is inventive - he jambs on the brakes so that the bad guys shoot each other. That also shows his driving skills again, but it also shows that he's intelligent. He's a good guy - the villains are shooting at him, but he's not shooting back. His weapons are a last resort for self defense. We also learn how valuable gas is both to Max and the villains. People kill each other for gasoline in this world. Max uses the rag to sop spilled gas off the street - gas is like gold. Max
shows us that he may wear human clothes but is a chimpanzee at heart – he has the apes swing up the cables and use the girders under the bridge as “vines” so that they can get past the trap the humans have set for them. Using the “vine tool” this way is the same as Dustin Hoffman using a spoon and cup to make French Toast or the Driver using his car as a murder weapon – it's the tool the character is most comfortable using being used in a very usual way. Make a list of the "familiar tools"
who controls his son to a father that sees his son as an adult and *stops* trying to control him. He allows Caesar to be his own person. So, from property to person – that's Will's change. Caesar has a similar arc – but he goes from loyal son to rebellious teenager to an adult who defies his father and all that his father stands for... and becomes a *leader* instead of a follower. Both of these arcs are subtle, but you can chart the changes in a series of scenes where *small* changes occur.
later), and demands that the Doorman give him full service – brushing his coat, shining his shoes, combing his hair, cleaning his fingernails... all of this while the Doorman is hungover and defeated and dejected and depressed. The Professor physically abuses the Doorman, then leaves in a huff because his shoes were not shined properly – gets the Hotel Manager, and takes him down to the men's toilet to complain about the Doorman. The Professor storms out, the Manager climbs the stairs (angry),
protagonist's girlfriend tells him she's really a drug courier and she needs him to go with her on the deal and carry the gun just in case something goes wrong ended up working *much* better as a romantic post dinner walk on the pier. Since the producer is likely to note how much of the script takes place in a seated position and and ask if you might change that – beat them to the punch! Find ways to get your characters off their butts! In the screenplay for “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes”