1 Lecture 4: Integrating the Elements Professor Daniel Cutrara American Beauty (1999) Alan Ball (screenplay)

Previous Lesson Character Character in Joy Luck Club 2

This Lesson Supporting Elements American Beauty Assignments 3

4 Supporting Elements Lesson 4: Part I Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (2003) Written by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers (screenplay)

Supporting Elements Pace Dialogue Believability Predictability Payoff Tone Point of View Theme 5

Supporting Elements (Contd) Concept Marketability Formatting 6

Pace Rhythm and Tempo –Too fast can lack emotional connection –Too slow loses audience interest Urgency –Does the story have a built in deadline? For example- 3 days before the asteroid will hit the Earth. Or the soulmate is engaged to be married in a month. 77

Dialogue Evaluation –Is it natural? –Differentiation between characters. –Is it necessary? Conflict Subtext vs On the Nose Expository Humor 8

Believability Suspension of Disbelief –Rules of the world Character consistency –Contradiction yet logic 99

Predictability The Predicable Outcome –Genre expectations demand this. –Unpredictable elements in journey. The Unpredictable Outcome –Still need sense of inevitability. 10

Payoff The Plant –An object, dialogue, person The typical reveal of a gun The Payoff –Transformation of meaning As You Wish 11

Tone The Feel of the Film –Story –Theme –Shifts Formal Elements –Visuals –Sound –Music Seven (1995) 12

Point of View Literary Equivalents Experiments with First Person Third Person –Limited –Omniscient 13

Theme The Meaning –What is the message of the film? American Beauty 14

Concept and Marketability Universal Appeal Niche Audiences 15

Formatting Unprofessional Professional 16

17 American Beauty Lesson 4: Part II American Beauty 17

The Backstory American Beauty (1999) –Directed by Sam Mendes –Cinematographer Conrad Hall –Screenplay by Alan Ball –Five Oscars including Picture and Screenplay 18

The Coverage American Beauty –Comments and Recommendation –Differences in development Changes to plot Affect on the theme Audience reaction 19

Structure and Plot Whose story is it? – Lesters Journey – Three Acts – Point of View The Triangles –The Burnham Family and Angela –Col. Fitts and Ricky –Buddy Kane 20

Lesters Journey The Beginning – The Hook – The Ordinary World – The Inciting Incident – Hero takes on problem – Pace – Predictability 21

The Hook Predictability –Pause the lecture and watch the first clip from American Beauty. How does this beginning work against predictability? 22

Lesters Journey 2 The Middle – Pursuit of Angela – Standing up to Carolyn – Quitting the job – Return to adolescence – Befriending Ricky – Believability 23

Planting and Payoff Pause the lecture and watch the second clip from American Beauty. –How does this action plant an important element that pays off in the third act? 24

Lesters Journey 3 The End – Winning Angela – Seeing the good in his life with family – Payoff of Col. Fitts – Carolyns love 25

Development Pause the lecture and watch the third clip from American Beauty. – How would the meaning of the ending be different if Lester had sex with Angela? 26

The Triangles/Character Arc Lester, Carolyn, Jane –The dysfunctional family Lester, Jane, Angela –Lester pursues an adolescent dream Carolyn, Lester, Buddy –Carolyns infidelity Jane, Angela, Ricky –Jane stands up for herself 27

Character Arc Multiple Arcs –Lester Making peace with his life –Carolyn Rediscovering her love –Jane and Ricky Coming of age 28

Theme Look Closer – Tone – Beauty – Rediscovering whats important 29

The Wrap Up The Whole Picture –The construction of engaging narratives utilizes many different strategies. –Knowing them, and how they may be deployed is essential to story analysis. 30

31Assignments Lesson 4: Part III American Beauty

32 E-Board Post #1 Approximately 200 words. Do a critique of one of your favorite films. Evaluate for one of the following- pace, predictability, believability, tone, point of view, or theme. Comment on two of your peers. 32

End of Lecture 4 End of Lecture 4 Next Lecture: Industry Tools 33