Call it a change of pace, call it a preview, call it me taking it easy this time. This month, instead of an original article, I am posting a short excerpt from Chapter 3 of my book
Screenwriting Down to the Atoms, "The Basic of the Most Basic." I know, I know, it's a cheat. But I am in the middle of a number of craft-related subjects that will eventually work their way into articles, but none are currently ready for the light of day. So please enjoy the excerpt, and in case you have not yet had a chance to read it,
Screenwriting Down to the Atoms is available in paperback from online retailers everywhere, and
in e-book exclusively on Amazon.com.
“Storytelling” is a two-part
term. First, there is the “story.” Then, there is the “telling.” It is not
enough to simply have a good story. Equally important is how that story is
told. Even the best of stories can be sunk by poor telling. So, with that said,
we must ask-
To be more specific to our
purposes, how does one tell a cinematic story? Storytelling has many
forms: novels, stage plays, operas, anecdotes, comic strips, dirty jokes, even
song lyrics. Each tell a story in a different way, each with its own inherent
advantages and limitations. But how does cinema tell its story?
Cinema is possibly the most
complex form of storytelling. It is definitely the most complex art form. Most
methods of storytelling use only words to communicate. Some only images. Others
only sound. Cinema, on the other hand, uses words, images, sounds, light,
movement, color, time, space, editing, and camerawork. Where does one begin to
break down something so densely layered?
To find out, we must put the
entire field under the microscope. We start once again by seeking the most
basic, of the most basic, of the most basic.
THE
ATOMS OF CINEMA
Consider the word “atom.”
Though used most often in chemistry, the word itself refers to any element so
basic that it cannot be broken down into smaller units. Its origin dates back
to the fifth century BC, when the Greek philosopher Democritus proposed (quite
rightly) that everything in the universe was made of tiny particles. He
believed that if one had a knife sharp enough, an apple could be sliced thinner
and thinner, until it came to a point where it could be sliced no further, down
to the very particles that held it together. Democritus called these particles
atoms – Greek for “uncuttable.”
Not only was Democritus’ idea
revolutionary, but so was his approach. He knew the key to study was to first
break the subject down to its MOST BASIC ELEMENT. The whole is best understood
by first identifying the tiniest building blocks by which everything is
constructed.
Nearly every legitimate field
of science is built upon a most basic element. Chemistry procured the word atom
for itself to label the swirling particles that make up matter. The chemistry
atom is uncuttable. If an atom were split, the result would not be two
half-atoms, but a useless scatter of subparticles. Biology is the study of
life. Its most basic element is a single living cell. A single cell can carry
out all requirements of life, but if cut into smaller parts, it ceases to
function. Sociology studies behavior in human societies. Societies are made up
of individuals, making a single person sociology’s most basic element.
Any field of study will
suffer until it discovers its most basic element. Chemistry was a rather hit or
miss pursuit before the theory of atomic structure. Biology developed slowly
until cells were discovered inside a piece of tree cork. Identifying the most
basic element makes an entire field far easier to comprehend.
But, can this method be
applied to cinema? Does cinematic storytelling have a most basic element? Many
would refuse to even consider the question, simply because chemistry and
biology are sciences, while cinema is an art. People tend to segregate art and
science into isolated categories. Nevertheless, can an understanding of an art
be found in the same manner as a science?
To answer the question, it is
first necessary to figure out what it means to call cinema an art.
WHAT
IS “ART”?
Art. It is a word of such high
and mighty connotation that many dare not define it. In this case, let us first
ask, why do people create art? Works of art have no practical purpose.
Officially, art must be non-utilitarian in nature, meaning it has no use other
than the aesthetic. A beautifully crafted sculpture is art, but a beautifully
crafted lamp is not. A novel can be art, but the book you read now is not. If
art has no practical use, then what is its purpose?
The answer is found in the
artistic process itself. The artistic process is made of three parts: the
artist who creates the work, the medium the artist works through (paint, dance,
music, etc.), and finally the audience who ultimately receives the work. One
must not overlook the importance of the audience. It is the audience who brings
the process to its completion. Art without an audience is like the proverbial
tree falling in the woods. What is the point of a novel that is never read?
Music that is never played? A film that no one sees? “Artistic expression”
implies a second party to whom the artist’s efforts are addressed. Only the
most vain of artists would create something to put in a closet. Real artists
create because they have something to express to the world: an idea, an
opinion, an emotion... Artists create in order to communicate. Art is about communication.
Art is the communication of
meaning, from artist to audience, through a creative medium.
Since the purpose of art is to
communicate meaning, how then is meaning communicated in something such as
literature? Through words, of course. The most basic element of literature –
its atom – is a single word. An author can communicate meaning with one word,
but not with a single letter or detached syllable. It is by the accumulation of
words into larger structures that the novelist makes his or her art. The art of
dance communicates through movement. Its most basic element is a single
movement of the body. Music is made of a collection of singular notes. Painting
is an accumulation of individual brush strokes. Photography is the manipulation
of individual photons of light. Thus, we see that like science, the arts have
their own atoms. Each has a basic building block with which the artist
constructs a greater meaning.
However, things become far
more complicated when it comes to cinema. Cinema combines elements from nearly
every art form; from photography, to theatre, to music, to the graphic and
plastic arts. In addition, cinema has its own unique attributes, such as the
ability to elongate or compress time, or to change perspective through editing.
If cinema contains the most basic elements of all other art forms, plus
elements of its own, what could possibly be the single, most basic building
block of cinema itself? Can cinema be boiled down to a single element? Or is it
just a hodgepodge?
The search proves difficult.
Cinema’s most basic element cannot be a single image, since that would ignore
cinema’s use of sound. It is not a spoken word, since dialogue makes up only a
small part of any film. It also cannot be a single scene, or a shot within that
scene, because both of these elements can be broken down further.
It turns out the answer is
right under our noses. Cinema is an art. Art communicates. And what is
transmitted by the act of communication?
Information.
The cinematic experience is
created by a constant transmission of story information from storyteller to
audience. Whether it be seen or heard, everything presented to the viewer is
part of an intentional act of communication. Every detail; a line of dialogue,
the look of a room, an expression on an actor’s face, an off-screen sound
effect, exists to advance the story with NEW INFORMATION. If a character is
murdered, that is information. If someone reveals a secret, that is
information. If a character walks across the room, that is information. It is
through this steady flow of information, communicated one piece at a time, that
the cinematic storyteller makes his or her art. Each piece builds upon that
which preceded it, advancing the narrative and developing the audience’s
comprehension of the story as a whole.
This is cinema’s atom: the
communication of a single piece of information from storyteller to audience;
whether it be communicated by audio, visual, or any other means. Cinematic
storytellers make their art through the creative control of this information –
knowing what information to give, and when to give it. By gradually
accumulating this information, the audience is able to understand, and enjoy,
the cinematic narrative.
So, to return to our original
question: How is a cinematic story told?
A cinematic story is told through
the creative communication of information, given one piece at a time, from
storyteller to audience.
How the storyteller chooses to
communicate makes all the difference. Have you ever heard two people tell the
exact same joke, and watch it generate a huge laugh for one, yet nothing but
silence for the other? The difference was not the joke, but how that joke was
told. This is what is meant by story-telling: the proper and effective
execution of a story’s information. Good storytellers know how to communicate
information in a way audiences will best understand and appreciate. The true
skill of storytelling comes not simply from the story, but from how that story
is told.
