As far as screencraft is concerned, it is a theory of everything. It is the structure behind all other structures. The principles that validate all other principles. The method by which all other methods must abide. With advanced methods and an interdisciplinary approach, Michael Welles Schock uncovers the principles that unify cinematic storytelling's many narrative elements into a cohesive whole. The focus is not upon plot, character, theme, or genre in isolation, but upon how these elements combine, how they interact, and how they work together to express value and meaning.
Part I: The Unified Narrative Structure
Part I: The Unified Narrative Structure begins this process by combining the formerly separated studies of plot, character, and theme to reveal the single inter-connected structure found in virtually every successful Hollywood or American Independent film. Regardless of genre, premise, style, or tone, one simple set of structural principles ensures that every feature-length narrative fulfills the needs of the audience, the requirements of the medium, and the artistic intentions of the storyteller while allowing the freedom and flexibility for endless possibilities in content and meaning.
- Advanced concepts and original theories
- Re-constructive, not deconstructive
- Reveals the symbiotic structural relationships between plot, character, and theme.
- Uses interdisciplinary concepts to explain why stories work as they do and how they affect their audiences.
- Provides a far deeper exploration of theme and ideological communication than found in most sources.
- Takes into account all traditional forms of cinematic narrative and the existence of alternative structures.
Part II: Genre, Pattern & The Concept of Total Meaning
Part II: Genre, Pattern & The Concept of Total Meaning completes the Unified Theory by going far beneath the surface to reveal screencraft's hidden structures of meaning. No previous book has analyzed the topic of theme in such depth or detail, using concepts from psychology, sociology, and anthropology to explore the connections between storytelling and the complexities of human thought and society. Piece by piece, Part II constructs a five-layer model to fully explain the cinematic narrative's method of ideological communication. It then reveal the links between this structure and the external structures found in Part I, creating a truly unified theory of narrative.
- Explains the properties of myth behind all storytelling
- Reveals the origin and purpose of cinematic genres
- Introduces the concept of plot patterns -- providing for the first time a detailed breakdown of American cinema's 34 common patterns and subtypes
- Analyzes the factors of protagonist psychology
- Exposes the source of the Thematic Argument
- And most importantly, reveals the connections between these elements and our most basic personal and social needs
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