Dramatic Development, Time and Story Structure

M. Rabiger has constructed his tips on creating good stories in a succinct and engaging way. A couple of his ideas stand out the most to me:

He quoted Wilkie Collins, “Make them laugh, make them cry, but make them wait.” and elaborated that “…films need dramatic tension, so make your audience wait – but not too long… Never be afraid to make them wait and guess.

This reminded me of my actor’s training when I was encouraged to allow my character to take time to listen, process then react. Reading the above-mentioned article further reinforced my belief that a good storyteller understands how to use rhythm (beats in time) to push and pull the audience’s attention.

By “beats”, I am referring to Rabiger’s definition, i.e. a change which “signals a new phase of action.”  This is also related to an actor’s training. The actor registers a new beat when the character he/she portrays reacts to a change thereby producing new action for a new goal. This acting technique was introduced by Russian actor, theatre director and acting teacher, Constantin Stanislavksi. 

This technique is clearly illustrated in our second reading, “The Discipline of Noticing”, of which John Mason quotes Christine Shiu:
Mason - The Discipline of Noticing copyNatasha registered a “beat” between each change of tactic. An actor may imagine the process below.
Goal: to inform, Action: “Mummy I want a cough sweet.” *beat*
New Goal: to plea, New Action: “Please may I have a cough sweet” *beat*
New Goal: to assure, New Action: “I won’t spit it out.”

John Mason writes about researching our practise by consciously noticing, recording and assessing/reflecting on the relevant events in out practise. Journaling and learning in this manner is not new to me. I had done so in college. However, journaling effectively for media and communciation studies is still very new and thus challenging for me. This is because, I am still unsure of the codes that are useful to analyse various media texts.

Prior to entering RMIT, my codes and technical vocabulary largely revolved understanding the actor’s physical body and its relationship to the performance space.

It is so interesting how my acting vocabulary has evolved; how the same words has expanded to include the director’s/editor’s/narrator’s technical point of view now. We are all storytellers. This awareness has prompted me to continue consciously, connecting the dots between my previous theatre experience and current media-making studies. 

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