Genre

What did you learn about genre and film from this video?  Why is it important to a film?

    From this video, I learned that word genre comes from the french word for "type" and in film it is used to categorize all the different kinds of movies and stories that exist, e.g., comedy, sci-fi, horror, western, etc. Genre is important to a film because it affects three major areas: production, distribution, and consumption. The genre of the film dictates a lot of what needs to go into the production; the setting often revolves around the genre and thus different costuming, set design, etc. will be needed depending on what the setting (which fits the genre) is. For example, a western film often takes place during the time of the Wild West which was a period in American History of westward expansion. Many of these take place in rural areas, most often that not deserts, in a specific era which will impact the different production elements. Although westerns can have different settings, because of the nature of the genre, most of them will share a similar setting. Because of this connection to what will be needed in for a production depending on a genre, it makes it much more convenient for every aspect of production as there is going to be some kind of framework that can be followed for creating designs, casting, and writing. Distribution is affected by genre as financing and distributors are able to predict how well a movie may perform based on the genre as there are characteristics which attract audiences. This also applies to the consumption as it makes it much easier for a consumer to find a new film that they are likely to enjoy because many films share commonalities with others in the same genre. So to summarize, genre is important to film because it increases the convenience for every side; the filmmakers, the distributors, and the consumers.

Laws of Great Storytelling

http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/the-11-laws-of-great-storytelling-for-the-movies.html

Summarize two of the most interesting laws in this article.  How do they help create engaging visual stories?

    Two of the most interesting laws in this article are writing economically and making sure every character has a unique voice. Writing economically means to not overwrite your stage directions and your dialogue. This law helps create engaging stories because you can focus your stage directions on entertaining and not muddle it being verbose, and making audiences work to understand the meaning behind dialogue helps build a better emotional connection. Giving every character a unique voice encompasses many traits and aspects of the character, i.e., making unique characters (avoiding stereotypes and giving them quirks), writing a character that someone would be interested in playing, making them dynamic and changing throughout the story, and making their journey difficult. This helps create an engaging visual story as it makes the character have more depth and the audience can connect to them better. It also makes them more interesting because having unique aspects can cause the character to be more memorable and differentiate from other characters.

7 Basic Plots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots

Pick two of these plot types that most interest you and write about them.  Why does each of these plot types interest you?  What makes them seem more interesting than the other ones?  Which two of the plot lines out of the seven would you like to use for a future video project?  Why?

    Two of the plot types that interest me are The Quest and Tragedy. I find an interest in The Quest plot as I enjoy a lot of media which follow that type and I feel that the typically character growth in quest plots is very interesting and entertaining. As for tragedy, I enjoy it a lot because two of the aspects of stories which I am most drawn to is characters and emotions. I feel as though tragedies have a large focus on these ideas and leave a lasting impact emotionally on the audience. The reason I find these more interesting than the other ones is because I am familiar with stories following these plots and I enjoy the way that characters change and are affected within the ones I've seen within these types of plots. As for future video projects, I also feel like The Quest and Tragedy are plot types that I may be likely to use. The Quest plot type can provide a good goal and want for the protagonist and create a guide for the events and plot, whereas the tragedy aspect can create a greater emotional experience.

The Purpose of Conflict

Why is conflict important?  What is its purpose in the story?  What are the differences between the different kinds of conflict?

    Conflict is important because it makes up the events in the story. A good plot revolves around some kind of conflict, which can be in different forms; external and internal. The external conflicts are what physically stop the protagonist from getting what they want, either being a physical antagonist, an institution, or even the environment itself. These are often more surface level and aren't the most interesting part of the story, but they are necessary for the context. The internal conflict is within the character and the choices that they must make. This is typically in the form of emotions which hinder the character and make their goal difficult to reach. However, something important about this is that simply having the conflict doesn't make a story good, but rather using them to reveal a deeper meaning about life is what makes a story good.

Drama and Conflict

Why is drama important to conflict?  How do you create effective conflict in your story?

    Drama is important to conflict because it increases interest and emotional connection to the story by raising the stake. This is how you can create effective conflict in a story as raising the stakes make it feel more important and more impactful. You can take a simple conflict like trying to get someone to fall in love with you and raise the stakes like in Wall-E where if he didn't get Eve to love him, he'd be completely and utterly alone in a desolate world with no one else to keep him company besides roaches. By raising the stakes, you can take a common trope or simple idea and spin it into a large conflict that has major impacts on the story, characters, and the audience.

Writing Strong Characters

What's the difference between the wants and needs of your characters?  Why is it important to know these for your characters?  What happens when you don't have these?

    The difference between a character's wants and their needs are that wants are external and needs are internal. The want is what drives the plot forwards; the goal of the character, whereas the need is what the character needs to learn about themselves in order to achieve their want and often drives the message and theme. This also applies to the obstacles as the things that prevent a character from getting what they want is external conflict while the things that prevents them from their need is internal, typically some trait or characteristic which holds them back. The video also highlights how wants are unique to every individual whilst needs are universal. This is because the wants are specific to that story, setting, and plot, but needs can be shared between completely different characters in wildly different contexts.

    It is important to know these for your character because it creates depth, interest, and connection. These are vital aspects that are needed in order to create an interesting and meaningful story. A story without wants feels aimless and can be confusing and a story without needs feels shallow and emotionally unstimulating. That is why it is important to understand this concept and have a combination of both within your story.

Hot Seat Technique

What is the hot seat technique?  How can you apply this to the next script that you write to create interesting characters?

    The hot seat technique is one that theater directors often use where they place a single chair, or the "hot seat," center stage and every actor, regardless of the size of their role, take turns sitting in the chair and answering questions as their character. When it comes to filmmaking and writing characters, you can simply just ask yourself questions about the character in the mindset of them in order to better flesh them out. I can apply this to the next script that I write by coming up with the idea of the character then asking myself a large variety of questions which will build off each other to create the full picture of the character and who they are, giving them so much depth and interest. This can also help drive the plot as I could base major events and plot points off of traits the character has and how they may react.