'On Film-making'
by Alexander Mackendrick
Pg. 11 'One of the essential components of drama is tension. This tension may or may not be the result of conflict between people on the screen - it doesn't necessarily have to be at the level of plot ... It is rather a tension in the imagination of the audience that leads to efelings of curiosity, suspense and apprehension (for example the audience being torn between contradictory elements of a character).'
'Passivity in a character is a real danger to dramatic values. 'Protagonist' (the name given to the leading character in your story) literally means the person who innitiates the agon (struggle).'
Pg. 12 'A novel or short story can have, in a sense, no story or dramatic progression, no conflict or crisis. Maybe some forms of experimental and personal cinema have little need for dramatic tension, but a narrative fiction film is (more often than not) something else.'
Pg. 13 'A dramatic character is definable only in relation to other characters or situations that involve tension.'
Pg. 16 ' ... when translating into dramatic form a story that has been written only for reading, the first character to be removed is often the author himself.'
Pg. 17 'It has been pointed out that when character changes are convincing they are likely to be the eventual resolving of two conflicting elements that exist within a single personality.'
Pg. 20 'Though occasionally there are stories in which the audience is not invited to feel identification with any one of the characters, it is far more common to have a figure who represents the viewpoint of the story and who has a final 'objective' of some kind.'
Pg. 21 'In a well-constructed story the audience is held in expectation of what is called an obligatory scene brought about by a reversal (or, indeed, a series of reversals). Note that the obligatory scene, usually a denouement of a story, classically expresses the theme.'
Pg. 30 'A writer should be both conscious and unconscious of structure while at work.'
Pg. 61 'In order to determine what a character's motives are you have to know what has happened to him or her up till this moment.'
Pg. 67 'In a sense, writing, acting, directing and editing are all performing skills. The competent director follows the same process as the actor: he goes back to the creative origins that the writer has supplied, collaborating with the actor in rediscovery of the characters and situations that were originally images and voices in the mind of the writer. And the editor, who is presented with very tangible visible and audible records of these images and voices must capture all over again the evolved and still evolving make-believe.'
Pg. 71 'Providing there is sufficient coverage of a scene, it is usually possible to edit the footage so it even plays against the spoken text, emphasising subtext instead.'
Pg. 73 'A good screenplay must be not only easy to read, it should be easy to read fast. It is true that a script is only the blueprint for a completed film and should bear to it the relationship that an architect's plans have to the final building ...'
Pg. 74 ' ... characterisation in film is not nearly so concerned with appearances and physique as it is with motives and temperament. It matters not one bit what your character looks like if he or she cannot be characterised through his or her actions as laid down by the story beats.'
Pg. 75 ' ... but like the description of the actor's physique it is often an indication that the screenwriter is relying on the actor to give emotional impact to the words, and is dodging his real task: to create feeling and emotion in the language itself.'
Pg. 77 'Storytelling is the knack of swiftly seizing the imagination of the audience and never letting it go. Digressions and elaborations are permissable, but only when the audience is already hooked by the promise of some satisfaction to come. The tension to that hook may be slackened now and again, but the line must be snapped tight at any moment when the dramatist senses the danger of losing his catch.'
Pg. 79 'Narrative progression. Most stories that have a strong plot are built on the tension of cause-and-effect. Each incident is like a domino that topples forwards to collide with the next in a sequence that holds the audience in the grip of anticipation.'
Pg. 80 'During relaxation in tension the basic suspense is still present - latent but still present. The return to the central plot inevitably gains an additional impact because of a temporary respite ...'
