Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

著者 : RobertMcKee

• It Books (1997年11月7日発売)

感想・レビュー・書評

[manybookさんの感想 · 2011年9月4日]

ストラクチャーとは
キャラクターの人生における、ある感情を呼び起こしたり、人生に関するある考え方を表現するための戦略的に並べられた出来事の集まり

イベントとは、
イベントは、変化を意味する
ストーリーイベントは、キャラクターの人生おける価値(Value)の意味深い変化をもたらすもの
ストーリーイベントは、葛藤の末、キャラクターが得る意味深い変化を生み出す

ストーリーバリューとは、
ポジティブからネガティブへ、ネガティブからポジティブへ、移り変わる体験の普遍的な質

ストーリーバリューの例
生きてる・死んでる
愛・憎しみ
自由・束縛
真実・嘘
勇気・臆病
忠誠・裏切り
賢さ・愚かさ
強さ・弱さ
興奮・退屈
善良な・邪悪な
正しい・間違った
希望・失望

シーンとは、
主人公の葛藤に対する行動。理想的には、すべてのシーンはストーリーイベントであるべき

Closed ending と Open ending

Active Protagonist と Passive Protagonist

Premise - Controlling Idea
idealistic controlling idea ex. Love triumphs when we sacrifice our needs for others(Kramer vs. Kramer)
Pessimistic controlling idea　ex. Love destroys when self-interest rules (ローズ家の戦争）
Ironic controlling idea　ex. Love is both pleasure and pain, a poignant anguish, a tender cruelty we pursue because without it life has no meaning (アニー・ホール）

positive irony
The compulsive pursuit of contemporary values - success, fortune, fame, sex, power - will destroy you, but if you see this truth in time and throw away your obsession, you can redeem yourself

negative irony
If you cling to your obsession, your ruthless pursuit will achieve your desire, then destroy you.

In story, we concentrate on that moment, and only that moment, in which a character takes an action expecting a useful reaction from his world, but instead the effect of his action is to provoke forces of antagonism. The world of character reacts differently than expected, more powerfully than expected, or both.

STORY is born in that place where the subjective and objective realms touch

The INCITING INCIDENT radically upsets the balance of forces in the protagonist's life

The protagonist must react to the Inciting Incident

main plotが遅れたら、sub plotで注意を引きつける

Creating the INCITING INCIDENT
What is the worst possible thing that could happen to my protagonist?
How could that turn out to be the best possible thing that could happen to him?

Progressive Complications
The law of conflict: Nothing moves forward in a story except through conflict
Not enough food, not enough love, not enough time, Death, Scarcity...

inner conflict: Stream of consciousness
personal conflict: Soap Opera
Extra-personal conflict: Action/Adventure, ファルス

・Act Design

A subplot may be used to contradict the Controlling Idea of the Central Plot and thus enrich the film with irony

Subplot may be used to resonate the Controlling Idea of the Central Plot and enrich the film with variations on a theme

A subplot may be used to complicate the Central Plot


・Scene Design

A change in value moves our emotions

The law of diminishing Returns

Setups / Payoffs
To set up means to layer in knowledge / To pay off means to close the gap by delivering that knowledge to the audience

・Scene Analysis

If the scene is about what the scene is about, you're in deep shit

Subtext
Everybody wear masks. they don't say anything true.

The technique of scene analysis
① Define Conflict
② Note Opening Vale
③ Break the Scene into Beats
④ Note Closing Value and compare with Opening Value
⑤ Survey Beats and Locate Turning Point

・The principle of Antagonism

Positive
Contrary
Contradictory
Negation of the negation

・Composition
Ironic Ascension
1. He gets at last what he's always wanted... but too late to have it.
2. He's pushed further and further from his goal... only to discover that in fact he's been led right to it.
3. He throws away what he later finds in indispensable to his happiness.
4. To reach a goal he unwittingly takes the precise steps necessary to lead him away.
5. The action he takes to destroy something becomes exactly what are needed to be destroyed by it.
6. He comes into possession of something he's certain will make him miserable, does everything possible to get rid of it... only to discover it's the gift of happiness.

principle of transition
The third element is the hinge for a transition; something held in common by two scenes or counterpointed between them.
ex. cut from awkward protagonist to elegant antagonist、From shadows at dawn to shade at sunset、From a painter's empty canvas to an old man dying

・Problems and Solutions

No matter who's in the audience, each seeks the Center of Good, the positive focus for empathy and emotional interest.
At the very least the Center of Good must be located in the protagonist. Others may share it, for we can emphasize with any number of characters, but we must emphasize with the protagonist. On the other hand, the Center of Good doesn't imply "niceness". "Good" is defined as much by what it's not as what it is. From the audience's point of view, "good" is a judgement made in relationship to or against a background of negativity, a universe that's thought or felt to be "not good."

In Mystery the audience knows less than the characters

The problem of coincidence
First, bring coincidence in early to allow time to build meaning out of it
Second, never use coincidence to turn an ending. This is deus ex machina, the writer's greatest sin

・Character

・Text
the text is not the subtext. What is said and done is what is thought andfelt. The scene is not about what it seems to be about.

To write vividly, avoid generic nouns and verbs with adjectives and adverbs attached and seek the name of the thing: not "The carpenter uses a big nail" but "The carpenter hammers a spike"