Learning to Construct Better Scenes
By Watching the "Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
My Hobby
I always have a novel in progress. Novel writing is my pressure release valve so the content is inextricably tied to my emotions and what's going on in my life. My posts, articles and things like that are different because I work on each with the mission to finish, share and move on.
Eventually, I might finish the magnum opus that I'll put out into the world. Until then the lessons I learn about storytelling from working on novels apply to the other things I write.
Stories engage readers. Like all skills, it takes practice and study to tell a good story. The novels give me plenty of practice. I study in many different ways.
In this article, I will discuss how "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" improved my ability to construct an effective scene. Side note, I'm incapable of saying this title without affecting a weird accent for "bourgeoisie". The word demands a weird accent.
Eventually, I might finish the magnum opus that I'll put out into the world. Until then the lessons I learn about storytelling from working on novels apply to the other things I write.
Stories engage readers. Like all skills, it takes practice and study to tell a good story. The novels give me plenty of practice. I study in many different ways.
In this article, I will discuss how "The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" improved my ability to construct an effective scene. Side note, I'm incapable of saying this title without affecting a weird accent for "bourgeoisie". The word demands a weird accent.
Comments on Film Commentary
"What a good scene does is dissolve the actors and the sound stage and the costumes and makeup and camera angle into a living and breathing reality."
Listening to the ideas and analysis of other people expands my perspective of the work. Videos like Nerdwriter1's Batman v Superman: The Fundamental Flaw or Jack O'Brien's Spit Take "4 Movie Straw Men That Keep Showing Up" make me think about things I might not have thought about before. Even when I disagree I find great value in such commentary videos because I'm not watching these videos to hear my own thoughts. I'm watching them to hear thoughts I might never have on my own.
"The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie"
I think every work of art can educate us. But we need to take the right lessons. A book cannot be written the same way a movie is written. Novels and films have different requirements for their storytelling. Films can still teach us many lessons about how to write better novels.
"The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" helped make me build better scenes. This movie made me more conscious of the emotional impact of a well-crafted scene.
"The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie" helped make me build better scenes. This movie made me more conscious of the emotional impact of a well-crafted scene.
A movie scene has reason and purpose. The director chooses a shot and specific cuts to achieve an impact. If all the elements are done well, we don't even notice we're emotionally invested in the events of the story until we acutely feel what the characters are going through.
In one tense scene between an assassin and a target, we're pulled through the story with smooth camera transitions. The director's thoughtfulness is evident when you're watching and wondering what is going to happen next. A breakdown of the scene here would not help nearly as much as what I did with what I learned from the scene.
I endeavored to achieve this effect with a scene involving my main character fighting with an attacker. The scene does not waste a sentence with unnecessary dialogue and relies heavily on show. Every sentence is at least one action in the fight and the sentences are edited for optimum clarity. It's an easy to read section but not a nice one. Every action is telegraphed by something preceding it (no Spanish inquisition rushing in).
When the emotional aftermath of the fight hits, it's a relief to the reader because the action has stopped for that moment but it's not a relief for long because the physical and emotional consequences of the fight will echo through out the remaining chapters. Much of it coming in the main character dealing with being capable of the violence of the fight.
In one tense scene between an assassin and a target, we're pulled through the story with smooth camera transitions. The director's thoughtfulness is evident when you're watching and wondering what is going to happen next. A breakdown of the scene here would not help nearly as much as what I did with what I learned from the scene.
I endeavored to achieve this effect with a scene involving my main character fighting with an attacker. The scene does not waste a sentence with unnecessary dialogue and relies heavily on show. Every sentence is at least one action in the fight and the sentences are edited for optimum clarity. It's an easy to read section but not a nice one. Every action is telegraphed by something preceding it (no Spanish inquisition rushing in).
When the emotional aftermath of the fight hits, it's a relief to the reader because the action has stopped for that moment but it's not a relief for long because the physical and emotional consequences of the fight will echo through out the remaining chapters. Much of it coming in the main character dealing with being capable of the violence of the fight.
Mission
Try it. Take a work you enjoy or something you've never seen before. Watch it and mentally dissect it. Then apply whatever lesson you glean from it. Happy writing.
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