Marja-Riitta Koivumäki 2018 - DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH

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DRAMATURGICAL APPROACH

Marja-Riitta Koivumäki 2018

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Drama, δρᾶμα, Greek, ‘Dron’, ‘to act’, ‘to do’,

Dramatic story?

Dramaturgy? Everyday use - theoretical use.

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                  DRAMATURGY
              AUTHOR’S DECISIONS
•                     ê
       PERFORMANCE, CINEMATIC PRESENTATION
                      ê
•            THE VIEWER’S EXPERIENCE
•

• Author’s decisions for the the purposes of building a (dramatic) cinematic
    presentation for the viewer to experience. (Koivumäki 2010: 31)
•
•
•         Dramaturgy deals with a problem of “staging” a film.

         •        Ylöspano, postanovka – directing, producting, setting
•
•

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CHOICES are made in …

        IDEATION
        SCREENPLAY
        PRODUCTION
        DISTRIBUTION

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   Author (s)          Dramaturgical         Cinematic
                ⇒                     ⇒                      ⇒    Experience of the
                       activity              performance               Viewer
(Theme/Meaning)

Dramaturgical activity forms the core of dramaturgy from the author, via cinematic
performance, to the audience.

Cinematic perfomance can cover also multiplatform material, for
instance characters presented on the internet, social media etc. if
the content consists of a dramatic story and the
performance/presentation contributes to the experience of the
viewer.

What kind of experience the viewer has in VR? What kind of
dramaturgical activity/decision making is required for it?

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Aesthetic experience

• Sensual
• Emotional
• Cognitive/intellectual

!
   !                                                                                        7
   !
   !                                                 !!!!!AUTHOR!
   !
   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Story!material!!!                Dramaturgical!tools!
Composition for cinematic performance
   !

                                                                         (Koivumäki 2016)

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               Dramaturgical tools
         Screenwriting            Cinematography

    Plot                 •   Frame size
•   Structure            •   Pan
•   Conflict             •   Zoom
•   Recognition          •   Tilt
•   Subtext              •   Crane
•   Turning point        •   Tracking
•   Culmination          •   Lighting
•   Climax
•   Up-down movement

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•   This approach is can be used by researchers of other
    fields in cinema.

•   Author’s decisions: cinematographer, set designer, sound
    designer, editor etc.

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A dramatic story for cinematic performance -
composition

    A certain quality may increase or decrease art work s
    aesthetic value, depending on it s position.

•   The main thing is the combination of these qualities.
    (Beardsley 1982, 214-218)

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•   Distinctive for art is not it s elements, but the way they
    have been used. (Boris Eichenbaum 1925/2001, 69)

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•   From the fact that bad films are made using certain
    dramaturgical tools doesn’t necessarily follow that good
    films are NOT made with the same dramaturgical tools.

•   Shakespeare and soaps use the same dramaturgical
    tools and conventions, which form the basis of a dramatic
    composition. (Mitta 2004, 9)

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    Artistic composition

•       Author’s thought
•
•             Story material
•
                     Dramaturgical tools

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Dramaturgy and dramatic studies in
theatre
• Theatre: Aristotle, Shakespeare, Lessing, Freytag,
  Stanislavsky, M.Cekhov, Brecht.
• è Modern academic studies on dramaturgy and dramatic
  theory.

• The roots of film
    dramaturgy -
    in the theatre.

•

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Theory of drama
• Archer, William, Play-Making (2012)
• Aristotle Poetics, c. 335 BCE
• B.Brecht, The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre, (1930)
• Gustav Freytag, Die Technik des Dramas/The Technique of Drama
    (1897)
•   G.W.F.Hegel, Lectures on Fine Art, (1818-1829), 1975
•   Horace Ars Poetica, in the first century A.D.
•   G.E. Lessing, Hamburgische Dramaturgie, (1769)
•   Eugéne Scribe, (1791-1861) la pièce bien faite
•   K.Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares, 1936
•   Lope de Vega, Arte nuevo de hacer comedias en este tiempo (1609)/
    The New Art of Writing Plays (1914),

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•   Not much academic reserach in modern theory of
    dramatic storytelling in cinema!

•   Theatre criticism and film criticism have developed, but
    the theory of drama is something which is situated
    somewhere in the outskirts of reserarch.

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Dramaturgy and dramatic studies in film
HYPOTHESIS:

• 1) Academic tradition of film dramaturgy
• V.Volkenstein -37, V.Turkin 1938 ”theory on film
  dramaturgy”,
• John Lawson 1953
•    II WW, auteur theory
                           èscreenwriting manuals

•   2) Academic studies in film:
     Shklovsky, Opojaz è structuralism&formalism

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Poetics

•   Opojaz – Society for the Study of Poetic Language,
    St.Petersburg, Boris Eichenbaum, Juri Tynjanov, Osip
    Brik, Viktor Shklovsky

•   – structuralism, narratology, semiotics, formalism,
    neoformalism

   Viktor Shklovsky - screenwriter
(Literature and Cinematography, first English edition 2008
Art as technique, 1917, ‘defamiliarization’)

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               V. Shklovsky

How to write
a screenplay

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                Main differences
Dramaturgical approach Screenplay&film theory
• Dramatic narration for   • Screenplay text
  film (conflict)
• Structure - author’s     • Structure as a code
  vehicle to affect the
  viewer
                           • Author mainly absent
• Author present

                           • New theoretical and
• New knowledge for
                            philosophical knowledge
 practitioner

                           • Classical Hollywood
• Classical dramaturgy

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Classical dramaturgy – Classical
Hollywood

• Classical dramaturgy – more open and flexible
• What to do with story material and dramaturgical tools,
  how to use them in dramatic narration in order to
  compose an artwork which conveys the author’s thought
  and has a affect on the viewer.

• Classical Hollywood - rigid
• formulaic conventions, dogmas

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Dramaturgical approach

•      Author present

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Differences
    DRAMATURGICAL APP         FILM CRITICISM

•   AUTHOR’S CHOICES    •   Author???
•         ê             •   AUTOBIOGRAFICAL

•     PERFORMANCE       •   PERFORMANCE
                        •         é
•           ê           •      VIEWER
•        VIEWER

•

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“Practitioner’s terminology - imprecise and confusing.”
 Academic writing – too sophisticated and not practical.”
                                Cattrysse (2009)

“Screenwriting manuals: ‘slippery writing’ .
• Academic writing: too theoretical and pedantic for practice
  oriented purposes.”
                               (Batty 2010)

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Dramaturgical approach
•   RESEARCH ON

      PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING CINEMATIC
                            PRESENTATION

       PRESENTATION ITSELF

       HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF DRAMATIC
       CINEMATIC THEORY

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1 Process of constructing a dramatic,
cinematic presentation
• What are different practices, strategies and methods used by an
 author during ideation, development and production processes?

• Collaboration?

• Can be studied by practitioners themselves (practice based) or by a
 researcher who follows the process or has access to the material
 documenting the process (practice led). (Candy 2006)

• Nannicelli 2010; Selbo 2010
• Pelo 2013: Theory-based practice (Tikka 2008)
• (Eisensteinian laboratory)

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process of…
• Where does the author find the story material? How can s/he deine the author’s thought throught
    that material?

• What are different practices the author uses?

• Why the author ends up in making certain decisions during the process?

• What is the affect of the author’s decision on the viewer? ’What if’ used also in this context.

• Not just ‘How a story works?’ but ‘How to make a cinematic dramatic story work?’

• How to narrow down the choices one is making during the writing process?

•

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2 Research on cinematic performance /
on screenplay
• Conscious about the presence of the author.
• How a cinematic presentation has been or could be composed
    dramatically? (Thompson)
•   Internal relationships of dramatic elements within the screenplay/film and
    their affect on the viewer?
•   Why and how a certain impact can be achieved by certain type of
    dramaturgical tools/qualities? (Bordwell)
•   Deviations from classical dramaturgy?
•   Asian, African dramaturgy? (Chaudhuri, Clayton 2012)
•   What can we say about Godardian dramaturgy? Is there anything for the
    modern filmmaker we have not yet discovered?

• Does the Efronian subtext differ from the Kauffmanian one? And what
    happens to it once treated by the director?

• Findings can be tried and tested in practice.

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3 History and evolution of film dramaturgy
and dramatic theory for film
•   The two previous categories contribute to dramaturgical
    understanding and new dramatic theories in film.

•   Aristotle’s impact? (Brenes 2012)
•   Impact of other theoreticians:
•   - German tradition (Hegel, Lessing, Freytag, Göethe)
•   - Russian tradition (Stanislavsky, M.Cekhov) (Chadderton
    2007)
•   Impact of modern films, games, transmedia, internet?
•   Impact of structuralism and formalism and other film
    theories on dramatic theories?

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Research on dramatic cinematic theory

•   History and evolution of dramatic cinematic theory

Aristotle, Shakespeare, Lessing, Freytag, Stanislavsky,
Brecht, Eisenstein, Pudovkin, Archer è Shkovsky,
Pudovkin, John Lawson - ???l

•   Dramaturgical approach – practice based method,
    analysis of films, screenwriting and directing etc.
    laboratories, è results generate new theory

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THANK YOU!