Notes for week three

What is Plot?
Story is bigger than the plot itself – things tht occurred before the film started/after
- Plot is the actual arrangement of incidents that occurs in the film
- It is not the story itself, but the way the incidents are presented to the audience
- The structure of the play
- The most important feature of tragedy.

Beginning
- The incitive moment
- It must start the cause and effect chain.

Middle
- Climax
- It must be caused by earlier incidents and itself cause the incidents that follow it.

No longer accurately followed in modern stories (now its usually at the end)

End
- Resolution
- Must be caused by the preceding events but not lead to other incidents
- The end should resolve the problem created during the incitive moment.

Episodic Plots
- According to Aristotle, the worst kinds of plots
- The acts (episodes) succeed one another without the probability or necessity
- The only thing tying together the events in such a plot is the fact that they happen to the same person

Simple and Complex Plots
SIMPLE:
- Simple has only a “change of fortune”

COMPLEX:
- Complex has a reversal of intention “peripeteia” (when things change) and recognition “anagnorisis” (moment of recognition) connected with the catastrophe.

Things have changed – something that worked one way now works another way.

Character
- Character supports plot
- Personal motivations are connected to the cause-and-effect chain
- The protagonist in a tragedy should be renowned and prosperous (rich and famous), so his change can be from good to bad.
(the fall is greater for the rich and famous as opposed to taking things away from someone who is poor)
- (main character is not evil, still morally acceptable, still the hero, just tht he has a flaw. Something about him tht he doesn’t understand about the world and cos of tht he’s gonna be punished a.k.a “hamartia”[when the character doesn’t know enough]) – In the ideal tragedy, the protagonist will mistakenly bring about his own downfall – not becos his is sinful or weak – but becos he does not know enough
- this lack of self-knowledge is called “hamartia”

3 Act Structure
Advantage of working in three act structure is it breaks down the story and makes it more manageable
- 1st act: set up
- story begins with a goal-oriented character introduced at a point of crisis
- the character meets roadblocks produced by the plot and antagonist
someone wants something and its hard to get it – most movies
- 2nd act: confrontation
- action intensifies
- an event happens which forces the character to make his or her choice.
- 3rd act: resolution
- level of effort rises to new heights
- both plot and character is resolved
- but the main character either achieves or does not achieves his goal (essentially, the character can lose)

Super Vocabulary
- katharsis – emotional release that the audience experiences
- mimesis – imitation of the real world in art and literature
- anagnorisis – moment of recognition
- perepeteia – when things change from good to bad
- hamartia – lack of self-knowledge

Refelection for week 3

With each passing week, this reflection seems more and more like a chore. But nonetheless, I’m doing it.

This week in class we started with the discussion of our 50-word stories. We were to note down what the stories are about and what works for them and what doesn’t. It was nice to listen to what others have written, and how different people have different opinions.

Shortly after, it was time to present on what our groups have done for the Aristotle presentation. I’d say it was a breeze. Find the information, complie and present. Well, the presentation was meant to be short, so not much effort was needed I suppose. I like the idea of having a dual presentation. One group doing a presentation on what they have found and at the same time Ryan would show us the additional information that the group did not manage to find. Well, I’ve learnt quite alot on the crazy Aristotle and also 5 words I would classify under “Super Vocab”.They are “katharsis”, “mimesis”, “anagnorisis”, “perepeteia” (note the crazy amount of vowels), and “harmatia”. I bet everyone who are not from Storytelling would never guess the correct meaning of even one word. If one does, he or she should be crowned!

Our assigned work for this week is going to be pretty much exciting. We’re going to do people-watching! I guess this assignment is to see our obsevant we are. But yeah, how hard can it get?

This is ‘C’ to the ‘O’ to the ‘L’ to the ‘I’ to the ‘N’, signing off.

Have a great weekend everyone!

(Do I need to upload the notes for this week? *shrugs*)

Once reflect, twice’s an ease

There, my reflection for the second week. I know I’m pretty early, but oh well, why drag it till the last minute when I can do it now?

It was nice seeing Ryan in class today. Another week, another anticipation for fun. No games this time round though. We were quickly paired up and were asked to choose one opening sentence from one another’s work. We were then asked to work on the opening sentence to create a story. Sounds interesting, no? I was to select from Dominic’s twelve openers and I chose “Tom knows that his visions of his tomorrows are nothing but illusions.”

Initially, I had no idea on what to do with it.  But anyhow, I started writing, and writing. And pretty soon, I had a story! *proud* Anyway, here is what I’ve written.

Note: Again, skip this part if you do not wish to read something close to making sense.
“Tom knows that his visions of his tomorrows are nothing but illusions. Drops of perspiration roll down his emotionless face. He knows this is going to be the end. He has made up his mind; he is going for it. He raises his arm and slowly stands up from his crouching position. Eyes from every angle turn to him. Now he knows that there is no escape. Tom confesses to the crime. Then, there is silence for a few seconds. Eyes move away from him and onto the superior being standing right in front of Tom. Tom’s heart skips. What is going to become of him now? The being looks at Tom with anger, but he does not say a word. He sends Tom out of the room with a stern movement of his hand, and to Tom, it means he is given time before prosecution. He waits outside the room as the people inside continue their discussion. He is getting more and more nervous. He can no longer stand the pressure. Suddenly, the school alarm rings. Tom takes this moment and grabs his bag and makes a dash for it. He runs as if time is catching up to him, he runs without turning his head back, not even once. Tom realizes that he has gotten himself into an even bigger mess, but it does not matter to him, for that is another problem for another day.”

Somehow, I feel that this was much better than what I’ve written last week. Plot-wise of course.

Then we had to do boring research on this Greek philosopher, Aristotle and his funky theories. Wendy was my partner, and I’d say we worked well. We finished researching and came up with a powerpoint presentation within an hour and forty minutes, I think. Oh, so did most of the other people. We’re going to present next Friday! Woot! *fakes enthusiasm* But I don’t think there is much to fret about since it’s going to be a quick presentation, like about 5-7 minutes? Lol.

The tutorial was coming to an end, and I was horrified that everyone had to do 5 stories each by next week, each story MUST BE EXACTLY 50 words. Oh, the humanity!

Pardon me if this entry is a little short, but I’ve got 5 stories to write, you know?

I’m out!

Reflection for the ever first tutorial

Hello!

It has been 10 minutes since I typed “Hello!” and I’m thinking on how to start this. A long reflection to be done. I wonder how much time I am going to take.

Alright, I have heard from my friends that Storytelling is a fun-to-do module before actually attending the tutorial on Friday. When Friday came, I was as happy as though I had struck lottery or something. I came to the class hoping it was as good as they told me.

When I stepped into the room and saw Ryan, I knew it was going to be fun. Don’t ask me why, but Caucasian lecturers equals to fun, to me at least.

We were soon asked to gather around and play this “name” game. I thought it was fine, not crazily fun, but still interesting. Well, basically anything that does not involve me sitting and taking down notes is interesting to me.

But what is a module, without needing to take down notes? I was quite pleased however, to learn that the duration of the not-so-interesting part was rather tolerable. And Ryan also made learning quite interactive, which is really commendable.

There is this short writing we had to do in class and we had to write in present tense and in third person. I typed out some random rubbish and BEHOLD!

Note: Skip this part if you do not wish to read nonsense.

“Dominic puts on his hula girl outfit and enters the temple. A young monk approaches him and asks if he has lost his way. Dominic looks down at the monk’s bald head and starts doing the hula dance without saying a word. Feeling tremendously disturbed, the young monk flees and screams for help. Dominic decides to proceed deeper into the temple. He finds himself in a shrine with many monks sitting on the ground and meditating in front of a gigantic statue of a foreign figure. The monks have their eyes closed and chant in unison. Dominic slowly makes his way to the front and reaches out for the huge statue. The monks are unaware of Dominic’s intrusion and continue to chant. Feeling hyped up for whatever reason, Dominic climbs onto the palm of the statue, and starts his infamous hula dance, using the palm as a platform. Dominic decides to sing in accompaniment to his dance. His voice reaches the ears of many monks, including one who seems to hold the highest authority, due to his different outfit and his most notable shiny head. The grand monk twitches his eyebrow, but he continues to chant. The other monks followed. Dominic becomes depressed that he is not able to get their attention and leaves the temple quietly. No one knows about the intrusion till now, except perhaps the young monk who is still traumatised today.”

I praise you for your determination if you read that whole chunk of junk.

And the tutorial ended wtih… I’m not so sure what, but I do remember Ryan reminding us several times to do this reflection.

To conclude, Storytelling is similar to WritComm, subtracting the stern writing rules, without the crazy research, and the abscence of Mr. Wong. And I was rather impressed that Ryan managed to learn most of our names within a short session. I ought to be ashamed of myself, because until then, I still had trouble remembering names. But not anymore, thanks to Ryan’s “Name” Game!

Have a good day ahead, guys! =)

I finally found my Week 1 Notes!

So, for assignments, I will have to write in:

-Present tense
-3rd person, he/she
-active voice

!ACTIVE VOICE! & *passive voice*

Passive voice
-uses weak verbs
-tells rather than shows what’s going on
-distances the reader from the story

Active voice
-uses strong action verbs
-shows the action
-uses an immediate sentence structure
-conveys the story in a lively manner

Erm, I spent half an hour looking for this and this is all I took down?