In story telling, character motivation must drive on needs and wants. Needs take longer then wants. Needs are a fulfillment issue and wants are temporary pleasures and needs such as hunger or affection. often times wants are temporary and superficial to the characters true need.
All humans must have purpose. Without purpose we will die. Purpose is that hope we have to get up in the morning and its purpose that gets us threw the day. Purpose is also in tune with humans fundamental spiritual needs. Despite the diferences in religion or faith all humans have a fundmental desire to seek out god and meaning in life. Regardless, if one feels there is no god or not, the simple point remains that person has seeked out his answer and made his or her choice. Seeking answers and having faith in those answers is key in understanding plot. This seeking and faith in what we seek does not always have to do with god or religion. People seek for understanding all the time. The fundamental yearning for wisdom, knowledge and understanding is the driving force behind purpose.
humans also have a fundmental need for justice.
Justice is defined as
1. The quality of being just; fairness. 2. a. The principle of moral rightness; equity. b. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness.
The the idea is that our belief and purpose when wronged, we feel the need to make right and if we are powerless to the wrong things or people in this world we most often times seek for something with greater power.
Power can come in many forums such as power in god, Power in a man, power in masses, power in money and power in position. Human perception of rightness or wrongness can vary.
Which brings me to my next point, humans ability to reason or justify actions, thinking or motivation. humans can justify or rationalize anything in there own mind as eye. Even a crazy person can justify or rationalize his or her behavior. This is what really fules the battle for good and evil. Both sides justify or rationalize there own position and one side must prevail and bring rule to the situation.
sympathy must be generated to tell the audience who or what they must root for. when an audience feels sympathy for a character and he or she is wronged then a feeling of justice should take place. Sympathy can be generated from anywhere. Filmmakers can even create sympathy for hitlers nazi soldiers if the right elements where set in place.
propaganda is defined as:
Any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.
Propaganda in and of it self is not bad, its who controls it and for what purpose can it make it bad.
when emotions, attitudes and behavior are influenced a resulted action or reaction will occur. Wether directly or indirectly. These actions and reactions can go both ways. From the audience to the screen and from the screen to the audience.
The funny thing about humans is that if something deathly wrong with someone, the other person may voice there opinion and wave there finger, but simple actions to save a dyeing man on the streets seems farfetched. As if they where saying "its not my problem." This may seem out of place but it happens and happens often. It even happened to me when I was spear fishing and got stung by a sting ray and when I asked a man to carry a pole for me he refused like I was bothering him or something to that effect.
Regardless of what happened to that situation the reality is that all humans are inherently selfish. We all have a selfish desire of self pleasure or self preservation. There are people out there that are benevolent or compassionate, but the reality is even they too have selfish qualities. Another way to put it is we all have a desire to be our own god.
I have a theory that when man has reached a point where he is so powerful the true self comes out. I think bill gates and
Search Results
Oprah Winfrey is a good example. When there is no need or desire to protect our selves our true selves come out. Hence the term "acting out of fear." Very powerful people have little to fear on a worldly perspective. Lack of fear creates a lack of fear for the consequences of our actions and when a human is fearless with abundant power he can say or do things that a normal person could never express or act upon openly. "a fish out of water" story comes to mind. If a king where striped of all his power how would he or she act or react amounts the commoners.The whole point here is there is a lot of underlining in human behavior, but these behaviors are a direct reflection of our desire for self and purpose. This desire for self and purpose creates needs and wants.
the key to understanding great films is understanding the fundmental human condition.
[...]
Certain movements, most prominently transhumanism, aim to radically change the human condition. Some thinkers, like Enrico Fermi and others, deny that human nature has really changed in any fundamentally meaningful way over time and that, despite all of the social and scientific advances that have occurred, humans remain essentially unchanged and have been merely transplanted into progressively more complex environments.Humans are generally simplistic in nature and nurture; however, threw complex situations and complex life styles humans are forced to adapt willingly or unwillingly. Hence what makes sci fi works. All sci fi does is take a human with simple wants and desires and placing him in a complex often times futuristic environment.
The Four Quadrant Picture is a way of making a film financially successful.
A Four Quadrant Picture is defined as a:
The idea behind the Four Quadrant Picture is to not offend or ward off any particular gender or age or religious affiliation. The concept is universally natural and unbiased, but at the same time it adresses fundamental human problems, needs and emotions.
A good example of this is "Star Wars."
The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series) by Joseph Campbell
1. Desire as mating need for Progeny:
From an evolutionary viewpoint, the human desire for sex which according to Freudian psychology is the basis of human survival is motivated by the need for progeny. Strong libido could be very positive for the human species and men and women with strong sexual desires would have evolutionary advantage and would be able to leave their progeny behind ultimately required for human species survival. The biological need to leave offspring could thus be connected to the Freudian explanation of sex and our desire to mate. Sexual drive is thus not about release but about release with the aim of species propagation. Freudian psychology and its emphasis on the libido is quite compatible with evolutionary psychology that would consider the sexual and aggressive drives as absolutely important for survival of an individual and the human species as a whole. The human needs for partnership, love, security are all aspects of this type of basic desire. All creative and constructive desires also have roots in sexual desire and the creative act could be itself considered as an act of mating according to psychoanalysis. Creative artists, painters and writers are guided by this type of desire.
2. Desire as manifestation of Power:
2. Desire as manifestation of Power:
Desire is however frequently manifested in the need for power and control and the desire to be a parent could be motivated by an underlying need to exercise control on one's own children. The need for authority is mainly associated with aggressive impulses and the desire for power could be considered as motivated by both sexual and aggressive urges. Politicians, leaders, managers, directors and people in positions of power whether financial, social or political often manifest strong desire to control and dominate people and situations. The desire to earn more money, fame or attain certain social position is guided by the need for power and the need to protect and provide care through control would also fall under this category. All political, social and financial leaders manifest this sort of desire. The question would definitely arise whether celebrities (pop stars and film stars) are also guided by this need for power. Of course celebrities are motivated by a need for admiration (this is common even in authors and leaders) and the need for admiration is manifestation of subtle power rather than any aggressive need to dominate and control as seen more clearly in political leaders.
3. Desire as fulfillment of Purpose:
3. Desire as fulfillment of Purpose:
Desire could also be revealed as the need to fulfill a purpose and in this case the desire takes the proportion of a mission and achieving this goal becomes almost an obsession. This sort of desire could be found in social or political leaders motivated by the need for change and a sense of purpose although this is akin to self realization needs in psychology and all humans are guided by a sense of purpose, no matter how big or how small. Religious leaders and sages have a strongly developed sense of mission and purpose and are driven by this sort of desire. Some authors and creative artists may also be fired by a sense of mission while writing a book or creating a piece of art. Activists and social leaders and even terrorists and sometimes criminals are also motivated by this sort of mission or purpose. Many serial killers, terrorists, activists, social and religious leaders have a similar sense of purpose and the roots of this would be aggressive urges channeled either destructively or constructively depending on how the urges are manifested.
All human desires could be categorized into these three groups with the motivating factor being creation of progeny through sex and all creative urges would fall within this category; the need for power and all goals and ambitions to acquire fame, money, status would fall in the second category; and finally the category of desire associated with a sense of purpose explain self realization needs in monks, religious leaders, and a sense of mission in activists, spiritual and political leaders and even terrorists.
Note: This chart is not adjusted for inflation. The figures represent the total amount of money a movie has taken globally over its lifetime.
High concept narratives are typically characterised by an over-arching "what if?" scenario that acts as a catalyst for the following events. Often, the most popular summer blockbuster movies are built on a high concept idea, such as "what if a shark attacks?" (Jaws); "what if we could clone dinosaurs?" (Jurassic Park), and so on. However, it is important to differentiate a high concept narrative from an analogous narrative. In the case of the latter, a high concept story may be employed to allow commentary on an implicit subtext.
All human desires could be categorized into these three groups with the motivating factor being creation of progeny through sex and all creative urges would fall within this category; the need for power and all goals and ambitions to acquire fame, money, status would fall in the second category; and finally the category of desire associated with a sense of purpose explain self realization needs in monks, religious leaders, and a sense of mission in activists, spiritual and political leaders and even terrorists.
Usually a typical film might focus on one of these aspects of desire or all three. However its the roles we take on in society, wether by nurture or by nature, dictate our likes and dislikes. Whatever the case a target audience will most always gravitate to simular category of film. Such as action, adventure, romance, comedy, and so on. A typical Four Quadrant Picture uses all of these film categories.
Here is a list of the top grossing films of all times. See if you can spot the similarities I talked about. :) If your still having trouble just make a comment and I will respond :)
All Time Worldwide Top 20
| Released | Film Name | Total Box Office | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009 | Avatar | $2,780,969,137 |
| 2 | 1997 | Titanic | $1,842,879,955 |
| 3 | 2003 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | $1,119,027,325 |
| 4 | 2006 | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest | $1,065,659,812 |
| 5 | 2010 | Toy Story 3 | $1,064,184,497 |
| 6 | 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | $1,024,391,110 |
| 7 | 2008 | The Dark Knight | $1,001,945,358 |
| 8 | 2001 | Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | $974,775,550 |
| 9 | 2007 | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End | $960,996,492 |
| 10 | 2007 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | $938,468,864 |
| 11 | 2009 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | $933,959,197 |
| 12 | 2002 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers | $926,284,377 |
| 13 | 1999 | Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace | $924,288,297 |
| 14 | 1993 | Jurassic Park | $923,067,947 |
| 15 | 2004 | Shrek 2 | $919,838,758 |
| 16 | 2005 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | $895,913,036 |
| 17 | 2007 | Spider-Man 3 | $890,871,626 |
| 18 | 2010 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I | $888,840,000 |
| 19 | 2009 | Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs | $886,685,941 |
| 20 | 2002 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | $878,979,634 |
There is one more element that can help a film in to the top charts and that is one with a high concept.
All this information can be a lot to take in, but given time I am sure you will be on your way to making great movies.
Happy filmmaking
By
Robert Sawin
0 comments:
Post a Comment