POSERS ON FILM PRODUCTION

WHAT MAKES A FILM GREAT!!!

PEDANTICAL APPROACHES TO EFFECTIVE CONSTRUCTION OF STORY FOR A FILM

Ahmad Abubakar is a professional scriptwriter based in Kano , Nigeria .

drahsak@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writersforumkano



Story is the key basic element of any movie; when the story of a film is professionally designed with elaborated set-ups, the resultant end of the product (the movie) will be one amongst hundreds. The major problem encountered in Nigerian movies (both Nigerian films-as they are been called, and Hausa home videos, and including the soap-operas in our television) is the lack of setting the story on pedantically theories of three acts structures.

Most of our films now are just a mere plain drama, though they make sense, but professionally it does not communicate effectively. Take in cognisance some of this soap-operas that are been targeted as educative-piece, the writers do not use a comprehensive approach to impart the message, they do a little-but the audience may interpretate the manners at which the message is been conveyed as a dictatorial formula of transforming them to some thing new, something they may emotionally dislike not because it is good or bad for them, but they just don’t want enforcement. Here a writer should have use the conventional methods of sending messages consciously or unconsciously with out the audience been recognising it as a way of forcing them to change. The same methods also fell to other genres of a film with different archetype. They said you can not force Donkey to drink water, but there are many ways that fool him to drink

Story is a series of events, with a beginning, middle and end. It has a main character who tries to achieve a goal, confronting obstacles along the way. It’s about development process and journeys. One may have a story in his mind, may even be a good story teller, a novelist or just somebody with willingness to write for a film, how can he set his story pedantically to be suitable for screen? I always emphasized that writers are born to be writers, they write with instincts and intuition, but that is writers, when it comes to scriptwriting a writer needs to be guided, he need to know the rules, the way of transforming his imaginations into a visualise form, he need a talent worth for manoeuvring story in to a moulded script that focused and original and leaps off the pages. A script that gives a great actor something to works with. It’s about creating stories that touch and intrigue an audience and perhaps transform lives in the process. A good writer is always on training and researching in order to reinvent himself and explore his potentials.

The craft of writing involves how the writer is able to communicate with his audience, how he can create problem and solve it. He clearly communicates his ideas in ways that will excite, enthral, and engage an audience. He develops a sense of how the audience feels at various points in his story.

A story may flow this way about a competition of football game, and the resultant end of the match. This story easily falls in to a three acts structure: the preparation of the play, the match and the climactic event when the match is finished and the resultant result after the match. In it there are many narrative elements which include conflict, action, tension and momentum.

Here, we may see that the story goes on linear line, about a character with definite goal, and then this happened, then he takes action, then obstruction, then reaction, then insurmountable conflicts, and obstacles, a point of no return then finally a resolution. This kind of set-up is what hooked audience gloomed with the film and carries their emotions altogether.

A lay man may see it ridiculous, he had assumed a story just flow as happenings in the past.Perhaps, it tells events, but in a chronological settings, it contains a visualise ways of satisfying audience.

One problem again commonly associated with our film is unconventional used of dialogue. Audience learnt their character by the actions he did, not merely by what he say. Dialogue in our film is too much. “We must kill the dialogue” (Noelle smith-one of my instructors says) audience need to see not to be told. The solution of this entire problem is by employing professionals that will work on the script and guide the writer for a successful great film. Again the writer should bear in his mind that a good script is about writing, rewriting, and rewritings.

The professional may not work on the basic of creativity; this will be the work and right of the writer. Their job is to polish the script, analyse and be critique its content for making it a good piece.

Logically and dramaturgically, there is a writer who is the master craft-man that make the script; then a mentor(coach or teacher)that helps and guide in facilitating the writer for a good job; then a script-editor or in other name a critic, that helps the writer in identifying any lapses, mistakes and loose threads in the script; then the other important one a “Reader”(as called by Rothy Cullen-my lecturer)and I called it a Surgeon, this is because he looks at the script as a patient,diagonised any disease in it, and treats it some how surgically by removing any unwanted piece(weeding-especially with the dialogues).Of course some professional writers and consultant like Antoine Jaccoud from Switzerland called it a Script-Doctor, but I prepare a Script-Surgeon, even though I like the idea of calling him a ‘Doctor’.

Nevertheless, ‘writers’ we are not late, we have time ahead of us, we are still moving, developing and one day our Nigerian movies will dominate the Oscar and other international and local awards. We just need to create a link of interaction and sharing ideas where we can concatenate our ideas together, marry them and set back or let me say set forth our style of films. To academics, let us encourage our dear writers by organising workshops and training so as to enhance the vocational approach to film production. I see it as a means of poverty eradication and job opportunity. We should never down grade our potentials in this time of development. We know that our films represent us any where in the world, let us enrich it with limpid and original setting. The world should know that we too are not only good in corruption and 419, but with a lot of creativity.