BCre8ive – Blog | Creative notes to explain and inspire

Lab Submissions: Step by Step April 2016

Posted on 08/04/2016 by Phil

To Prepare for submission there are 4 simple steps.
Step 1 – Choose your MENTOR Note: There is normally a small charge for Mentor’s time but for this Lab(April 2016) Mentor’s time is FREE
Step 2 – Move into the WORKSHOP
Step 3 – Develop your DRAMATIC WORLD, review with your Mentor and make any changes they suggest
Step 4 – Ask your Mentor to APPROVE and then SUBMIT your Dramatic World

The Mentor’s approval of your dramatic world will automatically identify your work as ready for the Companies to look at

To help you there is a quick summary below outlining how each of these steps works

Choosing Your MENTOR

When you are ready to talk to a mentor:

Click on Hire a Mentor in the left hand menu This will bring you to our list of Mentors. (NB there is up to 2 hours free Mentor time for this Lab).
Select a mentor from the list, by clicking on their name. This takes you to their full profile.
At the bottom of the profile there are 3 buttons Invite Mentor, Contact Mentor and a ‘Back’ button to return the main list.

If you are interested to work with a particular Mentor, click on ‘Contact Mentor’ and you will see a message box where you can introduce yourself, give them an outline of your project and an idea of the type of end product (video, e-book, game, animation) that you think would suit your idea.
They will then tell you if they are able to work with you and we will link them to your project

MOVE INTO THE WORKSHOP

Click on the group admin icon in your group page menu.

This will take you to the group admin page where there is a link move into the workshop.

NOTE you will need to choose your mentor and have them linked to your Project BEFORE you can move into the workshop

Members of your group will need to vote to move into the Workshop. If you are working on your own you will it will happen automatically. If you are working in a group of two or more you will enter the workshop as soon as more than 50% have voted in favour

Building your Dramatic World and Working with Your Mentor

In the Workshop your Mentor can advise you about changes they would recommend to give your Dramatic World the best chance of being chosen by one of our Lab Companies.

When you and your Mentor have agreed all the different elements of your Dramatic World portfolio then the mentor can approve them for the final submission.

You are then ready to:

Submit to the Lab

Once your Mentor has approved your Dramatic World portfolio as ready for the Lab, Companies can start looking at your work.

Companies review the Dramatic Worlds and if they like a World and think it has commercial potential for them, they can propose a project for the group to work on during the Lab. The target start date for the Lab is 1st June.

Useful Bcre8ive Blogs

‘When Worlds Change’ – what happened in the last Lab https://blog.bcre8ive.net/when-worlds-change-the-bcre8ive-lab-process/

Creating Your Dramatic World https://blog.bcre8ive.net/creating-your-dramatic-world/

Genre issues https://blog.bcre8ive.net/what-genre-is-your-dramatic-world/

Dramatic Worlds – setting and themes https://blog.bcre8ive.net/the-importance-of-setting-and-theme-in-creating-tv-drama-series/

Posted in BCre8ive Lab, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Why is Research is Central to Creativity?

Posted on 07/04/2016 by Phil

Why research is important to narratives?

Creatives research in order to be able to develop their work, to create worlds they have not experienced, and to avoid actually creating something!. Research, and particularly interviewing people, generates the raw material from which you can create characters, plots, moods, images and whole narratives. However , it goes beyond this to making you feel secure in describing your dramatic world, inspiring new narrative elements.

It enables you to take an idea and develop it, when being lost in a fog of uncertainty may kill it.

Research addresses common development problems

Talk to an experienced editor and they will tell you that one of the most common problems with scripts, screenplays, manuscripts, even rough cuts is they are simply too thin. There is insufficient detail to make the world of the narrative particular and unique, or in some cases even make sense. Working on these projects gives you the feeling that you have seen these characters, situations and narratives before.

Many writers have been told to write what they know i.e. from their own experience. This approach in all forms of creativity often generates works which are often, all inspiration, and some perspiration, but little, if anything, comes from research. The trouble with inspiration is that it draws on what you already know – your life and the narratives you have seen/read/experienced. You own life is probably insufficiently dramatic and interesting to alone make a narrative, while the works you have experienced are probably familiar to others too. The result is that, with nothing new to inform the characterisation and stories, the resulting narrative ends up being either mundane or unbelievable. (See the blog Sources of Inspiration – for other ways in which to start a project).

A Simple Solution

A simple solution to this problem is research. However, there is also a danger. You need to avoid an over reliance on research. In this scenario the narrative is swamped with interesting information, it captures reality well, it contains plenty of realistic incidents and presents a believable world but… there isn’t any drama.

This type of narrative has no thrust and no heart. It either is or feels like an collection of interesting facts and real people. This is a common in screenplays written by journalists or people who have a documentary background, who find it difficult to let the research go. It is also the major reason most biographical films fail.

Despite the risk of this being a problem, research is undoubtedly the best way to enhance and develop any idea.

Research as a cure for writer’s block

Writer’s block can take many forms but in essence it is about not being able to move forward because you do not know what to write next. Research provides you with options when struggling to solve a plot, character or any narrative problem. It also often provides the telling detail, which makes scenes distinctive.

The objectives of research

Setting out your research objectives – what you need to find out – before you start researching will stop the process going on forever and you becoming absorbed in interesting but ultimately irrelevant material. This is the real danger of research, but sometimes is the inspiration for the second and third projects.

What types of things might you hope to achieve through research? The options are fairly obvious.

Specific information, e.g.when something happened or how something is achieved.
Character information, e.g. lifestyle, careers, anecdotal stories, backstory and family context.
The context of your idea, e.g. its historical period, contemporary value systems, economic and political circumstances and societal concerns.
Contemporary genre expectations.

The first and third of these options are often satisfied by paper and internet research. The Web is the best tool for research so far invented in this regard.

The second option is best achieved through interviews, unpublished material or oral history archives.

The key question is what do you want to achieve with your research?

How will it help with the development of your current idea? What are the narrative questions you are seeking to answer? Once you have some answers to these questions you can start the serious process of research, and not just passing time enjoying the pleasures of discovery and curiosity – wonderful though these are.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Tools | Tagged development, narrative | Comments Off

When Worlds Change – the BCre8ive Lab process

Posted on 24/03/2016 by Phil

“BCre8ive has given me the opportunity to work inside the industry much earlier than I ever envisaged, so for me it’s all been personally very rewarding.“Paul McIntosh, writer of ‘When Worlds Change’.

This blog sets out the journey of all those involved in developing ‘When Worlds Change’ from an initial outline, through to a full blown dramatic world, and a treatment ready for financing as part of the BCRe8ive Lab..

Paul’s dramatic world for a TV feature about a young woman with Downs Syndrome, was chosen by Libra Television to be included in the 2015 BCre8ive Lab. Libra Television, a Manchester based company specialising in children’s programmes and short films was one of six companies involved in the 2015 BCre8ive Lab.

“We were initially attracted to the characters in Paul’s treatment and recognised a similar theme to another story we were developing but that it had something extra to it. The idea was also a good fit with our past film making experience. Having said that, the story was still quite open and the whole process has been very collaborative but worthwhile. ” David Barnes, Libra Television

Paul created his dramatic world using the BCre8ive template, which was then submitted along with others to the BCre8ive Lab companies to review. In order to be submitted he had to chose a BCre8ive Mentor, Tanya Nash, who helped him complete his dramatic world, and then supported him through the three month online Lab with Libra Television.

“It was a real surprise for me to be selected for the Lab as this was my first attempt at creating a dramatic world and screenplay outline. Since then, working with Tanya and David and Louise from Libra Television Productions has been an eye opener and a steep learning curve for me as a new writer in how to structure a feature film.” Paul

Mentoring is critical to the develop of any idea and central to the BCre8ive experience with support being provided to both the talent and the company. This is reflected in the following comments from David Barnes at Libra.

“Not only have we been able to work with a great new writer but we’ve had access to a fantastic script editor and mentor, Tanya Nash, who has really helped guide us and our writer. Having some form of structure and support has been essential to keeping the process on track. Accessing Tanya’s expertise would have been extremely costly otherwise.” David

Creative development is a difficult process and providing effective support through this often taxing, and fraught, part of the production is one of the keys to BCre8ive’s success to date.

However, at the core of BCre8ive’s work is its belief in helping talent create new original work to a high standard and so the last words on the process go to Paul McIntosh., whose world did change.

“I have had countless anxieties about whether I am good enough but their mentoring and willingness to both be open to and share new ideas, as well as put me straight on some points on ‘what works’ in visual storytelling has been a great experience.” Paul

There are two BCre8ive Labs planned for 2016 – to find out more join www.bcre8ive.eu

Posted in Art of development, BCre8ive Lab, Creative Collaboration, Dramatic Worlds | 2 Comments

Looking for Love…. or Not!

Posted on 24/03/2016 by Phil

With only two, possibly three, romance films – ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’, and possibly ‘Focus’ – in the UK top 50 box office in 2015 this is a look at what makes a good romance narrative, and why we might not be watching too many of them.

Romances have always been successful narratives in the cinema from ‘Brief Encounter’ to ‘Notting Hill’ and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ but recently this success seems to be on the wan. Has romance died or has something in the development of the romance genre killed off this one genre that attempts to provide some answers to our loneliness?

It is worth reflecting at this point on the difference between a romance genre and a romance story. The former is a framework within which a set of stories and other narrative elements work. The latter is an audience’s understanding of the motivation for a single character. Therefore, a romance story may occur in any genre, but within the romance genre the focus is on romance stories only. The failure to do the latter is a major reason why many attempted romances fail. The belief that because a romance story exists in a narrative it must be a romance is also a reason why many potential personal dramas and thrillers fail.

But enough of the reason why other genres do not work let us look at the key elements of the romance genre.

The primary elements are:-

The narrative centers on a notion of love.

Love as a term is notoriously difficult to define, but one common thread which runs through most romantic narratives is a strong affection for someone or something, a desire. This desire is linked to a feeling of loneliness. Our sense of not being connected in some profound way with another person, or something which is seen to compensate for the loneliness, classically money, power etc..

It is how this loneliness is expressed, and how the love is addressed, being placed at the center of a film, book etc., which make it part of the romance genre.

The two central characters are both involved in romance stories. If it is a triangular romance, then the third character is also involved in a romance story.

Central to any successful romance are the two, or three, central characters being in love. Unlike other genre this type of narrative requires the audience to focus on love stories. These stories dominate the plot whether it is two or three main characters. Crucially, all the other minor stories which make up the plot also focus on love. Also key here is to ensure that the nature of love being expressed is similar between the characters and the conflict which arise between them stems from their desires.

The central protagonists have an equal narrative weight in terms of narrative time spent with them, and the level of problems they have to overcome to realise their love.

For a romance to work for an audience the audience must care equally about the two central characters, three if it is a triangular romance. In order for this to be achieved a roughly equal amount of narrative time has to be given to all the main characters. This inevitably means that some scenes and sequences only focus on one of the main characters and not the other, and that no one character dominates every scene.

This is the most radical departure from contemporary screen theory, and directly contradicts the most often asked question in development ‘Whose story is it?’

I think it is this problem which is at the heart of why romances are no longer seen on our screens not that we have fallen out of love with romances but they are not being made in the way which makes them work for us.

In this respect it is interesting that the two which make the top fifty in 2015 are both based on books. As they have already established narratives with central characters, who have their romance stories, and plot, before they are adapted to the screen, they are safe from the ‘Whose story is it?’ dissection. A pointer to the issue of the failure of genre development rather than an audience’s rejection of the romance genre.

It is also interesting that they are dramatic romances rather than romantic comedies or tragic romances but this is an issue for another blog.

Posted in Art of development, Dramatic Worlds, Genre | Comments Off

5 Tips from Karrie Fransman

Posted on 02/03/2016 by Phil

Karrie Fransman is a BCre8ive Creative Champion1, author of ‘The House That Groaned’ and creates comic strips for The Guardian, Telegraph and The Times. Here she writes about her top tips on how to become a great graphic novelist – and actually how to be creative generally!

5 Tips for Success

Talent Plus

1. It’s not the most talented people who are the most successful. It’s those who are entrepreneurial. Knowing this keeps you from beating yourself up when you’re behind and from bigging yourself up when you’re ahead.

Importance of Meeting People

2. Get out of your bedroom and go and meet people. Comic artists are notoriously shy, as we spend our time drawing fictional worlds to hide in. But the creative industry is full of geeky folk just like me and you. Spend 1/3 of your time creating your work and 2/3 of your time trying to get it ‘out-there’. Go to conventions, get tables, visit galleries and meet editors. When pitching your work to people remember that you don’t have to ‘sell yourself’. Just talk passionately about why you love your medium and your enthusiasm will become infectious.

Create More!

3.Up the amount of submissions you send out. Art is so subjective and all you need is one person to say ‘yes’. Send your submissions to 10 people. If 8 of them make the same criticism about your work then change it. Don’t change for each person.

Be Resilient

4. Grow a very thick skin. Especially on the web, everyone is subjected to abuse about their work. Suck it up and think of all the times you’ve casually bitched about someone who’s work you don’t like in the media. It’s karma, Baby.

Enjoy the Process

5. But most importantly, remember to relax and enjoy the process. Sometimes I get there when I’m alone with pen, paper and my characters – and am absorbed in the joy of the moment. But often I’m drawing while surfing the web, worrying about deadlines and if I’m good enough… so I still struggle with that, too!

Phil adds the following links to help you on your way

You can watch Karrie give a TED talk on Taking Graphic Novels Seriously here.

Check out this wiki for a professional approach to creating a graphic novel/comic

for a more DIY approach see this article

Posted in Creative Champions | Comments Off

‘Heretics’ wins ‘A Place Like Settle ~ Competition

Posted on 28/01/2016 by Phil

“We are thrilled to have won the “A Place Like Settle” competition” Deborah Hodges, Heretic’s team member.

After three months in the BCre8ive Lab, which ran from October to December 2015, the ‘Heretic’s team emerged the winners of the Settle Stories competition. Chosen by Sita Brand from Settle Stories, and Kevin Moss from PlayThisNext this futuristic thriller sets out to exploit the creative possibilities of innovative App storytelling.

“Settle Stories is delighted to be working on Heretics. This is a story for our times which are sure will prompt discussion, debate and lots more stories.” Sita Brand, Settle Stories.

Join the Heretics conversation now at www.settlestories.org.uk/heretics

Storytelling in a Mobile world

“We’re excited to see how Heretics can be developed as a digital story. Such a strong story world and interesting characters have a natural fit with digital.” Kevin Moss, PlayThisNext

At a time when more and more people are using mobile phones and tablets as their main source of information and entertainment developing storytelling techniques for the small screen, and traveling people, is the big challenge facing creatives. The Kindle may have brought books into the digital and mobile age, but there is more to this form of engagement than just reading text, or playing games.

Swiping and Tapping may engage pre-school children in such narratives as ‘The Yellow Balloon’ but for adults something more is needed. ‘Grayout’ plays with an interactive word game to develop a storyline, while ‘Mr Quinn’ and adaptation of an Agatha Christie short story, combines stills, video, and texting to expand the world of the country house murder mystery. However, these are only the beginning of the new interactive storytelling landscape.

Collaborations on the move

Collaborations have always played a part in creative endeavours but the combination of mobile and web presents new opportunities for readers and creatives. Over the coming months, using a combination of social media, newsletters, and other digital options the ‘Heretic’s team will develop a collaborative approach to contemporary issues and individual characters personal lives.

“We think that ‘Heretics’ will resonate with the hearts and minds of the audience and will at the very least get people thinking about the wider issues.”
Deborah Hodges, Heretics team.

You can join in this conversation about rights, wrongs, hacking and the future of the state at www.settlestories.org.uk/heretics

There will be more on ‘Heretics’ and its development in future blogs.

To join the next Bcre8ive Lab sign up HERE

Posted in BCre8ive Lab, Creative Collaboration, Dramatic Worlds | Comments Off

How to Create a Great Web series

Posted on 25/11/2015 by Phil

As the opportunities for new original works by new talent dry up on TV and in the independent film sector the use of the Web Series is coming back into fashion as a means of finding an audience, generating funding, and promoting an idea to the mainstream media. With Youtube, Vemeo and Amazon offering distribution, while digital and phone cameras prove anyone can shoot for the Web, and crowdfunders Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Crowdshed provide funding options, the opportunities are there. The question is how do you make a successful one?

First – some history

Web Series have been around a long time – over fifteen years, it has been dominated by small production teams, but has attracted big players in the past (Michael Eisner – Prom Queen) and still does (Bryan Singer – H+). In the US it has launched TV series (Broad City) and won major awards (Burning Love – Emmy award winner). In the recent past it has been used by many big brands e.g. Intel & Toshiba (The Power Inside) to promote themselves. Web Awards have become part of the UK’s Independent Film Awards since 2013, and though the hype may have died down since then the opportunity for new talent, and original ideas remains.

So how do you make a web series?

The principle stages of this can be found on numerous website so here are two – http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Web-Series and http://www.ehow.com/how_7924422_create-own-series.html. The keys points to take away from these sites which impact on the choice of idea and creative activity are:-

1 Have distinctive central characters;

2. Start with a plan for the whole series;

3. You need screenplays which work in episodic ways;

4. Keep it short per episode – under 6 minutes;

5. Know your audience.

For notes on how to write a series see the blog by Issa Rae, the creator behind The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.

Looks easy – so what are the common mistakes?

Creating strong central characters which do not relate to the key audience – people tend to like watching people their own age. Children and teenagers may aspire to be older, but like watching their own ages, or only slightly older, trying to achieve this. Even in animation the characterisation reflects the age of the audience. Failing to use humour to its best effect either the characters are not funny all the time in a comedy, or the oneliners, or comic actions, are not sharp enough to grab people’s attention.

Failing to have two central storylines which can be developed in an episodic way and successfully concluded by the end of 6-12 episodes (the normal length of first time series). This is not as easy as it sounds. You need to have cliff-hanger types questions posed by the last moment in each episode to ensure people will wait for, and return to, the next episode. These active questions are vital to episodically structured narratives.

Working in a very short form e.g. 90 seconds may be the best way to start, as sampling on a video channel and watching on mobiles is often initially the way web series are discovered.

Recognising who your potential audience is vital to success. Once you have an idea think through who might this appeal to. If you know your characters this is a strong indication of the age range of the people who may watch the show. However, it may also be the case that you want to appeal to a particular TV channel or production company, in which case you need to look at what they want to do and who their audiences are.

Be Original and Have Something To Say

Even if you do not make any of the common mistakes you may still fail, because the work is not original enough, or have something to say. Originality is about looking at what is already out there and making something different. This may stem just from your own experience of life or from research. The key is to look for that thing, those elements, which make your work stand out.

Having an attitude, something to say, will come through in your work. If you are only making something because you can, with no commitment behind it in terms of challenging someone or something then this will show through in the writing and the finished work. If only because you will not have put the extra time in to make the episodes the best they could be.

Many people start to make web series because they think it is fun, a good idea, a way into the media, a launch pad for their career etc.. However, none of this makes for a good web series. It is the commitment to make a great series, which has something to say to its audience/s that ultimately makes for a success.

Posted in Art of development | 2 Comments

How do we make Content Development work?

Posted on 19/11/2015 by Phil

In a month where new monies are announced for cross platform production, games funding, and media and content convergence the focus appears to be on the tech part of the creative industries rather than the content, yet it is the development of content which is still the weakest part of our creative environment. We all know creating great content is difficult, and most people fail, but do we have to just accept this, and focus all our efforts on building better platforms, faster software, more integrated forms of delivery? In this blog I will try to set out some key areas where we can improve content development.

1. The Culture of Development

There are two dominant problems with our current development culture.

a. The idea that no-one knows anything

This fatalistic, or cynical, vision which excuses ignorance and compounds the idea that anyone can do development as “no-one knows anything”. The impact of this is to deny there is the possibility of learning development skills and acquiring development knowledge.

b. It is all about Storytelling.

From advertising agencies to games developers to TV and Film executive and publishers this phrase is used to make the art of development sound easy. We all know what a story is, or so this approach claims! Yet story is only one part of the complex narratives contemporary audiences engage with and to reduce it to some simplistic notion of it is just being about story is to stop any proper engagement with the range of problems content development poses.

Creating a better informed, taught, and skilled, development culture is critical to future success.

2. Everyone is creative but not everyone is good at creating content.

Many people are creative in their work. Many bureaucrats and lawyers are very creative in the way they use language, many engineers are creative in the way they use materials, many parents are creative in the way they occupy their children. These expressions of creativity are about solving practical problems with existing or new tools. Content creation is of a different order of creativity. It requires inventing in a ‘white space’ something new, which is capable of potentially engaging a minimum of hundreds and generally millions of different human beings in a dramatic experience.

In order to foster good development we need to stop confusing creativity with content creation.

3. The Lone Creative v The Collaborative Team

The dominant vision of the creative person in modern society is still wedded to a concept of the lone artist, often jokingly referred to as ‘living in a garret’. The reality is within a digital age the majority of content is developed by teams of creatives. However, the focus on the out of date ‘artist’ notion means most of our resources, training and education are focused on individuals not on building teams.

Content development needs to focus on teams not individuals if it is to succeed.

4. The Idea is everything

In all areas of creative conversation people talk about coming up with ‘The Idea’, ‘The High Concept’ ‘The Hook’ ‘The Vision’ ‘ The Voice’ or its equivalent – yet audiences, readers, players, etc. engage not with an idea but a complex narrative experience which is pitched at the level of engagement which they find acceptable. Millions of people have come up with good ‘ideas’ the issue is how do we turn them into complete narratives, which people want to engage with.

Without proper development an idea is worth nothing – it is just a marketing angle.

5. Development Costs

Development takes time, and commitment. This means there is no short term fix for a project which is failing, or a quick route to successful content development. If all the above points are addressed development time will be more effective, and more cost effective, but it will still take time. The majority of creative successes are built on committed development from the multiple drafts of a feature film to the tens of iterations of a game, from the numerous re-writes of novels to multiple renderings of a drawing.

If content development is to work we need to move from short term models, often confined by annual budgets, and commit to longer term team and ideas development.

Creating great content is difficult, and time consuming, it requires people to work together with a common aim of developing the best, new, original,work they can for contemporary audiences.

In order to do this we need to change our development culture, build and support teams, move away from finding the big idea, recognise the reality of content development and abandon this notion that it is all a matter of genius and luck.

Some people do know somethings, and are capable, if supported, of creating world changing creative content, but not if we stay where we are.

Posted in Art of development, Creative Collaboration, Creative Tools | Comments Off

What Type of Thriller is Bond – part 2

Posted on 12/11/2015 by Phil

In looking for a genre framework in to which the Bond movies fit we have looked at the relationship and the investigative thrillers. This blog is about the other two main sub-genre – the Political or Conspiracy Thriller and the Action Thriller. I have also included a variation on the Investigative Thriller, the Murder Mystery which applies more to TV than to cinema features.

Political/Conspiracy thriller

The antagonist derives their power from an institution.

Key to any good conspiracy thriller is the power and complexity of the antagonist/s. Knowing what they can and cannot do is essential to the credibility of the narrative.

The protagonist/s is an innocent, in terms of the nature of the conspiracy and the world in which it takes place, who discovers the conspiracy.

One major difference between this genre and the investigative genre is that the protagonist is an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances. They are not a professional investigator e.g. journalist, police officer but a nurse, insurance broker, or clerk.

The protagonist has to acquire the skills and knowledge to uncover the conspiracy.

One essential element of the plot and character is their need for support from others who know more than they do.

The plot’s central active question is, ‘Who is behind certain actions?’ but is delayed.

Unlike some thrillers the initial active question is often a false focus, which leads to a bigger problem being revealed in act two.

The ultimate antagonist is not revealed as being the ultimate antagonist, until the third act of the narrative. This means various other characters have to act as antagonists in the early part of the narrative.

The use of secondary antagonists to drive episodes within the narrative are common.

Victims are numerous in number, but still limited, there are no huge battles, mass killings, and a direct result of the conspiracy being exposed.

Though the number of deaths in this type of thriller are larger than in the relationship or Investigative thriller, they do not reach the scale of the action thriller. Mass shootouts etc are not part of this narrative.

7. Location changes are limited to those associated with the protagonist.

Though the conspiracy may involve an antagonist in a different location, the main action is restricted to a small number of locations, often interior/domestic, and often within one city.

Examples: Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, The Usual Suspects, Enemy of the State, The Bourne Identity.

The Action Thriller

The protagonist is a victim of the antagonist’s actions.

The threat of death to the protagonist is the starting point of this sub-genre.

The narrative point of view is widened to become an omnipotent point of view.

The Point of View(POV) is widened to allow for scenes/sequences which are seen from the antagonist’s POV.

The plot is dominated by action sequences.

The overall structure of the plot is based upon a series of actin sequences broken up by short character scenes, in which a plan of action is formulated.

Characterisation is reduced in direct relation to the length of the narrative, owing to the demands of the action sequences.

The central characters have limited, if any, character arcs. Their situation changes but they remain fundamentally the same. The dominance of ‘hero’s journey’ type theory in certain quarters has imposed stronger character arcs in the last decade.

The protagonist has the specific skills to undertake the tasks set them.

The protagonist is very skilled, and appears largely invincible against any foe.

Victims are numerous, and incidental, to the central dramatic conflict.

The scale of deaths reach their ultimate level in this sub-genre,where mass shoot outs are common, and numerous un-named characters are killed.

7. Locations are numerous

Locations are used to provide the spectacular settings for action, with changes of continents common.

Examples: Die Hard, Speed, The Italian Job, Casino Royale (2006), Red.

In the light of the latter points it is clear Bond films sit within the action genre, but I hope you found the journey through the different sub-genres interesting.

Any comments or questions welcome.

And Finally….

Murder Mystery

This sub-genre is essentially a variation on the investigative thriller, which works extremely well on television e.g. Miss Marple, Murder She Wrote, Wallander, The Bridge etc but has very limited success in the cinema.

All the key elements of the investigative genre remain in place see ‘What type of Trilller is Bond – part 1.’

However, the protagonist is different

The protagonist remains detached from the other characters, acting mainly as an observer, who even when threatened is not overtly concerned. They do not face any significant moral dilemma, or change significantly in the course of the narrative.

Examples : Murder on the Orient Express, Hound of the Baskervilles.

Posted in Art of development, Dramatic Worlds, Feature films, Genre | Comments Off

Which type of thriller is Bond – part 1?

Posted on 05/11/2015 by Phil

In the last blog – ‘Is Bond a thriller?‘ I set out a basic framework for assessing whether a film was a thriller or not. However, at the end of the blog I asked the question – ‘Which type of thriller?’ In this blog I look at two types of thriller to see if the James Bond films fit either. The two types are the Psychological Thriller and the Investigative Thriller.

In the last blog there were seven primary elements which defined the thriller genre. In this blog these seven elements are added to or elaborated on to clearly define the distinctions between the different types of thrillers.

The following secondary elements define the two thriller types of this blog:-

Relationship thriller

The main story is concerned about the personal lives of one or two characters, rarely more.

The focus is on the relationship between two central characters, often in a romantic relationship but sometimes family members or work colleagues.

The main characters are ordinary people i.e. in the general course of their lives they do not encounter the threat of death and danger as encountered in this narrative.

Often the threat of death to one of the central characters is only evident in act two of the narrative, though the presence of death will have been foreshadowed earlier by the death of a relative, or friend. Without the foreshadowing the audience is not certain they are in a thriller.

Personal Betrayal is crucial to the plot.

Many plots and characters involve betrayal but the key betrayal of one of the central characters of the other is critical to the psychological thriller. This places it very close to the tragic romance in many ways, but the other elements present ensure this remains a thriller, and does not belong in this other genre.

Action centres on a threat to the central protagonist.

The sub-genre is set in a small, often domestic world, and stays tightly focused on the central character under threat, and crucially their state of mind.

The plot is constructed from protagonist’s point of view.

A major part of any thriller in this type of thriller the central protagonist’s point of view is often the only one the audience is given any access to. The antagonist’s actions are only revealed through the protagonists eyes, and experience. This limited POV is often hinged around the mental state of the central character – are they just imagining the threat to them?

There are a small number of victims, who die on an individual basis.

Unlike many thrillers the number of people who die is small, seldom more than one. It is the perceived threat to the central character which is the tension generator of the narrative.

Examples include: Play Misty for Me, Dial M for Murder, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Dead Again, Jagged Edge, Le Boucher and Fracture.

Investigative Thriller

The protagonist is a professional investigator. They may not be paid, but they undertake it on a regular, and successful basis.

A crucial difference from the psychological thriller. Often police officers or private detectives, but journalists and researchers are to be found in the lead roles.

The narrative point of view is widened to encompass the antagonist’s point of view, on occasions.

Throughout the plot odd moments(scenes) reveal the danger for the central protagonist/s i about to encounter, thus widening the scope of knowledge for the audience from the psychological thriller.

The protagonist is forced to make moral choices, and pushed beyond their normal involvement in investigations, to solve this mystery.

Key to the motivation and character of the central protagonist/s is the question of a moral choice. Therefore, the central theme of investigative thrillers is the morality of the individual.

The antagonist is as intelligent, and complex, as the protagonist.

A general principle for thrillers to hold the narrative tension, but in investigative thrillers the focus on the small number of characters,and often a simple contest/conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist is framed as a moral choice. therefore, in order to keep the audiences attention both these characters need to be complex, and contradictory in some instances, in order to maintain interest.

Victims are small in number, but integral to the plot in terms of the stages of the conflict between the protagonist, and antagonist.

The number of deaths is small compared with some thrillers, but often more than the one found in many psychological thrillers. The deaths are often personal i.e. someone related to the investigator, or someone they had sworn to protect.

The ultimate nature of the antagonist is not revealed until the climax of the narrative.

The holding back of this key information, in the early parts of the narrative, leads to the requirement for a substantial secondary antagonist to sustain unpredictability within the plot. In addition, the plot needs to contain several ‘red herrings’ plot developments which the investigator pursues only to end up with nothing..

Examples: Maltese Falcon, Chinatown, An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, The Constant Gardener(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387131/?ref_=sr_1 ) , Se7en, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Man som hatar kvinnor) (

Obviously, some of the main primary elements of the thriller genre have not been changed in creating these two sub genres, but it is these subtle often misunderstood differences which stand between a narrative which claims to be a thriller and one which is.

The question is – ‘Is Bond one of these two types of thrillers?