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DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

What gives your sequences their intensity?

8 JUL 2017

Show Notes

Chas and Stu are joined for the fourth time by the inestimable Stephen Cleary - this time to take a deep dive into sequences. A real deep dive. A 3+ hour deep dive.

Stephen postulates that sequences can compel the audience in different ways via the type of dramatic questions being posed. Are they plot questions ("Will she defuse the bomb?") or character questions ("Will she understand what compels her to defuse bombs?") or a combination of both? What is the impact on the pacing, structure of your story or audience experience of your characters by changing the type of question being asked? What happens to your story when your protagonist decides to literally abandon the plot?

Our deep dive roams through THE BOURNE IDENTITY, NAKED, THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, FARGO (the movie) and CHILDREN OF MEN... with many-a-tangent referencing HEAT, FRENZY, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, AMOUR, CHEF, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, THE KINGSMAN, FURY ROAD, THE COLOUR OF POMEGRANATES, LIVING IS EASY WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED, MOONLIGHT, and probably some more that we’ve forgotten.

PS: Thanks to all our listeners who provided feedback on a draft edit of this episode.

"In Kingsman, it’s a super spy origin story, but what is quite interesting threaded throughout it is classes. It’s very classist, going back to the old school bond where it is largely just plot sequences."

— Chas Fisher  |  DZ-43: Driving Sequences - Character and Plot Intensity

Thanks to our Patrons, especially Khrob, Theis, Sandra, Jesse, Randy, Paulo, Thomas, Jennifer, Malay, Alexandre and Lily.

As always: SPOILERS ABOUND and all copyright material used under fair use for educational purposes.

Resources

Transcript

Read the transcript for this episode.

Chapters

  • 00:00:00 – Introduction
  • 00:01:38 – History and Theory of Sequences
  • 00:05:08 – › Testing reel-length theory against silent film evidence
  • 00:10:53 – › Dramatic questions as the engine of sequence structure
  • 00:17:10 – 3 Kinds of sequences
  • 00:19:44 – Plot-Lite Revisted - AMOUR, CHEF AND HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
  • 00:24:01 – High Intensity Plot Sequences - HEAT and FRENZY
  • 00:27:09 – › Intensity as the constant across plot and character sequences
  • 00:31:10 – › Three sequence types and the limits of pure character storytelling
  • 00:36:07 – BOURNE IDENTITY - Homestead sequence
  • 00:38:29 – › Converting plot sequences into plot-character sequences
  • 00:47:01 – › When the hero refuses action, plot reasserts itself
  • 00:51:27 – › Character resolution across the trilogy's arc
  • 00:54:43 – NAKED - Maggie Sequence
  • 00:58:11 – › How plot dissolves as a character loses meaning
  • 01:02:47 – › Classical sequence structure beneath unconventional storytelling
  • 01:06:35 – Road Movies and LIVING IS EASY WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED
  • 01:09:26 – › LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED as plot-to-character arc
  • 01:13:00 – NAKED - Security Guard Sequence
  • 01:17:40 – › Defining character questions versus plot questions
  • 01:21:31 – Plot as The Hook
  • 01:24:06 – › Using sequence types to provoke genre conventions in BOURNE
  • 01:26:44 – THE KINGSMAN
  • 01:29:41 – › How plot relaxation enables character intensity
  • 01:32:43 – Character Sequences & Audience Introspection
  • 01:34:52 – DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
  • 01:38:54 – › Character question versus plot question in opening sequences
  • 01:41:03 – › How plot and character questions interlock across story structure
  • 01:44:35 – › Character-first structure as inversion of conventional story logic
  • 01:51:32 – › Adaptation craft and writing the subjective experience on the page
  • 01:55:41 – THERE WILL BE BLOOD
  • 01:58:32 – › Plot overload versus character engagement as audience resource
  • 02:03:25 – › Imagistic sequencing as an alternative story logic
  • 02:05:28 – FARGO
  • 02:09:29 – › How a detour scene reveals character without plot function
  • 02:14:57 – › Marge's strategy: letting people reveal themselves
  • 02:20:12 – CHILDREN OF MEN
  • 02:23:33 – › Character question versus plot question in opening sequences
  • 02:31:04 – › World as character and the faith-versus-chance thematic core
  • 02:43:40 – › Pure character scenes and how they contrast with genre expectations
  • 02:50:27 – › Sequences as a tool for writers to understand and control audience engagement
  • 03:03:44 – Key Learnings
  • 03:06:21 – › Sequence types as a structural palette for writers
  • 03:09:44 – Final Words

Films

Scripts

Shot Zero Deep Dives

Episodes in the Sequences series

KEY IDEAS

Three Sequence Types

"I think there are three kinds of sequences, fundamentally. I think there are plot sequences, which are sequences that are driven entirely by the plot question, where character can kind of perform underneath, but really the sequence is driven by the plot question. Then you have what I would call plot character sequences, where you do have a plot question that's primary, but the reason that question is there is really more for the unfolding of character. Then you have a different kind of sequence altogether, which is unusual, much less frequent, but which is a character sequence, where there really isn't a plot question. The question of what will happen next is not being asked or even explored by the character."

— Stephen Cleary (00:17:10) · Sequences

Plot vs. Character Questions

"Plot questions should be short and concise and comprehensible. And character questions should be long and meandering and incomprehensible. It's expressed as will X do Y? The thing they do must be clearly observable. In a character sequence, there is no plot question. If you say, what are they doing, the answer is they're just walking around to no purpose. There's no action, there's no question you can characterize over that 20-minute section of the story. It's not about what will happen, it's what will the character come to learn? Or will indeed they learn at all?"

— Stephen Cleary (01:18:25) · Dramatic Questions · Character Questions

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