Advice — jennifer van sijll

Nature as Mythic Storyteller

Posted by Jennifer Van Sijll on

Films that last often have a mythic quality. Like great children's stories, we consume these films as we do ageless fables. Unlike lesser stories, the lessons learned in these films carry a universal authority that seems to transcend man.Biblical stories naturally achieve this mythic stature by virtue of the role played by a larger spiritual authority. Children's fables often have magic sorcerers or speaking animals. Films like Star Wars or ET achieve this predominantly through story content and character creation. Putting characters in contact with other worlds or assigning aliens as mentors introduces the idea of a spiritual wisdom greater...

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Cinematic Storytelling: Dynamic Metaphors

Posted by Jennifer Van Sijll on

Think of the rose petals in American Beauty, the bird imagery in Shawshank Redemption or Leon's beloved houseplant in The Professional.These metaphors stay with us long after the movie. Like the sled in Citizen Kane, they work as visual synopses, remembered for their story content and emotional power. Often featured on movie posters, metaphors arrest us, instantly messaging a story idea in a single image.Extended metaphors, those that run alongside a character or plotline, can carry a great deal of the story load. They can enter a scene with stealth or a loud bang. They have an elasticity that allows...

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Cinematic Storytelling: Writing for the Unconscious

Posted by Jennifer Van Sijll on

The Case of The Sixth SenseOne has to wonder what Freud would have said, seated in a modern day Cineplex while watching the final credits of M. Night Shyamalan's extraordinary film, The Sixth Sense. It's hard to imagine a greater homage to Freud's concept of the unconscious than its deft exploitation in one of the 20th century's greatest suspense films.Shyamalan's script is a masterful dance between Freud's concepts of the conscious, that information the audience is aware of knowing; and the unconscious, that information it is unaware it knows.It is Shyamalan's use of the unconsciousness, specifically that part that Freud...

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Cinematic Storytelling and Directing the Director

Posted by Jennifer Van Sijll on

Let's assume you have a great story. You've got a great hook, premise, structure, theme and characters. Despite these necessary qualities, it's still anyone's guess if you've got a great screenplay. Why? Because having a great story is only half the job. To get to the finish line, you also need a story that's rendered cinematically. When the studio readers read your script they need to be able to imagine it up on the screen. If they can't, you may have a great radio play or a budding novel, but it's not a screenplay unless you write it as one.Classic...

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