George Varotsis - Screenplay and Narrative Theory: The Screenplectics Model of Complex Narrative Systems

Screenplay and Narrative Theory

Screenplay and Narrative Theory

The Screenplectics Model of Complex Narrative Systems

George Varotsis

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To Boubou Xanel

simply because I cannot describe in words how much I love you

Contents

The Narrative Landscape of Screenplectics

As a professional discipline, screenwriting has come a long way since the first motion picture was projected on April 23, 1896. In the dawn of the cinema era, screenwriters were refused the appropriate credibility almost to the point of violent devaluation of their screenwriting craft mainly because cinema at large was fascinated with the authorship of film directors. This form of neglection resulted in screenwriting to be excluded from theoretical studies in academic disciplines such as narrative theory and film theory. Though Aristotle was the first to investigate the early notions of the narrative form, the advancement of the theoretical aspects of screenwriting, as a form of narrative expression, was limited to the necessary transformations from silent cinema to the present-day motion pictures, and the attempts of popularized how-to techniques such as Syd Fields (Field 2003; 1984a; 1984b), Robert McKees (McKee 1999) and Linda Segers (Seger 1994) to further investigate the field. Although these approaches derive from professional practice they were based on internalized rules-of-thumb drawn from purely inductive interpretations of existing screenplays but were lacking deeper empirical, but most importantly, theoretical justification.

Such analyses, however successful they may have been in the nurturing of new writers, failed to provide answers on two troubling fundamental questions: first, how or what makes stories emerge in the context of narrative, and second, what are the underlying dynamics and mechanics that allow a screenplay to function as a unified whole? The epithet whole implies a network of factors and parameters that are used in conjunction for the formulation of a theoretical landscape of logical and structural principles with universal applicability and functionality. The term narrative connotes a wider meaning to dramatic writing that is not only intended for screenwriting but embraces writing for theatre and TV and novelized fiction in general terms. These narrative forms and formats, irrespective of their genre, employ identical or similar underlying structural principles, rules and plotting strategies for the creation of context in similar fashion.

The intricate comprehension of complex narrative dynamics expresses a need, if not a call, for a more comprehensive theory of narrative in whole that will delve deeper into the uncharted waters of present-day storytelling. Therefore, Screenplay and Narrative Theory: The Screenplectics Model of Complex Narrative Systems , the semantic narrative system proposed herewith, aids the understanding of structural dynamics and the underlying narrative mechanisms that come into play during the compositional stages. Screenplectics is a neologism that entwines the meaning of the words complexity, screen , and symplectics , a mathematical term deriving from the Greek word ( plektos ), and which carries the meaning of braided together (Gell-Mann 1995, 2). The contribution of Screenplectics lies in the center of its initial foundation. First, by explaining how a work of narrative, that is, novels, screenplays, teleplays or stageplays, functions synergistically, and by appropriating the necessary metaphors, systemically. Second, by explaining the heuristic mechanisms that are employed between compositional interactions in various structural levels that allow the coherent accumulative derivative we call story to emerge.

The transition from a purely empirical to a theoretical perspective is achieved through the examination of the underlying narrative dynamics under the prism of complexity theory , and by introducing, with the employment of metaphors and analogies, characteristics of complex systems . Described from a complexity theory perspective, a narrative work is constituted of a network of narrative components that are arranged hierarchically and are interacting parallel to one another in nonlinear ways. The basis of the generative capacity of Screenplectics from the deep and intermediate structures to the surface structures is the plot-algorithm; a heuristic tool that has the capacity, through contextual and semantic transformations of narrative information, to generate a multitude of story events from a finite number of story parameters and prepositions. Moreover, the plot - algorithm aids the implementation of tighter narrative logic into stories. Thus, a vast variety of new story alternatives and variations can be produced through the combination of a set of finite rules and principles that put the interactions of the narrative components in a process of transformation. Stories, therefore, are generated because a framework of principles define the terms for dramatic engagement and set in motion bidirectional cause-and-effect narrative dynamics.

Structural and Systemic Analysis of Narrative Systems

The aim of the analysis of film or narrative systems is to explain how a system with increased levels of complexity works in whole. The isolation of narrative units and the examination of their relations within a given system is the field of application of structuralism . The positioning of units to levels with a hierarchical perspective (Barthes 1975, 242) is regarded as one of the major contributions of structural analysis. The basic idea is that a narrative system must be seen as having a structure within itself. Such structure has certain properties: distinctive units, and mutual interactions and interrelations, all taking place under a structural whole. However, within this intuitive idea of distinct units, and the interrelations governing them, exists a subtle network of interactions that is only understood under the prism of wholeness, or holism, as this is metaphorically advocated by the philosophical perspective of narrative complexity. Therefore, what gives rise to the narrative systems overall semantic meaning is the integration of the mutual interrelations, the constant interactions, the conceptual and contextual differential properties between the components, and the underlying transformations between them in an overall process that encompasses the narrative system itself; an insight that was largely ignored by structuralists and film theorists.

In order to explain the underlying transformations in a film system, film semioticians use the commutation test, a term that was borrowed from structural linguistics, so to assess whether a contextual change has occurred. As a deductive method, the commutation test categorizes and classifies signs and is demonstrated transitionally from one structure to another through the existence of a direct correlation between a change on the deep structure and a change in the surface structure. By utilizing contextual substitutions, film semioticians were able to assess whether a change in the signifier leads to change in the signified. For example, take the following narrative proposition: the husband pushes the wife. By substituting the term husband with each of the following terms man, father, boy, assailant, etc., or the term wife with each of the following terms woman, mother, child, girl, victim, etc., different contextual alternatives emerge since there is a distinct change in the intentions of the acting subject. A father pushing the child could be regarded as a violent act with criminal intent whether a boy pushing his mother can be a violent act which stems from frustration caused by authoritativeness. Subsequent elaboration of the environment where the act is carried out, that is, office, home, school, etc., could enable further contextualization by demonstrating the relationship between the subjects, and so on.