Creative Writing Workshop

My class recently took part in a Creative Writing Workshop. During the lesson we learnt what a story is, how stories have evolved through time, how filmmakers adapt stories to make them their own and how to use influences' to come up with stories. We then conducted research into how Steven Spielberg comes up with his film ideas.

What is a story and how films adapt them?

According to J.K Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter Series, a story is 'the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared’. For example, in the hit film Star Wars (1977), we empathise with Luke Skywalker because he starts off as a poor farm boy who dreams of becoming a pilot and ends up saving the rebellion and eventually becoming a successful Star Fleet Pilot. We then went on to learn how storytelling has evolved through time. They first started off as 'Oral Tradition' which is when people used to tell each other stories through words. They then went to 'Written Text' such as hieroglyphs and books, and then finally 'Film and Digital' which is the most up to date version of story telling. Many filmmakers take old and traditional stories and use them as influence for the plot or a certain scene. A good example is The Loyal Mongoose, which is an ancient Indian Story that tells the story of a peasant's wife who assumes that their pet mongoose has killed her son because she saw the blood in its mouth, but it was actually a snake that had killed her son, and the blood in the mongoose's mouth was the blood of the snake. The story contains themes of guilt, consequences of actions, hastiness, loyalty and deception. This story has been adapted in the Rat Scene in Lady of the Tramp (1955), Tramp sees a rat enter a woman's house and follows it to the baby's room. Tramp and the Rat then start fighting, making lots of noise and knocking over the baby's crib. The rat escapes just as the woman walks into the room, meaning she only sees Tramp. This scene follows the same plot as The Loyal Mongoose and shows how ancient stories have evolved through time.

Another good example of stories being adapted is the death of Jesus Christ. When Jesus died he was nailed to a cross in a crucifix position. Many films have adapted this where a character dies or almost dies, they form a crucifix position. Some good examples in films/tv shows that show this are Scarface, Alien 3, Superman, The Matrix, E.T., Spider-Man 2, Breaking Bad and Platoon. The crucifix position symbolises the recognition of sacrifice, this has been adapted in Platoon, Spider Man 2 and Alien 3 where the characters sacrifice themselves to save others. It can also symbolise hope and redemption. The theme of hope has been adapted in Superman, The Matrix and E.T. and the theme of redemption has been adapted in Breaking Bad and Scarface.

Harry Potter:

You may think the Harry Potter books/films are an original story, but they are actually deeply derivative (based on or a copy of other sources). A few examples are The Lord of the Rings and The Worst Witch. But the one I'm going to be talking about is Star Wars. Both Harry Potter and Star Wars follow an orphan protagonist (Luke and Harry) who has an unsatisfying childhood, they both are trained by an elder mentor (Obi-Wan and Dumbledore) who orphaned them with their Aunt and Uncle, the antagonist was a student of the mentor (Darth Vader and Voldemort), the mentors permitted their deaths and advises the protagonist through the after life, magic has a dark side and a chosen one is prophesied.

Steven Spielberg Research:

Spielberg uses his own personal experiences when coming up with his narratives. When growing up Spielberg was bullied, but this actually influenced one his earliest films called Duel (1971). The film is about a man called David trying to escape a psychopathic truck driver in the Mojave Desert. The end of the film sees David tricking the Truck Driver, leading to the truck falling off the cliff. The truck tumbles down the cliff in slow motion, and ends up at the bottom in a wreck. In Post-Production Spielberg added a 'roar' noise as the truck comes to a standstill. The addition of the 'roar' noise suggests the truck is more than a vehicle and is actually a monster. Some other things that suggest this is the close up of the oil slowly dripping, the oil is supposed to symbolise the blood of the monster. And the final shot we see of the truck is a close up of one of the tires spinning, which slowly comes to a halt. This is supposed to represent the death of the monster, that's why Spielberg chose to have this as the final shot of the truck. Spielberg used his past of being bullied as influence for the truck, a large ominous monster that keeps following you wherever you go.

When growing up, Spielberg had a bad relationship with his father, Arnold Spielberg, who divorced Steven's mother (Leah) when Steven was 19. He said "I missed my dad a lot growing up… My dad was really a workaholic." But this influenced Spielberg when making his films and characters. In a lot of his films he has male characters who are absent due to their failing as a father. Some good examples of Spielberg films that contain this are E.T., War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. In E.T. Elliot's father is absent for the entire film due to being in Mexico with another woman. In War of the Worlds, Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a failed father whose house is a mess. In the film, he has his children for the weekend but an alien descends onto Earth, threatening to wipe out humanity, and in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Henry Jones (Sean Connery) is a father who is very invested in his work and has been interested in the Holy Grail for the whole of his life. In the opening scene Indiana finds a relic and runs back home to show his father. Indiana runs in showing his dad but he says "It can wait" as he carries on his work.

I personally found this workshop the best out of the three. As I my role of being a director I need to learn how to write and adapt stories for the big screen. To improve my skills of writing, I'm going to read and watch more films and practise free writing.