narrative

Yeah, I know we're all on the music kick at the moment, but I wrote this a few weeks ago and forgot to post it...

It was interesting talking about movies (King Kong, etc) and their narrative or lack off (a few weeks ago now). Doing the scriptwriting paper this semester we are forced to structure everything we do in A-B-C style. It is interesting actually doing the course in the first place as a lot of scriptwriters have no training whatsoever, and scripts that don’t conform to this dictated structure are highly successful. Then there are the people who write scripts and say that just about anyone can do it regardless of skill (Nick Cave, but then he is a genius).

So you wonder if there is any point paying to take a course on scriptwriting and whether it is possible and more efficacious (definitely cheaper) just to teach yourself.

And perhaps there is a case for scriptwriters not teaching scriptwriting. Because they surely must get their own ideas mixed up with the ideas of students and therefore what the student says will never be as good as what the teacher has in mind. For example, if the majority of people (i.e. the audience) like an idea but the teacher thinks it needs some work, is that their academic opinion or their personal opinion?