Story writing

 

 

                  Story writing that Indian film makers need to notice

 

New and nascent ventures are very jealous mistresses and demand unstinted attention and time in the early stages. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Hence, 24 X 7 attention is necessary.

 

Embed facts and realities with an excellent film script (I mean mostly English films) story (I say story* for a reason or perhaps many reasons i.e. someone in his elements using the optimum utilization of the 'elements') because the narrative has to be seamlessly connected to knowledge, experience, intelligence, exaggerations, imaginations, emotions and most importantly all of these to be executed with passion and in tuned with the collective social psychology with its existing trends but story as a medium must enable a smooth transition into transformation of outlook that transcends trends. The ultimate purpose is to create a lasting impact.

 

*Story writing has these hidden elements

One can weave or build short or long stories on any subject or topic. 

Just follow five elements principle

Grasp just some part of the subject solidly like - EARTH

Let one’s thoughts and expressions to flow like fluid - WATER

When one want one’s version to glow and put down others' versions let that be aggressive and vocal - FIRE

When one want everyone’s curiosity and expectations floating inject gas - AIR

Hook others minds and fill them with interest in what one intend to convey and thus occupy - SPACE

Then one can take their TIME as well by making them read.

 

Story can be defined narrowly through 10 Ps and they are influenced or impacted by three Ps.

 

 

                   The ten Ps are:-

 

1.    Plot,

 

2.    Personalities [characters],

 

 

3.    Place [context, situation, settings etc],

 

4.    Philosophy [the main theme or idea or concept that story tries to relate to /reveal to us],

 

 

5.    Phrases [the words, expressions and language used to communicate these],

 

6.    Pertinent theme/topic [projection of ideas/thoughts etc through a theme],

 

 

7.    Projection of symbol [symbolically project something to ensure that the very symbol rings a bell in the mind about everything discussed above – for example Krishna on Chariot],

 

 

8.    Predominant genre [classification according to domain of activity either based on human feelings/emotions or social/environmental/religious/ cultural concerns traditionally sometimes classified as comedy, romance, fiction, science, motivational principle.

 

9. Providing imagination [ blank reality or blunt facts are boring after sometime so spice it up with imagination which manifests either artistically or as master pieces of confirmation bias or tools to perpetuate certain prejudices],

 

10. Positioning of power as perceived [as victor/winner/achiever etc. in terms of personality or victory of a way of life/philosophy/idea etc.]

 

The three Ps that influence or impact or by which everything is influenced or impacted are:-

 

Perception,

 

Proper evaluation and

 

Projection of pertinent Data and if necessary we can         introduce   the fourth P i.e. Pinpointing the target 

 

We shall see how these must preferably operate in any domain more so in analyzing economic growth story.

Perception

Our perception by itself is feeble because of certain inherent but inevitable aspects of our mental abilities and approaches.

 

 

“It is not often our perception but the scale of observation and frames of reference which create the phenomenon. The scale of observation depends on man; it is he who creates it. In nature, different scales of observation do not exist. There is only one immense, harmonious phenomenon on a scale which, in general, escapes man. The structure of man's brain necessitates dividing into arbitrary compartments and cutting up into isolated pieces. With the aid of several instruments science creates more phantasmagoria: "on our scale of human observation, as pointed out before, the edge of a razor-blade is a continuous line. On the microscopic scale, it is a broken but solid line. On the chemic scale we have atoms of iron and carbon. On the sub-atomic scale we have electrons in perpetual motion which travel at the rate of several thousand miles per second. All these phenomena are in reality the manifestations of the same basic phenomenon, the motions of the electrons. The only difference which exists between them is the scale of observation" [Human Destiny, Lecomte du Nuoy- a marvelous book that everyone must read – if I remember correctly this comes in 34th page.”

 

Besides we have the option of further spoiling our comprehension of anything by irrelevant methods of evaluations coupled with our presumptions and prejudices

 

                    Proper Evaluation

 

Milton Friedman said, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their [presumed-italics mine] intentions rather than their results”.

 

A very important element or aspect of any evaluation especially in the realm of art is quality. Even in social/political and economic development oriented activities Jane Davidson explains, “how important it is to combine a mix of qualitative and quantitative data with "relevant values" (such as needs) to draw explicitly evaluative conclusions” in his book ‘Evaluation Methodology Basics: The Nuts and Bolts of Sound Evaluation’. 

 

That’s why even great research works on evaluation like the bulky  ‘Evaluation: A Systematic Approach‘ by Peter H. Rossi, Mark W. Lipsey, and Howard E. Freeman first published  get such reviews like ‘There is never any clear instruction about how one should begin an evaluation or how one should proceed’.

 

 

The most comprehensive book on evaluations ‘ Making Evaluation Matter-a practical guide for evaluators’ by Cecile Kusters with Simone van Vugt, Seerp Wigboldus, Bob Williams and Jim Woodhill also emphasizes certain factors repeatedly and predominantly they are context/situation, situational responsiveness, stake holders, inherent qualities of the project /program/person being evaluated ,multiple roles, consequence awareness etc

 

 

Even this material also throws lot of light on evaluation ‘American Journal of Evaluation-2011-Smith-565-99.pdf’.

 

In the realm of political decisions and business organizational management methodology etc these types of game play matter, but not in evaluating art, as Messick, S. (1994). Writes in The Interplay of Evidence and Consequences in the Validation of Performance Assessments. Educational Researcher, 23(2), 13–23, “Validity, reliability, comparability, and fairness are not just measurement issues, but social values that have meaning and force outside of measurement wherever evaluative judgments and decisions are made”.

 

Projection of  pertinent Data- its analysis, usage and      interpretation

 

Data in various forms and formats though is available aplenty we can spoil it through how we interpret it or selectively twist and apply it out of context.

 

Data is a very vital and extremely useful tool for many purposes; I repeat many purposes because it gets its strength from its contributory utility. These trends of worshiping data are all the result of conclusions arrived at due to the ecstasy of revelations of research into reverse engineering.

 

 

Tweaking anything and everything to create something new or come out with some modified version of some existing thing is both interesting and easiest way to unleash the human creative instinct and also draw certain conclusions, but all these have a saturation point.

Even in natural evolution certain designs are adopted others discarded based on the adaptive utility of a particular organ at a particular place and period.

 

 

While a large volume of data can throw up lot of ideas it cannot interpret or suggest proper utilization of those ideas.

 

 

While a large volume of data can throw up lot of thoughts it cannot do the thinking beyond a certain extent and besides a specified path of predefined command.

 

 

While a large volume of data can throw up lot of knowledge/information inputs it cannot initiate or ensure to neither enhance understanding nor can even restrict frames of reference for understanding.

 

While a large volume of data can throw up lot of insights into the working patterns based on permutations it cannot provide the wisdom to choose that comes with churning that life undergoes chronologically in the form of experience.

 

While judging and exploring the facts we must desist getting distracted from the following major traps:-

1] Mutilating the facts,

2] Analysing them with preconceived notions or prejudices,

3] Generalizing the particular and particularizing the general,

4] Approaching facts with unloving criticism or uncritical love,

5] Evaluating facts with our pet isms or philosophies,

6] Resorting to statistical justifications,

7] Unleashing unworkable utopia,

8] Mask them with logical fallacies,

9] Bury them in pleasant jargons, and

10] Give historical justifications.

 

Mark Twain has said, “First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure”.[ here they do it fit their preconceptions] and armed with these selective, filtered and twisted facts they do what Maya Angelou perceived and stated, “There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth”.

 

“Everything changes as you move through three stages of awareness:
first, that beliefs are the result of conditions;
second, that beliefs are the cause of conditions;
and third, that beliefs are themselves conditions.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal

 

I always maintain evaluation must be contextually relevant, based on intrinsic merit or inherent attributes of whatever or whomsoever that you are evaluating.