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.
