What makes a film "work," so that audiences come away from the viewing experience refreshed and even transformed in the way they understand themselves and the world around them? In The Death and Life of Drama, veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher Lance Lee tackles this question in a series of personal essays that thoroughly analyze drama's role in our society, as well as the elements that structure all drama, from the plays of ancient Athens to today's most popular movies. Using examples from well-known classical era and recent films, Lee investigates how writers handle dramatic…mehr
What makes a film "work," so that audiences come away from the viewing experience refreshed and even transformed in the way they understand themselves and the world around them? In The Death and Life of Drama, veteran screenwriter and screenwriting teacher Lance Lee tackles this question in a series of personal essays that thoroughly analyze drama's role in our society, as well as the elements that structure all drama, from the plays of ancient Athens to today's most popular movies. Using examples from well-known classical era and recent films, Lee investigates how writers handle dramatic elements such as time, emotion, morality, and character growth to demonstrate why some films work while others do not. He seeks to define precisely what "action" is and how the writer and the viewer understand dramatic reality. He looks at various kinds of time in drama, explores dramatic context from Athens to the present, and examines the concept of comedy. Lee also proposes a novel "five act" structure for drama that takes account of the characters' past and future outside the "beginning, middle, and end" of the story. Deftly balancing philosophical issues and practical concerns, The Death and Life of Drama offers a rich understanding of the principles of successful dramatic writing for screenwriters and indeed everyone who enjoys movies and wants to know why some films have such enduring appeal for so many people.
My poems, stories and articles have appeared widely in both American and English journals. Books of poetry include Wrestling With The Angel (1990), Becoming Human (2001), Human/Nature (2006), Seasons of Defiance (2010), which placed as a finalist in the 8th. National USA Book Awards, Transformations combining art and poetry (2013), and Homecomings (2015). Elemental Natures, selected lyrics, sequences, and prose, appeared in 2020. I am a recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and various other scholarships. Among plays, Rasputin and Gambits were produced at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Time's Up and Fox, Hound, and Huntress were premiered in Los Angeles; publications include Time's Up; Fox, Hound & Huntress; and Time's Up and Other Plays. I founded graduate playwrighting and the graduate screenwriting programs at USC and California State University, Northridge, respectively. I have published a screenwriting textbook, The Understructure of Writing for Film & Television, and A Poetics for Screenwriters, as well as The Death and Life of Drama, reflections on writing and human nature. My works also include a novel, Second Chances (2001). A children's novel, Orpheus Rising (2021), and a shorter children's book, The Tale of Brian and the House Painter Mervyn (spring, 2022). My family is split between Los Angeles, where I helped establish the California State Park System in the Santa Monica Mountains, and London, where a married daughter lives in Crouch End, the family seat for generations on my wife's side.
Inhaltsangabe
1. Preface 2. Part I. Immediate Issues 3. 1. By the Ocean of Time * Time * The Argument We Are Caught In * Time and Drama * Slow vs. Swift 4. 2. The Heavy as Opposed to . . . * The Heavy vs. the Exhilarating * Freud, Civilization, and the Heavy * The Descent into the Heavy 5. 3. Moral Substance and Ambiguity * Morality and Screenplays? * Typing and Volition in . . . * The Heavy and Moral . . . * But What Are We Morally Ambiguous About? 6. 4. Complexity vs. Fullness * Belief vs. Disbelief: Complexity * Fullness * Typing, Volition, and Fullness * Endings * A Diagram 7. Part II. The Cooked and the Raw 8. 5. The Cooked and the Raw * Cooked Emotion * The Raw * Blending the Cooked and the Raw * Antecedents 9. 6. The Smart and the Dumb * Flat and Round * Hamlet and the Dumb * John Nash and the Smart * Plot-Handling Implications 10. Part III. The Lost Poetics of Comedy 11. 7. The Lost Poetics of Comedy * The Comic Universe * Winnicott and Play * Some Diagrams * The Two Roads * The Bones of the Comic Angle of Vision * The Cooked and Comedy * The New Beginning in Comedy * Another Diagram * The Smart and Dumb in Comedy 12. Part IV. The Nature of Dramatic Action 13. 8. The Weight of the Past * What Is the Past? * High Noon * Lantana * Wild Strawberries * Lifting Weights 14. 9. The Weight of the Wrong Decision * The Wrong Decision in the Past * The Wrong Decision in the Present * True Heroines and Heroes and False 15. 10. The Nature of the Hero's Journey 16. Campbell's Hero 17. The Dramatic Hero * 1. Arresting Life * 2. Complying with the False * 3. Awakening * 4. Confused Growth—and the Pursuit of Error * 5. Failure of the False Solution * 6. The Discovery of the True Solution * 7. The Heroic Deed * 8. Suffering * 9. The New Life 18. Part V. The Death and Life of Drama 19. 11. The Death and Life of Drama * Prometheus in Athens, Gladiator in Rome * Shakespeare in Elizabeth's London * The Argument We Are Having with Ourselves 20. Appendix * A Case Study: Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander 21. Notes 22. Film and Drama List 23. Index
1. Preface 2. Part I. Immediate Issues 3. 1. By the Ocean of Time * Time * The Argument We Are Caught In * Time and Drama * Slow vs. Swift 4. 2. The Heavy as Opposed to . . . * The Heavy vs. the Exhilarating * Freud, Civilization, and the Heavy * The Descent into the Heavy 5. 3. Moral Substance and Ambiguity * Morality and Screenplays? * Typing and Volition in . . . * The Heavy and Moral . . . * But What Are We Morally Ambiguous About? 6. 4. Complexity vs. Fullness * Belief vs. Disbelief: Complexity * Fullness * Typing, Volition, and Fullness * Endings * A Diagram 7. Part II. The Cooked and the Raw 8. 5. The Cooked and the Raw * Cooked Emotion * The Raw * Blending the Cooked and the Raw * Antecedents 9. 6. The Smart and the Dumb * Flat and Round * Hamlet and the Dumb * John Nash and the Smart * Plot-Handling Implications 10. Part III. The Lost Poetics of Comedy 11. 7. The Lost Poetics of Comedy * The Comic Universe * Winnicott and Play * Some Diagrams * The Two Roads * The Bones of the Comic Angle of Vision * The Cooked and Comedy * The New Beginning in Comedy * Another Diagram * The Smart and Dumb in Comedy 12. Part IV. The Nature of Dramatic Action 13. 8. The Weight of the Past * What Is the Past? * High Noon * Lantana * Wild Strawberries * Lifting Weights 14. 9. The Weight of the Wrong Decision * The Wrong Decision in the Past * The Wrong Decision in the Present * True Heroines and Heroes and False 15. 10. The Nature of the Hero's Journey 16. Campbell's Hero 17. The Dramatic Hero * 1. Arresting Life * 2. Complying with the False * 3. Awakening * 4. Confused Growth—and the Pursuit of Error * 5. Failure of the False Solution * 6. The Discovery of the True Solution * 7. The Heroic Deed * 8. Suffering * 9. The New Life 18. Part V. The Death and Life of Drama 19. 11. The Death and Life of Drama * Prometheus in Athens, Gladiator in Rome * Shakespeare in Elizabeth's London * The Argument We Are Having with Ourselves 20. Appendix * A Case Study: Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander 21. Notes 22. Film and Drama List 23. Index
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