Literature Review DONE

I did it woo

This is a literature review on Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Specifically, the story arc and narratology of the show. In this literature review, I will first have to explain who Rod Serling is; so that you, the reader can understand what this show is. Because you probably don’t know who Rod Serling is, you won’t understand the show to what it’s supposed to be. I will explain what he is about, what his creative flow is, and what he wants from the viewer. Then I will discuss the narratology of The Twilight Zone. I will discuss some of the sources I have looked at for this literature review to show you my understanding of narratology. Finally, I will cover story arc. I will break it down for you. First, through the simple structure of story arc. Then, through the 6 types of story arc.  I will then discuss the three top episodes of The Twilight Zone and fit them into the story arc categories.

To understand The Twilight Zone, its narratology and story arc; one must understand the producer and writer of the show, Rod Serling. Rod Serling was a man who wanted to Illustrate political ideas using fantasy and the supernatural. He was a student of Human Nature, (Feldman, 2010). According to Marc Scott Zicree, author of A Detailed History of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Serling’s creative urge was primarily a “Concern for people and their problems”. He wanted to search for an emotional truth, to make some attempt to make a statement of the human condition. (Wolfe, 1997). He understood that we, The Human Race, often see things, and upon looking back, were not there. An idealised past if you will. (Wissner, 2018). Zicree states that Serling’s attitude was one of acceptance. So when Serling decided to make The Twilight Zone, It wasn’t just made to make you go to the edge of your seat or just have a casual viewing of a television show. Rod Serling wanted to make a suggestion, whether it was to tell us to go forward in a new direction or invoke an abiding truth. He wanted to evoke a second chance. Make us want redemption of ourselves. Serling wanted to “Pull the heartstrings of the viewers and intended for the show to prove that television could be simultaneously entertaining” (Wissner, 2018). The stories Rod Serling wrote for The Twilight Zone, and many other writers for the show, were about people like us, the casual viewer, the everyday hard-working citizen, encountering common problems who encounters fantasy, something out of the ordinary.  Serling wrote that The Twilight Zone is a series devoted to the stories of imagination, produced with care, attention and regard for maturity (Kraszewski, 2010). From this we should understand the next couple of paragraphs and the reasoning behind the narratology and story arcs in The Twilight Zone.

According to The Living Handbook of Narratology. Narratology is a “humanities discipline dedicated to the study of the logic, principles and practices of narrative representation.” (Meister, 2013) Narratology itself has developed over time to be a variety of theories, concepts and analytic procedures. The Living Handbook was talking about narratology in a wider spectrum. But the point is that, or how I’m seeing it, is about how the narrative is made. Serling wanted to experiment with a variety of narrative conventions and generic identities, and with The Twilight Zone he was able to do so. When advertising the show, a clock and eyeball, a mannequin, with Serling himself in a sharp suit were advertised. These advertised the themes for the show, including perception, alternative modes of time and reality and questions of what constitutes as a good society. With the episode by episode basic Serling was able to produce multiple stories, 156 episodes to be exact that covered an entire range of topics including racism, communism consumerism and conformism. (Kraszewski, 2010). There was a paper I read called Unnatural Narratives – Unnatural Narratology, which could be an accurate description of The Twilight Zone. In the paper, David Herman defines narrative as a “basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process and change” Which is exactly what The Twilight Zone has to offer (Alber & Heinxe 2011). See the episodes “Walking Distance” and “Time Enough at Last” (Locifficier& Locifficier, 2003) which are solid examples of this description, as the main characters must deal with time, process and change; both in the literal sense. Going back to the paper Unnatural Narratives, the paper explains that the word unnatural has negative connotations to it, and indeed it does. But when we are talking about the narrative of The Twilight Zone, we can use that word in its adjective form, not regular. Because in The Twilight Zone every scenario presented in each episode is not regular. It’s a twist on what could happen. Rod Serling’s favourite topics of exploration, was nostalgia. A topic he quite regularly visited in the show. But with visiting nostalgia he would like to demonstrate the implications and consequences of having the opportunity, even spinning the nostalgia on its head. (Wissner, 2018). If we fit this to the definition told prior, this could be considered a practice of narrative representation.

There are many ways story arc can be represented, there is your basic story arc, “The Mountain of Storytelling” which is demonstrated in five stages.

First point: You have the introduction, or exposition which is the beginning of the story where you character is introduced along with the conflict.

Second Point: The rising action, where the conflict is developed. Here we explain why the conflict is important and how it affect the characters.

Third point: The Climax, the top of our mountain of storytelling. This is where the turning point of the story is, or where you character is forced to confront his issue.

Forth point: The Falling action. This part of the story gives the reader a break from all the intensity of the story and shows character development.

And then there’s the Fifth point: The Resolution, where it all ends. (Wade, 2016). Pretty simple to understand. But there are six different types of story arc which a web article about data-mining western literature shows quite well.

They still have the basic principles of storytelling, but these story arcs are based on the highs and lows of the stories, the fortunes of the main character. And it goes like this.

Story arc one: “Rags to Riches”, when the story starts at a low point, but it gets consistently better over time.

 Story arc two: “Man in a Hole”, when fortunes fall, but after the climax of the story the protagonist bounces back.

Story arc three: “Cinderella”, when the story starts with a rise in fortune but then has a setback but follows with a happy ending.

Story arc four: “Tragedy” or otherwise know as “Riches to Rags”, when the story gets consistently worse.

Story arc five: “Oedipus”, when bad luck strikes, followed by good fortune, then ends in a final fall.

Lastly, story arc six: “Icarus”, when the story opens with good fortune, but the protagonist Is doomed to fail. (Scharping, 2016).

In the paper The Screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in Narrative Structures, its identified that characters have a ‘want’ and ‘need’, which is a common trope in storytelling. This want and need can affect the story arc which also affects the audience as they follow with this want and need. (Finnegen, 2016). In the paper Storytelling as a theory-building activity, the paper recognises the different points of views adopted by the story’s protagonist and narrators. The paper also recognises to see “one’s own and others’ stories as possible ‘versions’ or ‘theories’” of what happens in the story, recognising different story arc within the text or visual. (Ochs & Taylor & Rudolph). With all this information now currently explained. We can now look back at The Twilight Zone and show you how the shows story arc works. For this I picked three top tier episodes which have been crossed checked with multiple top Twilight zone episode webpages for this explanation. We have ‘Walking Distance’ (Serling & Stevens, 1959), ‘Time Enough at Last’ (Serling & Braham, 1959) and ‘The Monsters are Due on Maple Street’ (Serling & Wilson, 1960). All written and produced by Rob Serling. ‘Walking Distance’ and ‘Time Enough at Last’ Feature one protagonist, Martin Slone and Henry Beamis respectively, while ‘The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” have an entire town as the protagonists. At the start of the episode while Rod Serling narrates over top with his introduction to the characters, they are all doing something that is considered normal. Mr Beamis is working as a bank teller. Mr Slone’s is having a Sunday drive and the neighbourhood of Maple Street are just doing everyday live things. But they all have hit a bit of bad luck at the start of the episode, Mr Beamis isn’t too well at his job and get caught reading books on the job. Mr Slone’s car need to get serviced, and a large shadow, along with a loud noise is heard over the town of Maple street which leads into all the power getting shut off, including the cars. This is where the story arc starts to split but they all end up in a similar way. Mr Slone realises that he is a walking distance away from his hometown and goes to visit it, while pondering nostalgia. He goes to the local drug store to get an ice cream soda pop, but it odd as the price for it is a dime, which is unusual for the time. As he is looking around the town a bit more, he finds the younger version of himself carving his name on a bandstand, then goes to his parent’s house and finds his parents there. He realises that the year has changed back in time to 1934. He is confused and worried. Mr Beamis after his rough day at work goes home to read a newspaper, but his wife walks in and takes it off him, not only that, it turns out that she has inked out all his poetry in one of his books. She the proceeds to rip the book apart. Mr Beamis goes to work the next day and has his lunch break in the bank vault where he glimpses over a newspaper that tells of the H-bomb. Then a loud explosion is heard, the vault shakes. Mr Beamis goes outside only to find rubble; He explores the land he once calls home only to find there is nothing. The people of Maple Street, try and figure out what is wrong with the power and the cars, and a local kid warns the locals not to leave as apparently, it’s a sign of an alien invasion, People don’t believe him until one of the locals vehicles starts up randomly, then people start getting suspicious of each other. As we can see currently, we have covered half of the stories, but the style of story arc stays the same for the first half. A stroke of bad luck leads to something a little worse. You could say that this is looking like a “Tragedy” or and “Oedipus” story arc, let’s keep exploring. So back to Mr Slone, He goes to his parents and tries to convince them that he is their son, they don’t believe him, he is turned away. He finds himself at a carousel and tries to get his attention, he scares his younger self and makes him fall off, he ends up having a limp and changes history a tiny bit. But his dad finds the current version of himself, saying that he believes that he is his son. He tells him that he should stop looking at the past and look ahead, as there are perks being an adult. Mr Slone walks back to the store and its 1959 again. He goes back to his car and for once realises that he can live with himself at his current age group. This is one of the light-hearted Twilight Zone Episodes, you could say that this is a “Cinderella” Story arc. Then there is Mr Beamis, after wandering the wastes and finding a gun he plans to kill himself, as there is nothing to live for. But he discovers the public library with all the books still intact, he has meaning again. Until he falls and breaks his glasses. He is now blind. And has nothing to live for. This is a classic example of “Oedipus” story arc. Then in Maple Street, the rumours and paranoia start to rise even more. No one can trust each other, ad someone ends up getting shot. The light in all the houses start to go off for no reason. Then the entire town, once a civilised place. Has now descended to chaos. Riots in the streets. An it turns out that it was aliens, it was an alien invasion, but that was how they were going into chaos, cause every street can be a Maple Street. This was a “Tragedy” Story Arc, and a deep one too.

References

Primary Sources

Feldman, L. D. (2010). Spaceships and politics: The political theory of Rod Serling. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Kraszewski, J. (2010). The new entrepreneurs: An institutional history of television anthology writers. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Lofficier, J. M., & Lofficier, R. (2003). Into the Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide. iUniverse.

Presnell, D., & McGee, M. (2008). A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone, 1959–1964. McFarland.

Serling, R. (Producer). (1959). The Twilight Zone. [Television Series]. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Stevens, R (Director). (1959, October 30). Walking Distance. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Wilson, R. (Director). (1960, March 4). The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Braham, J. (Director). (1959, December 4). Time Enough at Last. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Wissner, R. A. (2018). No time like the past: Hearing nostalgia in The Twilight Zone. Journal of Popular Television, 6(1), 59–80. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/jptv.6.1.59_1

Wolfe, P. (1997). In the Zone: the twilight world of Rod Serling. Popular Press.

Secondary Sources

Alber, J., & Heinze, R. (Eds.). (2011). Unnatural narratives - unnatural narratology. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Finnegan, J. (2016). The screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in narrative structure. Journal of Screenwriting, 7(3), 319–330. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/josc.7.3.319_

Herron, M, (n.d). A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure. Retrieved from https://thewritepractice.com/plot-structure/

Meister, J C. (2013). Narratology. The Living Handbook of Narratology. Retrieved from https://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Narratology

Ochs, E. & Taylor, C. & Rudolph, D. & Smith, R. (1992). Storytelling and Theory Construction. Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity. Retrieved from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/ochs/articles/Storytelling_as_a_Theory-building_Activity.pdf

Scharping, N. (2016). 6 Story Arcs Define Western Literature, Data-Mining Study Reveals. Discover: Science for the Curious. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/07/06/the-6-story-arcs-that-define-western-literature/#.XQbHKogzZaR

Wade, A. (2016). Editor’s Corner: What is Story Arc. Dog Ear Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.dogearpublishing.net/wordpress/what-is-story-arc/

Literature Review, Summarising the long print

Story Arc and Narratology of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone

Primary Sources

A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone

Presnell, D., & McGee, M. (2008). A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone, 1959–1964. McFarland.

This source is a brief overview of the History of the Twilight Zone and the Episodes. The book references official novelisations of the Twilight Zone. One reference tells an aspect of the show and Rod Serling from the author of The Twilight Zone Companion.  It tells us the show (and Serling’s) concern of Humanity. Zicree Quotes that the twilight zone was the first TV series to deal on a regular basis with the theme of alienation – particularly urban alienation. The show stated a simple message: The only escape from alienation lies in reaching out to others, trusting in their common humanity. Give in to the fear and you are lost. The Character inhabiting The Twilight Zone were ordinary people on the rise of decline. It took no great leap for us to identify ourselves with these frail and vulnerable souls and imagine that perhaps in some flight of fancy, some slight tangent from the reality of the ordinary routine, what happened to these characters might very well happen to us.

No time like the past: Hearing nostalgia in The Twilight Zone

Wissner, R. A. (2018). No time like the past: Hearing nostalgia in The Twilight Zone. Journal of Popular Television, 6(1), 59–80. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/jptv.6.1.59_1

Rod Serling’s favourite topics of exploration was Nostalgia. Serling understood that we often see things looking back that were not there and that the past is often Idealised. Many aging characters in the Twilight Zone look back to the past to reclaim what they have lost. The reality is that the characters nostalgia is not as great as they imagined it to be. Serling evokes second chance and redemption themes, but with the intention of demonstrating the implications and consequences of having the opportunity to return to one’s past. Serling wanted to pull the heartstrings of the viewers and intended for the show to prove that television could be simultaneously entertaining. The stories were about people with common problems who encountered fantasy.

Watch the episode “Walking Distance”

In The Zone: The Twilight World of Rod Serling

Wolfe, P. (1997). In the Zone: the twilight world of Rod Serling. Popular Press.

Marc Scott Zicree also locates Serling’s creative urge in “a Primary concern for people and their problems” and further, in some search for an emotional truth, some attempt to make a statement on the human condition. He states that Serling’s attitude here is one of acceptance, the familiar and the homey stirring his imagination.

The Twilight Zone uses ordinary incidents to invoke an abiding truth or suggest a new direction. This artistry transcends social and intellectual categories. The Twilight Zone strips character, setting and community down to an essence as bare as the underlying rhythms of nature. The insights conveyed by this stripping-down can intrude upon myth. The Hidden currents that governs lives, relations and whole communities flow through the zone. These currents beckon us because we recognise a sameness between the characters they support and ourselves.

Into The Twilight Zone - The Rod Serling Programme Guide

Lofficier, J. M., & Lofficier, R. (2003). Into the Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide. iUniverse.

Episode Guide of The Twilight Zone.

The New Entrepreneurs – An Institutional History of Televisions Anthology Writers

Kraszewski, J. (2010). The new entrepreneurs: An institutional history of television anthology writers. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Rod Serling Experimented with a variety of narrative conventions and generic identities on an episode-by-episode basis. Serling wanted to write something “Science fiction but not science fiction” that included elements of fantasy and a shocking ending. The agreement on a narrative structure for The Twilight Zone took a long time to figure out as Serling and CBS stopped their negotiations on Broadcasting the Twilight Zone for 2 months. Serling’s voice over narrations set up audiences’ expectations and interpretations of characters. The voice overs are distinct, recognizable and a key to hear. They are the defining feature of The Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone addressed numerous social issues, including racism, communism, conformism, and consumerism. Serling wrote that The Twilight Zone is a series devoted to the stories of imagination, produced with care, attention and a regard for maturity. Important themes for the show as shown from The Twilight Zones publicity shots with pictures of a clock, a mannequin and a floating eyeball., are Perception, Alternative modes of time and reality, and questions about what constitutes a good society. Serling decided whether or not to develop characters on The Twilight Zone. Many of the episodes function as morality plays.

Spaceships and Politics – The Political Theory of Rod Serling

Feldman, L. D. (2010). Spaceships and politics: The political theory of Rod Serling. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Serling was a student of human nature using fantasy and the supernatural to Illustrate political ideas. Some stories show the examples of nastiness, depressing and violent nature of humans abound. (To Serve Man” “Time Enough at Last “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” etc) In fact a collection of stories was quite violent, Including homicide, suicide, executions, etc. According to Serling, we must understand the concept of fear and how it is used. The concept of fear is an important political concept dating from the origin of power. Humans are seen as frightened, subject to fear instilled by the state or by other people, as well as self-interested, greedy and willing to believe the worst about others. These character traits are often reflected in the aliens that populate in The Twilight Zone. Fear Loneliness and isolation is a common theme in the zone.

The Twilight Zone

Serling, R. (Producer). (1959). The Twilight Zone. [Television Series]. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Robert Stevens (Director). (1959, October 30). Walking Distance. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Opening Narration: “Martin Sloan, age thirty-six. Occupation: vice-president, ad agency, in charge of media. This is not just a Sunday drive for Martin Sloan. He perhaps doesn't know it at the time, but it's an exodus. Somewhere up the road he's looking for sanity. And somewhere up the road, he'll find something else” Martin Sloan stops to get his car serviced at a gas station within walking distance of Homewood, his hometown. After walking into town, he sees that the town has not changed since he was a boy. He walks into the town drugstore and is confused that the prices of ice cream sodas are only a dime. It is soon discovered that he is witnessing his own history at the year of 1934. After finding himself, meeting his parents and accidentally causing himself to fall off a carousel causing himself to have a limp. He is told by his Father who now believes in his story that he should look ahead of himself rather than looking in the past.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Wilson, R. (Director). (1960, March 4). The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Opening Narration: “Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, barbecues, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor. At the sound of the roar and the flash of light, it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street...This is Maple Street on a late Saturday afternoon. Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moment - before the monsters came.” Maple street is your basic friendly neighbourhood, and everything is going fine when a shadow passes over, accompanied by a loud roar, a flash of light and falling stars. Originally the townspeople believed it was a meteor, but as soon as the realise that all the power in the neighbourhood goes off, including the vehicles power. Two Fellow decided that they should go into town to see what is going on, but a local boy tells them that they should not leave as he had read of a alien invasion story causing similar issues. Along with the fact that some of the aliens are disguised as humans. The Adults don’t believe him until one of the locals somehow gets their car to start. Then the paranoia begins. Fingers start to be pointed, accusations start to be made as more oddity’s start to happen until someone spots a shadowy figure approaching them with a hammer. One of the local’s panics, grabs a shotgun and shoots him. When everybody comes to look at the body it turns out that its just another local. Lights then begin to flicker on and off at other peoples houses and the street goes into a riot. Everybody ascends into peak Panic and Paranoia. The scene cuts to a nearby hilltop, where it is discovered that there are aliens, but they are using a device to manipulate the neighbourhood. They state how simply fiddling with consistency leads people to descend into paranoia and panic. And that this is a pattern that can be exploited. They also discuss how they will conquer earth using this strategy, one neighbourhood at a time. Closing narration: “The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices...to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill...and suspicion can destroy...and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to the Twilight Zone.”

Serling, R. (Writer) & Braham, J. (Director). (1959, December 4). Time Enough at Last. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Opening Narration: Witness Mr. Henry Bemis, a charter member in the fraternity of dreamers. A bookish little man whose passion is the printed page, but who is conspired against by a bank president and a wife and a world full of tongue-cluckers and the unrelenting hands of a clock. But in just a moment, Mr. Bemis will enter a world without bank presidents or wives or clocks or anything else. He'll have a world all to himself... without anyone. Henry is a man who only wants one thing in his life, and that is to read books. He can’t read them at home because his wife doesn’t allow him to, so he tries to read them at work. One day he sneaks into a bank vault (he works as a bank teller) to read books, then the h bomb is dropped on his vicinity. He survives but everything else doesn’t. He spends 8 hours looking for something to do but he can’t find anything, except a gun. He plans to kill himself, but as he is about to pull the trigger, he sees a sign, the public library. He checks it out and all the books he ever wanted are there, he plans to read them all, but then he fall over, his glasses fall off and now he is blind. There is nothing left for Henry. He is “part of a smashed landscape.”

Secondary Sources

Unnatural Narratives – Unnatural Narratology

Alber, J., & Heinze, R. (Eds.). (2011). Unnatural narratives - unnatural narratology. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Unnatural narratology is not unnatural in itself but rather a narratology of the unnatural. We thus ask readers to consider all such instances as so specified. Generally speaking, the term unnatural has rather negative connotations. It is, for example, used to denounce certain types of behavior (as well as sexual orientations or practices) which the speaker considers to be deviant or perverse. Plot is a detour. David Herman’s definition of narrative as “a basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process, and change”

Editor’s Corner: What Is Story Arc

Wade, A. (2016). Editor’s Corner: What is Story Arc. Dog Ear Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.dogearpublishing.net/wordpress/what-is-story-arc/

The introduction, or exposition, is the beginning of the story, in which the who, where, and when are introduced, along with the main conflict, or main issue of contention between the characters.

The rising action develops the conflict, explaining why the conflict is important and how it affects the characters.

The climax is the turning point of the story, in which the characters are forced to confront the source of the conflict.

The falling action gives the reader a break from the frenzy of the climax and shows how the characters have changed after their experiences.

The resolution is where the story ends, and though the conclusion doesn’t have to be uplifting, it does need to be satisfying to most readers.

6 Story Arcs Define Western Literature, Data-Mining Study Reveals

Scharping, N. (2016). 6 Story Arcs Define Western Literature, Data-Mining Study Reveals. Discover: Science for the Curious. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/07/06/the-6-story-arcs-that-define-western-literature/#.XQbHKogzZaR

“Rags to riches” (the story gets better over time);

“Man in a hole” (fortunes fall, but the protagonist bounces back);

“Cinderella” (there’s an initial rise in good fortunes, followed by a setback, but a happy ending)

“Tragedy” or “riches to rags” (things only get worse);

“Oedipus” (bad luck, followed by promise, ending in a final fall)

“Icarus” (opens with good fortunes, but doomed to fail)

A Writer’s Cheat Sheet to Plot and Structure

Herron, M, (n.d). A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure. Retrieved from https://thewritepractice.com/plot-structure/

Plot is the series of events that make up your story, including the order in which they occur and how they relate to each other. Structure (also known as narrative structure), is the overall design or layout of your story.

Three Act Structure: This idea goes back to ancient Greek dramatic theory, so you know it’s been time-tested. Aristotle said that every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end (in ancient Greek, the protasis, epitasis, and catastrophe), and ancient Greek plays often follow this formula strictly by having three acts.

A Disturbance and Two Doorways: The disturbance is whatever happens early on in your story that upsets the status quo. It can be a strange phone call in the middle of the night, news of the death of a close relative, or anything that is a threat or a challenge to your protagonist’s ordinary way of life.

The Living Handbook of Narratology

Meister, J C. (2013). Narratology. The Living Handbook of Narratology. Retrieved from https://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Narratology

Narratology is a humanities discipline dedicated to the study of the logic, principles, and practices of narrative representation. Dominated by structuralist approaches at its beginning, narratology has developed into a variety of theories, concepts, and analytic procedures.

The Screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in Narrative Structures

Finnegan, J. (2016). The screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in narrative structure. Journal of Screenwriting, 7(3), 319–330. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/josc.7.3.319_1

Characters have a ‘want’ and ‘need’, a common trope in screenwriting guides and manuals, to develop a protagonist’s arc throughout a story. Analyst Patrick Cattrysee revision expands on this theory to include the audience and their subconscious connection with a character. This connection can generate feelings of sympathy and empathy, which can lead to identification. It can also create feelings of fear or anxiety in the audience based on their knowledge of the character.

Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity

Ochs, E. & Taylor, C. & Rudolph, D. & Smith, R. (1992). Storytelling and Theory Construction. Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity. Retrieved from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/ochs/articles/Storytelling_as_a_Theory-building_Activity.pdf

World of Theory: Recognising and expressing different points of view adopted by story protagonists and fellow narrators (Perspective talking)

Ability to see one’s own and others’ stories as possible ‘versions’ or ‘theories’ rather than necessarily factual accounts of what has happened

Competence to weight different perspectives on a set of events, evaluating and challenging the appropriateness and validity of narrative theories (analytic/critical thinking)

Ability to rework/reframe the perspectives of both protagonists within the story narratives and co-narrators who are analysing the same story from their own vantage points. (Theory reconstruction)

storytelling is only one type of narrative activity which

families and peer groups share, and which offers the possibilities for theory building. The parallels for perspective-taking and theory-making which are afforded in planning-the future-time counterpart of storytelling in that it too represents a problem-centred narrative activity.

Principles Project - All Done!

EVERYTHING IS DONE!!!!

Here are all the videos frame corrected (25fps)

Principles Project - Walk Animations Complete

For this, one of my classmates suggested to me to use a new tool rather than redraw everything. and that was the Perspective tool. Its like a warp tool, or a resize tool but as its name suggests, you can change the perspective of a shape. This tool came in SUPER handy when coming to the Front and side walks. SO you can probably tell that the arms in the front walk are drawn in rather than moved with perspective. This was because I was told after I drew them, and I thing that for the current animation, they were passable. These walks took a long time to complete, maybe even the longest. Maybe I will not do bird legs ever again. We shall see.

Principles Project - Running

This was the last thing I had to Animate, and I am quite happy of how it turned out. Using the newly found Perspective tool. This task was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. So what I did was get the Front and side walk animations and Take out some frames, then use the perspective tool to make Rasper move a lot wider and faster. Especially for the legs. I had to redraw the arms for the front run which took some time but it looks good. The run was actually inspired by the Terminator 2 T100 Run. I think it suits my character quite a lot.

https://gfycat.com/gifs/search/t+1000

https://tenor.com/view/1000-terminator-running-gif-7424451

My Animatic, A review

Today was the day that we watched all of the Animatics on the big screen. Seeing my work on the big screen was quite cool and I got to witness an audience react to my 2 minute Animatic. I still think I did quite well concidering that I am a 1st year and this is technically my first time making something like this. I think If I were to improve the Animatic I should of drawn more poses of my character. Maybe even designed more, impressive backgrounds. I think for when I actually animate the short ill try using a blurred background if possible. There is always room to improve.

I'm proud of myself. I even think its a good choice to leave out the lines of the shopkeeper. It makes him look more like an asshole. Everybody else's animatic were awesome too, and they showed me more things I could do in Toon Boon when it comes to making stories and Storyboard.

Can't wait to animate my Animatic properly next semester!

Digital Assessment Booklet Complete

Behold, The Assessment in it's full form. The Book has been printed as of today and it look's really good. I'm proud of myself. One thing I didn't mention in prior blogs is the title page of this booklet. It is based of the photo composite I designed that I couldn't use. So I re-drew the entire thing in Photoshop. The booklet needed something to introduce itself with an eye catching manner. And I thought it needed something different than the images already inside the book. Even though they are already designed to be used to be covers, I didn't want to spoil the contents. So I used this newly drawn cover and it works! Also i'm happy with the little description on the back, It gives the Booklet a more novel like appearance.

The Book in its physical form

Entering A Strange World

Crash Landed

The Red Falcon

The Beacon

Strange Sight

Max The Astronaut

Kaleidoscopes

Alien Landscapes

Monolith Monument

Clock

Chess Piece

Retro Astronaut

3D Mudbox Design

Gesture Drawings

Animals

Bee

Sunfish

Tortoise

I'm Sorry

Re-Animator

https://www.amazon.com/Re-Animator-Poster-Jeffrey-Barbara-Crampton/dp/B000KA2BL6

WELL. Another movie bought around by Max's Movie Night. But this movie is scarred into my brain. Its one of those over the top gruesome movies, which isn't so bad. I mean I do have a moderate resilience to gore in movies. But there is some scenes which aren't for the light hearted. There was an opening scene at the start which nearly made me sick. And it wasn't even cause by the undead. It was caused by a brain surgeon. The movie goes on for a bit, with a lot of re-animating. Even a cat joins the ranks of the undead, which was actually quite funny as it VERY over the top. Jeffery Combs who plays as Herbert West, one of the protagonists, I have actually scene act before in Star Trek: Deep Space 9, he played as Weyoun. Jeffery Combs makes a good edgy/creepy character and I think his role in this film was perfect for him. However there was one scene that makes this movie enjoyable for me. And that was the undead father watches naked daughter strapped to a table by undead headless surgeon almost rape scene. Yup. That was an actual scene. Everything else was alright but that scene was just too much. Ah well. 

https://gfycat.com/cheerfulmellowbetafish

Sing Street

https://www.amazon.com/Street-Movie-Poster-Style-Unframed/dp/B01E5MIBDG

Sing Street is a wholesome movie. After weeks of going to Max's Movie Nights and watching some funny to disturbing horror flicks, this one was a surprise. Good Choice Max! Any way this film by John Carney, is about a young Irish lad, who moves to a new school. He meets a girl and tries to hook up. As the tagline states "Girl unimpressed" so what does this young lad do. He promises here to star in a music video, which is a new thing at the time (the 80's) and he starts a band of course. He meets some other aspiring students who like music and goes for the futuristic genre. Of course this lad has to fight the oppression of his Christian School and his not so friendly peers. But he prevails. The music in this isn't so bad either. the music does sound like something from the 80's. There is only on big name in this film but he is a supporting roles and that is Aiden Gillan from Game of Thrones. This was a happy film to watch, there was definitely some good chuckles in it.

https://66.media.tumblr.com/3511cb79bcfaee450480eae47e4949be/tumblr_o7hiipKrVD1v0coldo1_400.gif

Anamatic Complete

Here is the PDF Storyboard of the Animatic, I would show you the movie but I can not upload the Animatic to Blogger because the file is too big. 

Literature Review - Resources Sorting

Story Arc and Narratology of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone

Primary Sources

A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone

Presnell, D., & McGee, M. (2008). A Critical History of Television’s The Twilight Zone, 1959–1964. McFarland.

No time like the past: Hearing nostalgia in The Twilight Zone

Wissner, R. A. (2018). No time like the past: Hearing nostalgia in The Twilight Zone. Journal of Popular Television, 6(1), 59–80. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/jptv.6.1.59_1

In The Zone: The Twilight World of Rod Serling

Wolfe, P. (1997). In the Zone: the twilight world of Rod Serling. Popular Press.

Into The Twilight Zone - The Rod Serling Programme Guide

Lofficier, J. M., & Lofficier, R. (2003). Into the Twilight Zone: The Rod Serling Programme Guide. iUniverse.

The New Entrepreneurs – An Institutional History of Televisions Anthology Writers

Kraszewski, J. (2010). The new entrepreneurs: An institutional history of television anthology writers. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Spaceships and Politics – The Political Theory of Rod Serling

Feldman, L. D. (2010). Spaceships and politics: The political theory of Rod Serling. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

The Twilight Zone

Serling, R. (Producer). (1959). The Twilight Zone. [Television Series]. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Stevens, R (Director). (1959, October 30). Walking Distance. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Wilson, R. (Director). (1960, March 4). The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Serling, R. (Writer) & Braham, J. (Director). (1959, December 4). Time Enough at Last. [Television Episode] In Serling, R. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. United States, CBS Productions.

Secondary Sources

Unnatural Narratives – Unnatural Narratology

Alber, J., & Heinze, R. (Eds.). (2011). Unnatural narratives - unnatural narratology. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Editor’s Corner: What Is Story Arc

Wade, A. (2016). Editor’s Corner: What is Story Arc. Dog Ear Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.dogearpublishing.net/wordpress/what-is-story-arc/

6 Story Arcs Define Western Literature, Data-Mining Study Reveals

Scharping, N. (2016). 6 Story Arcs Define Western Literature, Data-Mining Study Reveals. Discover: Science for the Curious. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2016/07/06/the-6-story-arcs-that-define-western-literature/#.XQbHKogzZaR

A Writer’s Cheat Sheet to Plot and Structure

Herron, M, (n.d). A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure. Retrieved from https://thewritepractice.com/plot-structure/

The Living Handbook of Narratology

Meister, J C. (2013). Narratology. The Living Handbook of Narratology. Retrieved from https://wikis.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Narratology

The Screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in Narrative Structures

Finnegan, J. (2016). The screenplay and the spectator: Exploring audience identification in narrative structure. Journal of Screenwriting, 7(3), 319–330. https://ezproxy.sit.ac.nz:3087/10.1386/josc.7.3.319_1

Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity

Ochs, E. & Taylor, C. & Rudolph, D. & Smith, R. (1992). Storytelling and Theory Construction. Storytelling as a Theory-Building Activity. Retrieved from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/ochs/articles/Storytelling_as_a_Theory-building_Activity.pdf

Episode to look at:

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street

Eye Of The Beholder

Time Enough at Last

To Serve Man

The Hitch-Hiker

Walking Distance

It’s a Good Life

New Wave

This is something that we could replicate as we, the student have no budget.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049189/

God Created Women (Et Dieu... Crea La Femme) (1956) Directed by Rodger Vadim

Starring Brigitte Bardot,Jean-Louis Trintignant and Curd Jurgens

The film is  afrench Drama about a scantily clad beauty who teases her husband, his brother and a Riviera Millionaire.

The film had a budget of $300,000 and received $4,000,000 in the box office an 3,919, 059 admissions in France.

Simple Style for a simple genre.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048499/

La Pointe Courte (1955)

Starring Phillipe Noiret and Sylvia Montfort

A young man who is a local of a sea side village of La Pointe Courte is having a hard time understanding why he is bored, his wife of four years is unhappy with their marriage. The couple visit La Pointe Courte as they try to resolve their problems. The Film had a Budget of $14,000.

https://www.cinematerial.com/movies/cleo-de-5-a-7-i55852

Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)

Starring Corrine Marchand

A Selfish Pop singer Cleo has two hours to wait until the result of her biopsy to come back. After an Ominous tarot card reading, she visits her friends, all of whom fail to give her the emotional support she needs. Wandering around Paris, she finally finds peace when she finds a solider from leave in a park. His troubles put her troubles into a different perspective.

https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/movie-poster-of-the-week-francois-truffauts-the-400-blows

The 400 Blows (1959)

Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud, Clare Maurier, Albert Remy and Patrick Auffray

For a young Parisian Boy Antonie Doniel, life is one difficult situation after another, surrounded by inconsiderable adults, including his neglectful parents, Antoine spends his days with best friend Rene, trying to plan for a better life. Until it goes a bit wrong...

The movie earned $30.7 Million at the Box Office

https://posteritati.com/poster/25768/shoot-the-piano-player-1962-us-one-sheet-poster

Shoot the Piano Player (1960)

Starring Charles Aznavour, Jean-Jacques Aslanian and Albert Remy

Charlie is a former pianist who has changed his name and now plays Jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed. Charlie helps them, but at what cost...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055032/

Jules and Jim (1962)

Starring Oskar Werner, Henri Serre and Jenne Moreau

In the Carefree days before World War One, Introverted Austrian Author Jules strikes up a friendship with Frenchman Jim. Both men fall for the impulsive and beautiful Catherine.

https://www.elbe.paris/en/great-french-classics/325-breathless-godard.html

Breathless (1960)

Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg

Petty thug Micheal considers himself a suave bad guy in the manner of Humphery Bogart, but panics and impulsively kills a policeman while driving a stolen car. On the lam, he turns to his aspiring Journalist Girlfriend, Patricia for help.

The film had a budget of $80,000