Angles in Fiction (P1.6)

‘Angle’ isn’t a term so often used when talking about fiction scripts. However, it’s still relevant. It might also be called a script’s ‘take’ on something, its perspective, its message, its attitude, its approach.

Robert McKee makes the point in his well-known film-writing book Story that character development is story.

Any worthwhile story is the story of how a character (or several characters) develops.

What does Scrooge actually want at the start of the story?

• Money
• To be left alone
• To keep people and emotions at a distance

What does he actually get at the end?

• He gets his emotional involvement in other people back.
• As a result, he no longer cares about gaining money – its now only useful for building relationships and connecting with people.

What does Scrooge do?

• He turns charity workers away.
• He is mean-spirited towards Bob Cratchit.
• He has chances to behave differently – but rejects them.
• At the end, he behaves differently, giving gifts, helping others.

Why do the ghosts visit Scrooge?

• BECAUSE of his behaviour!
• HE is the cause of his own problems. The ghosts reveal that, if he doesn’t change himself, he – and others – will die, miserably.

At the start of a story, a character is typically defined by what they want. Scrooge wants money, isolation.

Their characterisation is dominated by a façade – a set of behaviours suited to achieving what they think they want in life. Scrooge acts as though he doesn’t want or need anyone else. This façade actually triggers the conflict and action of the story. These behaviours will not in fact help them, but threaten to destroy them. Scrooge’s façade threaten a grim death and cues the ghosts.

The character’s true lack, flaw or need. Scrooge does need other people, after all. As the story progresses, the character’s need overtakes their want and the qualities required to accomplish it begin to develop and take hold. Scrooge begins to remember past friendships and love, and to feel empathy and responsibility. By the midpoint of the story, the two sets of character traits are often roughly in balance; often, the character briefly rejects the need, attempting to return to the want. Scrooge rejects Marley and two other ghosts In a story with a happy ending, these qualities will overtake the façade and the character will learn how to make use of them, achieving what they truly need. Scrooge learns how to be caring and charitable.

So,  one element of a fiction script’s ‘angle’ is character development. What a character is motivated by at first, what they set out to do, what they achieve and how they are changed by it form the core of the narrative and the overall, main statement that the script makes.

A good horror example: The Babadook.

• Protagonist learns to face and deal with her grief (which seems to be symbolised by the terrifying Mr Babadook).
• We could roughly define themes, values and messages in the following ways:

• Themes – the big ideas that a story grapples with, that run like threads through the story, relating to the core narrative.
• Values – Core human values such as ‘love’ or ‘courage’ – qualities and ideas that we hold to be important elements of human nature.
• Messages – What the film’s narrative seems to say, through its handling of its themes and values.

Consider these re-written variations of Cinderella. What themes or values and what messages do these have?

Cinderella goes to the ball, hates the prince and becomes a revolutionary against the crown.

In trying to get to the ball, she falls in love with a dress-maker instead and marries him.

She realises her stepsisters are desperately unhappy and, by helping them to go to the ball, wins their love and is rewarded by being taken along to the ball with them.

A film’s apparent message is often expressed through the opposition different themes or values.

For instance:

• Love vs Hate
• Courage vs Cowardice
• Loyalty vs Betrayal
• Truth vs Lies
• The climax and resolution of the narrative will see one value triumphant over the other, resulting in a kind of message, such as:
• ‘Love always conquers hatred in the end.’
• It might not be a positive message!
• ‘Lies can corrupt even the most honest person.’

Robert McKee says that a good story must push its core values to the furthest possible point – to what he calls ‘the negation of the negation.’

A good horror example: It Follows.

• Protagonist finds herself (slowly!) pursued by face-changing demon that is passed on to her after she has sex.
• She can only run from it – or pass it on to someone else…
• Can easily be interpreted as a metaphor about risks of unprotected sex. The main character’s choices and their results will affect what the film seems to say about taking responsibility.

Representation is everything to do with the way a media text (re)presents the world.

Often, we look at how groups of people are represented in a script – for instance, the attitudes presented to:

• Age groups
• Ethnic groups
• Genders
• Sexualities
• Regional identity
• Ability and disability

We can begin by thinking about stereotypes and countertypes used by the text.

We can consider how we, the audience, are ‘positioned’ by the text – what attitudes the text seems to expect us, its audience, to hold.

A good horror example: Dawn of the Dead.

• The representation of the zombies makes them a comment on consumerist culture, as they wander mindlessly around a shopping mall that they no longer have any use for. They become a representation of the general population of capitalist America, numbed and stupefied by consumerism.
• There are LOTS of interesting examples of representation in horror films!

A good horror example: The Blair Witch Project.

• The film that popularised the ‘found footage’ style and more-or-less created that subgenre of horror.
• Use of hand-held cameras to create the perspective of the main characters as they apparently experienced the events helps to make the horror feel more real, and to place the audience directly inside it, seeing (and hearing) what the characters see (and hear) – and, perhaps more importantly, not seeing what they don’t see.