230089 Hollywood’s Magic Formulas – and What They Teach Us about Story (S) (SoSe 2014)

As one of the largest commercial producers of stories in the world,
Hollywood supports an industry of screenwriters and story consultants,
which is a market for magic formulas of how to create successful
stories. Some of those formulas are derived from traditional three act
structure models, others focus on characters as a means to drive
audience emotions – all of them make strong claims as to their own efficacy.

In this course we will look at some of the most prolific
screenwriting/story theories and their claims, analyze what they teach
us about stories and try to connect them to academic narratology. We
will start with plot point models (e.g. Field) and the Hero’s Journey
(Campbell, Vogler) and will proceed to theories like Dramatica
(Phillips, Huntley) and the Emotional Toolbox (Hutzler).

With each of the approaches we will focus on two main questions: What
does it tell us about what stories are and why we like them? Where is
the ‘magic’, i.e. the arcane core of the formula that vindicates its claim?

The seminar is conducted in English.

PLEASE NOTE:
The class will be conducted as a student's seminar by Tyll Zybura and
Katharina Pietsch and will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Ralf Schneider.

Information about the Studienleistungen you can do in this class, as
well as a preliminary course schedule, are provided by the email
attachment in the Dokumentenablage.

We will use the following six movies as reference points for the
theories that are discussed in class. Please watch at least four of
these six movies during the term break (watch all six if you can):

Black Swan (2010)
Winter’s Bone (2010)
The Matrix (1999)
Toy Story (1995)
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
The Godfather (1972)