9.30-11.00  

1. Key elements of three act structure used in parallel narrative. Turning points, circle structure, action and relationship lines.  Traditional suspense techniques. The notion of one protagonist, many antagonists.  Mentor antagonists and narrative ‘point of view’.  

2. Categories of Parallel Narrative. How Pulp Fiction works. New Paradigms and a new mindset. Pace, connection, meaning, closure.  Crime, violence, detective story.  

3. Tandem Narrative:  Theme and the macro plot.  Connections:  facilitating characters; the macro; geography; interconnecting stories.  Truncation.  Problems of improvisation with actors. Troubleshooting Tandem Narrative

Films discussed include:
Rain Man, The Elephant Man, Thelma and Louise, Tootsie, Nashville, Lantana, City of Hope, Magnolia, Traffic, Short Cuts, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Winged Creatures, Daybreak, Syriana

11.30–1.00 Multiple protagonist Narrative (Group stories) and Double Journeys Narrative

The Survival Macro and death.  Dominant character, outsider, traitor within.  Multiple protagonists, multiple antagonists.  Limits on numbers.  Other archetypes.   Connections through past and present.  Backstory problems.  Connections through plot stranding. Relationship line conflicts.   Missions (including ‘one last job’,‘let’s put on a show’ ‘the Cinderella sports team’), sieges, reunions.   Multiple plot triangles.   When a story involving a group is not a multiple protag/antag structure.  Story telling problems.  When is it Multiple Protagonist, when Tandem? Trouble shooting Multiple Protagonist

Film discussed include:
Tea with Mussolini, American Beauty, The Big Chill, Saving Private Ryan, The Full Monty, Chicken Run, Ice Storm, Thin Red Line, Galaxy Quest, Ordinary People, Time Code, Iris, Fried Green Tomatoes, Bootmen.  

Double Journeys
Films discussed include:
Brokeback Mountain, Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona, The Departed, The Lemon Tree

2.00 – 3.30 Flashback Narrative Part 1

1. The Six Families of Flashback.  Material that suits flashback.  ‘Detective story of the human heart’.  Points of view.

2. Simple Flashback forms: Flashback as illustration. Bookends,  Regret Flashback, (Fractured) Preview Flashback, Centre Split, Life-changing Incident (incremental flashback)  

3. Double Narrative Flashback (Thwarted dream, Case History, Autobiographical), Multiple protagonists, multiple antagonists. How to structure it. Concentric Circles Triggering Crisis,  how and when to jump between past and present stories. Enigmatic Outsider, investigator characters.  Inventing multiple protagonists. Trouble shooting flashback narrative

Films discussed include
Shine, Remains of the Day, The English Patient, Citizen Kane, Amadeus, Milk, The Usual Suspects, The Sweet Hereafter, Catch 22, The End of the Affair, Beat, All About Eve, Twelve Monkeys, Memento, Goodfellas, Fight Club, Annie Hall, The Green Mile, Titanic

4.00-5.00  Flashback Narrative Part 2 - Hybrids, Consolidation, Questions

Films discussed include
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Constant Gardener, Inception

9.30-11.00  
Consolidation/ Review of Principles OR Flashback Continued
Consecutive Stories Part 1 (Sequential Narrative)
Connection and building jeopardy without chronological progression.  Connections through time, underclass. Introduction to Portmanteau Structure, frames.

Films discussed include:
Pulp Fiction, Run Lola Run,  Amores Perros, The Circle (Iran) City of God,  Go, the Nines, Buttoners, Rashamon. The Edge of Heaven

11.30–1.00 Consecutive Stories Part 2
Portmanteau Structure continued. Trouble shooting Consecutive Stories forms

Films discussed include:
Joy Luck Club, The Butterfly Effect, Atonement

2.00 – 3.30 Fractured Tandem  Using it for

a) exposition-heavy films

b) For films with a truncated second act

c) add jeopardy to predictable films. Trouble shooting Fractured Tandem films

Films discussed include:

21 Grams, The Hours, Crash, Babel, Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Bad Education

4.00-5.00 Consolidation, Questions