Lesson Plan 5.2.2010

COURSE OUTLINE – day five - SEQUENTIAL ART
Facilitators: Avy, Raghu, Ramanna
LESSON PLAN FIVE
5.2.2010
9.30 am -10.30 am – Discuss Alan Moore “Writing for comics”
10.30--11.00 am – Discussion on loglines.
A logline is supposed to be short and sweet. A quick glimpse of what the script is about. NO DETAILS.
Here are a few sample log lines from well-known features:
Independence Day - Aliens try to invade earth on Independence Day.
Liar, Liar - An attorney, because of a birthday wish, can't tell any lies for 24 hours.
Dead Calm - A married couple, trying to recover from the death of their only child, are terrorized at sea by a handsome maniac.
The Hunt for Red October - A Soviet submarine captain uses Russia's ultimate underwater weapon as a means to defect to the west.
The Last Boy Scout - A private detective must team up with an ex-football star to catch the killer of a topless dancer.
Write 10 - 12 loglines and read them to everyone you know (friends, family, strangers on the street). Choose the one that makes most people want to see the movie.
http://www.jonathancrossfield.com/blog/2008/03/logline-therapy-how-to-make-yo.html
http://www.gointothestory.com/2009/06/story-behind-script-coverage.html
11.00-11.15 am Break
11.15-12.15 – Basics of Narrative – introduction/establishing the setting and character, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution/denoument and how this process works through the 3-act model
12.15-12.45 pm – Compare Script and Comic Pages – Daredevil #28 (Silent Issue)
Student task: Annotate the issue of the comic with your observations pertaining to the translation of the written script to the visual.
12.45-1.30 pm – Lunch
1.30 pm-3.00 pm – Demonstrating Rising Action/Climax
(a) The last segment of The Last of the Mohicans
(b) First segment of Tickets
(c) PowerPoint presentation on types of narrative structures, combined with Alan Moore’s “models”
Two different types of Narratives
Episodic narratives that follow the three act model.
Students must try to read narratives and understand the structure
Homework:
1. Mind-map your story if you like, do a free-writing exercise for 15 minutes honestly. Then try to flesh out a story fast in 30 minutes.
2. Come up with a short story which is visual in nature of not more than 1000 words. This is the story that you will turn into your final project. If you can do this in script format, you will be ahead of the pack.
3. Delineate the central characters visually for your story in their context/settings.