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Make Your Movies More Dramatic
Is drama necessary for my movie or video? You bet. It doesn’t have be a big movie drama, but you still cannot avoid extensive thoughts about how to “arrange” different chapters or different aspects of your production in order to be interesting to your audience. You don’t want your viewers to fall asleep after the first five minutes of the presentation.
In order to make your video “interesting”, you must follow some appropriate dramatic rules. These rules are as old as our ancient history. Greek philosopher Aristotle established what we nowadays call the “Aristotelian drama”.
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Aristotelian Drama
At that time, Aristotle considered drama a “subsection of poetry”. He perfectly analyzes actions, characters, speeches and plots of each story. He was the first one who gave us examples of “good plots” and their reactions in the audience. His only reason: Keeping his audience “awake”. Among Aristotle’s best-known key concepts of a drama are “anagnorsis” and “katharsis” most theater directors happily use.
Some contemporary directors consider Aristotle outdated, but many of his ideas have been thoroughly applied to theater, movies and television. Dramaturgy classes at acting schools still depend heavily on Aristotle’s basic dramaturgy concepts.
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Shakespearian Drama
The classical notion of dramaturgy came vividly alive during the Elizabethan England. “Shakespearian dramaturgy” became extremely popular during the neo-classicism period, but was not generally recognize for many years to come.
Although Shakespeare mainly stayed within the classical boundaries of a tragic story form, he broke many rules. He introduced a number of innovations he considered important in order to be accepted by the Elizabethan society.
Shakespeare staged his plays on three levels:
- Broad and vulgar level to appeal to broad masses
- Plots of twists and turns to interest bourgeois audiences
- Political and moral elements for his “noble” viewership
England’s complex Shakespearean dramaturgy of the Elizabethan time stood in a deep contrast to the continental treatment of dramaturgy. For many years, European screenwriters and theater directors didn’t have any major desire to copy the “stiff” Shakespearean dramaturgy.
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Using Drama Tricks
Shakespeare perfectly understood how to emotionally engage his audiences. He didn’t hesitate to use the following dramaturgical elements in order to create his stories even more dramatic:
- Murder
- Sex
- Duels
- Suicides
- Wrestling
- Witches
- Ghosts
- Clowns
- Music
- Romance
- Costumes
- Parades
- Thunder
- Mystery
Interestingly enough, many elements of his dramaturgical work are found today in most entertainment areas. Virtually all-successful movies use Shakespearean drama forms in some way or shape in order to attract large audiences. Many popular Hollywood productions incorporate these old drama principles every day.
No Single Track Stories
Creators of non-fiction programs are often hesitant to overstate the importance of dramaturgy. They consider it a “knowledge of nature, effect and form law of drama”, a tool for poets, screenwriter theater and movie directors. They sometimes forget that even simple news stories crave for some dramaturgical considerations. It is not meaningless with which aspect do you start and how do you develop and end your story!
Writers, producers and directors must never forget that single-track stories or chapters never attract audiences far beyond the first five or eight minutes. Only drama elements are able to produce the necessary peaks the viewers need to keep their attention to the story.
Dramaturgical Elements
Conflicts between people and ideas are perfect dramaturgical elements every writer or director should use. The following basic human touch feelings are important and enhance the drama of your production:
- Success
- Defeat
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Love
- Hatred
Fight Creates Excitement
A very characteristic element of a drama is the fight. Virtually all drama movies portray their main actor fighting his enemies. However, sometimes are not just people fighting each other – but conflicting ideas, views and ideologies. Example: A democratically elected free market society fights against totalitarian dictatorship regimes such as communism.
Dramaturgy must produce “excitement” in order to attract viewership’s attention as much as possible. Excitement is a generic term for a series of measures with only one purpose – producing emotional reactions of the viewers. The following elements of the story can do the trick:
- Contrasts and paradoxes
- Limited story line knowledge of the actors
- Surprises
- Curiosities
- Postponement of a solution
- Specific excitement
- Humor
