by FilmInk Staff
Utilising examples such as Barbie, Dune and The Grand Budapest Hotel, among many others, Fisher’s book comes endorsed by the likes of Phillip Noyce and Wayne Blair.
Here are two excerpts from the book, specifically the first parts of Chapter 1 and 2.
CHAPTER 1
What’s the Big Secret?
If you’ve picked up this book, it’s most likely that you have an interest in movies over and above the typical audience member. You may be a film aficionado or a creative practice researcher, but most likely you are a screenwriter, producer, or director looking to improve your work, on a constant search for any and all insights that will result in great cinematic storytelling.
If that’s the case, then the good news is that this is the book for you.
More accurately this is one of the books for you, as there are many excellent titles that will deepen your understanding of the filmmaking process. However, what is unique about this book is that as much as it will be used (and rightfully so) as a “how-to” book, at its heart it is really a “why we” book.
It has become very fashionable in business circles to ask the why of a company, then build out the how and then finally the what (product) that is actually sold to the customer. However, despite some books taking this approach to story more generally, this has never been done before specifically for feature films. Yet how can we really gain insight into our practice and improve it if we haven’t really explored or understood why we make films in the first place?
As you’ve already read the title of this book and picked it up (and are either scanning the introduction to try before you buy or carefully reading it after purchasing), there’s no spoilers if we jump to the conclusion and work our way back from there.
Why Do We Make Feature Films?
To move the audience to a worthwhile conclusion in a worthwhile way. A bold idea, to be sure. So to directly answer the title of the chapter, the big secret is that the single defining characteristic of the practice of making feature films is for filmmakers to make meaningful arguments with integrity. This is what it means to excel at the practice. If a film fails to do this, then the filmmaker has failed to a greater or lesser degree, even if critical acclaim or gross profits suggest otherwise.
If we take this to be true, it inspires a second, equally controversial statement: most filmmakers are unaware of the true nature of their practice.
If you were being uncharitable, you may feel that this explains a lot, but as our central film-as-worthwhile-argument idea does not represent current dominant industry thinking, it is an inevitable result. Yet, as with most things, it’s not quite as simple as that. As we’ll see, conventional cinematic storytelling wisdom has talked around film as argument (in a general sense) for decades, almost but not quite committing to the concept, creating an elephant in the screening room, if you will.
But we’re not talking about film as argument in a general sense. The current practice of feature filmmaking is to move us to a very specific kind of conclusion in a very specific way.
Is it possible to be this simplistic? How can it be that all mainstream feature films can fit neatly into one sweeping statement? They’re both fair questions. This book lays out the case for film-as-worthwhile-argument, a deep dive into how filmmakers are trained and taught to think about their practice, and what traditions they are following. We’ll look at a substantial number of films and some major case studies to explore how and what films argue, and why knowing this can unlock both a greater appreciation of the form and improve the impact your films make.
I’d like to say that this understanding of feature filmmaking practice was not simply pulled from thin air, yet there certainly was an epiphany moment, even if it was inspiration borne from a lifetime working, studying, and teaching in the industry. However, the conceptualization has since been interrogated and refined through substantial research drawn from various bodies of knowledge: film philosophy, industry best practice, core notions of morality and virtue, and inevitably the great Aristotle himself (more than just the usual Poetics, but we’ll return to that later).
Industry responses to film-as-worthwhile-argument fell into three main camps: most were excited by the idea, some believed it so self-evident to the point of banality, others were horrified and believed it blasphemy. What is clear is that no other book is talking about films in this way, which, to reference the business world again, gives you first-mover advantage.
Most practical filmmaking manuals necessarily tend to concentrate on technique and their nuances, so as controversial as film-as-worthwhile-argument might be, this book should complement those others on your shelf: it’s designed to play very well with others.
CHAPTER 2
The Other Half of the Story
A Brief History of Film as Argument
There is a central visual metaphor for this book, and it’s the medallion from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Spielberg 1981). The medallion is actually the headpiece of the Staff of Ra, which when positioned in the right place at the right time will reveal the buried location of the Ark of the Covenant. The headpiece itself details how high the staff should be, but to avoid a casual, undeserving observer stealing its secrets, both of its sides need to be read. One side gives what appears to be the correct height, but the other reveals what length then must be deducted to achieve the true measure. Only then will we know where to dig.
The first side of the headpiece is Aristotle’s Poetics. Most books on drama and storytelling will at some point reference what is indisputably considered the mother text of Western drama, relevant to any and all forms and platforms, even if the precise meaning of much of the terminology continues to be hotly debated. In many cases, especially when it comes to the screenplay, it is often imperfectly quoted, understood, and applied. But that is not our concern here. Even if what is available to read today is incomplete, it still offers great insight and rightly informs inquiries into the fundamentals of storytelling. It is not that this work is overutilized or misused but that when it comes to feature film there is another of Aristotle’s works equally relevant that when used together with Poetics offers far deeper understanding of the process.
If you’re familiar with Aristotle’s writings, you’ll have guessed that the other work is Rhetoric, his exploration of persuasion that lays out the fundamentals of effective argument. Our second side of the headpiece. It’s this combination of Poetics and Rhetoric that gives us full insight into mainstream feature filmmaking. To complete the metaphor, to use only one or the other would mean we’re digging in the wrong place.
Film as Argument: The Secret to Feature Film Storytelling is available now from all good booksellers
