story telling...script

I am now at the point where my story ...for my project...is really taking shape. It is not going to be a story as in 'fairytale' or 'mystery' but perhaps now taking on more of a documentary feel. Some time back we had sessions with Mark Grindle , a scriptwriter, about script writing for film. He showed us a number of films he had written...and spent quite some time with us analysing what makes a good story.....plot...characters...do you want to see what happens...what is the disturbance...who is the protagonist..what is the question being dealt with. Somw of these questions were quite hard to answer in the first session..but we looked at a lot of examples and you kin dof get the feeling soon enough for what works and what does not. Mark listened to the group go through our ideas nad was encouraging..helping us all to ask ourselves.....will it work? are you trying to do too much here? Is it exciting>
Our second session with Mark was also great. He listened to our forming ideas...we each had to outluine our scripts...and again helped us to question our own practice. I am hoping I might have another chance to meet up with him next year when my film is a bit further on.
I feel I can already tell a good yarn...a lot of the work I do with children in dance involves telling stories through dance. I have come to get a sense of which stories are popular. In the end all the elements must be there for it to work well. I guess even as a documentary the story must be a good one.
since Mark's session I have looked at films in a new way...trying to decide why it is a good story or not...refining my likes and dislikes too. Simplicity is a good thing..I have always felt this...but I feel I try to pack too much in when I think of what I will approach in my work about McLaren.

Like him, I find it hard not to let my mind wander through all the possibilities....so many problems to solve!!