differences in cultural storytelling

August 10, 2006

Chris has posted the storyform for the most recent Dramatica User Group Meeting Analysis - Amelie. I’m sure the audio will be soon to follow.

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As is often the case when analyzing foreign films, there was great difficulty in narrowing down the throughlines, and in particular, their Concerns. One reason offered for this confusion had to do with cultural differences between American storytelling and French storytelling - they perhaps do not find it as important to focus on the individual Concerns of throughlines, instead preferring to hit upon them, almost subliminally and more accurately, holistically.

I found it interesting that we ended up placing it in the “Huh?!” throughline I’ve written about before. In that post, I suggested that the majority of American storytelling lies within the upper right quad and lower left quad - dealing mainly with Obtaining and Doing and Being and Drives and the Future, etc. - all American Western-type stuff.

Chris had an interesting explanation about this. If you look at the Character Build quads, you’ll notice the items are (in clockwise order) - Purposes, Evaluations, Methodoligies, and Motivations. Now, applying these to the Concern level, it appears that American storytelling focuses on Evaluations and Motivations.

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Stories are written to address problems, or irritants, in the writer’s personal life and the culture around him. The writer is often “working things out” when writing a story and therefore would spend most of his time focusing on the things that caused him the most grief.

Western culture does not have a problem with our Purposes or how we go about doing things (Methodologies), but we are concerned with our and other’s motivations and how we evaluate our progress along the way.

What was interesting to me was that these also line up with the Male Mental Sex blind spot - known as Desire-Ability. The upper right quad and the lower left quad are blended in the Male mind. Perhaps the overriding Male influence on American Western culture can account for our interest in Evaluation and Motivation stories.

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Amelie, on the other hand, is concerned with Thoughts, and the Present, and Coming up with Ideas, and Learning. While only one film is not enough to label French thought as focusing on this one area of concern, most independent “arthouse” films tend to veer towards this area.

One would then think that French films are based on a Female Mental Mindset, but this does not seem to be the case. Female Mental Sex blindness has to do with a term known as “Knowledgability.” The top two quads are blended in the Female mind. Amelie, and other independent films, are in the bottom right.

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While I’m not quite certain right now, how this can help your own screenwriting, it is an interesting observation and proof that the theory of Dramatica is much more than just selling a screenplay.