Embodying Character: Psychological and Bodily Performance and the Cinematic Construction of the Character in Goal-Driven Narrative Cinema Sebastian Byrne 15974381 February, 2011 University of Western Sydney 'A creative doctorate submitted to the University of Western Sydney as partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA)'. Kung Fu Dunk (2008), Dir. Yen-Ping, C. Shanghai Film Group. Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY 'This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the creative doctorate contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the creative research itself.' i Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character ABSTRACT This exegesis looks at how the character in goal-driven narrative cinema is cinematically constructed through the unfolding of events within the plot. While screenwriting manuals often separate plot from character, by collapsing action into a focus on the character's psychology, I argue that it is the psychology of the character and the bodily performance of the actor that motivate plot development. A closer analysis of how the character operates within the plot could be of particular relevance to film criticism when discussing the spectacle sequences contained in sports and action films, in which the body of the actor is more heavily foregrounded than in conventional narrative scenes. Through an analytical case study of the sports film Wimbledon, the exegesis demonstrates how the film privileges a focus on the psychology of the main protagonist, and the narrative, at the expense of a closer investigation into the ways in which their body operates within the tennis sequences. Furthermore, this bodily incongruity can be traced back to the film's production methods, in which there is a disjunction between the tennis training of the actor and their cinematic construction. I look to address this disjunction through a short rehearsal video which represents an alternative form of scripting, known as scripting with the body, and serves as an accompaniment to the creative component of this Doctorate of Creative Arts, which is a written screenplay, entitled Game, Set and Murder, in the genre of the psychological sports romance. The video carefully choreographs the movements of the actor as tennis player, training them to move in accordance with the camera. As a result of this previsualisation method, the actor's bodily technique is foregrounded, culminating in the cinematic construction of the heightened sports performance and the delineation of the corporeal, tactile and sensory nature of the character. On another level, scripting with the body provides the screenwriter with a more dynamic role in the filmmaking process, facilitating a more corporeal collaboration between screenwriter, actor, cinematographer and director that could ultimately translate into an embodied, multisensory viewing experience. ii Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A special thank you to my supervisors David Rowe and Anne Rutherford. Thank you David for all your supervision throughout the three years, especially in the area of sport. Your experience and critical feedback has helped me immensely with academic writing. Thank you Anne for your advice and guidance throughout the period of candidature. Your detailed understanding of embodied spectatorship was of great benefit when exploring the role of bodies in the sports film. Your editorial comments also encouraged me to improve my standard of academic thinking and writing in subsequent drafts. Thank you Jack Feldstein for your assistance on a regular weekly basis in the development of the screenplay. Through your mentoring I was able to gain valuable insight into how to establish a sound method for researching characters and writing a screenplay. Onwards and upwards ... Thanks CCR/ICS for fostering an engaging postgrad environment and for lending me equipment. Thanks Shane for your keen interest in my research project. Thanks for your advice on the early drafts of the screenplay, and for your creative input in the rehearsal video and my other film projects. Thanks JP. Only you could move like Rafa! Thanks also to Alex and Bruno for your efforts in the rehearsal video. Thank you to family and friends for your continual support. Finally, a special thank you to filmmaker Michael Bay. Although Bay will most likely never read the creative doctorate, his spectacle-driven Hollywood blockbusters inspired me to coin the term Spectacle Bayby (the name of my future production company?), which refers to a more modest mode of low-budget filmmaking that nevertheless specialises in spectacle. Its ot a Bay spectacle, it's a Bayby spectacle. iii Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Originality ................................................................................................................... i Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ iv Document One: Exegesis ................................................................................................................ iv List of Illustrations ......................................................................................................................... viii Document Two: Original Creative Work .......................................................................................... x DOCUMENT ONE: EXEGESIS Chapter One: Thinking about Performance through Bodily Action, Interaction and Movement ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 Bodily Movement and Plot Development over Bodily Display and Stasis ...................................... 4 Creative Doctorate Outline ............................................................................................................. 8 Chapter Two: Character Psychology, Bodily Performance and the Cinematic Construction of Character ...................................................................................................................................... 13 The Construction of Character in Goal-Driven Cinema ................................................................ 15 iv Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character Privileging Character Psychology and Subtext over the Construction of Character Through Events in the Plot .......................................................................................................................... 18 Character Psychology Motivates the Unfolding of Events within the Plot .................................. 26 Psychological Character Causality and Narrative Linearity Versus Apsychological, Nonnarrative Spectacle ....................................................................................................................................... 36 The Relationship between Narrative, Spectacle and the Viewer ................................................. 41 Obstacles, Action and Bodily Movement in Spectacle: King Kong ............................................... 46 Conclusion: Thinking More about the Cinematic Construction of Character .............................. 53 Chapter Three: Actors Who Can't Play in the Sports Film: Exploring the Cinematic Construction of Sports Performance .......................................................................................... 56 Defining the Sports Film ................................................................................................................ 60 Realism Versus Spectacle in the Cinematic Construction of Sports Performance: Actors Who Can't Play, Players Who Can't Act ................................................................................................. 63 Privileging a Focus on the Interiority of the Character and the Plot over Bodily Performance through Action in the Plot............................................................................................................. 69 Continuity of the Character's Interiority, Narrative Comprehension and Bodily Incongruity in Wimbledon .................................................................................................................................... 77 v Sebastian Byrne15974381 Embodying Character Hong Kong Action Cinema and the 'Body as Spectacle' ............................................................... 90 Rethinking Psychological and Bodily Character: Towards a 'Movement-Narrative' .................... 94 The Actor's Physical Sports Performance, Cinematic Techniques and the Development of a Heightened Sports Character ........................................................................................................ 98 Heightened Realism in Contemporary Cinema .......................................................................... 107 Disney Pixar's The Incredibles and the Foregrounding of the Body and Form ........................... 109 Rethinking the Relationship between the Actor and the Formal Elements in