By Nir Shelter 

At this point the audience wants him to struggle in an attempt to become a better person as they have a heightened level of empathy for him. They want him to take the next action in order to experience this with him on the roller coaster of emotions that is his story. But the next action is not going to necessarily be a physical one.

The working elements of Unity of Action.

As actions are not always physical, a character can take an action through dialogue; by saying the right thing to the right person they could have moved the plot forward. Therefore actions in the shape of dialogue, internal growth or a mere glance are the fundamental building blocks of a story. A unity is not necessarily a series of actions taken by the same character or group of characters, nor does it have to be a series of actions taken in the same place or time. Rather unity of action is a series of actions that inform a perceived achievement or goal.

actions in the shape of dialogue,
internal growth or a mere glance
are the fundamental building blocks of a story

As the achievement of a goal is a plot’s function, unity of action holds the substance of interest in a story. It works by giving the audience a platform upon which to willingly experience the characters’ emotions, in order to prove correct the supposition made by the premise or ‘controlling idea’.

Once a protagonist is engaged in the constant pursuit of a goal he or she is imbued in the audience’s mind with the qualities of living beings, helping the development of empathy. Combined with the need to feel what the protagonist experiences, the audience is now unaware of the intellectual process involved with memorizing and understanding the plot. In order to retain this effect, everything the protagonist does must be a motivated part of the unified action of a plot.

everything the protagonist does must be
a motivated part of the unified action of a plot.

In addition to motivation, necessity is a vital part of a unity of action a lack thereof bares the question; why did the character do that? This forces the audience to come up with an answer them selves. If the audience consciously memorise and analyse the events of a story they are no longer engaged in the story rather the act of perceiving it. Calling to the audience’s attention the very fact they are not performing this subconsciously and therefore not suspending their disbelief.
 

Final Words

Story happens in one place and one place alone, not the screen, not between the actors, not in the camera, stage or page but in the audience. Unity of action maintains a need to know and feel, therefore helps pass over inconsistencies in logic facilitating the experience of the story for the audience.

The storyteller should aim to indulge this constant need to know by creating a rollercoaster of emotions to move the audience. As a result the greatest goal a writer can have is combining thought and feelings into the one experience.

-Nir Shelter

Storytelling is a way for us to shrink the world down into a manageable size. Allowing us to reflect upon and understand what it is we do and in turn derive meaning from our lives.

My work in film, TV and theatre gives me the opportunity to see first hand, what works and what doesn’t and I hope to share these observations with as many people as possible, for the sake of story.

Director’s show-reel and bio:
www.shelter.net.au

photo credit: JD Hancock

Nir Shelter

Nir Shelter is a writer/director whose work has featured at film, theater and writing festivals around the world. His projects have accumulated over 70 selections, nominations and awards, placing in some of the highest ranking industry festivals and contests: Final Draft’s Big Break, The Page Awards, The Nashville Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Shore Scripts, LA Web Fest, KWeb Fest and more.

For one reason or another a director may decide it prudent to break the flow of a story and change the pace.

By Nir Shelter

Breaking a Unity of Action

The writer must provide a consistent flow of action for the director to make such a decision. Breaking unity of action is risky, leaving the onus of such decision to other people.

A good example of this is Butch getting the wristwatch in ‘Pulp Fiction’. In the scene, Butch returns to his apartment, despite the looming danger of an armed gangster, to retrieve the wristwatch. Once successful, there is no reason for him to be there. He could easily make a discrete escape on the way to his next goal, disappearing into safety with Fabien.

Breaking unity of action is risky,
leaving the onus of such decision to other people.

But he feels good about himself and chooses to go to the kitchen and prepare a snack. In the process he discovers the gun intended for his own murder. He picks it up and kills his would be assassin. The reason this scene works despite the obvious break in the unity of action is because the break was brief and purposeful.

In most other genres it is a hard task to break a unity of action successfully for an extended period of time. As noted in ‘Pulp Fiction’ this was pulled of well BY THE DIRECTOR. But in most stories the potential for this can be strategically placed by the writer at a specific point in the story; end of act 2 – what Blake Snyder calls “The Dark Night of the Soul”. Here the hero must face his faults, change, and learn a lesson. Only then will he have gained the motivation and knowledge to save the day. BUT, just in the moments that lay between him sinking into the pit of despair and pulling out gold, the unity of action of the outer journey is allowed to break.

In most other genres it is a hard task
to break a unity of action successfully
for an extended period of time.

When this split of awareness occurs the unity of action to achieve the conscious goal can be broken because until the observing part of the hero doesn’t act, the action will remain stopped. A good example is in ‘Die Hard’ at the end of act 2 following Hans’s instructions to “Shoot de glass”. Our cowboy – alone, injured and facing his potential death – laments over the radio with his Buddy Al, who in turn admits to killing an innocent child himself. This has nothing to do with the action of achieving his next goal (stopping de bad guyz), but is allowed because we feel with him as he experiences pain, grief, learns a lesson, and changes through his mentor in the story.

The temporary and brief break in the unity of action
of the conscious goal makes way for the journey
to achieve the unconscious object of desire.

The temporary and brief break in the unity of action of the conscious goal makes way for the journey to achieve the unconscious object of desire. In effect, the inner journey for the unconscious goal has been accompanying the outer one all along. Unity of action is actually maintained through the plot to achieve the hero’s unconscious goal and therefore never broken entirely such as in the ‘Pulp Fiction’pop tart scene.

-Nir Shelter

Storytelling is a way for us to shrink the world down into a manageable size. Allowing us to reflect upon and understand what it is we do and in turn derive meaning from our lives.

My work in film, TV and theatre gives me the opportunity to see first hand, what works and what doesn’t and I hope to share these observations with as many people as possible, for the sake of story.

Director’s show-reel and bio:
www.shelter.net.au

photo credit: JD Hancock

Nir Shelter

Nir Shelter is a writer/director whose work has featured at film, theater and writing festivals around the world. His projects have accumulated over 70 selections, nominations and awards, placing in some of the highest ranking industry festivals and contests: Final Draft’s Big Break, The Page Awards, The Nashville Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Shore Scripts, LA Web Fest, KWeb Fest and more.

By Nir Shelter

What Unity of Action Is and How It Works

My definition of ‘Unity of Action’ is: motivating necessities of means to a specific end. More importantly is what effect this has on an audience. Maintaining a unity of action will make a reader want to turn the page. For this a writer needs to create and order a succession of events that lead to a goal. The approach or goal may change but the succession must remain. A unity of action defines the progression through a plot.

When a script fails to illustrate this unity the resulting film becomes a series of loosely, if at all, connected events. Unity of action works by giving the audience a platform upon which to willingly experience the emotions of a story. If done correctly, the audience will follow the story in a seemingly effortless manner whilst unaware of its suspension of disbelief.

A unity of action defines the progression through a plot.

Once an audience is “in” a story, they will not be given the opportunity to reflect on the events as they happen because the unity of action forces or “motivates” them to direct their attention towards the next necessary action, and the next, and the next, etc… Therefore unity of action becomes a powerful tool used to distract from lapses in logic and plot holes.

For example, when Luke and Leia are faced with an abyss separated from armed imperial troopers by a blast door in ‘A New Hope’, our hero devises a plan to save their lives by slinging a grappling hook over a hanging pipe and swinging to safety on the other side. As the blast door separating them from the soldiers creeps open they manage to hook the wire, tie themselves together, slap one on the cheek “for luck”, and swing to safety.

Why did the imperial troopers not think of shooting our hero’s ankles when the door was slightly raised and their legs clearly visible? Why did we never see Luke load his utility belt with a super strength wire? Or ever see him use it again? How could he have carried the weight of both himself and his sister by grasping a very thin wire with his bare hands? The answer is that what they were doing was one other action embedded in their “grand” action; escape from the death star.

When watching the film, no one questions the logic of what’s happening at that moment because these details become buried within the many actions taken by the hero and his friends. Using its three crucial elements – goal, motivation and necessary action – unity of action creates and maintains this effect to engage the audience.

When watching the film, no one questions the logic
of what’s happening at that moment because
these details become buried within the many actions
taken by the hero and his friends.

Next: (2) Breaking a Unity of Action

-Nir Shelter

Storytelling is a way for us to shrink the world down into a manageable size. Allowing us to reflect upon and understand what it is we do and in turn derive meaning from our lives.

My work in film, TV and theatre gives me the opportunity to see first hand, what works and what doesn’t and I hope to share these observations with as many people as possible, for the sake of story.

Director’s show-reel and bio:
www.shelter.net.au
photo credit: JD Hancock

Nir Shelter

Nir Shelter is a writer/director whose work has featured at film, theater and writing festivals around the world. His projects have accumulated over 70 selections, nominations and awards, placing in some of the highest ranking industry festivals and contests: Final Draft’s Big Break, The Page Awards, The Nashville Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Shore Scripts, LA Web Fest, KWeb Fest and more.

Many times teachers would tell students to take the camera and: “experiment with the form”, “explore the art” or my favourite “see what happens”.

Experimentation is necessary for development
but there are subjects dedicated to that.

Yes, experimentation is necessary for development but there are subjects dedicated to that. There was a subject called Creative Techniques for Shorts. This subject explored the audiovisual aspect of filmmaking and that alone. In this particular subject the students were instructed to create non-narrative short films.

I found this very interesting as both a technical and aesthetic exercise. The films produced for this subject were mostly streams of consciousness. We used various mediums and techniques and produced some truly fascinating spectacles. While this subject was specifically dedicated to the audiovisual aspect of filmmaking, the rest of the subjects should have been dedicated to the other major aspect of filmmaking – story telling. The basics of story telling should be covered extensively, explained in detail and assessed regularly in all filmmaking subjects not only the script writing related ones.

The script-writing subject was not compulsory and covered to a large part the formatting of a script.  Story telling as a craft was covered but step outlines, treatments, scene cards, character outlines, structure brief or even a list of plot points were not required for assessment.  In addition the script-writing subject was not a prerequisite for production subjects.

Interestingly another a friend of mine that was studying a properties degree (props making) at another of Sydney’s well respected art schools, NIDA, was given an assignment to write a script as part of the course. In fact all students enrolled at NIDA are required at some point to write a script despite not specializing in either writing or production.

The school recognised the need for these students to familiarise themselves with adaptation of stories into scripts. To further their understanding of story telling, and its importance in the production process. The same can hardly be said for many other institutions.

I don’t mean to imply that UTS is not a good university or to that matter not a good media arts and productions school. In fact I think it is a very good university with much merit in teaching and developing future filmmakers. My frustration comes in retrospect of my studies, after having attended many seminars, short courses and master classes post UTS.

I learnt more about story telling in a 3-day seminar than I did in a 3-year degree. After speaking with other film students from other universities and hearing similar experiences I can’t help but be alarmed.  In the long run this gives young students the impression that filmmaking is separate to story telling. I shudder to think of the effects this will have on future generations of filmmakers.

I learnt more about story telling in a 3-day seminar
than I did in a 3-year degree

UTS, as probably the better-known university in the field of media arts and production should champion a change, as it has the experience and reputation required for a cultural shift in the attitudes towards story’s relation to film. By reintroducing story telling to its film making courses UTS can encourage others to do the same.

I associate this lack of story telling craft in the universities subjects today, to a previous generation of Australian filmmakers that made films for purposes of their own undisciplined imagination’s indulgence rather than story. In my opinion this most likely happened because the funding for most films was subsidised by the government and therefore not for profit.

As a result of this, filmmakers were under no pressure to produce films that would draw audiences to the cinemas. Rather for artistic acclaim to themselves. Generations later, film students and teachers have a local industry in which the majority of films, to that matter the most successful or well-known ones, are unstructured or unconventionally plotted. At times utterly defying story telling conventions. These are admired and glorified in the academia subsequently enlarging in the minds of young students the rift between filmmaker and storyteller.

Defying structure and conventions can be a career choice
but must be done from a basis of knowledge not ignorance

Contradictorily most people know mastery of the craft is the only way to create original works and should at least recognise the need to possess basic knowledge of the craft.

Trying to be artistic, students often “un-tell” stories by making films not according to a plot. Artistic doesn’t necessarily mean unstructured. It means working in an original way within the conventions of the craft. The fear and general dislike of structure stands as a hallmark of many film academia intellectualizations.

This is fine as a personal preference but the onus is on the education institutions to educate the student in the craft at hand. If anything , to give the students the ability to make an informed decision for themselves.

Defying structure and conventions can be a career choice but must be done from a basis of knowledge not ignorance. After learning the technicalities of story telling well enough, filmmakers can produce original and interesting works that stray away from these conventions, as they know what to stray away from. Simply because, there has never been an artistic genius that isn’t a technical master.

– Nir Shelter

Nir Shelter is a screenwriter, UTS Alumnus and member of the Sydney Screenwriters Meetup. His main interests are in writing, martial arts and surfing.

Nir Shelter

Nir Shelter is a writer/director whose work has featured at film, theater and writing festivals around the world. His projects have accumulated over 70 selections, nominations and awards, placing in some of the highest ranking industry festivals and contests: Final Draft’s Big Break, The Page Awards, The Nashville Film Festival, The Austin Film Festival, Screencraft, Shore Scripts, LA Web Fest, KWeb Fest and more.