Course Facilitator: Eduardo Rencurrell Díaz, Ph.D 

The Idea
Among the genres of audiovisual, fiction has stood out as the most multitudinous. Even when fiction films come from creative imagination, these films provide insightful approaches to human condition and experiences from the perspective, sensitivities and world views of the filmmakers. Fiction films provides the viewer the possibility of standing in the shoes of characters for facing different kinds of adversity and dealing with different situation, opening windows to identification, rejection and, of course, reflection. The increasing consumption of fiction films and their social acceptation of a wide variety of audiences points at this kind of cultural products ad fundamental sources for acquiring knowledge and developing insightful sociocultural research. 

The previous arguments are some of the reasons why each day more and more scholars from humanities, social and medical sciences, etc., uses fiction films with didactic, pedagogical, and researching endings. The most common difficulty for this scholars when it comes to analyze fiction films is the lack of theoretical specialized tools, so that traditionally film analysis skills and knowledge has been understood as distant from their field of expertise. Dramaturgy is an area of knowledge which provides useful tools and strategies to understand how to the inner structure of films has been stablished, which is key to evaluate the dramatic effectiveness of the plays and to identify conceptual authorial will. This course proposes an in-depth study of dramaturgical tools, so that researchers from different sciences could improve their fiction film analysis practices.

The Aim
This workshop aims at providing participants with fundamental knowledge about fiction film dramaturgy. Our theoretical-practical approach will guide from theoretical insights to the de-construction of films through various exercises. The workshop hopes to educate scholars, especially those who work on history and more specifically on oral history – and other theoretical fields of study- so they gain the relevant knowledge that will allow them to deepen within fiction films as a source of contemporary knowledge. Taking into account   the immense impact of fiction films in contemporary culture, achieving a deeper understanding of its crafting may be of significance by a plethora of researchers. Our participants will gain the freedom, through the knowledge of fiction films dramaturgy, to find ways of engaging film deconstruction in their current research practices.

The Outcome

-Evaluating the pertinence and correct inclusion of fiction film analysis within research projects.
-Explaining key theoretical knowledge about fiction film as a genre.
-Deconstructing a fiction films plot.
-Analyzing the inner structure of a fiction film.
-Evaluating the dramaturgical efficacy of a fiction film or script.
-Interpreting the conceptual background of a fiction film.
-Including fiction film analysis results in research.

The Program

Thematic 1 (Sunday-March 6, 2022)-Duration: 3 hours  
GROUND RULES
-Research projects, components, goals and structure.
-Films analysis within research projects.
-Defining and understanding fiction films.
-Extra filmic considerations to attend.
-Justifying film samples.
-Debating about the scientific value of fiction films analysis.
-The usefulness of certain analytical tools and their wise selection and application.
-The creation of an observation guide.
-Dealing with the polysemy background of film. 

Thematic 2 (Sunday-March 13, 2022). Duration: 3 hours  
BRIEF INTRODUCTION. UNREVELING THE PLOT
-The concept of dramaturgy.
-Dramaturgy´s field of action.
-Classical and contemporary dramaturgical approaches.
-Concept of plot.
-Building characters (the goal, the will, the insightful need, character dimensions, types of characters, characters transformation, the verisimilitude).
-Conflict (Concept, levels and intensity of the conflicts, dramatic relevance, narrative functions).
-The element of progression (concept, progression types, possible combinations, the unity of action).
-The dramatic action (two kinds of action (common and dramatic).
-The components for dramatic action.
The plot and subplots basic action and subordinated ones. 

Thematic 3 (Sunday-March 20, 2022) Duration: 3 hours  
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
-Basic concepts.
-Debates about narrative evolution.
-The classic paradigm (The tree acts, the six main components, advantages and disadvantages, main characteristics).
-The fragmented paradigm (the concept of mini plot, dramaturgical implications, episodes structure, blocks structure, similitudes and differences, advantages and disadvantages).
-The accumulative paradigm (main characteristic, debates about de-dramatization, audience implications, characters selection, advantages and disadvantages).

Thematic 4 (Sunday-March 27, 2022) Duration: 3 hours
THEMATIC TREATMENT
-The theme (the main theme and the secondary ones. Concepts and relevance).
-The authorial point of view (concept, importance).
-The premise (dramatic relevance, ways of enunciating it, inner elements).
-From the premise to the story (the relationship between premise and stories, aspects to take into consideration).
-Referential aspects to consider (political, ideological and contextual backgrounds; cultural references).
-The interpretation of the fiction films: beyond critic and authors, the researcher position.  

*The course has a blended format. In each session there will be pre-recorded videos and Live discussion with Dr. Rencurrell.
*The participants will have unlimited access to the videos during the course so they watch them at their own pace.

Due to the restrictions of Corona Crisis our event (for the time being) will take place virtually and it will have a blended: synchronous and asynchronous