JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

36 Dramatic Situations
A List of Elements
You can describe any plot, quite completely from one point of view.
1. Supplication

Begging or asking for help. e.g. Someone trying to get their spouse to help make the marriage work.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Deliverance Crime Pursued by Vengeance Vengeance Taken for Kindred upon Kindred Pursuit Disaster Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune Revolt Daring Enterprise

Inter-family ghting. In pursuit of something, or being pursued by something (tanglible - wealth, intangible - respect). Many dierent things to many dierent people (9/11, a bad hair day).

Doing something brave.

10. Abduction

Kidnapping someone, or a psychological abduction - taking someone over.

11. The Enigma

The riddle, a mystery - both internal or external (wheres the money, or whats the answer?)
12. Obtaining 13. Enmity of Kinsmen

Animosity between kin.

14. Rivalry of Kinsmen 15. Murderous Adultery 16. Madness

Dierent forms of madness: insane, delightful madness (Jim Carrey), a mad situation.
17. Fatal Imprudence

Doing something unwise that has consequences (doesnt have to be literally fatal)
18. Involuntary Crimes of Love

Can be sexual, but can be just treating your spouse badly.

19. Slaying of a Kinsman Unrecognised
PAGE 1 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

Knifed your brother, and you didnt recognise him. Or drunk father treats daughter badly.
20. Self-sacrice for an Ideal 21. All Sacriced for a Passion 22. Necessity of Sacricing Loved Ones 23. Self-Sacrice for Kindred 24. Rivalry of Superior and Inferior

Who is the superior/inferior - its subjective.

25. Adultery 26. Crimes of Love 27. Discovery of the Dishonor of a Loved One 28. Obstacles of Love 29. An Enemy Loved

Your enemy is really good, and you respect that. Princess Bride, Silence of the Lambs (goes both ways)
30. Ambition 31. Conict With a God

If you dont take it literally (a swordght with Zeus), this can mean up against the powers that be / City Hall / the Bully
32. Mistaken Jealousy

You think your wife is having an aair but shes working a 2nd job to buy you a car.
33. Erroneous Judgement 34. Remorse

Many dierent ways to show this. Also, those who have no remorse (Charles Manson)
35. Recovery of a Lost One 36. Loss of Loved Ones

These are just ELEMENTS you can take and brainstorm with. The LESS LITERALLY YOU TAKE THEM, the MORE use they will be to you. If you look at them with the MIND OF A POET, the more FLEXIBILITY you will have. e.g. Enmity of Kinsmen - doesnt have to be relations, can be co-worker. Any form of kinship can be used to satisfy this element. Working with these is a RESOURCE for a STORYTELLER. It HELPS YOU BRAINSTORM. It will make things bubble up in your brain, suggesting possibilities. If you look at these when you are trying to develop a story, you will be ISOLATING various aspects. E.g. AMBITION. You know the character is ambition, but youve never isolated it. But once you look at that trait without everything else in the picture you may be SURPRISED by the DEPTH and whys and wherefores of their ambition. Or their UTTER LACK of ambition. They can help you ISOLATE and get CLARITY and OPEN POSSIBILITIES.

PAGE 2 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

Powerful Brainstorming Tool

Often compared to Periodic Table of Element

Any drama can be described from one point of view quite completely with these 36 elements.
Use them to JOG IMAGINATION

This is supposed to be the FULL SPECTRUM of story possibilities. This is the PRIMARY FUNCTION.
FREE ASSOCIATION TOOL. Its a psychoactive process.

It wont give you an idea out of nothing, but itll help you expand/experiment and work up ideas. Just play WHAT IF with these elements. How would e.g. MADNESS aect the plot - if he was a bank robber, and he was bi-polar, or just kookie. How would that aect the grand heist? Doing this FREE ASSOCIATION is likely to give you many more ideas than starting at a blank page. Doesnt have to be logical - a WHOLE BUNCH OF STUFF will re o in your head when you look at the situations against the backdrop of one of these ELEMENTS. Its NOT ORDERLY. Its whatever is STIMULATED in your brain. EVERYTHING IS VALID.

Think Metaphorically.
The less LITERALLY you take the 36 Dramatic Situations, the more use youll get out of

them.

Have a POETIC FRAME OF MIND MURDER can be a wound, a blow, an attempt, an outrage, a thread, a curse, a temptation, an

injustice, a refusal.

e.g. to SLAY someone, you dont have to kill them, you can tell them their poetry sucks, or their kids are dumb or something.

PAGE 3 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

Two Main Functions

SEE WHAT YOUVE GOT

In your story idea, the premise to start the storytelling process, is already RICH - one of the things you can do with the 36 ELEMENTS are to see ALL OF THE ACTIVE ELEMENTS that by default exist in your story, before you even start working it up. You may nd it to be very UNEXPECTEDLY DEEP, and you nd NEW ANGLES that are fabulously RICH and you have extra material to work into your story. e.g. AMBITION: You may see that it is a lot deeper than rst thought. Get a SIMPLE CLEAR UNDERSTANDING of what youve got and what youre up to.
SEE WHERE YOU CAN GO

Play WHAT IF? with the 36. Play MAD SCIENTIST with them. Go OFF THE DEEP END. Try out the craziest possibilities. EVERYTHING IS VALID. What happens to the MIX if I pour THIS in? WHAT DO I WANT WHEN I GO TO A MOVIE? Do I want the same old stu rehashed, or do I want something fresh, unexpected, intriguing? And DEMOLISH CLICHE. An aspect of the story may be very cliched - it might have been an early idea. When you see that, and you REFUSE to follow CLICHE, you can USE THE 36 to BREAK IT UP. Whatve I got? What if its MADNESS? What about an ENEMY LOVED? Itll take you into a NEW DIMENSION. ATTACK THE STORY. ATTACK THE AUDIENCE. e.g. Training Day AMBITION is obviously active. CONFLICT WITH A GOD is active. Denzel is ALSO in CONFLICT WITH A GOD. So BOTH main characters embody this ELEMENT, but from dierent sides. A NICE TWIST!
TRAINING DAY

AMBITION AN ENEMY LOVED DISASTER THE ENIGMA ENMITY of KINSMEN FATAL IMPRUDENCE

CONFLICT WITH GOD MADNESS RIVALRY of SUPERIOR/INFERIOR REVOLT ERROR OF JUDGEMENT

Denzel picked Jake to be a PAWN, that he can be set-up and USED. Denzel is also AMAZED at his prowess. There is a MUTUAL RESPECT of AN ENEMY LOVED. There is MADNESS in that the situation is obviously mad. Its all DISASTER for Jake, it goes from bad to worse. You can go through them all and nd them in this lm. You also nd that these situations WORK BOTH WAYS. One of the things you do with the ELEMENTS is PLAY WITH THEM in the process of development.

PAGE 4 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

Try them on all dierent characters, in all situations, and in the endings, the complications, the conict. LOOK at your script THROUGH THE LENSE OF THE 36 ELEMENTS. e.g. THROUGH THE LENSE OF DISASTER
See how much DISASTER Jake has in his life. How much DISASTER is in Alonzos life.

e.g. ENMITY of KINSMEN

How is Jake standing up to Alonzo? Alonzo is pushing back on Jake.

We use the TOOL to TAKE APART MASTERPIECES.

PAGE 5 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

Other Examples
(NB. He goes on to discuss WHAT WOMEN WANT and MINORITY REPORT and GODFATHER, just giving EXAMPLES of which of the 36 ELEMENTS are in this lm, much the same format as before - any extra salient info he gives, Ive written below, couldnt face writing verbatim what is pretty obvious if you watch the individual movies).

WHAT WOMENT WANT

Crime Pursued by Vengeance Ambition Daring Enterprise Revolt Rivalry of a Superior/Inferior

MINORITY REPORT

An Enemy Loved Obstacles to Love Disaster Madness Deliverance

The Enigma Erroneous Judgement Conict With A God Pursuit Revolt

THE GODFATHER

Madness Supplication All Sacriced for a Passion Disaster Crime Pursued by Vengeance

Revolt Conict With A God Madness Disaster The Enigma All Sacriced for A Passion

Daring Enterprise Ambition Rivalry of a Superior/Inferior Pursuit Self-Sacrice for Kindred

Tootsie and Bladerunner too.

PAGE 6 OF 7

JEFF KITCHEN - FULL DAY SCREENWRITING SEMINAR

LECTURE: 36 DRAMATIC SITUATIONS

The Book
In addition to the main 36, there were also sub-headings. (NB he doesnt cover them all) For example: 16. Madness
Kinsmen slain in madness A lover slain in madness Slaying or injuring of a person not hated Disgrace brought upon oneself through madness

7.

Falling Prey to Cruelty or Misfortune

The innocent made the victim of ambitious intrigue. The innocent bespoiled by those who should protect The powerful dispossessed and wretched A favourite or intimate nds himself forgotten The unfortunate robbed of their only hope

http://www.wordplayer.com has the main 36 and the subheadings. Also, his book Writing a Great Movie.
The 36 Dramatic Situations are:

A resource for writers - NOTHING MORE It encompasses everything, a great GO-TO when you start Like THROWING GASOLINE on a FIRE YOU ARE CREATING THE STORY - this can just help you avoid cliche, come up with fresh ideas, give character dimension Look at the SITUATION through A LENSE of an ELEMENT, and youll explode with IDEAS

PAGE 7 OF 7