Analysis on Script-writing methods of After Dark

• Main Authors: Lin, Han, 林涵
• Other Authors: Shih, Kuang-sheng
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55344534991445631721

碩士 === 國立臺灣藝術大學 === 戲劇學系 === 100 === After Dark, a PTS production, is a TV short film that was on air on May 29th, 2011. It was both selected by Rotterdam International film festival 2012 and Taipei Film Festival 2012, and also one of my screenplay work done in 2009. The film was directed by Golden-Bell-winning director John Hsu. Originally titled Blind Touch, After Dark was discussed with director and rewritten for several times, using theater theories as creative elements and combining techniques from film languages. The story is about a female massuse who’s facing her upcoming blindness, tragic memories, and finally made an unexpected choice about her own life – refuse the operation and be blind, as a twisted salvation from the pain of her daughter’s death. In this thesis, not only the difference between the original script and the screenplay for the short film, and rewriting process will be described, how the author construct characters and environment with theories of Alienation Theater and Passage Ritual of Social Drama to create an alienation effect that make the audiences think with a distance to the characters will also be described. The other theme of After Dark such as “salvation”, “loss of sight”, also “light and dark” were developed with the help of Greek Tragedy elements and two works from Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki – A Portrait of Shun-kin, and In Praise of Shadows. The goal of this screenplay creation is to make a script that share the common topic with classic films in 80s’ and 90s’ new Taiwanese cinema era, but with a completely new narrative method and style combining theater elements and theories, to encourage active thinking from the audiences instead of the old passive way of getting information and lessons from filmmakers. Besides, European films that inspired After Dark like Lars von Trier’s, Michael Haneke’s, and Theo Angelopoulos’, which also heavily influenced by theater and drama, will be discussed in the latter chapters.