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- Indeed, a fascinating topic of discussion.
I have 2 thoughts to contribute...
(1) I see that in The Clockwork Muse: The Predictability of Artistic Change (Martindale, 1990) Martindale finds: adding ambiguity (which can include: moral and ethical) makes a work more likely to succeed, and be (judged as) "art"...
i.e.:
"If on the other hand, one adds more layers of meaning, that increases the work’s ambiguity. Ambiguity is a collative variable. Collative properties such as novelty or unpredictability can vary much more freely than meaning in all of the arts. One soon finds that to increase the arousal potential of aesthetic products over time, one must increase ambiguity, novelty, incongruity, and other collative properties." (Martindale, 1990, pp. 46-47)
(Which, I also interpret to mean: `intentional ambiguity' adds more reasons for audiences to go away and puzzle over/debate, the `meaning' of the work, later... possibly also adding to, its word-of-mouth...)
In fact, for that reason, I've often deliberately added layers of moral and ethical ambiguity to my own screenwriting/film work, wherever possible. (eg Caught Inside, Rocket Man, etc)
I see that Kubrick noted (in the Ciment interviews) the more `a work of art', the more likely/possible it is, to be misinterpreted, by almost anybody.
ie "People can misinterpret almost anything so that it coincides with views they already hold. They take from art what they already believe, and I wonder how many people have ever had their views about anything important changed by a work of art?" (Kubrick in Ciment, 1980)
(in the original audio interview, he actually then adds, chuckling: "...Maybe, if they're 15 or 16 years old...?")
And, my second thought, is that:
(2) I noticed, there's a thesis (Abstract, below) that might be relevant to this discussion. ie - Re: `Wolf of Wall St', (and movies such as `American Psycho', and even `Chopper', `Clockwork Orange' etc, as Jamie mentioned) - It possibly also ties in to the notion that (according to John Ronson) possibly 5% of CEOs are psychopaths or sociopaths, or both. And furthermore - that corporations, when `personality-tested', are psychopaths. (eg - See also of course, the excellent documentary The Corporation (2003), with Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Michael Moore, etc) ie - http://www.thecorporation.com/
That thesis, at any rate: (931 pages...)Exploring ethical intelligence through ancient wisdom and the lived experiences of senior business leaders
Author: Opincar, John T.
Abstract: Beginning in the early 1700s with the Mississippi and South Sea Companies scandal and continuing to the present day, senior business leaders' flawed ethical judgments have cost society multi-trillions of dollars of losses. The general problem is despite the risks of personal financial harm, public embarrassment, and long prison terms business leaders continue to make unsuitable ethical judgments. The specific problem this hermeneutic phenomenological study addressed was the ethical judging phenomenon occurring in the minds and hearts of business leaders was neither well documented nor fully understood. That ethical judging phenomenon was explored through the lived ethical judging experiences of 21 C-Suite executives, purposefully selected from the 2010 Fortune 1000, during semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis, using Moustakas' (1994) modified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen Method of Analysis of Phenomenological Data, identified 80 separate but interrelated themes, the most grounded of which were perceived hostile otherness, righteousness, discernment, leads by example, tone at the top, truthfulness, integrity, and hubris and entitlement. The themes coalesced into seven theme families that included cloisterization, cross-cultural ethics, distress, ethical judging, loss aversion - fear, organizational culture, and values and principles. Imaginative variation revealed seven potential structures that included an ethical fence, equity equation solver, heart sphere, internal compass, intuition, scope screen, and slippery slope. Analysis of the composite textural-structural description of the ethical judging phenomenon revealed convergence as it essence. A final model of ethical intelligence was presented along with four recommendations for legislators and regulators, eight recommendations for CEO's and boards of directors, and 10 recommendations for the research community.Subject: Behavioral psychology; Ethics; Management;
Classification: 0384: Behavioral psychology; 0394: Ethics; 0454: Management
Identifier / keyword: Philosophy, religion and theology, Social sciences, Psychology, Ethical intelligence, Leadership, Organizational culture, Ethics, Business crime, Righteousness, Ancient wisdom
Number of pages: 931
Publication year: 2012
Degree date: 2012
School code: 0850
Source: DAI-A 74/03(E), Sep 2013
Place of publication: Ann Arbor
Country of publication: United States
ISBN: 9781267727985
Advisor: Vandermark, Michael
University/institution: University of Phoenix
University location: United States -- Arizona
Degree: D.M.
Anyway - fascinating topic. (Well started, Hugo.)
...I suspect, you could easily stage a whole 3-day conference on the theme of "Ethics in Screenwriting".
(and, probably, have everyone come away, even much more confused than before.)
Cheers
JT
PS - I've also always enjoyed that old joke that: "Business ethics" is even more of an oxymoron than "military intelligence".-- ----------------------- JT Velikovsky Film/Story/Screenplay/Transmedia Analyst http://storyality.wordpress.com/ and Transmedia Writer-Director-Producer: Movies, Games, TV, Theatre, Books, Comics Transmedia Writing Blog: http://on-writering.blogspot.com/ Free Screenwriting TextBook: http://www.lulu.com/shop/joe-velikovsky/feature-film-screenwriters-workbook/ebook/product-20376941.html Transmedia Comic-Fantasy Novel: http://am-so-as.webs.com/ Email: [log in to unmask] Also: [log in to unmask] Skype: joe.tee.vee Twitter: @joeteevee Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2853350/ Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Velikovsky YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/joeteevee aka: JT Velikovsky Research Student & Filmmaker Doctorate of Creative Arts - Feature Film / Screenwriting School of Humanities and Communication Arts University of Western Sydney http://uws.academia.edu/JTVelikovsky/ This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify [log in to unmask] This footnote also confirms that this email message has been checked for known virusesOn 13/02/2014 10:10 PM, ANN TOBIN wrote:[log in to unmask]" type="cite">Hi Everybody,This is, I think, a most interesting discussion. It seems to me that it is part and parcel of a much wider discussion going on across all sections of contemporary society - the early sexualisation of children, the websites that appear to encourage bullying and internet sexual harassment and sexual objectification. The women in Wall Street were universally portrayed as objects to be used, generally in a grossly sexist manner.Unsurprisingly, screenwriting and filmmaking as one of the major contributors to the common cultural discourse is both reflecting and participating in these attitudes.I had interesting discussions with our film students about The Wolf of Wall Street - broadly speaking (but not exclusively) the males all thought Wall Street was fantastic, loved the performance of Di Caprio, etc. The females were far less sure, felt it was bravura filmmaking but did not really like the characters and the film. Personally I disliked the film intensely - feeling it was completely amoral and made more problematic by the fact that it is so well made and acted. Films like M and Clockwork Orange were, I think, much more aware of what they were exploring and more importantly why. As with The Killing. There should be no hold on any subject matter in film art - but as people who are involved in the education of future filmmakers we must I think be very aware of these issues. Showing something is not enough. there needs, as David Simon said about The Wire, explorations of why going on as well.RegardsAnn Tobin
From: Jamie John Sherry <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, 12 February 2014, 23:15
Subject: Re: ethics in screenwriting
I would also add that much of the discourse around Martin Scorsese's recent 'The Wolf of Wall Street' (screenplay by Terence Winter) appears to concern the ethics and morality of Jordan Belfort and principally the decision by Winter to leave out the consequences of his actions, and to instead focus on the arena of the protagonist. Among some critics, academics and viewers this has become an important and problematic topic to discuss over and above more general comments regarding storytelling, filmmaking craft, editing, acting performances, etc.
An ethical issue here is not just the way the narrative is being presented, but also more industrial and financial concerns about what it may mean for a screenwriter to adapt a book written by, and therefore profited from, the "criminal" protagonist of that story. However, the debate also seems to echo many that have taken place over the previous decades concerning anti-heroes or morally ambiguous characters in film, including 'M', 'A Clockwork Orange', 'Chopper', 'The Killer Inside Me', etc. However, this appears to be less of an issue in contemporary television drama, which seems to positively encourage moral ambiguity as a necessity, and which is the industry that Winter has worked in most often ('The Sopranos', 'Boardwalk Empire', etc).
I do not have a strong opinion on the morality of 'The Wolf of Wall Street', or its production, but I do find the critical response interesting from an ethical screenwriting point of view.
Kind regards,
Jamie Sherry
________________________________________
From: Screenwriting Research Network <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Miranda Banks <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 12 February 2014 22:57
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ethics in screenwriting
I second Steven's recommendation. Eva Novrup Redvall's book is excellent. I just finished reading it and found her insight on the series and the Danish industry fascinating.
All the best,
Miranda
-------------------------------
Miranda J. Banks, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Visual & Media Arts
Emerson College
http://mirandabanks.tv
________________________________
From: Screenwriting Research Network <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Steven Maras <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2014 5:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ethics in screenwriting
Although I may be biased, Eva Novrup Redvall's discussion of double story telling in Writing and Producing Television Drama in Denmark: From The Kingdom to The Killing is very interesting
Best
Steven
From: Stewart McKie <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Reply-To: Stewart McKie <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Date: Thursday, 13 February 2014 2:05 AM
To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
Subject: Re: ethics in screenwriting
Hugo
Thanks for this post.
I'm interested in ethics too but from a different angle: identifying 'choices' in the screenplay, which may have an ethical angle, via analytics software.
Choices represent a 'decision network' that can be modelled and may lead to insight about a script.
I hope BBC4 buys UNSER M?TTER, UNSER FATER as I would like to see it.
--
Regards,
Stewart McKie
phd.tripos.biz
+44 (0)1747 812648
Sent with Sparrow<http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/?sig>
On Wednesday, 12 February 2014 at 14:12, Vercauteren Hugo wrote:
Apology for those I am disturbing with this mail, I don't want to start a chat mail. Just wanted to tell this.
"Dealing with ethics in screenwriting".
Lately, I have been reviewing and analyzing the genius plots & plotpoints of the Danish tv series THE KILLING. I find this one of the best series I have ever seen (at least those I have seen). Because of the plot, or because of the ethics?
Yesterday we saw (on Belgian tv) the second episode of UNSER M?TTER, UNSER FATER, a German tv-series, about the history of 5 young German people in WW2 (their hopes, disappointments, guilty feelings). It is mainstream tv, sometimes with chocking scenes, but well made, and most of all: "very honest about their past". I am (and not only me) very impressed about the series.
Screenwriting and research on screenwriting is not only about the technique of creating a plot, but also about ethics, or is it not? (in German case "how do you deal with your own past"). Sometimes I have the feeling these ethics are lost in my own country. Screenwriters here don't deal with ethics, or do they?
Is "The Killing" also about ethics? Who wins in "the Killing"? Nobody. Is it about the darkness of our Western Society? Everything is connected in The Killing. The characters all seem to be on the edge of a Volcano. And if one of them falls, they all seem to fall. Society falls.
All this made me think. No more. Sorry if I disturbed you.
Hugo
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