Dispatch from The Quest: Ben Odgren

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the subject of Time. Today’s dispatch: Ben Odgren lays a little Greek on us:

The Greeks had two kinds of time.

There’s Chronos time, and that’s what we’re all familiar with. Chronos time is planning our day by looking at the clock. Being at work by nine. Picking up the kids by three. For writing stories that might be how the events play out on a grand scale. Does the story go from A to Z? Does it jump around?

But then there’s the second kind of time. Kairos time. Kairos time has to do with moments. For good or bad they’re the big moments in our lives that have happened, or maybe that we’re still waiting to happen, that we use to measure our lives. The first kiss. Moving to the big city. Realizing you were actually dead the entire time. Darth Vader dropping the F-bomb.

And then there’s the not-Greek-at-all Bullet Time.

Remember the first time you saw The Matrix? Right in the beginning when Trinity does her slow motion jump kick, the camera does a 180 as she hovers in the air in that cool pose, and then she kicks the cop across the room.

I remember when I saw that my first thought was a very distinct, “……WHHAAAAA?”

I just don’t think I’d seen anything that messed with time in that way before. A slow motion jump kick is cool. But a slow motion jump kick where the camera can move as fast as it wants, where ever it wants, to catch the action? It was like the Rashomon of slow motion. Kind of mind blowing (maybe even some kind of minor Kairos moment) to a junior in high school with movies on the brain.

Writing is a lot like that moment. We have complete freedom to tell the story from whoever’s perspective and as…chronologically…as we’d like. Also like that moment, writing can feel like being kicked in the chest by Carrie-Anne Moss. And that would be another Kairos moment.

How we manage time in a script… hugely important. The first step in that process? Actually thinking about screenplay time. Chronos, Kairos, Carrie-Anne Moss or otherwise.

Another Dispatch from The Quest.

About Ben: Maine writer with a love for pulpy genre movies, keeping library books out for a little too long, and strong coffee. Twitter: @benodgren.

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