Symbols
hearts
pedestals
uplifted hands, arms, eyes
reaching for something just out of reach
stars, constellations
bright, almost blinding light as one gazes at the beloved
a halo
Key Element – The Shining Moment
Stepping up into the higher mode. If you can actually make it a physical stepping-up, all the better.
Putting aside the old ways, things, or actions. E.g., someone always carried a gun, then they put it down.
Written Descriptions
Use inspiring words: aspiration, uplifting, elevating, inspiring, energizing.
Show us the transition of the person being transformed by making a clear delineation between how they are before the change and how they are after it.
Let us see that the transformed person experiences the environment differently before and after they fall in love and achieve a higher state of mind. E.g. grumbling about the heat and tourists and smog on Hollywood Boulevard versus finding Marylin Monroe’s star, kneeling down and placing flowers upon it.
Switch from clumsy, unthinking handling of an object dear to the love object to careful, protective handling.
Cinematic Techniques
The upward shot from the one being inspired up-angle to the object of affection, the Muse.
The reverse down-angle.
The larger (typically) males getting on their knees to swear allegiance, subjugating themselves and looking up to the object of adoration.
Put something behind the object that symbolizes that higher ideal, e.g. a cross, a flag, the icon at the center of the search, etc.
Raising the light level. And typically also using smoke so the light is diffused to give a more ethereal look.
Conclusion
You want your character who yearns with Chivalric Love to ultimately be transformed and to say or live some version of the quote, “I have decided to become the person you think I am”.
In a world steeped in armed conflict, crude comedy, reality shows, shallow if any values, we really need more stories featuring Chivalric Aspirational Love to uplift our hearts and minds.
The power of story is amazing and as story-tellers you can help raise our vision and our actions as we learn from and are inspired by your characters.
As the saying goes – “Onward and Upward!”
*****
Exercise #1 – Awareness
What is an example of love noticeably and lastingly changing someone for the better - in myth, history, media, current reality.
*****
Exercise #2 – Writing
Write a scene where the character deals with another in a regular non-aspirational, individually or tribally based consciousness.
Write the same scene with the character coming from the higher aspirational, chivalric consciousness.
****
Further Reading
Arthurian Romances - Chrétien de Troyes
Chivalry: The Path of Love – Chronicle Books
Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters – Dr. Ethel Person
Idylls of the King – Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Inner Drives – Pamela Jaye Smith
Life Against Death – Norman O. Brown
Mists of Avalon – Marian Zimmer Bradley
Plague of Provence – Nina Ansley
Power of the Dark Side, The – Pamela Jaye Smith
Symbols.Images.Codes – Pamela Jaye Smith
White Goddess, The – Robert Graves
Further Viewing
Almost Famous
As Good as it Gets
Camelot
Dave
Excalibur
It’s a Wonderful Life
Lord of the Rings – series of films
Love, Actually
Milk Money
Moulin Rouge
Parsival – opera by Richard Wagner
Princess Bride, The
Spartacus
MONTY HAYES McMILLAN is a filmmaker, writer, and photographer with over 30 years in the media industry.
He attended film school at the University of Texas in Austin, where he was also an editor on Carroscolendas, an Emmy Award winning bi-lingual educational program. After college Monty co-founded Thor Projects, Inc., a media production and promotion company which established the IATSE Film Union Local in Austin.
For the Office of the Governor, Monty was location manager on Texas Coastal Wildlife, an environmental film about the fragile balance of industry and nature along Texas's Gulf of Mexico.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1976, McMillan worked as a producer, director, writer, still photographer, production manager, assistant director, and media consultant on features, commercials, TV series, documentaries, industrials, and military films. Monty was assistant director on director Frank Darabont’s WOMAN IN THE ROOM, a short film based on a Stephen King story.
Returning to his roots, Monty was location manager on Waltz Across Texas, a feature film set in the Texas oil-fields. The job required training with Red Adair Oil Well Fire Control.
Life on the Slope, a documentary on the people who live and work on the North Slope of Alaska, was directed by McMillan. Filming in minus-80` temperatures and near total darkness, his locations on America's Arctic coast included oil rigs, the open tundra, and Eskimo townships.
In conjunction with extensive research for The Rig, a feature length screenplay set on an offshore oil rig, Monty produced a documentary filmed on Penrod 78, then the largest semi-submersible rig drilling deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
As leader of a Mata-Hari Productions team, Monty helped establish TV-3, Malaysia's first Public Television Network in Kuala Lumpur. His team included experts in television and video directing, editing, camera, art direction, and sound.
Monty was media consultant for People to People: Heart to Heart, a peace conference sponsored by the Houston Intertribal Council. Representatives from 25 North American tribes met with indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian Andes, plains, and jungles.
For The Dhamazzadhi Bell, Monty traveled to Burma in the mid-90s, dealing with the ruling generals and religious leaders in conjunction with a project to locate and raise a giant temple bell lost in Rangoon Harbor in the 15th century.
Other research and filming expeditions have taken McMillan to Mexico, the Philippines, and throughout Southeast Asia.
He has met with corporate, military, and government personnel including the U.S. State Department and Embassies both here and abroad, Chinese and other foreign Embassies, NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Pan American Airlines, McDonnell Douglas, provincial governors, and tribal chieftains.
McMillan was West Coast director for AUSA’s America’s Army TV series. He was director-writer for the U.S. Army Signal Command briefing video and also worked on a recruitment film for the Marines. Monty was research analyst on Friend and/or Foe: The New Security Challenge for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and on Projecting Power From the Sea for the Navy League and Hughes Aircraft. He attended both the Army War College and Air War College National Security Forums and is a life member of the Navy League.
Monty was media consultant for the China Exploration and Research Society, a Donor Member of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, a certified member of the Community Emergency Response Team in both Los Angeles and Austin Texas, and was listed in Who’s Who in America - Millennium Edition.
*****
[email protected]
www.mythworks.net
www.mythicchallenges.com
www.alphababeacademy.com
PAMELA JAYE SMITH is a mythologist, author, international consultant/speaker, and award-winning producer/director with over thirty years experience in features, TV, commercials, documentaries, corporate and military films, music videos, and web series.
Smith is the author of THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE, INNER DRIVES, SYMBOLS-IMAGES-CODES, BE
YOND THE HERO’S JOURNEY, and PETRA VOLARE. She writes articles for ScriptMag, the Writers Store, OpEdNews, and many other publications.
Pamela has appeared as a mythology expert on Fox’s Ice Age: Continental Drift Special Features, was the on-camera spokesperson for Microsoft’s Age of Mythology video game, and the Forbidden Secrets TV series.
Clients and credits include Disney, Paramount, Universal, RAI-TV Rome, Romance Writers of America, UCLA, USC Film School, American Film Institute, Natl. Film Institute of Denmark, Thot Fiction Marseille France, Pepperdine University, Natl. Assoc. of Broadcasters, The Studio Film Actors Training for German and other European actors, and various festivals and story conferences including the LA Webfest and Marseille Webfest. Others include the American Assoc. of University Women, Junior ROTC, General Motors, Boeing, Hyundai, Hughes Space & Communications, the FBI, and the U.S. Army. Pamela was a story and design consulant on two Wes Craven films – Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and Vampire in Brooklyn.
The Last Tiger Expedition sought a lost WWII American pilot, Pamela’s uncle, whose plane went down in the Himalayas. Working with NASA/JPL, the Smithsonian, and Pan Am, the project took her and Monty McMillan throughout the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. The plane was found, but not her uncle. Chinese and American government collaboration premiered a museum exhibit at the George Bush Library at Texas A&M and also in Kunming, China, as well as producing a film and a book.
Ms. Smith serves on the Entertainment Industries Council think tank, a Boeing think tank on Workforce Development & Education, and served on the U.S. Army’s Advanced Warfighting Working Group at Fort Knox. She attended both Army War College and Air War College National Security Forums and took post-graduate courses in Intelligence at American Military University. Pamela holds a BA in English, Latin, and Film from the University of Texas at Austin. After 8 years formal study in Comparative Mysticism, Pamela is a certified teacher of the Mystery Schools.
Founder of MYTHWORKS – “Applied Mythology for a more Powerful Reality”, she coaches writers, does writing-for-hire, and offers consultations on Mythic Tools for individuals and organizations. Pamela is co-founder of the Alpha Babe Academy.
During the 1990s Pamela served on the U.S. Army's Advanced Warfighting Working Group at Fort Knox, consulting on the Warrior Spirit, Leadership, Ethics and Values. She attended Army War College and the Air Force's Air War College. Her production company wrote and designed the 2000 Command Briefing CD for the U.S. Army Signal Command. Pamela was field producer on episodes of "America's Army" TV series. She has driven an M1A1 Tank – for real, and flown fighter jets – in simulators.
Mythic Challenges – “Create Stories that Change the World” brings the story tools of Mythic Themes, Archetypes, and Symbols to media makers addressing the 15 Global Challenges as identified by the Millennium Project and the United Nations. Pamela is co-founder and teacher; the pilot program included students in Los Angeles and Afghanistan and a number of student pieces have won recognition and awards.
Smith served as past president, LA Chapter, of the Pan Pacific SE Asia Women’s Assoc., Media Consultant for China Exploration and Research Society, trained for the Community Emergency Response Team, and was listed in the Millennium Edition of Who’s Who in the World. Pamela is a 3rd degree Master Mason and has served as an officer in a co-ed Lodge with international affiliations.
Various projects have taken Smith to the Arctic, the Andes, SE Asia, Europe, and New Zealand. She has filmed on the largest off-shore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, slept in grass huts and eaten guinea pig under Ecuador’s highest volcano, caught her own sushi in the Leyte Gulf, and rappelled into the jungles of Mindanao searching for WWII Japanese gold.
Pamela is an avid reader, drives classic cars, and enjoys opera. A dilettante approach to sports has included surfing, skiing, snorkeling, flying, go-cart & auto racing, and driving an off-shore oil rig and an Army tank -- both under close supervision.
****
[email protected]
www.mythworks.net
www.mythicchallenges.com
www.alphababeacademy.com
More Mythic Tools™ to help you improve
your creativity and your craft —
BOOKS
BEYOND THE HERO'S JOURNEY
Other Powerful Mythic Themes
INNER DRIVES
How to Write and Create Characters
Using the Eight Classic Centers of Motivation
PITCHING TIPS FROM ANCIENT AUTHORS
THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE
Creating Great Villains & Dangerous Situations
SYMBOLS.IMAGES.CODES
Secret Language of Meaning in Media
Books available from MYTHWORKS, Michael Wiese Productions www.mwp.com, The Writers Store www.writersstore.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and your local bookstore.
CDs/Downloads
ALPHA BABES, ARCHEPATHS, BEYOND THE HERO'S JOURNEY, CREATING OUR NEXT MYTHS, CREATIVE CYCLES, WARRIOR WAY FOR FILMMAKERS, and more
Products available from MYTHWORKS and The Writers Store www.writersstore.com
Consultants
Pamela Jaye Smith - Story Consultations, Writing, Coaching, Speaker, Teacher, Panelist, Workshop Leader
Monty Hayes McMillan - Writing, Directing, Production Consultant, Lighting Designer, Photographer
MYTHWORKS
323-874-6042
[email protected]
www.pamelajayesmith.com
www.mythworks.net
www.mythicchallenges.com
www.alphababeacademy.com
Show Me the Love! Page 13
