Screenwriting+Guidelines

back to screenwriting

**Creating Memorable Scripts and Characters** - > Film is primarily a visual medium; almost everything that needs to be communicated about a story and its characters is ethier shown than explained. Visual cues, when well conceived, will demonstrate the unseen- inner psychology, hidden histories, and emotional conflicts- far better than direct explanation will. If you show rather than tell, you will leave more screen time for more important things. > **Telling**- "When Wanda left me I took it hard and fell off the wagon" > **Showing**- Trash covered room, empty bottles on bed stand, head hanging off the bed, drool coming out his mouth. > Back-story consists of events that occureed prior to the srart of a film: childhood traumas, recent crises, longstanding grudges, the history of the physical setting, and much more. A woman seen in a Chanel suit at the unemployment office will quickly bring the viewer up to date on a life that recently underwent dramatic change. A character asking "Are you still in love with him?" might tell everything one needs to know about another's romantic history. And a single on-camera event can demonstrate a long-term pattern: A man storms out on his wife in the midst of an argument, and she hurls a high-heeled shoe at him. The shoe hits the door, and a dozen heel marks are seen on the door as it slams shut. Poor backstory exposition can shadow an entire film. > Inexperienced filmmakers may fail to imbue a protaganist with undesirable traits because they want him or her to appear likable and their cause noble. But a perfect, completely capable hero leads an audience to relax its attention: If he can handle anything, why worry? Audiences are usually fascinated by contradictions and shortcomings in a film's characters. The idiosyncrasies and failings we all have are even more compelling in a character that is otherwise heroic. IV. What's At Stake- > Show viewers early and clearly what the stakes are- what the protaganist most values in his or her ordinary world and what will be lost if the antagonist prevails. The protaganist's effort to retain the positives of his or her ordinary world while fending off the negative intrusion on it provides the central tension of a movie. When a story lacks tension, it is usually because (a) the stakes were poorly defined; (b) the stakes were not set high enough; or (c) the antagonist is not sufficiently threatening. > A protaganist's goals can be initially abstract, but must become more concrete as the story unfolds. Make goals visual, tangible, and active: proving one's innocence, vanquishing the villain, sovlving the mystery, acquiring an object or piece of knowledge, producing an event acquiring an award. > A Macguffin-- a term popularized by Alfred Hitchcock-- is a specific goal deemed important by the characters early on but that turns out to be irrelevent or worthless to the larger cause. VI. Create Memorable Entrances > Your protaganist's character, style, and behavior must be distictive from the moment we first lay eyes on him or her. Does she trip on a carpet snag? Did she forget to remove a hair curler? Is he carrying a not-quite-concealed weapon? Is he a debonair smoothie amid a hubbub of confusion and crudity? VII. Props Reveal Character: > A prop is any object physcially handled by an actor, including elements of wardwobe. Props not onl make a set more lifelike and believable, but inform on character and back-story. VIII. Every Scene Must Reveal New Information and Contain Conflict > A movie presents a problem; its eventual solution requires that new information be made available to both characters and viewers. Every scene consequently must contain a revelation of previously unknown information. It need not be a bombshell, but should be specific; and if not pure, objective information, it can be about how different characters percieve or react to the same information. Every scene needs to contribute to the building of and intensifying of conflcit. The discord can be modest, overt, embedded in the subtext, sweet or funny. IX. Dialogye is Not Real Speech > Dialgoue must sound authentic, but it needs to be much more colorful, compact and on-point than natural speech. Real-life speech is full of asides and non sequiturs that - unless intedned for a specific effect - can be tedious to listen to in a film. Effective dialogue propels the plot forward, informs character, and is structured with a beginning, middle, a end-- even when the diealogue begins in the middle of a scene. **X. Beginning Middle, End-** Whether working out the broad concept of a new story, figuring out the particulars of a film during production, or editing a story in post-production, efforts should almost always be directed toward establishing and reinforcing a three-act structure. **Act 1**- Establish the Problem- Show the ordinary world of the protaganist, introduce the inciting incident that disrupts it, and make the stakes clear and compelling should the protaganist fail. **Act 2-** Complicate the Problem- The confilct grows deeper and broader, and the initial response by the protaganist proves inadequate. **Act 3** - Resolve the Problem. Events reach their inevitable climax and resolution.
 * I. Show Don't Tell-**
 * II. Control the Backstory-**
 * III. A Flawed Protaganist is More Compelling Than A Perfect One-**
 * V. Create Tangible Objects of Desire-**