Sunday Blog: That's Why Your Script is So Very Boring

photo by jimmymac333

For the last month, I have been banging the drum loudly about the importance of the scene. About how I believe there is a real need to take both a cinematic and thematic approach to the writing of scripts, rather than just seeing the scene as a structural unit. This week I want to bite the bullet and write specifically about how I approach that task. I'm doing this mainly to clear my own head, but also because most scripts are fairly boring to read, and I believe this is largely because they are focused on the wrong areas. Of course, as usual, all I am doing here is writing about what I do when faced with a writing project. It's not meant to be instructive, helpful, a template for success or even definitively right... it's just what I am thinking about these days, about the task of writing for the screen. So, with that caveat in place, let's have at it.

Cinematic and thematic screenwriting is a big subject to cover on a Sunday morning before the first cup of tea, so this week I'm only going to write about the cinematic element. I'll pick up on the thematic element next week.

The first thing I need to do, is to contradict myself by saying the scene, as a unit, isn't that important for writers and that some of the information currently guiding writers is misguided in the way it discusses the basic units of story-telling.

For me, the scene isn't really a writer's way of looking at screenplays. A scene is a unit of story-telling which relates specifically to production. Basically, a scene is defined as "the part of a story which can be told in one location, without having to relocate the camera crew."  So, the scene is really about the practicalities of production, which isn't the same as understanding the flow of the story. For the writer, the natural way to break and understand a story is to see it in terms of sequences. A sequence is a coherent lump of story, which can take place in one or multiple locations. Sequences can and do run through multiple scenes.

I hadn't thought of this before I started writing today, but some of the pacing problems I see in scripts, relate specifically to writers confusing the role of the scene and the role of the sequence. If you confuse the two, it's possible to force distinct lumps of story (a sequence) into one location (a scene), instead of keeping the story moving. The scene as a unit doesn't have to have to contain a coherent lump of story, not in the way a sequence does... and, when people do stuff a unit of story into a scene, it restricts movement and it most cases it forces down the pace of the story-telling, placing more pressure onto the dialogue. Or in other words, the story starts to drag because the focus has shifted to the static and the expositional.

For me, the purpose of a script is solely to sell my visualisation of the movie to the reader. This is an important distinction from other ways of viewing a script. Particularly the idea that the purpose of the script could be solely to describe the journey of the characters. For me, a script isn't a description of what the characters do, and what they say. Instead the script is a transcription of my visualisation of the piece.

The visualisation is massively important. The movie I have in my head needs to make it onto the page, in some readable, coherent form. Not only that, the visualisation has to inspire producers, directors and actors.

For instance, scenes need to be placed in specific, visually understood locations. I need to be able to see each of these places clearly in my mind and also be able to sell the visual sense of that location to the readers. The locations are just as important as the inner lives of the characters. In fact, in thematic screenwriting, the relationship between the characters and their environment should underpin the theme of the story. Rather than depending on a contrived conversation to show a character's sense of isolation, it is more cinematic and more thematic to show this through their relationship to their environment. This is taking the story-telling out of the dialogue and out of the specific actions, and seeing the entire range of story-telling components on offer.

In some sequences, what the character is wearing can tell the audience more than their dialogue. As can their relationships to specific place, or their relationships to important and significant objects.

In terms of the actual writing, the "action" element of the script is better seen as "description." Description not just of what the characters are doing, but more especially how details of environment, action and movement reveal the conflicts and connections of the story. With this kind of story-telling 75% of the conversation with the audience takes place within the "action." The dialogue only really carries emotional tension between characters. By forcing the story-telling into the action, this frees up the dialogue to do what it does best, that is, to demonstrate the emotional shifts, tensions, connections and schisms between characters. Of course, not all of that needs to be carried in the dialogue. It is quite a common technique to have a character say one thing in the dialogue, whilst revealing to the audience the lie of that statement through their actions.

So, in terms of the difference between cinematic writing and structural, it is largely about seeing the sequence as the unit of story as opposed to the scene; it is about keeping the story moving rather than getting stuck in one location, trying to reach your story goals via exposition; and, it is about seeing the script as the sale of a visualisation, in which key story-telling elements are embedded in the visual and where dialogue is about the interplay emotional shifts, rather than the primary driving force of the story, through which everything must be conveyed.

Or, to put it simply... show me, don't tell me!

Of course, showing not telling is a lot easier to do, once you understand that you don't have to progress your story in every scene, providing each scene is part of a coherent sequence.

keep writing and viva la revolution

Posted via email from Filmutopia's Sunday Morning Movie Blog