Screenwriting Fundamentals
STORY
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ALGEBRA
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A good dramatic story sets up an equation and solves it. What exactly does this mean? It's hard
to explain. It's when everything is there for a reason, and nothing goes wasted. It's when what
gets set up early in the story always pays off later. It's when symmetry is king.
It's what tugs at you when you're in the presence of cinematic greatness, the sense that everything's been resolved. It's also what aggravates you when the pieces don't all seem to fit, when something just ain't right, when all the loose ends didn't get tied up. Reading and writing tight poetry might help you gain a greater sense of it. As might reviewing country lyrics, or even writing them. Listen to really good jokes. Retell them. Watch television commercials carefully, or listen to radio ads. After a while you'll know it when you see it, and you won't be satisfied until you get there. Story Dynamics sets out to explain exactly this phenomenon. |
GENRE
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Your choice of genre drives the way you tell your story. Some genres are more "standard" in their
approach--film noir and western--while others give you freer reign--science fiction, comedy. Genre
defines the bigness or smallness of your story, who does what to whom, length, tempo, the need for
hooks and twists, etc.
View a few great examples of movies in each major genre, at least those you're considering writing in. It could greatly help your storytelling. |
SIMPLICITY
Tell a simple story well, at least at first. Like the guitarist who picks out his melody carefully, with softly worded lyrics. Compare him to the screamer who strums so loudly you can't even tell if he knows how to play the darn thing. You want to be the guy who's so convinced them you've mastered your story that they hang on every word. Set everything up carefully, but not so many things you lose track (or they're sure to). Play it out even more carefully, only moving on once your note has been struck. Know what you're doing every step of the way.
Learn to play the flute on a street corner, until you're a virtuoso. Then they'll invite to join
the orchestra--and be glad to have you.
The brilliance of these films derives from their simplicity. You can do it, too.
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'THREE-ACT STRUCTURE'
Syd Field essentially launched the whole industry of teaching screenwriting back in 1984 with his
book Screenplay: The
Foundations of Screenwriting, where he propounds the virtues of the 'three-act structure' in movie
scripts. Another of his more recent books Four Screenplays: Studies in the American
Screenplay is
an important source for the Magic Star
of Dramatic Writing posted at this resource.
Syd Field deserves all due respect and gratitude for what he has done for screenwriters everywhere, virtually opening up what had been a very closed shop. And perhaps due to him, everyone from studio chiefs on down talks in terms of the 'three-act structure'. Unfortunately, the 'three-act structure' has little real application to dramatic writing for the screen.
The only problems with the 'three-act structure' are that:
Other than that the concept is wonderfully useful. Actually, other than the fact that Hollywood uses this verbiage--without knowing what they are talking about most of the time--no good reason exists for defining a movie in three acts. Consider what Alex Epstein has to say on this important matter, not to mention John Truby. |
TRUTH
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The simple truth is that to write a good screenplay, that will be made into a good movie (if it's
made into anything at all), you must be more faithful to the 'cinematic story' than to what
actually happened. This applies to autobiographies, biographies, real-to-life stories, adaptations
of other works (fact or fiction), et cetera.
So what is the 'cinematic story'? It's the movie you want to get going in the head of the reader in Hollywood, so he'll keep turning the pages, and refer it to his boss. It's everything we're talking about here, and everything you're learning elsewhere about how to write a great story for the screen. It's a story with a beginning, middle, and end. It's a story with a set-up, launch, rising action, climax, and resolution (see Story Dynamics). And it's got a theme. It's all that, and whatever magic creeps in. The truth is that sticking to the truth of exactly what happened gives you a series of episodes, usually, which do not grab. They do not satisfy dramatically. Sticking solely to the truth won't get you produced, or keep people in their seats. Try to work the story around the elements of dramatic structure (see Story Dynamics). Or extract a love story or other important relationship inside the story and focus on that. Or zoom in on an intense series of events in the story. Or, if all else fails, derive a theme to hang the story elements on.
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then see
See also . .
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| Screenwriting | Universe | Magic Star | Story Dynamics |
