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help with trying to write my very first screenplay..

L

littleturtle

i've been trying to write a screenplay the past few months but whenever i decide on a story, i decide to scrap it and write another one. anyways... i've finally thought of a story and this time i'd like to finish writing it.

i'm trying to follow the 3-act-structure but i have problems with the 2nd act. i need tips on how to make the supposed "boring" part of the movie NOT boring. how do i go about in doing this?
 
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Wait -- are you saying the 2nd act is the "boring" part of the story. Shit, that's when everything's happening.

Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat". Cool resource for screenwriting. I know dudes who subscribe to his methods like it's scripture. I won't go that far, but I definitely think the screenplay I'm working on improved a lot by applying most (if not all) of his methods.

How long do you plan this screenplay to be? I believe shorter and longer screenplays should have different methods of writing.
 
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I agree on Save The Cat. It provides some helpful tips, especially if you're writing your first sceenplay.

I started reading about screenwriting three years ago, and have never written something exceeding 30 pages (I keep in mind that I might shoot them myself). Most of the time, it's hard enough.

Although everyone's different, I really suggest trying to write a short film first. Or better yet, write a few short films. It'll be good practice to see what works and what doesn't. If you feel like you're leaving stuff out because of the shortened length, then great - it has potential and might play out well in a lengthier script.

At first, I was desperate for ideas, and consequently the story was forced. I trust it's much better to let ideas come to you, instead of seeking them yourself forcefully. Just keep getting inspired and you'll know what you want to write about.
 
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Cracker Funk said:
Wait -- are you saying the 2nd act is the "boring" part of the story. Shit, that's when everything's happening.

Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat". Cool resource for screenwriting. I know dudes who subscribe to his methods like it's scripture. I won't go that far, but I definitely think the screenplay I'm working on improved a lot by applying most (if not all) of his methods.

How long do you plan this screenplay to be? I believe shorter and longer screenplays should have different methods of writing.
Click to expand...

thanks for the suggestion on "save the cat". i'm definitely getting that.. it's number 1 on amazon's screenwriting books so yeah lol

full length feature film.. this is the script i'm actualy very certain of. like i said, i've triied writing scripts before, just kept scrapping it tho lol.
 
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If you like me, you have a great idea for what a story is ABOUT, however, this is not the same as having a story.


Many of the following ideas are from the book "Story" By Robert Mckee.

Try creating the story first. Don't worry about screenplay until you have your story.

In this context, Your "story" should be something you can tell to another person in 10 mins or less. Spend just a few days working on it. This is NOT a treatment or a mini-novel, just a collection of ideas written down on 3x5 cards, and organized into a story form. For a mental picture of what I mean, Imagine how you would "tell" "Star Wars" as a bed time story.

When you think you have a good story to tell (literally) invite a friend out for a soda or whatever, and tell them your story, in 10 mins or less. Your friend will ask questions like "hey, why did the guy do the thing?" which will help you to "tighten" up your story. Do this several time, till your story is understandable by your listeners.

Now ask your self is it a "good" story?

If your answer is "100% YES! YES!" Then go forward with a screen play..
If your answer is 'Pretty good, but needs work?" Then decide if you want to fix it now, or come back to it latter.
If your answer is "No, this story is stupid" then, move on to the next story.


Once you have a story, then you can smash into the three act (or any other) structure as you like. Now that you have an "ending" to your story, you can make sure that EVERY scene drives towards that ending. That every character is working for or against your hero reaching that end.

Keeping in mind that at least 50% of what you write is pure garbage, write twice as many screenplay pages as you think you'll need.

After your first draft, pick your three most favorite scenes and cut them! Ouch. This will assure that you don't corrupt the story just to support a few scenes, which given the "50%" rule above, probably aren't that great anyway.


OK, hope that makes sense..

Another book to consider "The Heroes 2 Journeys" which I think is audio \ DVD only...
 
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littleturtle said:
i'm trying to follow the 3-act-structure but i have problems with the 2nd act. i need tips on how to make the supposed "boring" part of the movie NOT boring. how do i go about in doing this?
Click to expand...
If your second act is boring, you don't have a story.

Look at the second act of "Star Wars". It starts when
the protagonist decides to leave home and save the
princess and ends when the protagonist escapes from
imprisonment. None of that is boring.

They way you go about making the second act NOT boring
is to have your protagonist make a very important decision
that will cause complications that must be resolved. How
these complications are resolved IS your story.
 
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If possible, check out (Indietalk member) Filmjumper’s 4 act structure.

It’s not a be all end all solution, and doesn’t claim to be, but that to me makes it makes all
the more liberating and useful a resource to have in one’s arsenal of creative considerations.

-Thanks-
 
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maybe look at your characters external motivation? What IS he going for? In the first act he should have had his life interrupted, and now has made a plan to put life back in order. He must have a VISIBLE goal or your not yet in out of the 1st act. Visible meaning, on of a few concepts:

Hes going to find something: (raiders of the lost ark)
Hes going to stop something: (Silence Of The Lambs)
Hes going to Kill something: (Payback?)

Of course these goals can be literal, or figurative, but the goal must be visible.
 
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wheatgrinder said:
maybe look at your characters external motivation? What IS he going for? In the first act he should have had his life interrupted, and now has made a plan to put life back in order. He must have a VISIBLE goal or your not yet in out of the 1st act. Visible meaning, on of a few concepts:

Hes going to find something: (raiders of the lost ark)
Hes going to stop something: (Silence Of The Lambs)
Hes going to Kill something: (Payback?)

Of course these goals can be literal, or figurative, but the goal must be visible.
Click to expand...

what if it's more of a dramatic story where things are on their way to unravelling rather than some goal being seeked?
 
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What I am about to say is solely my opinion, but I will stand by it until the day I die.

Screenwriting books such as Save the Cat, Sequence Method, etc. ARE POISON!

I wasted two years of my life reading screenwriting books for the answer, turns out, they don't give you the answer. Instead, what they do give you is a medium for one to procrastinate.

If you spend the time it take reading one of those books, you could have brainstormed and worked through your little boring part of the story.
 
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littleturtle said:
what if it's more of a dramatic story where things are on their way to unravelling rather than some goal being seeked?
Click to expand...


All drama is essentially goal seeking. Consider a story about a couple whose marriage is falling apart.
What is the external goal of the wife? Maybe she wants more romance.

What is the external goal of the husband? Maybe he wants more "freedom."

The drama IS IN the action that arises from these conflicting goals.


In a "the world is falling apart" scenario, the world STARTS out as ordered, and moves to disordered. Maybe Your characters goal is to navigate (to plot) through this changing world and end up "not dead!" Staying alive is a real goal. Youll want to put a "finish line" like staying alive until the war is over or the bad guys go away, or the radiation levels drop to a safe level.. or whatever..

Just because the character has a goal, doesn't mean he has to reach it. If its a tragedy, then he CANT reach it, he fails in the attempt and we all feel real bad..

Maybe your character is RESISTING the unraveling,.. your characters goal then is to "put things back to normal!" or to "STOP the unraveling!" its very likely that this is an IMPOSSIBLE goal, which makes for some good drama and even comedic irony.

At the end of the first act the hero, and the viewers know what that goal is. The 2nd act is the heroes attempt to REACH that goal. So, he does things to resist the unraveling. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off.. lots of action, lots interesting things.. certainly he keeps failing, in greater and greater degrees, as he get closer and closer to the ultimate showdown between him and the agents of the unraveling.

Hope this helps.
 
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littleturtle said:
what if it's more of a dramatic story where things are on their way to unravelling rather than some goal being seeked?
Click to expand...
That might be your problem.

A second act where the protagonist has things happen to him and
has no goals is likely to be boring. Even in a more dramatic story
(and I don’t know what could be more dramatic than “Silence of the
Lambs” or even “Payback”) the protagonist should be someone we
relate to in some way. We don’t need to like him, we need to
identify with him.

In “The Godfather” Michael struggles with the family and we
identify with his struggle. He has goals even if he can’t meet
them because of his obligations. In “American Beauty” Lester’s
life is unraveling, but he has goals we can identify with and
works towards those goals. In “Cast Away” Chuck’s life totally
unravels but the second act isn’t boring because he has a goal.

You don’t tell us anything about your story so it’s impossible to
give you specific advice, but in general if your second act is
boring, you don’t have a story. As has been said, the second act
is where the story happens - it’s the most interesting part of a
movie.

Maybe your second act is suffering because things are on their way
to unraveling rather than their being a goal. That’s very passive.
Things should unravel at the end of the first act. Then your
protagonist must put everything back together. How that happens is
your story.
 
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TheOpusFuller said:
What I am about to say is solely my opinion, but I will stand by it until the day I die.

Screenwriting books such as Save the Cat, Sequence Method, etc. ARE POISON!

I wasted two years of my life reading screenwriting books for the answer, turns out, they don't give you the answer. Instead, what they do give you is a medium for one to procrastinate.

If you spend the time it take reading one of those books, you could have brainstormed and worked through your little boring part of the story.
Click to expand...

Ah, this is a classic argument. Aristotle vs Sophocles, DiVinci vs. Angelo. ....

Rigid education and mastery of your craft, vs. intuition and passion for creativity. As you can see, a consensus has not yet been reached, but heck, whats a few thousand years.. :D
 
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wheatgrinder said:
At the end of the first act the hero, and the viewers know what that goal is.
Click to expand...

is this mandatory? my movie is sort of like the truman show where the other supporting characters are the only ones who know the truth, and the main character himself doesn't actually find out for himself until the climax. during the the first two acts i plan on showing some signs to the audience that something isn't right, but i don't want to let them know it right away (see mulloholland drive).

was the goal clear to the audience in mulholland drive and the truman show? i forget..

also has there ever been a movie that ended on a climax?
 
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also again.. what about subplots? tips on them..

i'm sorry about all the questions but like i said.. i don't have much experience yet.

appreciate all your answers by the way. if i don't reply to them it doesn't mean id idn't read them. i read everyones.

:)
 
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littleturtle said:
is this mandatory? my movie is sort of like the truman show where the other supporting characters are the only ones who know the truth, and the main character himself doesn't actually find out for himself until the climax. during the the first two acts i plan on showing some signs to the audience that something isn't right, but i don't want to let them know it right away (see mulloholland drive).
Click to expand...
Nothing is really mandatory. But people respond to stories in
fairly standard ways. We relate to someone with a goal because
we either have goals or wish we had goals. A story where things
just happen to a protagonist who has no, specific goal is likely to
be boring. Which is why you may be having troubles with your
second act being boring.

In “Mulholland Drive” Betty has a goal; to find out who Rita is,
what happened to her and why. The entire second act is Betty
attempting to reach that goal.

The second act of “The Truman Show” is when Truman notices
things are not as they seem. His goal is to find out what’s going
on. Nothing just happens to him, Truman looks where he wasn’t
supposed to look and actively seeks answers.

littleturtle said:
also again.. what about subplots? tips on them..
Click to expand...
Again, impossible to give you specific tips on subplots. In
general the subplot connects to the main plot. In “The Truman
Show” there are several; Sylvia is taken off the show and starts a
“Free Truman” movement. The actress playing his wife succumbs to
the stress and breaks down (just as everything on the show is
breaking down). Christof strives to keep the show going.


also has there ever been a movie that ended on a climax?
Click to expand...
I don't quite understand your question. Nearly all movies end on a
climax. Usually it's when the protagonist reaches the goal. Sometimes
it's when the protagonist fails to reach the goal. Sometimes the climax
is open ended. In "The Truman Show" Truman reaches his goal and
steps through the door into the real world. That's a climax of his goal but
the audience knows more awaits him.

In "Star Wars" the story ends on a climax - Luke blows up the Death
Star - and even the very end of the film is a climax; they are all rewarded
for their service.

Even movies that end on a "downer" end on a climax. In "The Sixth Sense"
Dr. Crowe make a climatic discovery. In "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid" the climax is the overwhelming odds they face.
 
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directorik said:
I don't quite understand your question. Nearly all movies end on a
climax. Usually it's when the protagonist reaches the goal. Sometimes
it's when the protagonist fails to reach the goal. Sometimes the climax
is open ended. In "The Truman Show" Truman reaches his goal and
steps through the door into the real world. That's a climax of his goal but
the audience knows more awaits him.

In "Star Wars" the story ends on a climax - Luke blows up the Death
Star - and even the very end of the film is a climax; they are all rewarded
for their service.

Even movies that end on a "downer" end on a climax. In "The Sixth Sense"
Dr. Crowe make a climatic discovery. In "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid" the climax is the overwhelming odds they face.
Click to expand...


http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/threeact.htm

i got my info there ^.. i figured by the timeline they had that there was a short period of time right after the climax before the story actually ended.. i need to find better resources :grumpy:.
 
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A lot of movies have a few moments AFTER the climax to let the audience experience the emotions of what just happened. Let the audience feel it for a bit before slamming them in the head with the credits.. Some movies you need time to "compose" your self before the lights come up. The Denouement (as its called in your link) is just that.

Some movies like college comedy movies have the "what happened to them after" shots.
Or its the "ridding into the sunset" shot.
Or like in a story, you have the ".. and they lived happily ever after" line..

You dont have to do ANY of this.. is just to help you structure your story in a readily acceptable way. Stories have been around a LONG time... the physiological structures in our brains respond to story patterns. We see the world in story.
 
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