Instant Drama -- Just add water

[clive]

Hi Guys

Been reading a lot of indie short scripts lately where nothing happens and realized that often indies are ham strung by their visual natures.

This is how it goes -- indie A has an idea for a scene, can see how they will shoot it in their head and then tries to write the scene to fit the vision.

If you think about it -- this is ass backwards -- it's like starting with a shot list and working back to a script, when in fact the natural progression is to do it in the other direction.

One of the results of doing it backwards is that both the story and characterisation tend to suffer or in many cases disappear.

So, here is a way to create an instant drama. It's very simple and you can even apply it to your ass backwards way of working.

Step One -- Create a character with an objective.

Example -- Billy is a goat who wants to cross a bridge to get to the grass on the other side.

Step Two -- Create a character whose objective puts them into conflict with the first character.

Example -- Mondo the Troll who lives under the bridge and gets a headache every time someone walks over his roof.

Step Three -- Put them in the same room!

Step Four -- after each attempt of your protagonist to reach their objective raise the stakes and escalate.

(This is easy to understand -- it's the basic formula for every Wiley Coyote cartoon you've ever seen --- one, chase on foot with butterfly net -- two, chase on rocket powered roller skates -- three, build fiendishly complicated atomic powered missile)

How you apply this to an ass backwards indie script is you take your vision for the scene --

Example -- Two Nuns sitting on a park bench, feeding the ducks shot with steadycam circling them.

Now instead of just writing bad "Nun Dialogue" -- instead you go through the steps.

Step One -- Give one nun an objective -- The Young Nun wants to rip off her habit and run naked through the park

Step Two -- Give the Old Nun a objective in conflict with the Young Nun -- So, her objective is to teach young nun discipline

Step Three -- wind them up and let them go.

So now in your film all you need to do is find ways for Young Nun to try to get the Old Nun to go away so she can run naked through the park and for the Old Nun to foil those ploys.

Example -- The young Nun pretends that she's thirsty, asks the Old Nun to get her some water -- but the Old Nun has water in her bag .

Now, escalate the conflict.

And, if you're smart find a nice twist for the ending.

So the Young Nun learns the value of discipline and goes back to the convent to renew her efforts. Once she's gone the Old Nun throws off her kit and runs naked though the park.

Bingo -- instant short.

Hope this helps

 

[Eddie Rex]

I suppose a conflict between two characters (example goat and troll) creates believeable dialogue and builds up more drama. Which is more entertaining than watching two nuns feeding the ducks and talking crap!

I have been thinking up this character called Richard Head whose a hyperactive filmmaker and the beginning scene starts with him giving an interview in his car introducing his next film "Revenge of the Shit" when we see another car drive alongside of him with the passenger smiling into the camera. The drama escalates with Richard Head getting furious about this passenger and drives after the other car chasing him into a cafe where he confronts the other character saying ok, whats the big idea? The arguement builds up to a climax, then we see the cafe owner enter the scene and throwing out Richard Head.

The film is not yet in production and follows the filmmaker Richard Head showing all the scenes he gets into while making his new film "Revenge of the Shit." However the actual title of the film will be "One day i shall rule the World."

 

[CootDog]

Well I have to say anything can trigger a vision of a scene in a short film, anything. I could be at the office talking to someone, or driving in the car, or shopping at the supermarket, listening to the news, etc. I then record that vision or idea on my voice recorder. Once it's time for me to write something else, I listen to the recordings and develop a story from there. Although now, I'll be using the cluster/web/matrix method of initial story development. So while the scene is somehting I'll want created the way I invisioned it, the story should develop properly.

Thanks to Guru Clive for the basics of a drama. I've never done a drama, maybe I'll have to tackle that next.

Clive, what inspires you to write? Do you see a vision then develop a story around it, or do you sit at the computer and just start typing and let it flow, or what?

Is it wrong to have the scene vision first?

 

[clive]

Clive, what inspires you to write? Do you see a vision then develop a story around it, or do you sit at the computer and just start typing and let it flow, or what?

Tough one. I've always been a writer -- had my first poem published when I was nine -- completed my first novel when I was eleven. So for me, it's always been what I was rather than what I do. (If that makes sense).

What sparks me creatively are ideas/concepts -- which is the reason I often start with an idea that phrased "What if" -- so "What if a man could only express himself in song?" "What effect would that have on his life?"

However, sometimes it's something visual -- my main writing project at the moment started it's life when I was shooting No Place and realised how much light was generated by an AK47. That started a chain of "what ifs" that soon went from that purely visual idea to a concept -- one that's still developing.

In the main though, I have a process that I go thorough which is:

1) Develop high concept idea
2) Develop characters
3) Write logline
4) Develop plot into 45 sequences
5) Write the script

The one thing I never do is decide how I'm going to shoot it before I've written the script.

Is it wrong to have the scene vision first?

Absolutely not, providing you realise that it's just the starting point and not the end in itself.

The biggest problem with writing to a vision of the scene is it becomes to inflexible. In writing a script I think you need to be more open minded and fluid. This means writing the same sequence in several different ways, and diferent locations. You can't do that if you're locked into a directorial vision.

But that's just how I do it.

I think it's key to say that there isn't ONE right way. However, that said, there are a million wrong ways.

 

[CootDog]

Yes, I totally agree. As the story develops the visionary scene, could change and should be able to change. Writing has to be fluid in order to make it all flow with the proper continuity. If you're not open to change, then it might seem the scene is forced or just be weird. I've seen many movies where they have one great climactic scene in where the entire film is based upon. However, the rest of the film is crap.