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Pregnancies

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Ccolebrook

Hey forum,

I wanna talk about pregnancies in screenplays. I've been editing one of my works and I found that a pregnancy would fill a lot of holes, and generally would give me a lot to play off of, but something is amiss.

It seems that with pregnancy there is an issue of time. 9 months has to pass from conception in the first act to birth late in the 3rd. This leads me to:
1. Montages
2. several small time cuts, or one large one.

I'm staying away from montages, and timecuts make the screenplay acts seem very episodic and split up, even if the plot goal is a nice line all the way through.

Is there a good example of a movie (not centered on the pregnancy) can use pregnancy effectively?

All the examples I can think of where pregnancy was pulled off--the movie was centered around the pregnancy itself, and they had to use timecuts and/or montages.
 
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I believe that everyone knows the time frame. So if
you have a scene where the woman tells her husband
she's pregnant and a cut to the two of them racing to
the hospital, everyone in the audience will understand
that time has passed. No montage needed.

Or, of course, any variation of that scenario.

But no, I don't have any examples.
 
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Instead of trying to track down "non-pregnancy, pregnancy" films just do some research about pregnant couples. Read the usual "expecting" books, duck into a few forums.

A simple way to show passage of time is to have the couple do what many couples do (including my wife and I); taking profile shots of her belly every month. There's also the usual "we just found out" period, the visits to the doctor, starting Lamaz classes, etc. plus the comedic "I can't see my feet", "I can't roll over any more" and all the rest.

Once you've been through all this stuff it's second nature.
 
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Is there a good example of a movie (not centered on the pregnancy) can use pregnancy effectively?
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I'm not really sure what you are looking for, 'cos you're also apparently adding it as an afterthought or fluff... so how important is it, really?


Seven had the pregnant wife. Makes her death that much more "awful". Wouldn't have mattered if she wasn't pregnant.

Fargo had the pregnant police officer. Gave the actor something to explore. Not sure it was important to the actual story.

Mmm.. just a few I can think of.
 
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In terms of movies that include the 9 month gestation period but which don't focus on the pregnancy, well, I think it's kind of rare.

It's difficult to think of anything off the top of my head and that's usually because it's an added distraction for the audience, especially if it's one of the main characters. There are movies, like Zensteve mentioned, where the focus isn't on the pregnancy but these all tend to occur within a 2 to 4 week period and therefore the progress of the pregnancy doesn't require the viewers attention.

I'll have a think for more movies, but I would ask the questions: do you need the pregnancy? Or is there a less distracting way to plug the gap?
 
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Well the pregnancy is important to the story for a lot of reasons, it's just a cumbersome amount of time to deal with. I think I'll go with the idea that she's already pregnant, or for some reason the pregnancy is shortened. I already penned an epic premature birth during the third act breakdown in order.
Thanks for the ideas guys. Now I gotta go watch fargo and seven to see if I can pick some stuff up.
 
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Ccolebrook said:
Well the pregnancy is important to the story for a lot of reasons, it's just a cumbersome amount of time to deal with. I think I'll go with the idea that she's already pregnant, or for some reason the pregnancy is shortened. I already penned an epic premature birth during the third act breakdown in order.
Thanks for the ideas guys. Now I gotta go watch fargo and seven to see if I can pick some stuff up.
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Don't forget Where the Heart Is. I think Wal Mart made a killing off that movie. Her pregnancy was integral to the story.
 
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The Road told the story of The Bombs dropping, and The Boy's birth in flashbacks, his pre-apocalypse conception and post-apocalypse birth were integral to explaining why mom went away, and why The Man's a little screwy at times. Flashback A, is to the night the bombs fell, Mom (Charlize Theron) does the usual Hand on top of and bottom of baby belly, then Flashback B, which came close to twenty minutes late rin the story, Shows her water breaking etc.

Flashbacks could eliminate the long passage of time for you, while continuing the chronology of events needed while taking a minimal break in the story, so long as they serve a purpose to forward the story as well.

No idea what your story is about, honestly, but here's what I would think is a halfway decent idea to open a story with, to explain she's pregnant, etc. Again, not story specific, and probably a shitty idea...


Two characters, a young man and a young girl are taking a road trip, exterior of the car, passenger shows the man driving, looking forward, the woman leans out the open window, arms folded her chin on her arms; she looks somewhat distraught. A flashback montage of sorts breifly passes scenes of the couple in happier times, enjoying such things as a young couple would (amusement park, ice cream, first kiss, etc.) After the flashback, the woman rolls her head down to cover her face, the man reachs over and rubs her back. Exterior shot switching to the opposite side of the car, The Man sighs and taps the stearing wheel, when his flash back begins. In it, he sees the things closer to a man's perspective. The first night together, her announcing, nervously, she's pregnant while he takes her in his arms to show her it's okay and they'll make it through it, then her beginning to show, her parents fighting with her, and kicking her out. His flashback ends with his car, loaded up with bags, pulling out of the driveway. As his flashback ends, it fades back to his face as he drives, the camera pulls out and back around the side of the car, showing it to be the same car, loaded the same way as the flashback as the camera pans to mimic the angle of the shot of the car from the flashback.
 
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An idea could be that her sister has died and the baby and womb are transplanted into the sister to save the baby. Thus she does not need to be pregnant for 9 months, instead just 3 months or so.
 
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At the moment I'm running with a premature birth under the 3rd act stress leading up to the climax. It might work. I'll have to see how many months I can shave off. Directorik however, is right. I think people will just get it if I use a few timecuts.

Thanks to everyone who has posted to keep this thread going.
 
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Well, she only said she was pretty sure.

And besides, if you'd read the articles you posted, you'd see that it hasn't been done in humans yet. And they are talking about a womb transplantation, not transplanting a fetus from one woman's uterus to another, which is what was suggested. So your snark is moot :P
 
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Dreadylocks said:
Well, she only said she was pretty sure.

And besides, if you'd read the articles you posted, you'd see that it hasn't been done in humans yet. And they are talking about a womb transplantation, not transplanting a fetus from one woman's uterus to another, which is what was suggested. So your snark is moot :P
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I didn't know snark was a noun.?? :)
 
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