Clichés... We all write them. Sometimes, there's even a good reason for it. Or is there?
Clichés come in all forms... Characters, dialogue, locations, action, and description. Many of us think in clichés. Clichés are clichés because that's what we think of most when someone explains something to us...
When I say the word, “Mafia” in connection with film, don't you almost immediately conjure up pictures of THE GODFATHER, GOODFELLAS, CASINO, THE SOPRANOS, et al?
So the next time you sit down and bang out a few pages on your screenplay, take a hard look at your characters, dialogue, locations, action, and description... Hell, take this a step further and look at your story itself.
What's it about?
Is the story cliché in and of itself? Is it something we've seen before? Would we, as an audience draw comparisons to other films simply by reading the script?
Is cliché bad?
Well, in spec screenwriting, YES, cliché is bad. In fact, you do just about everything you can do to eliminate cliché from your story and script. I would even venture to say that Indie filmmakers writing their own screenplays should strive to avoide cliché whenever possible.
How do you accomplish this?
I'm a huge believer in writing the first draft of your script in whatever way makes it the most easiest for you... If you're like most of us and “think in clichés,” fine... Write that first draft as cliché as it must be TO GET THAT STORY OUT OF YOU and ON THE PAGE!
Getting the story out of you and on the page is the huge first step in getting rid of clichés EVEN if that first draft is full of 'em.
Why?
Because now, you can identify them and perform second draft surgery. Just as a doctor cuts out tumors, so should you cut out clichés in your screenplay.
Got a scene in a car? Sure you do... Don't we all? Is it the same scene we always see in the movies? Two heads talking?
How do you take a standard scene like that... A scene that you absolutely must have and turn it upside down so that it's no longer a cliché?
You have to get creative! Maybe one of the passengers is playing with the radio. Maybe he or she is going through the glovebox... Maybe he or she is making faces at other drivers...
The sky's the limit here... Use your imagination to turn that tired old scene into something we'll enjoy watching...
Maybe your screenplay is already outstanding but you have a few of those “standard” scenes that we've all seen before... Try to come up with ways to make these “standard scenes” become non-standard i.e., avoid the standard cliché and figure out HOW to change certain aspects of the scene.
Same goes with characters...
Instead of a tough street-wise homocide detective, figure out ways to make this same character feel authentic to us... Maybe he's addicted to porn and this addiction often gets in the way of his work... Maybe he's a vegetarian and he's always talking about different kinds of veggie dishes... Whatever. Find ways to avoid what we, as an audience, would normally conjure up in our head when a character is described to us.
Dialogue...
Take a look at your first draft and see if the characters have said what we would generally expect a character of this type to say... If so, change it up. Give the character a stutter. Maybe every third word is a cuss word or maybe he never cusses... Maybe he quotes authors all the time... Maybe the gospel... Find something that makes him or her unique and gives the character their own “voice.”
Locations...
See if you've got the same old tired locations we've seen before and then consider coming up with a new location for that scene... Often, just a simple location switch can make a scene much more exciting and avoid the usual cliché at the same time.
Instead of the bar scene or the strip joint scene, what about the top of a building? What about a theater during a film and the other audience members start getting annoyed at the characters having a conversation? I once took a tired, cliché scene of a friend's script... A detective talking to his boss in the bosses office... Seen it before... Hundreds of times. I rewrote it so that the detective had to find his boss walking his dog and while the two are in a heated discussion, the dog gets loose and hit by a car. It became everyone's favorite scene in the script...
Action...
We've covered this in other tips but try to refrain from using tired old verbs like RUN, WALK, TURN, etc. in exchange for a verb that best describes the action.
Description...
Same here... Instead of the same old tired stuff like:
EXT. DESERT FREEWAY – DAY
A very hot day.
Change it up to something a little more descriptive...
EXT. MOJAVE DESERT FREEWAY – INTERSTATE 10 – DAY
A fiery orange ball of a sun hangs high in the sky. Heat waves pulsate off the blacktop.
Make it just a little more fun to read without going overboard...
Figure out a way to turn the cliché upside down and you'll go a lot farther toward having people that read your screenplay, really get into it and maybe even a sale...
filmy
Clichés come in all forms... Characters, dialogue, locations, action, and description. Many of us think in clichés. Clichés are clichés because that's what we think of most when someone explains something to us...
When I say the word, “Mafia” in connection with film, don't you almost immediately conjure up pictures of THE GODFATHER, GOODFELLAS, CASINO, THE SOPRANOS, et al?
So the next time you sit down and bang out a few pages on your screenplay, take a hard look at your characters, dialogue, locations, action, and description... Hell, take this a step further and look at your story itself.
What's it about?
Is the story cliché in and of itself? Is it something we've seen before? Would we, as an audience draw comparisons to other films simply by reading the script?
Is cliché bad?
Well, in spec screenwriting, YES, cliché is bad. In fact, you do just about everything you can do to eliminate cliché from your story and script. I would even venture to say that Indie filmmakers writing their own screenplays should strive to avoide cliché whenever possible.
How do you accomplish this?
I'm a huge believer in writing the first draft of your script in whatever way makes it the most easiest for you... If you're like most of us and “think in clichés,” fine... Write that first draft as cliché as it must be TO GET THAT STORY OUT OF YOU and ON THE PAGE!
Getting the story out of you and on the page is the huge first step in getting rid of clichés EVEN if that first draft is full of 'em.
Why?
Because now, you can identify them and perform second draft surgery. Just as a doctor cuts out tumors, so should you cut out clichés in your screenplay.
Got a scene in a car? Sure you do... Don't we all? Is it the same scene we always see in the movies? Two heads talking?
How do you take a standard scene like that... A scene that you absolutely must have and turn it upside down so that it's no longer a cliché?
You have to get creative! Maybe one of the passengers is playing with the radio. Maybe he or she is going through the glovebox... Maybe he or she is making faces at other drivers...
The sky's the limit here... Use your imagination to turn that tired old scene into something we'll enjoy watching...
Maybe your screenplay is already outstanding but you have a few of those “standard” scenes that we've all seen before... Try to come up with ways to make these “standard scenes” become non-standard i.e., avoid the standard cliché and figure out HOW to change certain aspects of the scene.
Same goes with characters...
Instead of a tough street-wise homocide detective, figure out ways to make this same character feel authentic to us... Maybe he's addicted to porn and this addiction often gets in the way of his work... Maybe he's a vegetarian and he's always talking about different kinds of veggie dishes... Whatever. Find ways to avoid what we, as an audience, would normally conjure up in our head when a character is described to us.
Dialogue...
Take a look at your first draft and see if the characters have said what we would generally expect a character of this type to say... If so, change it up. Give the character a stutter. Maybe every third word is a cuss word or maybe he never cusses... Maybe he quotes authors all the time... Maybe the gospel... Find something that makes him or her unique and gives the character their own “voice.”
Locations...
See if you've got the same old tired locations we've seen before and then consider coming up with a new location for that scene... Often, just a simple location switch can make a scene much more exciting and avoid the usual cliché at the same time.
Instead of the bar scene or the strip joint scene, what about the top of a building? What about a theater during a film and the other audience members start getting annoyed at the characters having a conversation? I once took a tired, cliché scene of a friend's script... A detective talking to his boss in the bosses office... Seen it before... Hundreds of times. I rewrote it so that the detective had to find his boss walking his dog and while the two are in a heated discussion, the dog gets loose and hit by a car. It became everyone's favorite scene in the script...
Action...
We've covered this in other tips but try to refrain from using tired old verbs like RUN, WALK, TURN, etc. in exchange for a verb that best describes the action.
Description...
Same here... Instead of the same old tired stuff like:
EXT. DESERT FREEWAY – DAY
A very hot day.
Change it up to something a little more descriptive...
EXT. MOJAVE DESERT FREEWAY – INTERSTATE 10 – DAY
A fiery orange ball of a sun hangs high in the sky. Heat waves pulsate off the blacktop.
Make it just a little more fun to read without going overboard...
Figure out a way to turn the cliché upside down and you'll go a lot farther toward having people that read your screenplay, really get into it and maybe even a sale...
filmy
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