ScriptFaze

Something I Wish I'd Known As A New Writer: Don't Write Scripts That Can't Be Made

A lot is made in screenwriting classes and books of the importance of a writer’s ORIGINAL VOICE. And it’s true! You don’t want to rewrite Black Swan for goodness sake, or pass on an obvious Tarantino rip-off to prospective managers or agents. You DO need to find your own muse, your own style, and your own point of view. A truly original plot will turn heads and make producers take you seriously. A great hook will get you invited in to pitch. Originality is everything, right?

Well… Sort of.

All of the above is true, but if you can learn anything from THIS writer’s mistakes, it’s important to understand that originality... Is relative.

Relative to what?

The market.

Yep. At the end of the day, filmmaking and screenwriting is a BUSINESS, and the market will only bear SO MUCH originality. Skilled screenwriters know that a great script (read: a SELLABLE script) manages to be two things at once: original AND familiar. When your script is done and out there trying to find its place in the market, producers will be looking for like-films to use as comparison-points in setting budgets, guessing revenues, and inspiring financing. For this reason ALONE it’s important that your script resemble at least a handful of previously released films—but the need for familiarity runs even deeper.

Audiences (and producers, readers, etc. by proxy) like to be surprised, like to have things turned on their head—but also want their expectations met. When they go to an action movie, audiences expect explosions, sweeping camera work, death-defying stunts. At a drama they expect tears, and at a comedy they expect laughs. Blending genres and throwing out the rules may feel revolutionary when you’re alone at your computer, but one of the first things a producer will ask himself when reading your script months later is, “does this script satisfy?” A great script will pull the rug out from under its audience—then catch them in a way that feels familiar and bring them along for the rest of the ride.

Another practical consideration in the “Don’t Write Scripts That Can’t Be Made” category is MPAA ratings. I once spent an entire summer writing a screenplay that I was sure would ‘wow’ audiences and push the envelope to the absolute edge. It was a thriller about a group of urban 13 and 14 year-olds who find themselves witnesses to a murder, and must spent a night on the run from the police and murderers alike. These kids were REAL, I told myself. They cursed, fought, had sex with other young teenagers and generally carried on like the 20 year-old gangsters they were trying to emulate. Just like real kids who’d grown up on the streets, right? I finished the script, ended up pitching it to a few companies, and finally met with one that was interested. Their first note? Make the kids 18 and 19. I made my case for keeping the characters young, but their argument was stronger: A script full of cursing pre-teens will never be made. Why? The MPAA. I had written a rated-R movie starring an age-bracket of kids that are meant to be watching PG-13. Older teens wouldn’t go see a movie starring 13 year-olds, and 13 year-olds couldn’t get into the theatre. It was valuable lesson in market realities.

So there you go. Yes—you should be original. In fact, you need be! You need to write scripts that startle and surprise, but at the same time you need to write scripts that coddle and reinforce. 

It’s a weird dichotomy, but it’s this trick—balancing the old with the new, and the worn-in-the-pants with the cutting-edge—that will determine your ultimate success and longevity as a screenwriter. Sometimes when I’m writing, I try to imagine the audience in the theatre watching my film play out—I literally try to see their faces and imagine their thoughts. I’ll ask myself—are they thrilled? Are they one step ahead of the plot, but never two or three steps ahead? Are they being surprised? And finally—are they getting the experience they were promised? The answers to all of these must be YES—or else you need to step back and recalibrate.

And, uh… Only write movies your target audience is old enough to see!

 

Five Screenwriting Pitfalls to Avoid

Successfully navigating your first, or second, or third screenplay is a feat that should be applauded. CONGRATS! But once the dust has settled, and you're ready to take that crucial step from GOOD screenplay to GREAT screenplay, there's a few areas for quick improvement that every screenwriter can afford to spend a little time on. To that avail, here are five very-common mistakes that every screenwriter should be careful to AVOID:

1) SUPPORTING CHARACTERS AS SOUNDING BOARDS

It’s true. Your antagonist needs people to talk to, and there’s no better way to sneak in a little exposition than to craft a witty conversation between your hero and their best friend, their mom, or even that stranger they bump into on the subway. The problem many writers run into, however, is forgetting to make these supporting leads fully formed characters—and not just sounding boards for your protagonist. Now, I’m not saying every person with a line deserves ten pages of juicy scene work. Sometimes, you can relate everything an audience needs to know about what makes a character tick in just a couple lines. However—if you’ve chosen to write a character into your film, they can’t just be a blank slate that keeps asking your hero a bunch of super-convenient questions. Every character must come off as a REAL PERSON, and their actions and dialogue should always appear to be motivated by their individual desires, goals, and attitudes.

2) OBVIOUS ENDINGS

This note might sound a little, well… Obvious. And yet—it’s one of the more common mistakes that writers make while embarking upon a new career in screenwriting. The bottom line is this: Your audience is smarter than you think. If you drop a hint early-on in your screenplay about an upcoming wedding, contest, or apocalyptic stand-off, they will immediately ASSUME that this event will cap the end of your movie. And if your hero happens to be a skittish wife, struggling musician, or underdog super hero, they will also assume your protagonist’s ultimate OUTCOME during this climax. Setting specific expectations CAN be a good thing—but only if you later subvert them. Don’t make the mistake of leading your audience down an expected path to an expected conclusion.

3) TONE SHIFTS

Have you ever been sitting in a movie theatre watching a thriller or a serious drama, when suddenly the plot went loopy or the characters said something totally WRONG for the moment—and everything in the theatre started to LAUGH? If so, you’ve experienced a TONE SHIFT. TONE is fragile thing, and once you’ve locked down the specific FEEL of your script—be it a broad comedy, a serious thriller, a lighthearted drama, etc.—you must be careful to MAINTAIN this tone from start to finish. There is no better way to lose your audience than to pull the carpet out from under them mid-way through a script, and have your tone SHIFT from one genre to another. Now, I’m not saying there can’t be comedic moments in a dramatic movie, or a poignant scene in the middle of Superbad. Be careful, however, that these outside-the-norm scenes feel true to the movie you are writing.

4) RUN-ON DESCRIPTION

Screenwriting is all about characters, plot, and dialogue—NOT the details of a room’s décor, the minutiae of the changing seasons, or the blow-by-blow of every step a character makes. Novels are wondering things. And if you’d RATHER be writing a novel—National Novel Writing Month will be here before you know it! Screenplays, however, ARE NOT NOVELS, and your description blocks should be as focused and minimalistic as possible. Before your movie graces the screen of a local multiplex, it must be picked out from BUNDLES of other scripts by interns, agents, and producers. You may have written the best jail house movie since Shawshank Redemption, but if you’ve spent the first two pages describing death row’s dust bunnies—no one is ever gonna read it.

5) WEAK PROTAGONIST

This one is the most important, and unfortunately—the most common. I’ve done it myself: Written a whole script full of badass supporting roles, crazy unexpected plot twists, and death defying stunts—only to reread it, and realize my lead character was BARELY PRESENT. Sure—he’d be there in all the scenes, generally fulfilling his role as leading man—but everyone else around him was just… COOLER. Surprisingly, a lot of writers make this mistake. Smaller characters are easier to spice up, while the PROTAGONIST is often saddled with back story, subtext, and mixed motivations—all of which can make him withdrawn and uninteresting. To combat this, make sure your hero is always ACTIVE and that he INFLUENCES every scene he is a part of. And give him some personality! Sure, the vigilante soccer mom leading your story may be entirely based on YOU—but shouldn’t she be the funny, witty, zany version of yourself that usually only comes out on trips to Disneyland? I think so.

NOTE: This article was first published under the title "Five Screenwriting Pitfalls to Avoid," penned by this author for the website www.scriptfrenzy.org.

2 Simple Tricks to Keep Your Movie MOVING

There are a small handful of screenwriters who can make a stuffy office feel like a war room, or an Ikea-clad living room sing with the romantic possibilities befitting an evening on the French coast. Yes—a bathroom, or a boardroom, or the back seat of a car CAN be the places where drama happens, and the perfect settings for intrigue and love. But honestly? Most of the time these locations are just… Dull. I don’t know how else to say it: One scene set in the wood-paneled police commissioner’s office is A-OK. Two scenes set in the police commissioner’s office is acceptable, but uninspired. Three scenes set in the police commissioners office exposes a lack of creativity, and will begin to drain your script’s momentum and energy.

It’s a simple trick, but an absolute STANDARD for screenwriters: Keep you story moving. Physically. Instead of sticking them in the office, set a scene where your characters are LEAVING work at the end of the day and walk down a sidewalk to flag a cab. Instead of dinner in the dining room, how about having the big break-up scene play out at a neighbor’s back yard party? And the next time your romance-bound apartment dwellers cross paths, maybe it should be at a health food shop or during a marathon—rather than another predictable crossing-of-the-paths in the front lobby!

The bottom line is to avoid repeating locations unless they are absolutely intrinsic to the telling of your story. Is this a little superficial and surface-y? You betcha. But sometimes simple tricks work—and this one will pay back serious dividends. Particularly for those of you writing ‘independent’ movies, or low-cost character-driven films, your instinct may be to keep it simple and add JUST ONE MORE SCENE played out on the living-room couch. DON’T! Please, please don’t. Be creative. Make your characters MOVE. Down the sidewalk, to a coffee shop—wherever. Changing locations is the easiest way to add energy to a script, so take advantage of this trick—even if you’re cutting corners elsewhere.

Another (and related) method for keeping your scenes interesting and your script skipping along is to make sure your characters always have BUSINESS. “Business” is a term we over-use in the industry for describing a character’s ACTIONS. Essentially—give your characters something to PHYSICALLY DO at the same time they are TALKING, and your scenes will immediately begin to feel more layered, dynamic and realistic. Plus—your actors will be grateful. I’m not saying to describe every little detail (read: Description: LESS is way, way (way) MORE), but if your characters ARE stuck in an office, try having one of them fiddling with the broken air-conditioner during the conversation—or the other one subtlety kicking the boss’ dog off of his leg throughout his entire promotion. Again—this is just an easy trick to add energy and honesty to a scene. But it’s a simple trick that WORKS.