Another scriptwriter with something to say

I read an interview with a screenwriter, jack Sekowski, and he said:

It's frustrating since I go to the movies and see that most of the stories told are fairly simple. So why am I driven to make things more complex...thereby giving myself more work? I don't know the answer to that.

I sometimes feel exactly the same, but the truth is that even what seems very simple and straight forward on screen is the result of complex thinking, of narrowing too many ideas to one crystal-clear story. A simple movie was once a complex script in someone's mind. How to make the complex into simple, that's the craft of screenwriting.

Enneagram of Personality: 9 types of characters

Lately I found this page on wikipedia, about the Enneagram of Personality. It's a very comfortable way to look at your script's characters and understand their personality pattern. There are nine patterns: The Reformer, The Helper, The Achiever, The Individualist, The Investigator, The Loyalist, The Enthusiast, The Challenger, The Peacemaker.

The Enneagram describes those personality patterns, including character's motivation, healthy- and unhealthy state of being, fears etc.

I find it extremly helpful for screenwriters to use such tools, as George Clooney says in Up In The Sky: "I stereotype. It's faster".

A scriptwriting tip from ScriptShadow

What I learned: Once you have your gimmick down, once you have your hook, forget about it. Forget about how you’re going to sell the thing. Switch your focus over to the story and the characters. Make them the best they can possibly be. I think that’s the problem with a lot of today’s writers. Is they rely too much on their premise. They think that that’s going to do all the work for them. It’s a casualty of movies like “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” doing well. Because so much of the joke is implied in the title and the marketing, that writers assume if they get that part squared away, their job is over. But Executive Search goes back to a time where writers still cared about their characters. You need to do the same thing in your rom com.

hot topic: should ScriptShadow stop?

The community is on fire: a script analyst who owns a website called ScriptShadow publishes unproduced scripts online and writes an analysis. Wired Magazine and John August already posted articles against this habit of our secret guy.

I myself only discovered him after reading those articles. I find this website a real treasure, but I also understand the problems it creates. No writer would want an unfinished script of his to be published. And criticized!

But since the ones who are enjoying the site are not often the ones who are getting hurt by it - lets just have fun without thinking of the politics of it all.

The Scriptwriter's Guide

As a struggling scriptwriter myself, it is sometimes funny to meet other scriptwriters on the street and find that they are looking to get some ideas from me for how to make it into the industry. It is funny but totally understandable. In this business it seems like anybody who got one script produced is a very successful writer. Perhaps it is so, but it is not the kind of success you feel every day, not that kind that makes you feel like you can talk about it with others. Most chances this thing of yours that got produced was written long time ago, and you feel like Tina Turner that 30 years after still performs with "private dancer".

But, anyways, I won't play the role of the suffering scriptwriter. I actually DO have some tips for the novice screenwriter, and I include myself in that group as well.

Tips for the novice scriptwriter

Breaking in the industry

• With every script you write and send, also those small copy-tests of a scene or so, attach a cover page that has your phone and email on it.
• Don't underestimate the power of old contacts. With today's social networks on the internet, you can feel not-too-weird contacting old acquaintances or colleagues.
• Call production companies, broadcasters etc. for a copy-test (a writing sample made for their needs).
• Try to write an episode for a TV series you know well. Better one that is not to long on TV already, maybe had a season or two. Call the channel and ask to whom you should send it. In case he says you shouldn't, send it to the script editor and the producer.

Screenwriting Tip: Sentence Crafting

As a screenwriter you maybe have the movie running in your head, but what you should aim for is your audience, meaning the readers of your script (and not the viewers of the produced piece). The scriptwriter's weapons are sentences, and words.

We deal with art in time, and we want to reflect the time feeling in our script. You should be able to control your reader's reading tempo: when does he takes a breath, when does he reads fast. there are several ways of manipulating your script to do so, and one of those ways is the descending sentence.

Descending sentence is used to slow down the tempo of the reading, to create almost a halt, a pause in the script. To create a 'moment' without writing that artificial word 'pause'. Because nobody just pauses. There is always something happening, even the smallest thing.

Let us see this descending sentence in action. I use a draft of Coen Brothers' script for A Serious Man. I found this draft on Script-O-rama. Their scripts are such a delight to read, so fluent, like a story. So they are great to learn from.

His point-of-view: very close on the face of a classroom clock. We hear its electrical hum. Its red sweep-second hand crawls around the dial very, very slowly.

The last sentence in this short paragraph is a descending sentence. Of course, there are a few techniques used here to slow down the tempo: the repeat (very, very), the actual choice of words (crawls, slowly), but we focus on the sentence crafting.

It splits into three parts:

1. Its red sweep-second hand (5)
2. crawls around the dial (4)
3. very, very slowly. (3)

By using less words for each part, our reading tempo declines. It's a matter of delicate sentence design, something you feel more as you read it, and as you master the language and the use of words more - so this technique will come naturally to you. Feeling is everything here.

Try it yourself on everyday sentences, get the feeling of this, get crafty!

The Return of the Screenwriter

so I've been away, finished my studies, decided there's nothing for me in the screenwriting business, built some websites, cut my hair, and now I'm ready to write again.

But enough about me. There's a new journal for screenwriting, published by Intellect. The first issue is free online, and you can find it here. I saw the TOC and it looks promising, now I'll take my time and delve into the essays.

Until I can write, I must read.

MA in Screenwriting in London?

Couldn't resist to adding this picture, though it has little to do with the subject of this post. The only connection is that those puppies are mixed Spaniel/Prince Charles and therefore quite British in origin.

After months of USA dreams I finally came to realize a degree in the UK would fit me much more. Why? Well it's closer to where I live now, and I can work and live there not on a student visa (which also means I can stay there after graduating and use my contacts).

The only real plus the US had (besides the weather) was the actual content of studies. But since I know how the higher education system works (great titles for courses that has no connection to the real content of the course), the most important thing for me in the MA/MFA program in screenwriting is the contacts I'll make and the opportunity to use them.

A friend of mine just graduated NYU and after a year of small internships had to return home since her visa has expired. Scriptwriting is a hard business and one year is really too short to use your contacts from school and find a work place to give you sponsorship. It's not impossible, but it's a risk.

So where can I study scriptwriting in the UK?

A few years back I almost started the BA program at Bournemouth University. It was great living by the beach and the university itself seemed serious. But it's so far from where the action is, that it seemed foolish to study there (especially as a foreigner). Besides, bournemouth University does not offer (as far as I know) an MA program in screenwriting.

Besides the decision of the location of your studies, you need to consider the two types of schools: the film school vs. the university. Studying in film school (such as London Film School or the National Film and Television School - which is not in London) will give you the opportunity to see your work produced while you're still in school. It's a big adventage, since in the real world it might take you years before that happens.

Writers and filmmakers quotes I've heared lately

"The good writer seems to be writing about himself, but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself and all things."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."
– Albert Camus

"There are some books that refuse to be written. They stand their ground year after year and will not be persuaded. It isn't because the book is not there and worth being written -- it is only because the right form of the story does not present itself. There is only one right form for a story and if you fail to find that form the story will not tell itself."
– Mark Twain

"I write to discover what I think."
– Joan Didion

“MODERN CINEMA IS A CODE.”
– Gus Van Sant

Writing a good monologue

For me, writing a monologue is a real tough business. I like to use minimal number od spoken words in my scripts, and my characters never give lectures. So it always seems contrived when I put a monologue in their mouth. Unless, of course, I do it good. And there are ways to write a good monologue.

What is a monologue, and why do we need it?

the whole idea is that monologue consists of change. The character's emotions are changing, or its ability to express it changes. So we don't get a lecture, we get drama. Inner drama covered by words. The use of monologue lets us expose the character, even if the words are just a disguise. Also, a monologue in the right moment in the script can get the theme on the surface. Don't make it too obvious, though. Let it be found.

The Four Emotions

You thought humans are complex, think again. At the end there are only four basic emotions you need to deal with: Happiness, Sadness, Fear and Anger. All other emotions are a combination of two or more of those four. Just like a painter, mix and match the basic emotions to touch your character's wound and transfer it through the journey of the script, the scene, the monologue.