Skip to main content

Let your screenplay brew

The other day I saw a locally made feature, The Actress. It was really quite good - for what it was. But my heart sinks when I see a well-directed film with huge writing holes. Holes which are easy to fix if you give your screenplay time to brew.

Directors are Stupider Than Writers


It is common knowledge that directors, in the main, are stupider than writers - often led into projects ego first. But even the stupidest director could probably do well with a short course in screenwriting. Because if you can't read a feature film in the first place, how can you direct one?

Sam Mendez and Alan Ball are a case in point. After the success of American Beauty, Alan went on to write the multi Emmy Award winning Six Feet Under. And Sam? Well . . . just have a listen to the audio commentary on Six Feet Under and you can hear what's driving Sam's engine. Interesting that the commentary is credited as Sam Mendez with Alan Ball.

Writing is one way to remain humble. You get lousy pay (if anything) you get to stand in the shadow of an ego-maniacal director and you get ignored at parties. Nobody sleeps with the writer . . . Except in TV . . . Where writers get to be producers.

So. Back to me. I'm (supposedly) both writer and director. However this year, I've spent about 4 days actually directing anything and about 2 weeks writing. So mostly, this year, I've been a university lecturer - or a web developer. Hopefully I'll get a gig on Marx and Venus - but one can't count on such things.

Yesterday, at least, Phil Jeng Kane and I returned to writing our feature screenplay - probably because this week we have no students. It's a Curtin Uni / FTI holiday. We did a little preparation. Coffee, toast, diary entries etc. And then we started analysing our script with a tool shown to us by Claire Dobbin at an Arista workshop.

The Plot Matrix

If you haven't visited your screenplay for a while (in our case nearly a year) then use the plot matrix. In your spreadsheet program, make 5 columns:
  1. Scene number.
  2. What is the scene about?
  3. Whos scene is it?
  4. What is the emotional subtext?
  5. Do we need the scene?
Then read through each scene (aloud) and answer the questions. The final column we chose to colour:
  • red means remove the scene
  • orange means modify it
    • we'd write a note about how we will do that
  • green for leave it pretty much as is
This way, you get a quick visual representation of how your screenplay is. If the last column is all green - then that's teh writers' green light! It means go find a Producer you can trust with all your hard work.

You will end up with a bunch of notes for your next draft and you will know more about your main character/s journey. Plus you will have the feeling that you've just breathed life into something that seemed permanently in a state of suspended animation.

I found our clarity of purpose was very acute. Because after a long time:
  1. We approach an old subject with fresh eyes
  2. Our critical faculties weren't distracted by precious writing.
  3. Any ill-feeling / previous bad dealings we had regarding the project were gone.
  4. We re-discovered the energy we had when we originally started writing it
    1. in our case - all those years ago.
  5. If you're writing with a partner, you're also working on a friendship.
    1. After all - if two people are co-writing the same project over a long period, then there has to be something special about the idea.
In about half a day (5 hours) we got through 20 scenes this way and hope to finish the other 80+ by early next week.

So - my advice is - leave it on the shelf. And if you have another idea - work on that. Do a rough draft. Even if it's crap - a lot of good stuff will bubble to the surface later in your screenplay's life. If you use . . . The Matrix!

Comments

Mr Trivia said…
I endorse all your comments, Ed, except the one about using the Plot of The Matrix (see what I did there?)

As much as I like The Matrix, it's the ultimate "It was all just a dream" movie.

As for writing the same thing over years and developing it, I would like to say this. We started writing our script in our late 20s and now we are in our late 30s. As we have shifted in our lives so has the script.

Some of what we are doing is turning ideas that just seemed "pretty cool" when we were younger into something more structural and essential now we are older, crustier and have read a few hundred more books (both screewriting ones and the other kind).

I find writing especially a lengthy screenplay to be somewhat like being asked to throw a dart at a board which is shrouded in fog about two kilometres away.

But if it wasn't hard then we wouldn't find it difficult.

Phil (Mr Trivia) Jeng Kane
objectman said…
Why do it if it isn't hard? We may as well come back as cats and be fed each day - until we die.

Popular posts from this blog

I've got a really good idea for a film . . .

Phil commented on that last piece. I forget that people actually read these things. I assumed you were all lazy and illiterate ;) Yes . . . as Phil says . . . we have taken time to write this screenplay. And it's depressing to think about it. Sometimes I feel like Marshall in Absolutely Fabulous . Marshall went to Hollywood 20 years ago to develop a screenplay with a studio. People in various episodes ask him how it's going. He usually has an actor attached, or a big producer, or an out-of-work director . . . No doubt Jennifer Saunders has met a few of these people . The industry is teaming with writers working on a screenplay. Until a screenplay becomes a film - it's only a blueprint - not considered an art form in itself. And yet it takes such a long time to write one. When people ask me what I do - I answer web designer . It's my knee-jerk, "pat" response. It's also less problematic and gets me more $work than if I say, "filmmaker".

The Three by Five Card Index System

Here's another approach to writing your screenplay. The screenwriter's friend. Introducing the infamous Three by Five Card Index System . Wow! How can I get one? In my case - I made it. What it amounts to is this: Three 90cm x 40cm sheets of chipboard hinged together so that the whole thing stands like a concertina on a table or floor. Every 5cm or so down, I have drawing-pinned small cardboard hinges (triangles if you will) made from old file dividers. These become placeholders for your cards. A couple of bunches of 3 inch by 5 inch index cards (available in packs of 100 at any newsagency) and there you have it. A sure fire way to make your screenplay bubble to the top of the pile . . . Not. But it's a tool and writers need their tools. Cool. How does it work? As you can see - each act has three mini-acts in it (fitting in with Australian script theorist Linda Heys' Second Act Story ). Or rather - going one step further and suggesting that all three acts have a begi

The Drug That Killed River Phoenix

This article was going to be about a new drug I'm on called Duomine , but as I knew very little about River Phoenix (aka the vegan Jimmy Dean ) I thought I'd swat up on what's really going on behind that brain-worm ditty. I'll talk about Duomine another time. The song line I'm on the drug that killed River Phoenix is from Aussie alternative band TISM's tasteless 1995 single (He'll Never Be An) Ol' Man River - and it's a bit cheap, frankly. The single's cover shows a mock-up of River's tombstone and was released shortly after his death. TISM were well-known for criticisin Imperial Hollywood and US pop culture, but they were masters when it came to borrowed interest marketing. More about these guys later. River Bottom's Awkward Life In 1944, River's mother Arlyn was born to a Jewish family living in the Bronx. When she finished school, she married a computer programmer but quickly grew bored of her secretarial life. In 196