Archive for Writing methods
Have a nasty screenplay character? Go for it!
Posted by: | CommentsA lot of screenplay courses and books tell you that if you have a character who is unlikeable at the start, you should give him at least one positive characteristic or foreshadow his transformation. There’s nothing wrong with that–in fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve recommended that myself for certain projects. However, it’s not a rule set in stone.
If we look at Scrooge in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, what is there to like before he first ghost visits? Nothing. However, he’s so extreme in his miserliness and miserableness that he’s fascinating. He asks the charity collectors, are there no workhouses? Yeah, put those urchins to work!
In a more recent work–well, 1991–the film The Fisher King, the protagonist, played by Jeff Bridges, is a totally selfish, vain, arrogant man. There’s nothing to like, but as with Scrooge, the characterization was so extreme that it was fascinating to watch him. (Excellent film, by the way–if you’ve never seen it, give it a shot.).
In As Good As It Gets the filmmakers made a small concession to humanizing the character played by Jack Nicholson. Very close to the start they show him going into the bathroom and opening the cabinet to reveal several dozen wrapped bars of soap. He unwraps one, washes his hands with it, and throws it away. We get that he’s not being cruel just for the fun of it, he has problems. That little scene was added after test screenings because audience members reacted too negatively to his character.
In Bad Santa the character played by Billy Bob Thornton is totally sleazy to start with, which is funnier because he’s playing Santa at a mall. Test screenings led to the addition of several scenes that somewhat soften the character. This is what the film’s director, Terry Zwigoff, said about the process, in an interview on Combustible Celluloid:
“The typical thing that happens is they show the film and they get maybe 20 people to stick around. They pay ‘em each 10 or 20 bucks, and then some guy comes running from the back of the house like in a game show, this chipper, upbeat type. ‘Hey how ya doing! Did you like the film? Did you like the ending?’ And you’re sitting there in the back and it’s truly horrifying. It’s like somebody took your baby and threw him up on the stage: What do you like about this baby? Do you like his nose? Maybe we should give him some plastic surgery, wouldn’t that be fun?!!”
The film, written by John Ficarra and John Requa, is also worth a look if you’re a fan of black comedy. Find the director’s cut, which is actually several minutes shorter and quite a bit darker than the original release.
The moral of these stories: if you have an unlikeable character, make him or her so strongly unlikeable that we will be fascinated and will want to hang around to see whether he or she changes. If there’s no transformation, or not a strong one, be prepared for a fight with the powers that be–and test audiences, but if you prevail you will earn the gratitude of the part of the film-going public that is tired of schmaltz.
What’s NOT stopping you from writing your screenplay
Posted by: | CommentsI have a hunch these are NOT what’s stopping you from writing your screenplay:
* You don’t have any ideas
* You don’t understand the basics of screenwriting
* You have a fear of success
I think maybe one or more of these IS what’s stopping you:
* Procrastination
* Too many ideas
* Writing blocks
* Not enough time
* No support from family and friends
If I’m right, the WRITING BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGY program is what you need in order to write the screenplay you know is in you. Here’s a little (one minute) overview of what it gives you. If you want to find out more or sign up, go to: www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com. But hurry, because it starts on Monday, January 16!
Before you start writing your screenplay
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Pete Hamill
Journalist and Pete Hamill, whose latest book is “Tabloid City,” described in The Writer magazine how he approaches writing a novel. I think the same method works for anyone getting ready to write a screenplay:
“I start by walking around a lot, letting the major characters rise in my mind. The way Dickens did, and others. Sometimes I make drawings of their faces, and then scribble more notes in the margins. I know vaguely what the story will be be, but I don’t make detailed outlines because they remove the joy of discovery in the actual writing.”
…If a fiction is set in the past, I read histories, letters, memoirs and even old newspapers. Then I let my notes marinate for a while, usually a few months, until they become a memory…the memory of one or more of the characters.”
Those kinds of historical documents are so much easier to find these days, via the internet. Newspapers, including the New York Times, allow you to access their past issues, and the British Museum and many others also have put massive amounts of documents online. Writers starting out now takes this kind of access for granted, I imagine, but we old-timers will remember having to throw ourselves on the mercy of librarians and spending days in the dusty stacks. Hamill goes on:
“If the places I am describing are still in existence, I go to look at them, to stand before them, listening to what they are saying to me.”
These days with Google maps and other sources of information, you can simulate going to most locations although of course it doesn’t match being there, breathing the air and hearing the sounds in person.
Another possibility is to contact someone who lives in that location, using social media to find them. I think most people would be flattered to be asked to help someone writing a screenplay. If you’re nervous about emailing strangers, put the “six degrees of separation” to work–ask your friends whether they know anybody who lives in the place you want to find out about. If not, ask them to ask just one or two of their friends the same question. In most cases it won’t take more than that to find someone.
Sometimes when we have a new idea we are tempted to go to the keyboard and start writing right away, but there’s a lot to be said for Hamill’s method of immersing yourself in the characters and locations before we start.
