The Anthology Script, Know Your Nouns
The problem with many Anthology scripts in not the individual stories within the movie. It is how they connect. Imagine trying to write a hit song and the backing music constantly changes with each verse and every time that the chorus repeats. That song would not sound good and it is a sort of back beat that is required for an Anthology film script to work.
What I am saying is that there needs to be a connecting element.
There needs to be something that binds it all together. That something is a NOUN. Some of us who are beyond the age of thirty learned first about nouns by watching a Saturday morning cartoon named schoolhouse rock. A really cool two minute song that taught us that a noun is a person, place or thing. Every person that you know and every place that you can go, you know that they are nouns, they are nouns.
The binding element should be a person, place or thing that recurs and connects each short film that will form the complete feature length Anthology film. There have been some good tries at making anthology films, but I think they missed greatness because of the problem with nouns. Look at the movie VHS, the connecting element is a video tape and I would argue that this is so vague that would it had been any different if they had used a television to connect the stories. The parts do not fit because the noun is not strong enough to hold the entire film together. We get two good stories and three okay ones that do not have anything internally to connect them. They are not even all the same genre.
When writing your anthology screenplay I would suggest picking your noun and sticking to it for three to six stories, any more than that and you are talking the ABC’s of Death and I do have to say that the alphabet is not the best way to connect one story with another. People will get tired after five or six stories. That is just the history of the genre. Again find the noun. A place that connects all the stories. This is a good idea when writing a micro budget script. Using the same location as much as possible really helps to keep a budget in line. Pick an object that connects the stories. It could be a book or a smartphone or a mirror or a ring. Anything that can move from person to person and or place to place logically. Then there is the person. The person can be the actor who will play many roles, think of the amazing anthology Trilogy of Terror where Karen Black plays a school teacher, then twins and then a woman being menaced by a killer doll. Always the same face with a different name and location for each story. The face connects the stories. A common character or group of characters and do this as well. A lawyer or a priest or a group of cops. They can begin the story together and spread out over the entire length of the film script and perhaps finish the story together.
There are a thousand ways to do this, but it will be so much easier to get from fade in to fade out if you keep focused on the nouns.
Final note about this subject. It does not have to be horror. I know that most modern anthologies are horror films, but it can be done with drama, suspense or even comedy. Do not limit yourself to one genre because it is popular or you think that it will make more money. Write what you love. If that noun allows you to combine genres then go for it.
Try to write everyday and try to read as many scripts as you can. It will make you a better writer.
Good luck guys and please take a moment to share this post with a friend.
The problem with many Anthology scripts in not the individual stories within the movie. It is how they connect. Imagine trying to write a hit song and the backing music constantly changes with each verse and every time that the chorus repeats. That song would not sound good and it is a sort of back beat that is required for an Anthology film script to work.
What I am saying is that there needs to be a connecting element.
There needs to be something that binds it all together. That something is a NOUN. Some of us who are beyond the age of thirty learned first about nouns by watching a Saturday morning cartoon named schoolhouse rock. A really cool two minute song that taught us that a noun is a person, place or thing. Every person that you know and every place that you can go, you know that they are nouns, they are nouns.
The binding element should be a person, place or thing that recurs and connects each short film that will form the complete feature length Anthology film. There have been some good tries at making anthology films, but I think they missed greatness because of the problem with nouns. Look at the movie VHS, the connecting element is a video tape and I would argue that this is so vague that would it had been any different if they had used a television to connect the stories. The parts do not fit because the noun is not strong enough to hold the entire film together. We get two good stories and three okay ones that do not have anything internally to connect them. They are not even all the same genre.
When writing your anthology screenplay I would suggest picking your noun and sticking to it for three to six stories, any more than that and you are talking the ABC’s of Death and I do have to say that the alphabet is not the best way to connect one story with another. People will get tired after five or six stories. That is just the history of the genre. Again find the noun. A place that connects all the stories. This is a good idea when writing a micro budget script. Using the same location as much as possible really helps to keep a budget in line. Pick an object that connects the stories. It could be a book or a smartphone or a mirror or a ring. Anything that can move from person to person and or place to place logically. Then there is the person. The person can be the actor who will play many roles, think of the amazing anthology Trilogy of Terror where Karen Black plays a school teacher, then twins and then a woman being menaced by a killer doll. Always the same face with a different name and location for each story. The face connects the stories. A common character or group of characters and do this as well. A lawyer or a priest or a group of cops. They can begin the story together and spread out over the entire length of the film script and perhaps finish the story together.
There are a thousand ways to do this, but it will be so much easier to get from fade in to fade out if you keep focused on the nouns.
Final note about this subject. It does not have to be horror. I know that most modern anthologies are horror films, but it can be done with drama, suspense or even comedy. Do not limit yourself to one genre because it is popular or you think that it will make more money. Write what you love. If that noun allows you to combine genres then go for it.
Try to write everyday and try to read as many scripts as you can. It will make you a better writer.
Good luck guys and please take a moment to share this post with a friend.
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