Your Screenplay, Is a Love Story

The Descent

            Your Screenplay, The Love Story







    All screenplays should be love stories.  Not between the characters on the page, but between you and your characters.  The saddest type of movie to watch is one where the writer clearly hates some if not all of his or her
characters. They have constructed characters who’s sole purpose
is  to show up long enough to eat up screen time and be gotten rid
of in the most gruesome manor possible.
    This has become standard in both action and horror movies.  Just because it
is standard does not mean that you have to follow that rule.  It may take a little more
time to write about characters who have lives and are interesting to both you
the screenwriter and the viewer, but hey no one said that this job was going
to be easy.
    You can turn on Fear net or Showtime Extreme or the Sci-fi channel and
see countless movies populated by characters created to first fail and then die.  You

will never create a great script this way.
    What about Friday the 13th?  What about Halloween?  What about Mad Max?
    What about them?  Do not think about the sequels.  Think about the originals.
Think about the first of each.  Friday the 13th is filled with actual characters.
Halloween spends time letting you get to know the star and her friends.  Friends
who have lives and dreams and plans.  Dreams and plans that do not include
getting slaughtered by a masked killer.  They were not made to be killed, they
mostly happened to be in the way.
    Mad Max is filled with memorable characters.  It is the loss of these characters,
concluding with his wife and child that turns a cop with an unspoken mission to give
the world its heroes back that drives Max over the edge.
    Let me give you a modern example of what is becoming a genre classic.
    How many of you have heard of the movie the Descent?
    You have not only heard of it, but seen it?
    Cool, so did I.  As a matter of fact I was lucky enough to see this movie at
a film festival.  It was the North American premiere and it was one of those rare
moments when at the end the audience, including myself, stood up and applauded.
    This movie held its audience from beginning to end.
    There are no easy kills in this movie.
    There were no empty lives.
    Each character is introduced and defined.
    They actual die as they have lived.
    They actually seem to know each other.  They interact as friends would.  They
all share a common history that has lead them to this moment in their lives.  What a
great job of writing and directing.  There are moments when they don’t like
each other but still care about each other.  If these characters were lost in
the woods and there was nothing chasing them this would have still been
and interesting film.
    The Descent is not a perfect film, we could talk for days about the
alternate endings, but it is a great example of how to populate your script with
characters whom you as the writer and view will get to know and
care about.                                    

Hannibal Lecter

                            

    The lesson is that if the writer does not care about character C then why should
the audience?  Care about them all, even the villains.  Even if the villain is a monster.
Hannibal Lecter is one of the most evil characters to ever appear in a film.  Audiences
can not get enough of him.  His creator must care about him, perhaps even
admires many aspects of his personality.
     Find things to like about as many of your creations as possible and where or
when you can find things to love about them.  It will show up on the page
and hopefully on the screen.  Love your characters and they may in return,
through the gift of fame fortune and glory, show you love in return.

Movies Talk Too Much

            Movies Talk Too Much
                  

           
    They use to call movies Talkies and for a reason.  In the early days of sound
film characters could not seem to shut up.  They were 90 minute long talk fest.  This
was in large part due to the fact that producers and directors decided to shoot stage
plays once sound arrived.
       I would argue that is was the Hitchcock film Murder that changed forever the
direction of film making.  He used sound like he was conducting a symphony. 
For the first few minutes of the film he allows visuals to tell his story.  And then
during the titled Murder he allows what is heard to tell the story rather than what
is seen.  He balanced both sight and sound better than any film maker ever. 
Hitchcock understood that both were a tool.  Having started out as a silent film
maker he understood the power of the visual when done well.
    Characters will have to talk, but they do not have to talk us to death just because
you are working with little to no budget.
    Let me quote Hitchcock for you, If I want to see people sitting around and talking
for two hours I would stay in the theater lobby.
    But if you want to dazzle all with your Woody Allen or Quentin Tarantino like
grasp of dialogue fine.        
    Look it is your money.  At least I hope that it is.
    But just ask yourself this question, can it be shown rather than said?
We listen to the radio, we watch movies.
    Isn’t that what we all say?
    Let’s watch a movie.
    I am watching tv.
    I saw this great film.
    Never I heard this movie.
    In other words try always to show rather than tell.
    Movies are about visuals.
    What do we see?
    Did you just say something?
    What about the Godfather?
    Exception to the rule?  If you got a Godfather in you then go right ahead,
but I would like to respond with this.  The most memorable scenes from that film are
when Michael is having his enemies killed all at the same time.  We hear the
christening of the baby, we see Michael’s hit men doing their jobs all over
town.  We remember most a fat man running up a flight of stairs, a man
being shot through his glasses, the fake cop doing a hit on the church
steps. Did I mention a horses head on a bed?
    I believe it is at this point the Don would grab you by the shoulders and start
shaking you back and forth while yelling  “Be a Man, What’s the Matter with you,
Be a man, be a man.  Show, don’t tell!”