WEEK 3

HOW STORIES WORK

1. Concept. Present a well-crafted story with a strong story concept.
2. Character. An original character people can sympathize with (or the contrary)
3. Goal. A character that has a clear and specific goal.
4. Crisis. A strong opposition to that goal leading to a crisis.
5. End. An emotionally satisfying ending.

In writing a script, you will need to learn your craft, develop a discipline, and be persistent. Everybody starts the same.

THE SCREENPLAY FORM

1. A screenplay differs from a stage play or novel.
2. A novel describes a character's thoughts, is a great medium for internal conflict.
3. A stage play is almost exclusive verbal, soap operas and sitcoms fit into this category. The conflict on stage play comes out in dialogue.
4. A screenplay, a movie, is primarily visual. It will contain dialogue, and it may deal with internal conflict. However, a screenplay requires visual writing.

STRUCTURE

Wherever you see a form of art you will see that is a union of form and content; for example consider a painting, or a song.  A movie, as well is a form of art and the content of your story requires a structure to it give shape. The first step is to construct a skeleton, a structural model.

All drama (comedy) has a beginning middle and an end.

The beginning is about 25%, the middle about 50%, and the end about 25%. A screenplay is about 110 pages, the beginning (usually the first 15-20 pages), the middle (the next 50 pages or so,) and the end (the last 10-25 pages).

• In the beginning you set up your story, get the audience attention and establish the situation.
• During the middle, you complicate matters and develop the conflict that rises to a crisis.
• In the end, you conclude the story and resolve the conflict.

OK- sometimes films open with the ending, however this is not the end of the story, is the ending of the central characters life. In this situation, think about the dramatic premise of the screenplay and what the story really is about. It is a creative way of using the basic model. For example, "Back to the Future": beginning take place in 1985, middle 1955, ends 1985.

How do you get from beginning, middle, and end?

You achieve this with turning points also called transition points, action points, plot points, and character crossroads.

Turning points are the twists and turns of your story. They are the important events of your story; the events that complicate or even reverse the action, such as cliffhangers (climacteric: a period in which critically important changes take place (physiological-psychological)), revelations, and crises.

Structure is the organization of these events into a story.

There may be many turning points into your story, however there are two key transitions for your story success.

1. The first turning point ends the beginning and moves the audience to the middle. Usually a "BIG EVENT" dramatically affects the central character's life.
2. "THE CRISIS". Your story might have many crises. "THE CRISIS" is the one that forces the central character to take the last final action, or series of actions, to resolve the story.

Note:
Very important in your screenwriting are action and reaction, excitement and reflection.
Think in terms of breathing, let the audience inhale and then let them exhale.
In terms of dramatic tension, your story needs peaks and valleys
Remember that the peak should get generally higher as the story progresses.

Each time try to make that your audience inhale for longer time, but let them exhale.

SITUATION, CONFLICT, AND RESOLUTION

MAKE A GOOD FIRST IMPRESSION

The first thing your script should be concerned with is hooking the audience (the reader) and setting toward the rules of the story. If the opening scene captures your audience attention is called the hook, if not it is only the opening scene.

Establish the mood, location, or even the theme of your story.
What is the character of your story?
It will include the atmosphere or mood, the location, the emotional settings, and the genre. Genre refers to the type of movie for example, action/adventure, Western, thriller, romantic comedy, sci-fi, family drama, and so forth.

YOUR TWO KEY CHARACTERS

Early in your script, you will want to introduce your central character, sometimes called the pivotal character. Often the central character will appear in the opening scene. The primary opposition character (if there is any), or conflict (action) must be introduced as well, however does not have to appear as early, but could (Dramatic choice).

Typically, the protagonist is the good person or hero, while the antagonist is the bad person. However, the role of central character sometimes goes to the antagonist. The central character is whom (or what) the story is built.

One key to making a drama dramatic is to create a strong central character with a powerful goal. Depending of the Genre of your story them provide a strong opposition character, or conflict who tries to stop the central character from achieving the goal. This assures us of conflict, and conflict is drama.

Somebody or something that makes a change happen or bring about an event (some authors refer to "THE CATALYST").

Somewhere in the first ten or fifteen pages of your script, something should happen to give the central character a goal, desire, mission, need, or problem often referred to as the "Inciting Incident". The terms: "catalyst", "inciting incident" (and many other terms are used in a variety of ways by the people of the movie industry). The key is to understand the principle, which is a turning point not usually the same as the Big Event, although it could be.

Here is the principle: when a story begins, life is in balance.

Your character might have a problem, however it is a problem always had. Then a "TURNING POINT" kicks and gives the character a new problem, need, goal, desire. The rest of the movie is spent getting things back into balance. This "turning point", in order to be a good one, besides giving the character a new problem or desire, will often reveal something of the main conflict, story premise, or situation.

FORESHADOWING

You can get away with almost anything if you set it up, or foreshadow, early in your story. Much of screenwriting is setting things up for a later payoff.

Foreshadowing creates a sense of unity in a story and become a tool of economy providing more than one use of an element.

It is general a good idea not to give to much information or exposition in the very beginning about the foreshadowing. Only give the audience what they need to understand the story without getting confused.

THE PINCH AND RISING CONFLICT

The beginning (Act I) ends with the "Big Event".

The middle  (Act 2) focuses primarily on the conflict and complications of the story. The central character emerges from Act I with a desire to do something about the difficult situation created by the "Big Event". The "Big Event" will force the character to take actions; it might be many setbacks and breakthroughs or temporary triumphs. Remember, the long middle section (Act 2) focuses on a rising conflict. Your reader (audience) will lose interest in a conflict that merely repeats. Strong subplots that crisscross with the main plot will help you avoid repetitive conflict.

At the Pinch of the story, about half way through, another major event occurs. The central character often becomes fully committed. For example in "Gone with the Wind", Scarlet O'Hara line before the intermission:" I will never go hungry again." The Pinch can also be the moment when the motivation to achieve the goal becomes fully clear, or the stakes[1] are raised.

From the Pinch on, the central character takes even stronger actions, perhaps even desperate actions that threaten to compromise values. One or more temporary triumphs arouse opposition, who show true strength.

The conflict intensifies, the pace quickens until the worst thing that could happen happens. This is the Crisis, the point when all seems lost, or where the character faces a crucial decision.

THE RESOLUTION

The Climax or Showdown follows the Crisis. Often, something or someone spurs the character on to the Showdown. The goal - everything - is on line, including the theme or movie message (we will discuss later) and/or some important value. The Showdown is bigger that the Big event. It is the biggest event (or series of events) in the movie because everything has led up to it.

"Happy endings" are good, but some stories might end bittersweet or sad. Avoid easy solutions because there are not dramatic; it is better that your central character struggle with the rescuing at the end. For example do not end saying: "It was all a dream."  Bring the end of the movie to a closure, don not leave your end open or ambiguous.

There are exemptions to the rules that they really work (sample: The Birds). In general try these rules and then break them.

Please do not internalize all of the above as a formula. Genres vary. Forms vary. There are many ways to tell a story. Your basic structure will likely change or evolve as you write, be open to new creative insights. Keep in mind that every story has its own structure, its own life, its own way of unfolding. The story expresses itself by your writing.

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