Post by Phil J on Sept 16, 2021 16:06:30 GMT
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(From Reddit but worth reading nevertheless)
'Terry Rossio is the most commercially successful screenwriter working right now (whatever that might be worth to you, but it says at least something) and this is from his website Wordplayer.com (best writing advice site out there, in my opinion)'
"You are allowed no scenes where characters are not in some type of clear situation. No driving scenes where the characters chat. One of them better be on the way to undergo surgery, or there had better be a stowaway mutant killer squirrell in the back seat. Best are situations that are directly related to the plot. If you can't pull that off, at least give them a flat tire to fix.
First, you must create interest. That's the job description of screenwriter, right there. Next, the best way to create interest is through situation. Situations emerge from circumstances, or strong character need, or both. It is possible to write an entire screenplay with only situation-based scenes.
There are only a couple ways --basically two -- that situations are created: The first way to create situation is through circumstance. The second way to create situation is through strong character want. Think of it like this: Circumstances come from the world and impose onto characters from outside, so to speak. Character wants come from inside the characters, and push out at the world.
EXAMPLE 1: You can write a scene where a father takes his daughter to the airport and buys a ticket because they are leaving the country. The girl's mother has passed away and the pair is off to start a new life.
To put them in a situation, change their circumstances. Let's say the mother has not died, instead there is a custody battle ongoing, and the father is trying to illegally get the child out of the country. And the cops are on their way. And the father's credit card just got rejected, and he doesn't know how he will get the cash to buy the tickets in time, and the daughter doesn't know where they are going or why, and is starting to ask questions...
EXAMPLE 2: A man and woman are getting dressed up, planning to attend a party. It's hosted by the man's ex-wife and the woman feels threatened by that previous relationship. The woman wants to know if the man is still interested in her, and he says no.
That's a writable scene, but it lands as exposition, because the situation is so slight. (By the way, here's the stunning truth about exposition. You don't need it. "But the audience needs to know this, that, and the other thing --" says the screenwriter. Not true. The audience does not need to know. The audience needs to wonder.) Because wonder creates interest. Instead of exposition, think in terms of situation…
Put the same man and woman stuck on the side of the road, changing a flat tire, arguing. They might not make it to their destination, a party thrown by the man's ex-wife. The man wants them to attend because he needs to borrow money from her. The woman is concerned -- might he still have feelings for the ex-wife? She has a dilemma -- might the loan request rekindle the romance? But they do need the money. The argument escalates, and the man threatens to leave the woman at the side of the road, once the tire is fixed. A black panel van approaches and the man tosses aside the lug wrench, decides to hitchhike. The woman thinks this is a bad idea...
In this, the more situation-based writing version, the audience is invited into the tale, partly because the audience can start to anticipate future scenes.
Will the tire get fixed in time?
Will the man leave the woman on the side of the road?
They need money, why? Will they get it?
When the man does see his ex-wife again, will the man fall back in love with her?
Will the driver of the van give them a ride? And might the driver be dangerous?
You get the idea. One of the hallmarks of good situation-based writing is the audience is permitted to speculate ahead, to future events. Situations also can set you up nicely for comedy, because once the audience starts to speculate ahead, you can pull the rug out from under them. Now let's get back to my radical advice, that every single scene you write needs to be a situation. No exceptions.
A couple things -- Don't grant yourself the license to slip in 'exposition.' It is not needed. Don't grant yourself the right to write 'establish character' scenes. Scenes that exist solely to establish character aren't needed. (Better to learn about the character in the course of some kind of ongoing tale, let situation reveal the character.) You don't really even need to worry about plot. Why think in those terms? You'll fall into the exposition trap. What you need are a series of events, events that are situations. String together a series of those, and guaranteed you will have a plot.
The beauty of it is this: Once a character's want is clear, a situation exists. Rocky needs to go the distance. Indy must have the Arc. The Count of Monte Cristo burns for revenge. Pee Wee yearns for his bike. A strong character want creates a situation, and thus interest. In fact, you could say this: we don't watch interesting characters who go around wanting things... we see characters who want things and find them to be interesting.
Situations create characters. Whether through want or circumstance, or both.
Consider JUNO. Being pregnant is arguably a situation, created by circumstance, which leads to a deep character want (find a good adoptive home). And that very much defines that character. A bonus: that strong character want then leads to the new situation of being seduced by the potential adoptive father... And that's the additional beauty of it. Deep character wants not only create umbrella situations, but also often compel characters into very particular, unique dilemmas.
Consider LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. The daughter so wanted to compete in the dance contest, her whole family was swept along, into many absurd and memorable situations. The son so wanted to be a pilot, he took a vow of silence, etc.
"Conflict is almost always implied in situation, but situation is not usually implied in conflict." Because sometimes there are filmic situations where the conflict is either not present, or present in such a minimal way as to be unimportant. Let's say there's a beautiful woman at a French cafe with a group of her girlfriends. And a handsome man at another table. The man smiles at the woman. The woman smiles back. The man is happy that she smiled back and now desires to meet her. He plucks a rose from a bush and drops it on her table as he passes by. She smells the rose ... and notices that he has left his keys back on his table. She picks them up and dashes after him ... only to see him waiting for her in the courtyard. Now that he has her alone he says hello, pulls her into an alcove and kisses her.
In other words, the situation is the time-tested boy-meets-girl. It's a flirtation cute-meet scene. It could be filmed. The situation is: a man sees a woman he wants to meet, and figures out a cute way to get her alone. I guess you could say the conflict is ... what? Society? Shyness? Lack of creativity? The fact that they don't know each other yet? Distraction from her girlfriends? Whatever. Situation is by far the most useful thing a writer needs to invent. Usually conflict is present. But conflict is easy ... situation is hard."
(From Reddit but worth reading nevertheless)
'Terry Rossio is the most commercially successful screenwriter working right now (whatever that might be worth to you, but it says at least something) and this is from his website Wordplayer.com (best writing advice site out there, in my opinion)'
"You are allowed no scenes where characters are not in some type of clear situation. No driving scenes where the characters chat. One of them better be on the way to undergo surgery, or there had better be a stowaway mutant killer squirrell in the back seat. Best are situations that are directly related to the plot. If you can't pull that off, at least give them a flat tire to fix.
First, you must create interest. That's the job description of screenwriter, right there. Next, the best way to create interest is through situation. Situations emerge from circumstances, or strong character need, or both. It is possible to write an entire screenplay with only situation-based scenes.
There are only a couple ways --basically two -- that situations are created: The first way to create situation is through circumstance. The second way to create situation is through strong character want. Think of it like this: Circumstances come from the world and impose onto characters from outside, so to speak. Character wants come from inside the characters, and push out at the world.
EXAMPLE 1: You can write a scene where a father takes his daughter to the airport and buys a ticket because they are leaving the country. The girl's mother has passed away and the pair is off to start a new life.
To put them in a situation, change their circumstances. Let's say the mother has not died, instead there is a custody battle ongoing, and the father is trying to illegally get the child out of the country. And the cops are on their way. And the father's credit card just got rejected, and he doesn't know how he will get the cash to buy the tickets in time, and the daughter doesn't know where they are going or why, and is starting to ask questions...
EXAMPLE 2: A man and woman are getting dressed up, planning to attend a party. It's hosted by the man's ex-wife and the woman feels threatened by that previous relationship. The woman wants to know if the man is still interested in her, and he says no.
That's a writable scene, but it lands as exposition, because the situation is so slight. (By the way, here's the stunning truth about exposition. You don't need it. "But the audience needs to know this, that, and the other thing --" says the screenwriter. Not true. The audience does not need to know. The audience needs to wonder.) Because wonder creates interest. Instead of exposition, think in terms of situation…
Put the same man and woman stuck on the side of the road, changing a flat tire, arguing. They might not make it to their destination, a party thrown by the man's ex-wife. The man wants them to attend because he needs to borrow money from her. The woman is concerned -- might he still have feelings for the ex-wife? She has a dilemma -- might the loan request rekindle the romance? But they do need the money. The argument escalates, and the man threatens to leave the woman at the side of the road, once the tire is fixed. A black panel van approaches and the man tosses aside the lug wrench, decides to hitchhike. The woman thinks this is a bad idea...
In this, the more situation-based writing version, the audience is invited into the tale, partly because the audience can start to anticipate future scenes.
Will the tire get fixed in time?
Will the man leave the woman on the side of the road?
They need money, why? Will they get it?
When the man does see his ex-wife again, will the man fall back in love with her?
Will the driver of the van give them a ride? And might the driver be dangerous?
You get the idea. One of the hallmarks of good situation-based writing is the audience is permitted to speculate ahead, to future events. Situations also can set you up nicely for comedy, because once the audience starts to speculate ahead, you can pull the rug out from under them. Now let's get back to my radical advice, that every single scene you write needs to be a situation. No exceptions.
A couple things -- Don't grant yourself the license to slip in 'exposition.' It is not needed. Don't grant yourself the right to write 'establish character' scenes. Scenes that exist solely to establish character aren't needed. (Better to learn about the character in the course of some kind of ongoing tale, let situation reveal the character.) You don't really even need to worry about plot. Why think in those terms? You'll fall into the exposition trap. What you need are a series of events, events that are situations. String together a series of those, and guaranteed you will have a plot.
The beauty of it is this: Once a character's want is clear, a situation exists. Rocky needs to go the distance. Indy must have the Arc. The Count of Monte Cristo burns for revenge. Pee Wee yearns for his bike. A strong character want creates a situation, and thus interest. In fact, you could say this: we don't watch interesting characters who go around wanting things... we see characters who want things and find them to be interesting.
Situations create characters. Whether through want or circumstance, or both.
Consider JUNO. Being pregnant is arguably a situation, created by circumstance, which leads to a deep character want (find a good adoptive home). And that very much defines that character. A bonus: that strong character want then leads to the new situation of being seduced by the potential adoptive father... And that's the additional beauty of it. Deep character wants not only create umbrella situations, but also often compel characters into very particular, unique dilemmas.
Consider LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. The daughter so wanted to compete in the dance contest, her whole family was swept along, into many absurd and memorable situations. The son so wanted to be a pilot, he took a vow of silence, etc.
"Conflict is almost always implied in situation, but situation is not usually implied in conflict." Because sometimes there are filmic situations where the conflict is either not present, or present in such a minimal way as to be unimportant. Let's say there's a beautiful woman at a French cafe with a group of her girlfriends. And a handsome man at another table. The man smiles at the woman. The woman smiles back. The man is happy that she smiled back and now desires to meet her. He plucks a rose from a bush and drops it on her table as he passes by. She smells the rose ... and notices that he has left his keys back on his table. She picks them up and dashes after him ... only to see him waiting for her in the courtyard. Now that he has her alone he says hello, pulls her into an alcove and kisses her.
In other words, the situation is the time-tested boy-meets-girl. It's a flirtation cute-meet scene. It could be filmed. The situation is: a man sees a woman he wants to meet, and figures out a cute way to get her alone. I guess you could say the conflict is ... what? Society? Shyness? Lack of creativity? The fact that they don't know each other yet? Distraction from her girlfriends? Whatever. Situation is by far the most useful thing a writer needs to invent. Usually conflict is present. But conflict is easy ... situation is hard."