Screen writing Lecture 3

Screenwriting Lecture 3

The story always starts with the habits and rituals of the characters’ lives are broken. That it is why the story starts there, the time has to be special.

The unconscious needs of a character are normally totally contradictory to the characters’ conscious desires, for example, Liz from Shaun of the Dead has the conscious desire that she needs to get out and see the world when in fact, her unconscious need is to settle down. People’s character also comes out when they have put themselves or have been put at risk. The character comes out here because they must make decisions. The story must also have a climax where something great happens and everything is resolved afterwards.

The Serial Story: It’s a weird story, it doesn’t have to abide by the laws of our universe. It also doesn’t have to have the narrative conventions within it either. Here’s an example, “The Copy Shop”.
The Copy Shop: The habits are set up very quickly. We see him going to work and washing his face and going to bed and doing all that kind of stuff. But the story starts when he starts living parallel lives. He suddenly has more facets. This happens after he photocopies his hand, it’s almost like copying yourself isn’t it? Well, it’s a little weak, as I’m sure that someone else in that world would have done that at one point, they needed to make it a little stronger. It’s form and probigation are interesting, but the story is very weak. Another example is when he accidently falls off the chimney at the end, come on, he could have done something far more powerful, and we don’t have an insight into how what happens afterwards. A simple way to conclude it would to have just him again and everyone else has disappeared. That is pretty terrible though, I would take the time to think up something a little better than that.

Inside Out: This film is set in Picadilly Circus, yet it has very French music in it. Is this saying that London could be the city of love? A word is never spoken in this film, all of the communication is done through gestures.

About a Girl: In this, there are three different styles of filmmaking. The present tense is a kind of situation where we flashback to her past that she is describing. It’s almost pseudo-documentary style in that she talks directly to the camera about her life whilst walking along, like we were having an interview with her. The dialogue is back to back consistent throughout the film and it never ceases. But this is the point of the film. It is at the end that we find out that not everything is what it is seems to be on the surface and that there are some serious secrets people keep but don’t let go. It is totally horrifying that there has been a dead baby in that bag that she was carrying throughout the interview.

Seminar: You can only write about things when considering your screenplay about material things. You cannot and must not state what kind of shot you want from the director as this is treading on his toes and undermining him. Music is a big no as well, unless you’re writing for a musical then it’s all cool. You can start writing these things though if you are prepared to direct and star in the film and compose the music and edit it. If you’re not, then don’t bother.

Active: Scripts are all about people doing things. It’s all about action, like dialogue. Just remember that a script is a blueprint for a story yeah, leave the rest to everyone else, like a school play. So firstly, what’s the scene about? If nothing changes in it that affects anything and it’s just a load of information that could have been dramatically exposed then scrap it, it’s a load of shit. Secondly, screenplays are generally made out of a lot of white space. You can be ecomonic, but remember to be specific. Like this, a man walks down the street, not a fourty one year old Scots man from Aberdeen hobbles down the messy and hilly street who’s wearing pyjamas and a wooden leg with a pink and orange cap on backwards who’s drinking moonshine from the stomache of a lamb that has a hole in it that came from Mexico. Yeah? Got it? Right. Well, he can be all of these things, but only if they all have some sort o f meaning that gets explained. Otherwise, you go ahead and direct. So there needs to be a balance between economy and specificity.

The best thing is to be able to some up the scene into one single sentence, for example, in “Gasman”, the girl squabbles with her half sister for sitting on her daddy’s lap”. That’s pretty good, try it for yourself, like, “Jake squabbles with his half brother over the xbox 360 eventually killing him”. I dunno really. Lwt’s just summarise with Who does what to who?
Main thing, what are the desires, needs, expectations and fears of the characters? Think about that.

THE END