Sunday, June 1, 2014

An Introduction to Screenwriting - Part 2 - Film as a Visual Medium

Deborah Moggach

Writing for the theater and writing for film are two different styles of writing in itself.  In theater, a playwright has to write a character driven piece in which a character's motives, actions, and goals propel the performance from start to finish.  In contrast in film, a screenwriter has to create powerful images on screen to establish setting, plot, character, and dialogue.  He can never write a long list of vague character descriptions on screen on what the character is thinking or feeling. A screenwriter's only job is to write what he sees, because in a movie, it's not what the character says but what the character does that gives the story more weight.

In film, actions speak louder than words and it's a screenwriter's job to describe each action cinematically for continuity and flow.  So to get into the thought of visual storytelling, close your eyes and when you think of your favorite movie(s) what images come to your mind.


The unsuspecting babysitter get's a surprise attack from behind by her friend's true killer
Halloween (1978)


A group of wiseguys get together to make joke  of their favorite scores, heists, murders, and crimes like one big happy mafia family
Goodfellas (1990)


  Tony Montana defending Casa De Montana from a Columbia Drug Cartel Faction whose boss he double crossed.
Scarface (1983)


Three rebels with gold rush fever in their eyes face off in a gun duel in their quest to find the dead soldier's fortune
The Good , The Bad, And The Ugly (1966)


Michael unveils the real traitor behind the attempt on his life who was none other than his own brother Fredo
The Godfather Part 2 (1974)

A three day tournament featuring the world's most decorated fighters in a test of wills and strength to become the Superior Warrior,  The Champion.  
Bloodsport (1988)


A lifeguard fantasy becomes reality 
The Sandlot (1993)

So now you have thought of movie images that  came to your mind and why they have had a long lasting effect on you.  Now what.  What's the significance of this brainstorm?

These images are imprinted into our psyche as a remembrance of our favorite movie due to the timing and care the Director  put in interpreting the screenplay into dazzling images that connect us with a certain scene in a movie.  A personal example.  On a Saturday evening, when  I was 14 yrs old and in junior I had wanted to watch a horror movie, Halloween .  I remember one scene  in the movie whose haunting dark image I will never shake even to this day.

http://youtu.be/xWGrVPTiNOY?t=1h18m39s
(I apologize the Spanish version but it was the only one available on Youtube)


 After Laurie Strode reassures the kids she's protecting with her life, Lindsay and Brian, out pops Michael Myers right from behind.  The kids vanish into the night and she's left with no where else to run to but the closet.  All I could remember was the animalistic, grunts, and sounds as The Shape tugged, shaked, and tore into the closet like a motorized machine powered on pure evil.  The icing on the cake that sealed that scene was the audience experiencing Laurie's POV as Michael slowly moves in for the kill while she is searching for something, anything to fend herself from.  Now, most young movie viewers will not consider Halloween to be a classic thriller, but boy did it leave a lasting effect on me.  I couldn't stop picturing that image of Laurie stuck in that closet with nowhere else to escape . That film ended up giving me nightmares from three to four days on which I spent those days bunking in with mom and dad. 

Experiencing a movie versus  experiencing reading your non-fiction novel are two different things. When we read a book,we all share a internal experience by  slipping into the minds of the characters, and envision our own experience if we were that individual.  In viewing cinema, we experience movie by riding along with the visuals where we experience our own thoughts, emotions, and sensations based on what we've seen. 

All successful screenwriters from John Millius to Francis Ford Cappola  live by one common goal and that is to show, don't tell.  Even all of your college film professors will recommend you one solution to fine your screenwriting craft and that is to watch movies.  It's ok if you don't know a establishing shot from a wide to medium angle shot, the goal in the end is to be able to tell stories visually. 

Here a couple of tricks filmmakers use to tell stories cinematically:

1. Cutting through time and space: Movies offer a astonishing way to tell time through a succession of images. 


Example in Scarface (1983) script in how time is conveyed  in images to show Tony's rise in the criminal world to Miami Drug Kingpin .





2. Moving the field of vision.   The camera can portray the  mood, feel, and energy of a scene by the timing and pacing of it's shots. 


Beginning scene from John Carpenters 1978 Horror classic, Halloween. 

 EXT./INT. MYERS HOUSE -- NIGHT -- SUBJECTIVE POV 
               (PANAGLIDE)

               It is night. We move toward the rear of a house through 
               Someone's POV. CAMERA MOVES UP to a Jack-o'-lantern glowing 
               brightly on a windowsill. It is a windy night and the 
               curtains around the Jack-o'-lantern ruffle back and forth.

               Suddenly we hear voices from inside the house.

                                     SISTER (V.O.)
                         My parents won't be back till ten.

                                     BOYFRIEND (V.O.)
                         Are you sure?

               Then LAUGHTER.

               The POV moves from the Jack-o'-lantern down to another 
               window and peers inside. We see the sister's bedroom through 
               the blowing curtains.

               Into the bedroom comes the SISTER, 18, very pretty. She 
               GIGGLES as the BOYFRIEND jumps into the room. Also 18, he 
               wears a Halloween mask and costume.

                                     BOYFRIEND
                              (continuing)
                         We're all alone, aren't we?

                                     SISTER
                         Michael's around someplace....

               The boyfriend grabs the sister and kisses her.

                                     SISTER
                              (continuing)
                         Take off that thing.

               The boyfriend rips off his mask. He is a handsome young 
               man underneath. They kiss again, this time with more 
               passion. The boyfriend begins to unbutton the sister's 
               blouse. She responds to him.

               The POV swings away from the window and begins to restlessly 
               pace back and forth, agitated, disturbed. We HEAR THE SOUNDS 
               of the sister and boyfriend inside the bedroom growing 
               more and more passionate.

               Finally the POV moves back up to the window. Inside through 
               the moving curtains, we see the sister and the boyfriend 
               on the bed, naked, making love.

               The POV springs back from the window and stalks quickly 
               down the side of the house, past the Jack-o'-lantern, around 
               to a door. Quietly the door is opened and the POV moves 
               inside.

               The POV glides silently through the house into the kitchen, 
               up to a drawer. The drawer is opened. A large butcher knife 
               is withdrawn.

               Then the POV swings around and moves to the kitchen door. 
               We look down a hallway to the front door. The boyfriend 
               steps out of the bedroom door, buttoning his shirt. The 
               sister stands in the doorway, a sheet wrapped around her.

                                     BOYFRIEND
                         I gotta go.

                                     SISTER
                         Will you call me tomorrow?

                                     BOYFRIEND
                         Yeah, sure.

                                     SISTER
                         Promise?

                                     BOYFRIEND
                         Yeah.

               They kiss again and the boyfriend walks to the front door.  
               The sister watches as he leaves and shuts the door behind 
               him. Then she turns and steps back into the bedroom.

               The POV moves slowly down the hall to the bedroom door and 
               peers around inside. The sister sits at her night-table 
               brushing her hair. She is still completely nude.

               Slowly the POV moves into the room. Suddenly we move down 
               to the discarded Halloween mask on the floor. The POV bends 
               down and picks it up. Then suddenly the POV is covered by 
               the mask and we see through the eye-holes.

               The POV moves up behind the sister. Sensing a presence, 
               she spins around and stares at the POV, covering her breasts 
               quickly.

                                     SISTER
                         Michael...?

               Suddenly the POV lunges forward. The sister continues to 
               stare incredulously. There is a rapid blur as the POV drives 
               the butcher knife into the sister's chest and out again 
               almost before we've seen it.

               The sister looks down at the blood forming at her hands, 
               then

               back up at the POV with an astonished disbelief.

               Then in a wild paroxysm the butcher knife blurs continuously 
               in and out of frame, slashing the sister mercilessly. She 
               begins to SCREAM, trying to fend off the blows with her 
               hands, then suddenly falls out of frame to the floor.

               The POV moves back away from the sister's lifeless body, 
               spins around and careens out of the bedroom.

               At top speed the POV races through the darkened house, to 
               the front door, out the door, down the steps and rapidly 
               up the street. The CAMERA careens along in frenzied flight, 
               up the sidewalk, up a small side alley, down someone's 
               backyard, then to a sudden, abrupt halt in front of MOTHER 
               and FATHER just coming out of a neighbor's house.

               Mother and Father stare at the POV, at first in puzzlement, 
               then slow, growing horror.

                                     MOTHER
                         Michael?




In 1978, Director John Carpenter took advantage of the Steadicam camera to create the POV from the killer's perspective.  In this beginning shot we get this sense of this unfriendly, unknown presence that is approaching the house.  We later find out that the POV is from the Sister's young brother's point of view judging by the low positioning of the camera.  However, at this moment we cannot suspend our disbelief that the young brother is the murderer.  A lot of first time viewers probably assume that he's probably out, playing around and making it much harder for the sister to find him.  How could a young child possibly be capable of premeditated murder?

However, when  he turns on the kitchen light, and you see the POV image of his hand reaching for the butcher knife, a whole new level of suspense was born .  Now with the boyfriend gone for the night it's just her trapped with the killer in the house   Suddenly the ambient sound fades out and  slowly suspenseful music picks up as the killer creeps slowly up the stairs like a lion preying through the  thick bushes setting its eyes on its kill. Only this is no antelope, it's a young teenager enjoy her night of lustful bliss.  The music finally reaches its crescendo when she spots the young voyeur peering in only we know what she does not know that impending doom is near .  When she finally figures  it out the music roars like a lion and the timing of the shots pick up on the hands of the young child driving the knife deep into the body of the young teenager who lays helplessly on the floor.   Now without viewing the script but seeing this film for the first time you still probably had your assumptions on who Michael was? Is it really her brother or someone she has been paid to watch?    When the two parents arrive home and the unmasking of the true killer as the brother is revealed it certainly left audiences in shake and amazement.   WHICH LEAVES AN EVEN BIGGER QUESTION at the end of this scene is.................Why?   Well that's up to the director to reveal the  answers to your undying questions as you dive deeper and deeper into the film for you to find out. 

When you can create a certain high level of fear in your audience in your opening scene you will have theater audiences hooked to watch the rest.  That's how screenwriters make their mark in this industry. 

3. Special Effects.  Computer Generated Imagery or CGI as it's commonly known to all film buffs is a way filmmakers use to design new worlds, fictional characters, and futuristic space vehicles  through blue and green screen processes that would otherwise cost costume and production set design billions of dollars to produce in such a short time.


Scene from Lord of The Rings: Return of The King (2003)



COMING UP NEXT
Where Screenplay ideas come from 

Until next time , this is Joe Krueger, Director of the Filmmakers Studio, and we'll see you at the movies.


CELEBRATING THE SOUNDTRACKS OF MY LIFE: TERMINATOR 2