Deborah Moggach
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.
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.
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.
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
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