HOLY GRAIL OF SCREENWRITING: THE STORY

I’m not interested in criticizing or reviewing films, not in any traditional sense.  Basically, I don’t like film reviews.  Half the time I can never understand what’s being said.  I want to respond and react to the films I see in the quest of what I call the Holy Grail of Screenwriting: Finding a great story.

Actually, it doesn’t have to be great. Generally, I want to define “what is a story.”

I also want to understand the importance of movies in my life and the millions of others who just can’t seem to get enough.

I’m a songwriter, screenwriter and freelance writer. The two most important things in my life are songs and films. You could say, I live totally in a fantasy world, a world of fiction…a media child.

I want to understand the meaning of songs and films and if they really are something more than mere escapism or entertainment.

Music and film are inseparable, with the exception that music can be listened to without a visual counterpart. But, live concerts, music videos and film clearly illustrate the visual side of music.

I’m personally offended when someone says, “It’s only a movie,” or, “It’s only fiction,” or “It’s just entertainment.”

So, am I fooling myself into thinking I’m searching for the meaning of life when all I’m really doing is escaping?

Well, the desire to write screenplays helps to answer the question to some degree. I want to touch people’s lives. I guess entertainment by itself can do that. And creating something that makes people laugh, cry, think, scream or get angry is, in a way, entertaining. But the desire to write goes deeper than that. I want people to understand themselves and the world around them better. I want to inspire them to change when things ain’t right.

More so, I want to offer hope, especially in a world where hope is in short supply.
And ah, of course I wanna have fun. Having fun actually has a significantly serious side to it. If you’re having fun, it pretty much means things are OK. Either that, or, you’re just a cold sucker who can have fun no matter what is going on. War isn’t fun. Neither is crime, disease, poverty or natural disasters. Ironically, comedy writers find the fun in personal and world problems. We’re better off for it.

But the thing is, when we’re having fun on a Saturday night, or having fun during a backyard barbecue on a Sunday afternoon, it’s because nothing bad is happening. Something bad happens, and the party is over.

If we could live in a world where all we did was have fun, where EVERYBODY was having fun…we’d probably get bored, ha! So, having fun is a good thing. It’s just hard sometimes for me to have fun when I know so many other people are not having fun.

Am I a martyr? Hell, I could even be an asshole. I mean, why should I give a shit if they’re starving in Africa when everybody else around me is headed for the hottest dance club in town.

Yeah, it’s a money thing. America has a lot of fun. Vacations, amusement parks, shopping malls, ship cruises, arcades, video games, sports, popcorn and candy and…songs and films.

I was in Vegas during 9/11. The experience was an invaluable lesson in what I call “The Meanwhile Theory.” The Meanwhile Theory underlies every movie I see. Very simply it means while one thing is happening, something else is happening someplace else. Think Godfather, when Pacino is babtising his child, “meanwhile,” he’s ordered a string of hits on his enemies, which take place at the same time as the babtism.

In Vegas, sure, tourism was down. In fact, a lot of people got fired. But it sure didn’t stop the casino parking lots from filling up. The tables were plenty busy. People were laughing and drinking at craps tables as if not a thing was wrong in the world. In just under a year, Vegas was back up and running and as of Dec 2006, it is allegedly the fastest growing city in America. Average cost of a home is somewhere around 300K. There are plenty of homes in Vegas that go for much more than that.

Meanwhile, there’s a war in Iraq. And off the Strip? Well, some of the side streets in Vegas are just as dangerous as any other of the most dangerous streets in America.

What does this say about movies? Well, if movies–Hollywood–is anything like Vegas, that is, movies are just for entertainment, then I don’t want any part of it.

Well, this is my cross to bear: I wanna have fun but I feel guilty. This is the kind of stuff that informs the screenplays a writer writes. It defines integrity. It defines style.

You can tell when a movie cares. You can tell when people cared about the movie they were making. You can tell when characters care. Who wants to watch characters that don’t care about anything? We need heroes and heroines. And the first place heroism begins is by caring.

CONFLICT

The main conflict in nearly all movies is protagonist vs. antagonist.  And of course, no two roles exemplify this conflict better than cop and criminal.  But characters don’t exist in a vacuum.  A conflict between two people or groups of people is generated from larger sources of conflict.  These larger sources can be the self, nature, society and fate.

Protagonist vs. antagonist takes on many different faces.  In addition to cop/criminal, government agent vs. terrorist is equally as popular.  Pitting these kinds of characters is usually more dramatic because the stakes are higher.  Someone can die or a nation’s security is at risk.  There is intrigue, suspense and mystery, where characters play elaborate games mostly not to get caught.  So, the underlying theme of protagonist/antagonist is cat and mouse. 

Other one-on-one characters at odds with each other can include:  Man against woman; Black against white; bully against weakling; employee and boss; doctor and patient; teacher and student, etc. 

We root for the underdog.  We want to see the weakling defeat the bully.  Man against woman is too general.  In a criminal context, it could be an abusive man or a rape victim out for revenge.  Mostly, man/woman stories are romantic stories about the quest for love, a quest inherently filled with conflict.  Stakes are also high because of the value we place on finding love and keeping it.  Love usually means forever.  Love is also the ultimate quest of humankind, or so we would believe. 

One-on-one conflicts exist within larger conflicts.  A protagonist and antagonist work out their conflict through situations.  For instance, it’s a murder that brings a homicide detective and killer face to face.  A terrorist blows up a bus and now threatens to blow up a city. 

Conflicts thematically are about the forces of good versus evil.  However, in a cat and mouse story, neither the cat nor the mouse is evil, per se.  We can make the cat evil and root for the mouse.  Or, we can make the mouse evil and hope the cat gets the mouse in the end.  But in nature, the pecking order is not an inherently evil thing. 

Of course, we can imbue anything with a good or evil quality.  Natural disasters can just happen or they can be acts of God.  In horror movies, everything from fog to insects gets personified as evil, where an inanimate object or non-human creature seems to have a mind of its own.

There are a 1000 ways to reveal the overriding conflict that pits two characters against each other.  For instance, in a cop/criminal story, the cop can discover along the way the precinct he is assigned to is full of corruption.  Hence, the larger conflict is the question of justice.  It taps into the very nature of what society deems right and wrong.  Going further, the conflicts generated in the debate over right and wrong are also part of a larger quest for truth. 

Therefore, the quest for truth naturally breeds conflict.  Finding truth is also a way to resolve the story. 

Conflict reveals character.  So it is understanding human nature that is the thing most at work in fiction driven by conflict.  A man who hates the water and can’t swim finds a way to overcome his fears to save his family after a rented sailboat is ripped apart in a storm.  The conflict looks like it’s between the man and nature, but it’s really a conflict with the self in overcoming fear and earning the respect of a family that had him pegged as a weakling. 

Character arcs are critical to storytelling.  Conflict propels a character forward, forcing the character to overcome obstacles to reach a desired goal.  A character starts out one way and ends up another, usually from weak to strong, bad to good, nobody to somebody. 

A story about a rebellious school teacher is a reflection on the education system.  There’s a message in the story.  That message is clearly a solution to a problem.  A problem is the cousin of conflict. 

Now, many crime stories are not a reflection of real life.  They exist solely for their entertainment value.  And from a negative perspective, they distort the real world of cops and criminals.  So, not all stories have messages.

The subject of conflict begs a larger question of movies as entertainment or movies as message.  Movies can be both and the best ones are.  When there is an identification of audience with character, situation and story outcome, the experience is much more satisfying.  The audience not only walks away entertained, but might have learned something about themselves, others or the world they live in. 

Philosophically, on the largest plane possible, life is a struggle.  We come into the world screaming and go out the same way.  Some people just try to get by.  Most people want to do better.  Most people want to grow and prosper.  To achieve those goals, there are obstacles.  Risks are taken.  Sacrifices are made.  Along the way to reaching those goals there is conflict. 

Having fun first appears to be conflict free.  But behind having fun is a larger picture.  We don’t have fun all the time.  Fun exists because of the things in life that are not fun.  Having fun is a way to maintain some semblance of sanity and happiness in a world full of turmoil and the endless struggle to survive day to day. 

Even the best comedies are conflict-driven.  Characters are thrown into a situation—a situation being an event or occurrence that requires a decision or choice—and how they handle the situation determines the outcome.  The outcome can be funny or tragic. 

Mostly, we like to see characters beat the odds and overcome their own inner struggles.  There are plenty of forces at work preventing us from being the best we can be.  We have voices inside our heads that beat us down or lift us up.  Personified, it’s the proverbial devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. 

All of us struggle everyday with right vs. wrong, physical and emotional handicaps, nature and God.  It’s impossible to calculate the number of choices and decisions we make every day.  But just trying to imagine how many is enough to reveal we are struggling every moment of our lives. 

In the movies, we want to identify with characters that overcome their faults and weaknesses.  We hope to be inspired that we can do the same in real life. 

We also want to escape.  But escapism is nothing more than the mere avoidance of conflict.  We drink, take drugs, go on thrill rides and watch movies, all with the desire to escape reality.  Well, that may not necessarily be a true statement.  It depends on perspective.  Writers can cater to the belief that people want to escape and be mindlessly entertained.  Or, they can a deeper human side to the struggle of work vs. play, pain vs. pleasure, or fear vs. peace.

And then, there’s fate.  Fate vs. God is enough conflict in itself.  The struggle against fate or God may very well be the same struggle we have with our inner selves.  But we also don’t exist in a vacuum.  We live in society.  And any inner struggle we face invariably affects those around us.  Is a person born unlucky?  Or, is it more dramatic to tell the story of a character who believes they were born unlucky, then discovers in takes hard work and dedication to change things or reach a goal?

It’s not being born lucky or unlucky that produces the conflict.  It’s how a character handles good luck and bad luck is where the struggle is.   

DECISION MAKING

 

Life is based on the decisions and choices we make and don’t make.  It’s an endless philosophical debate whether we are born or made.  Some of us are born under a bad sign.  Others are born with a silver spoon. 

One thing for sure, regardless of fate or destiny, shit happens.  Life is full of unforeseeable events.  We are forced to make choices and decisions we normally would not make. 

How we view the past, present and future affects the choices and decisions we make.  A life full of past failures, a present that’s dim, and a future with no prospects, can cripple our decision making process or challenge it.  How characters handle decisions and choices is not all that different than real life. 

Of course, we don’t battle alien beings in real life.  But what would we do if we had to?  We have to make choices and decisions we might not be prepared to make.  We identify with characters in similar situations, real or imagined.  We learn from them. 

Movies are very much voyeuristic journeys into watching others make choices and decisions we either have to make ourselves, are afraid to make, or thrilled we will never have to make. 

We have preferences.  We like things to be a certain way.  We get upset, angry, lost and confused when our usual order of things is thrown into chaos.  We react.  We respond.

It’s probably not possible to understand why someone would like apples and not oranges.  Of course, there could be a legitimate or even insane reason for such a choice.  Apples might represent the ultimate in sin.  Mom used to make fresh squeezed orange juice every morning before she was brutally murdered. 

Our lives demand priorities.  Stories about life-threatening situations eliminate the need for prioritizing.  There’s only one thing important in the moment and that’s surviving or saving the life of someone else. 

Movies that are about life-threatening situations reveal character through the choices and decisions a character makes to survive and defeat the enemy or resolve the conflict.  A life-threatening situation offers a condensed slice-of-life.  Instead of seeing a character develop over time as in real life, from childhood to adolescence and into adulthood, we see who the person is immediately in how they handle a life-threatening situation. 

A life-threatening situation is life changing.  A once shy person becomes a hero.  A bully gets his due.  An estranged dad learns to appreciate the things he loves. 

But not all movies are about life-threatening situations.  It’s the difference between action and melodrama.  Making certain choices and decisions determines if a family stays together during hard times.  Doing something outrageous and out of character might be the only way to bring about a desired result. 

Life is filled with endless choices.  Some call it, “Overchoice.”  We have 100s of cable channels.  Choosing a car or a house is a traumatic experience.  Some people have a hard time figuring out what to eat every day or what to wear they haven’t worn over and over again.  Eating cheesecake could break a diet.  Trying a drug could spell disaster.  Some people refuse to buy a cell phone.  One call could break a deal, enact a law, change corporate policy, ruin a relationship. 

We are the sum of the people we know, and in many ways, the people we don’t know. 

How we choose to spend our time, whether we stop to smell the roses, take things for granted, choose a college or major, choose a partner, or choose to be silent, can have a dramatic affect on future events and outcomes. 

Some choices determine if we are nice or mean.  Some choices determine if we save ourselves or save the world. 

Choices and decisions are emotionally charged.  Refusing to accept a cold hamburger served in a restaurant reveals character.  Wanting the Gold Medal more than anything else in life reveals character.  We make choices and decisions based on how much we love or hate a person or thing. 

Choices and decisions are not based purely on rational thought.  It’s unlikely an insane serial killer makes conscious decisions to kill people.  He is driven by other forces.  We also do things based on gut reaction.  We make choices intuitively.  We really can’t explain why, we just know it in our hearts or gut it’s the right thing to do.  We also get carried away emotionally.  We lose control and do stupid things.  These are not conscious decisions. 

We are all struggling for some kind of balance in our lives.  We want some kind of order.  We want things to make sense. 

There are many outside and/or external forces that guide or direct our choices and decisions.  Does the character believe in God?  Is the character a staunch Republican?  Will the character be ostracized by a group?  Is the character being forced to make a decision at the point of a gun? 

Choices are often based on this or that, or, this before that.  They are also made on the basis of how much of this or that. 

INCITING INCIDENT

 

Something happens.  What happens launches the film (or story).  It could be an explosion, a murder, a bet, an accident, an invasion, a strange occurrence, a mystery, two people meet, getting fired, getting hired, divorce, marriage, declaration of war, press conference, award ceremony, a race, a crime, a bust, an accusation, a threat, a natural disaster, a decision.

It is a life changing event.  Once the event occurs or a choice is made, the next important thing is what happens next.  The stakes are raised.  Something greater or worse is going to happen.  There is no going back.  The character(s) will change. 

The inciting incident sets the stage for the final climax.  Usually the final climax occurs when the protagonist is out of options, beaten down, or even near death.  This is a major turning point.  It’s when the hero gets or loses the desired goal.  The inciting incident placed the protagonist in conflict, the final climax resolves that conflict. 

The inciting incident creates tension, stress, anxiety, fear, or suspense.  The final climax brings resolution, usually a happy one:  boy wins girl n(race or war), world gets saved, monster is killed, killer is caught, mystery is solved, lost person is found.

OBSTACLES

 

Obstacles are:  impossible odds; loss of hope; failure; enemies; roadblocks; metaphorical roadblocks; mental roadblocks; administrative roadblocks; problem solving; puzzles; challenges.

Examples of obstacles:  getting out of prison; finding a killer; making a discovery; self-defense; defecting; getting home; finding love; finding a missing person; solving a crime; finding a cure; winning a game.

Obstacles are not random.  The obstacles a character overcomes must tell the story.

In overcoming obstacles there is growth:  weak to strong; hate to love; sad to happy; wrong to right; becoming a better person; lies into truth; evil into good; becoming a better father, worker, citizen, lover, statesman; follower into leader; gaining understanding.

Obstacles occur externally or internally.

External obstacles are based on the laws of physics:  an object acting on another object will create resistance.  A ball must fly through the air, fighting air and gravity.  A machine will run only as long as there is fuel or electricity, or until the parts wear out. 

In life there are things that move us forward and things that hold us back.  We embrace the things that move us forward–that get us from A to B.  We fight the things that hold us back. 

The very essence of film is based on movement.  And by all accounts, we are moving into the future.  The hands of a clock move forward. 

Twists on this are the turning of night into day or day into night, although it is also universally agreed that days are moving forward consecutively. 

Travels back in time must first overcome the obstacle of traveling into the past.  If the memory is the vehicle, then the story is a flashback.

Physical obstacles are usually harmful:  guns, diseases, accidents.  We never have to actually scale a wall to get where we’re going, unless that wall happens to be the Berlin or China wall.  We don’t scale buildings to get the job we want. 

Other physical obstacles include handicaps (blind, loss of limb, etc.).

Obstacles are more human than anything.  Someone is preventing us from reaching our goals, preventing us from being happy, or just otherwise trying to make our lives miserable–which is an affront to our happiness.

Bosses prevent us from climbing the ladder.  Lovers prevent us from doing things we want to do.  Parents are the ultimate determinants of do’s and don’ts. 

Something is stopping us from getting the things we want. 

Internal obstacles include morals that prevent us from getting what we want immorally.  Low self-esteem and other emotional handicaps prevent us from living more fulfilling lives. 

Conflicts are born out of what is considered right and wrong.  We want sex but religion forbids it.  We want a job but it means moving and spending less time with our loved ones.  Doctors and lawyers must finish school…and pay for it.

Politicians must overcome their own set of obstacles on the way to office.  They must balance opposing groups and views. 

Some obstacles are the problems we all face in ourselves and with others:  greed, selfishness, dominance.  These kinds of obstacles are not nearly as apparent as a gun in our face.  And, we have to deal with others who are facing the same challenges, driven by the same motivations and desires as we are. 

Two greedy people spell disaster.

Character building is essentially a line of good or evil.  We must overcome obstacles in ways that make us better persons.  Those are the protagonists.  Antagonists are not interested in being good people.  Antagonists are immoral or criminal.  However, antagonists do not necessarily have to be all evil.  They can be sympathetic characters.

So, morality is the shaping tool of good and bad.

Sometimes the lines of right and wrong are obscured.  Do the Arabs or Israeli’s have a right to the Gaza Strip?

STORY AS JOURNEY

 

What is the context:  History (the renaissance, in the future); Place (on another planet, in a neighborhood, on the road); Situation (losing a job, heart is breaking, baby is born)? 

What is the journey:  Sea to sea, top of a mountain, winning a race, catching a crook, chaos to order, war to peace, low to high self-esteem.

A journey could be expressed as courage in the face of fear, gaining honor, achieving happiness, becoming wise, doing something great.  A journey (the character arch) is the act of becoming something; changing from bad to good or good to bad. 

There is exploration in the journey:  exploring sex, politics, religion, beliefs, romance, family history, distant planets, and mysteries. 

A journey can be a rite of passage (child to adult, graduating from high school). 

The journey a character is on can be filled with hope or despair.  The journey could be despair turning into hope.  A journey could be the ultimate quest for the meaning of life.

The journey a character takes in a story proves the premise (jealousy leads to murder; sometimes the bad guy wins; love can overcome disease). 

A journey is a way to get out of something, like a bad job or marriage.  A journey can be a way into something, like a new land or the gates of heaven.  

A journey has to start somewhere (getting out of jail, a day in the life, a plane ready for takeoff, a ghost appears, a witch casts an evil spell). 

A journey reveals how a character changes, from positive to negative, or in reverse. 

We can choose to go on a journey or be forced to go on one.

Our expectations get shattered.  Our needs are not met.  We are blocked internally or externally from reaching our goals.  We fall in love and it turns to hate.   Life is a journey.

STORY QUALITIES

·        Exciting

·        Dramatic

·        Out of the ordinary

·        Fast-paced

·        Shocking

·        Different

·        Unique

·        Suspenseful

·        Hilarious

·        Moving

·        Emotional

·        Tragic

·        Engaging

·        Funny

·        Thought-provoking

·        Heartwarming

STORY

A good guy starts out wanting nothing but is forced to make choices—he wasn’t out to save the world, but must stop the bad guy from destroying it.  He’s an ordinary character thrown into extraordinary circumstances, can’t turn back, and must make choices that change him.  The change must be positive.  Reaching goals and changing is not necessarily the same thing.  Something happens out of nowhere.  Something happens for a reason.  Start with fate or start with motivation.  Who, what, when, where, how and why is a question of creativity. 

What moves the story forward?  How does action move the story forward?  How does a character’s action and behavior move the story forward?  How does dialog move the story forward?

Gunfights, car chases, special effects, sexy actors, love scenes, explosions, lighting, songs, scores, sets, even camera angles—are devices used to tell a story. 

Rocky is not about boxing.  The Hunt for Red October is not about submarines.  Charlie’s Angels—believe it or not—is not about three sexy chicks who giggle a lot.  Rocky is about overcoming self-esteem.  The Hunt for Red October is about the quest for freedom.  Charlie’s Angels is about…OK, I admit, it’s about 3 sexy chicks who giggle a lot.  It is the theme of the movie that really states what the movie is about.  A theme is the concept.  It could be redemption, love, revenge, freedom, honor, courage, etc. 

But theme is not enough.  A premise is where the theme is proven through a series of events (the plot).  For instance, “courage overcomes obstacles.”  A premise proves something is true.  It proves that it took courage to overcome certain obstacles.  The character uses or finds the courage necessary to overcome an obstacle in the pursuit of a goal. 

Another popular premise is cheating leads to disaster.  Where a writer might get confused is if it’s the writer trying to prove the premise or the character.  It would be a significant challenge for a writer who believes cheating leads to disaster to create a character who discovers cheating does not lead to disaster, but instead leads to happiness. 

A premise determines what works and what doesn’t. 

Drama is born from conflict.  Something is getting in the way of a character reaching a desired goal.  But sometimes the character doesn’t have a goal and something happens.  An event takes place that forces the character to make decisions.  The choices he/she makes determines not only the outcome of the story but also reveals character.  Events that create conflict also change character. 

What’s at stake?  A character is thrown into an impossible situation.  What is there to lose and what is there to gain? 

A crime is committed.  Obviously, the goal is find the perpetrator and bring him/her to justice.  The audience must care about the victim, care about the protagonist (victim, cop, lawyer, or all three).  Because we care, we are thrilled when they overcome obstacles and horrified when they don’t.  The criminal will do anything to prevent getting caught.  If a criminal turns himself in, well, the story is over.  There’s no chase.  There’s no suspense.  There’s no conflict. 

A premise doesn’t have to be a universal truth or true to real life.  A good story does not have to prove a truism in life.  A story is not an academic non-fiction discourse on the meaning of life.  But then, this is one of the issues a writer faces in terms of what kind of messages he/she wants to send. 

For instance, love does not conquer all.  It certainly doesn’t in real life.  But for a story to be triumphant, the writer must prove—or more accurately—the character must prove that love does conquer all.  A tragedy is when a character fails to prove the premise.  This could be a significant twist in the story or could leave an audience disappointed.  If we want the hero/heroine to succeed in the goal of proving love conquers all, then we better see it happen. 

How this premise is worked through in the context of a 2-hour movie is a whole other level in storytelling.  This is where the plot comes into play.  A plot is a series of events or scenes that unfold.  Needless to say, enough material must be presented that holds an audiences attention and sufficiently engages them for the entire length of the film.  A character, who punches a jealous guy in a bar, grabs the girl and then exits the bar, might be all that’s needed to show love overcoming jealousy.  But it wouldn’t make for a very interesting movie.

A premise doesn’t have to be true; just believable. 

Audiences will not react if they don’t care about the characters and care about the story.  This produces a writing dilemma and a challenge at the same time.  Audiences are prejudiced.  Anti-gay audiences are not going to care about a gay person overcoming obstacles no matter how compelling or engaging the story might be. 

But, there are plenty of movies about insidious characters that for a variety of reasons the audience still cares about.  Examples include:  Scarface (a drug dealer and killer), the Godfather (a mobster), the Woodsman (a pedophile).

Stories allow us to identify.  We get to see how others handle the obstacles we face every day and in our lifetimes. 

LOGLINE

I’ve spent hours alone trying to write a logline.  Actually, it’s a log paragraph.  I don’t necessarily believe the selling and production of a script depends on how well written a logline is.  But, it is a teaser.  And I’m challenged to write the best logline possible because it tells in a very clear and concise manner what the story is about.  This is something I need to do before a script is written.  I need to know where a story is headed.  I need to know beginning, middle and end.  I need to know the central conflict, the climax and who the antagonist/protagonist are. 

The structure of a logline best follows the essential definition of a what a story is:  A flawed character overcoming obstacles to reach a desired goal.

Here’s one logline taken from an unknown book on screenwriting:  “A meek and alienated little boy discovers a stranded extraterrestrial and finds the courage to defy authorities to help the alien return to its home planet.”  — ET: Extraterrestrial.

References are made to the objective and subjective storylines.  For instance, the objective storyline of Rocky is about a boxer.  The subjective storyline is about the character of Rocky overcoming obstacles to reach a desired goal.  But obstacles are objective and subjective.  The objective obstacle is overcoming an opponent.  The subjective obstacle is overcoming low self-esteem. 

Because we can not see inside a character’s mind, the inner struggle must be revealed through external conflict.  In real life, an insane person could be sitting in a chair in an asylum with WW3 going on inside his head.  But the blank stare and a body that doesn’t move is not going to tell us what’s inside. 

In turn, we can see a cop chase a bad guy through a gun battle, car chase and all kinds of fantastic stuntwork.  But we know nothing about the cop or bad guy.  We need to care about the characters to care about what ever obstacles they overcome. 

Keywords fill out the logline.  We must know who the hero is, what happened, what the central conflict is (inner and outer obstacles), who the antagonist is, what’s at stake, and how the story resolves.  A logline can include the following:  Situation, complications, action, crisis, a hint at climax, a character’s transformation, production value (sex, greed, danger, humor, thrills, satisfaction) and genre.

Loglines are often used by DVD Clubs (like Columbia House) to entice a buyer.  Or they are used by TV Guide to entice a viewer.  More often than not a logline is a device to help the screenwriter see the story as clearly and simply as possible. 

Many loglines contain the names of stars where the stars becoming the selling device and not the character, theme, genre or story.  In terms of selling a screenplay, a logline works much in the same way a trailer works to entice an audience.  Sometimes trailers are better than the movies they advertise.  The same applies to a logline, synopsis or treatment.  A logline can also be a “pitch.”  A screenwriter “pitches” a story to a producer, actor or director.  A pitch can happen in an elevator or during a 15 minute appointment set up to hear the pitch. 

GENRES

Genres can generally be viewed in terms of the main conflict or central struggle.  For instance, a struggle against nature or supernatural forces, a struggle against new worlds, a struggle to find identity, a struggle for justice, a struggle to catch a criminal, a struggle against historical change, a struggle against society, a struggle against hate, a struggle to find/keep love, a struggle against montsters or demons, a struggle against technology, a struggle against morality, law or beliefs, a stuggle for survival.

Action
Adventure
Action/Adventure
Disaster
Comedy
Black Comedy
coming-of-Age
Crime (Detective, Cop, Courtroom, Gangster, Heist, Drugs, Street)
Thriller
Epic
Epic/Myth
Fantasy
Film Noir
Horror
Romance
Romantic Comedy
Science Fiction
Social Drama
Historical
Biographical
Buddy Film
Chick Flick
Art Film
Foreign Film
Independent Film
Musical
Western

TOOLS FOR DEVELOPMENT

 

An idea for a story can come from anywhere, usually an event:  something happens to someone, or someone is trying to reach a goal.

The Genre is not just a marketing ploy but also captures the essence of what the story is about and provides a framework for the telling of that story:  horror, sci-fi, comedy, drama, musical, western, thriller, action/adventure, love story (and various combinations and sub-genres).

A logline (log paragraph) tells what the story is about in 1-3 sentences.  “This is a story about cars” is not a logline.  “This is a story about cars that get blown up” is still not a log line, nor is it a story.  The logline must include the protagonist, the major conflict and the theme.

An outline usually takes the form of scene by scene (not shot by shot or camera angle by camera angle—shots and angles are only in a director’s shooting script).

A synopsis is more than a logline, usually 1-10 pages or so.

A treatment is an elaborate telling of the story in narrative form, up to 60 pages long.  A treatment can be a short story.  It is a visual telling of the story in narrative form with dialog and scene divisions removed. 

A screenplay traditionally has a 3-act structure equating beginning, middle, and end.  It might have more acts depending on sub-plots.  There is an inciting incident (something happens) which produces a series of conflicts leading to a main conflict and the resolve of that conflict.  Once something happens to a character, there is no turning back.  The character must overcome a series of obstacles to reach a desired goal. 

Movies are generally 2 hours long, with one page of a script representing one minute of screen time (120 pages). 

What is the difference between a movie, a screenplay, a story, a theme, a premise and a plot?  What is a hook?  What is an idea?  What is a concept?  What is the difference between an idea and a concept?  How is concept different from theme or premise?

A story consists of structure, time, place (or space), a journey, theme, premise, style, Protagonist, Antagonist, supporting characters, scenes (a series of events or plot points), acts, sets, locations, lighting, mood, genre, exposition, music, camera angles, beats, vignettes, dialog, action, conflict, climax and resolution.  All of these elements are storytelling devices. 

There are different kinds of stories:  epic, allegory, parody, satire, children’s.

AUDIENCE

·        Who is the target audience?

·        How old are they?

·        What are they interested in?

·        Will they be desperate to know what happens?

·        What topics and issues matter to everyday people?  Where do pirates, ghosts and aliens fit into this?

·        Audiences interpret in many different ways.

·        Audiences identify, sympathize and empathize.  They also cheer and boo.

·        What is a wide audience compared to a narrow audience?

·        Audiences don’t necessarily relate to the character but to the heart of a character (a sympathetic bad guy).

WHERE STORIES COME FROM

·        Novels (Horse Whisperer, Silence of the Lambs)

·        Short stories

·        News stories

·        Children’s books (Harry Potter)

·        Autobiographies

·        Documentaries

·        Non-fiction

·        Military (Top Gun, the Hunt for Red October)

·        Comic books (Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Men in Black)

·        Bubblegum cards (Mars Attacks!)

·        Word-of-mouth

·        Radio shows (The Shadow, War of the Worlds—also from a novel)

·        TV series (Star Trek, the Brady Bunch, Mission Impossible)

·        Newspaper comics

·        Cartoons (Flintstones)

·        Computer games (Rocketeer, Mario Bros)

·        TV Comedy (Blues Brothers, Wayne’s World)

·        Toys (Masters of the Universe)

·        Poems (Jabberwocky)

·        Plays (The Crucible, Romeo and Juliet, A Few Good Men)

·        Myths (Clash of the Titans, Hercules)

·        Songs/albums (Tommy, The Wall, Sea of Love)

·        Legends (Excalibur)

·        Campfire stories (Halloween)

·        Dreams (Eraserhead)

·        Mythical beasts (Dragonheart, Godzilla, King Kong)

·        Historical events (Titanic, Braveheart)

·        Real people (Nixon, Catch Me If You Can, Mommy Dearest)

War, social events, disasters, famous crimes, famous criminals, doctors, lawyers, politicians, inventors, misfits, scientific discoveries, geographical discoveries, explorers, athletes, daredevils