Ideas are the port where this voyage starts. Buy your ticket. Get on board.
We’re sailing into uncharted waters.
Whenever I have taught screenwriting, one of the most often
asked questions is, “Where do you get your ideas?” Tell you the truth, I buy mine 6 for $10.00
out of a place in Schenectady, New York.
No, I am not going to tell you where.
Seriously, ideas are sources by which we as writers move
from the state of nature, or reality, to a state of unreality, or fiction. The thing that changes that state is our
imagination. Our imagination uses
whatever means it has at its disposal to change that state; experiences,
dreams, desires, and so forth. In the
imagination is where the magic takes place.
While magic is the art and craft of creating illusions of
seemingly impossible or supernatural feats by using purely natural means, screenwriting
is the art and craft of writing scripts for movies, television, or video games
using natural means. In other words,
instead of using cards or other techniques, the screenwriter uses the
typewriter, or computer if you like, to create illusions.
Like magic, screenwriting uses a three act structure. In the case of magic, the three acts are
called the pledge, the turn, and the prestige.
In screenwriting, these three acts are called the set-up, the mid-point,
and the climax. Like a good magician is
always thinking about how a new act fits into his structure, we as writers need
to be thinking of how our idea fits into the three act structure
Because of the self-contained nature of movies, ideas for
movies or television should have the following attributes: they
should be short; they should be high concept; and they should be
intriguing. You are asking yourself how
short is short? Intriguing, how? And, what is high concept? The answers to these questions are that high
concept is the ability to present a simple and captivating story idea in one
sentence. The bottom line here is that
if you ever have an opportunity to pitch your idea you may get all of two minutes. The ability to encapsulate story concepts
into a single pithy sentence comes with practice.
I hear you saying,
“That’s dishonest. MOBY DICK is a
complex story of man’s conflict with man and nature. How can you reduce it to one line?” Easy.
A tortured 19th Century Ship’s Captain seeks the Great White
Whale that destroyed his body and took his ship. Short.
Intriguing. High Concept. In addition, there is an implied three act
structure.
Cute, but how do I go from the ephemeral to the physical? In other words, what are some processes one
might use that take from an idle concept to a one-line idea on paper? There are three processes that might help:
Mind mapping
Actors
Concept Testing
Mind mapping
Mind mapping is the
process where one takes the various transient ideas and puts them around a
central theme. Where do you get the
central theme? You’re the writer. Make it up.
If it does not work, try another.
You gotta start someplace. The
mind map serves two purposes. First, it
allows you to move quickly around the story accepting or disregarding elements
as you plug them in. Second, the mind
map allows you then to see the story and come up with the simple, intriguing,
high concept description.
In the example shown
below, I picked the theme of revenge.
Then, I assigned characters, characteristics, plot, and
motivations. You can make it as complex
or as simple as you want. Again, the
purpose here is not to outline the whole story; which you could do if you
wished, but develop the description.
Remember this – writing story descriptions, characterizations, act
descriptions, how act breaks work, etc. are all great exercises but doing all
those things is not writing. Get the
idea on paper and start writing.
Thanks to Heather Hale
Actors
Another idea method
is the actor method. Pick an actor -
John Wayne (Ahh, he was an actor from about 1929 to 1977. Made a lot of movies. THE QUIET MAN. DONOVAN’S REEF. THE SEARCHERS. Okay then, Johnny Depp). What would be your dream fantasy for Johnny
Depp? I mean here what would you write
in a story about Depp. Here are four
ways of looking at the actor method of idea development.
Dream fantasy. What would you have them say in the role you
have created?
Low hanging fruit. What other actors you have seen and admired. What would they say or act like in your
vision.
Knowledge of stars. You have to have a good working knowledge of
an actor’s acting skills-not just her bra size.
Current actors. While the actor may no longer be alive, you
have to write the story for contemporary readers.
Writer’s Attribute - Objectivity
Good writers know the quality of their writing relative to
industry standards. They know when
they've come up with a clever plot twist, a good character entrance, an
effective opening sequence. They can
tell good work regardless of whether or not they're the ones who came up with
that work. Go buy a copy of a good
script, put it side by side with yours, and see how your script compares?
Why are you reading this?
Go write!
John still practices screenwriting
in King County, WA along with a small rat dog, a mortgage, and a great view of
the valley.
No comments:
Post a Comment