This seems to be my week for delving into the technical side of the filmmaking business and watching a lot of documentaries on getting a concept from page to screen. My husband is a budding novelist (he's shopping 3 novels around to publishers at the moment) and I have a script in the works for a tense drama/horror short.
Last night the two of us watched Tales from the Script, one of the best films about screenwriting since Get Shorty (just kidding.) Actually one point that comes through in Get Shorty (a favorite) is that good screenwriters love the movies and have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of films and filmmakers.
But one problem screenwriters - or any writers, for that matter - have is too much love of their own words, and too often trying to "tell" the story rather than "show" it. You have to think in scenes and emotional tone, without having your characters describe the scene or emotion.
Harrison Ford, in one of the film's many anecdotes, tells a screenwriter how much he likes the lines that were written for his character in a particular scene. The elated writer says, "Gee, thanks!" and then Ford tells him he's not going to actually say any of them, because he can convey all of those words with a look.
Exactly. Film is visual. I find with my own script that I get all those words out of my system by putting it into scene direction. The director can take it or leave it, but at least I've got my intent on the page. Another thing I find myself doing is reading the dialogue out loud to see if it rolls off the tongue and sounds like something a person would actually say. (Actors cringe when they're handed speeches passing for dialogue.)
Bottom line from Tales of the Script: prepare to actually sell only 25 percent of your finished work and to have only half of those scripts go into production. Once sold, prepare to see your script torn apart by a committee and scenes and characters added/deleted to make it more marketable but which ruin the story. Still, the Hollywood pros all seem to have their own strategies for preserving as much as possible of their original concept. For that reason alone, this is a film worth watching.
p.s. By the way, when I started out to write a screenplay, I came across a number of useful books, one of which is How to Write a Movie in 21 days: The Inner Movie Method by Viki King, an old standard that has been in print for 15 years. Despite the rather off-putting title and breathless prose, what the book does that is very useful is get you moving. It doesn't analyze screenwriting as high art; it's nuts and bolts, get it on the page. A lot of practical tips, and you can buy it used.
But one problem screenwriters - or any writers, for that matter - have is too much love of their own words, and too often trying to "tell" the story rather than "show" it. You have to think in scenes and emotional tone, without having your characters describe the scene or emotion.
Harrison Ford, in one of the film's many anecdotes, tells a screenwriter how much he likes the lines that were written for his character in a particular scene. The elated writer says, "Gee, thanks!" and then Ford tells him he's not going to actually say any of them, because he can convey all of those words with a look.
Exactly. Film is visual. I find with my own script that I get all those words out of my system by putting it into scene direction. The director can take it or leave it, but at least I've got my intent on the page. Another thing I find myself doing is reading the dialogue out loud to see if it rolls off the tongue and sounds like something a person would actually say. (Actors cringe when they're handed speeches passing for dialogue.)
Bottom line from Tales of the Script: prepare to actually sell only 25 percent of your finished work and to have only half of those scripts go into production. Once sold, prepare to see your script torn apart by a committee and scenes and characters added/deleted to make it more marketable but which ruin the story. Still, the Hollywood pros all seem to have their own strategies for preserving as much as possible of their original concept. For that reason alone, this is a film worth watching.
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