Best Story Writing Framework for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Movie, and TV | Art | Science
This is a long article but I can guarantee if you implement the concepts discussed here you will make the best videos/movies ever. Remember like every skill story writing takes time and practice. Good luck!!
Concept is the IDEA
What is the story is about in 1 single line
In the dizzying world of moviemaking, we must not be distracted from one fundamental concept. The idea is king. If a movie begins with a great original idea, chances are good it'll be successful, even if executed only marginally well. However, if a film begins with a flawed idea, it will almost certainly fail.
What does that mean? Well, it means that you must spend enough amount of time to make sure your idea is amazing. If the idea is shitty, it doesn't matter if you cast George Clooney, movie will NOT do well.
So our job starts with thinking of an idea for a script, something that's compelling and something that grabs you as soon as you hear the logline.
What is a logline?
It's that sentence or two which encapsulates what the movie is about. So you see them in magazines and on websites like IMDB or whatever. They have a little a couple of sentences which describe the movie, and that's called The Logline.
Here's some examples.
- When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek his revenge (Gladiator).
- Two friends are searching for their long lost companion. They revisit their college days and recall the memories of their friend who inspired them to think differently, even as the rest of the world called them "idiots" (3 Idiots).
- An orphaned boy enrolls in a school of wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world (Harry Potter).
A good logline gives us a glimpse at the protagonist or the hero as they also known their goal, the main conflict that they might face and what the stakes might be.
Always Remember
- People are going to pay to watch movies.
- It will cost lots of time and money.
If you can't explain your entire story in 1-2 lines, then go back to drawing board.
Aaron Sorkin, who's written A Few Good Men, The West Wing, The Social Network, an amazing writer, obviously one of the best in the world. He says it takes him nearly two years to write a script, two years as a long chunk of your life. So we've got to make sure that the idea we've got is worth it. Imagine doing two years of work and then someone saying, well, I don't really like the idea. It's not very compelling. New doesn't grab anyone. What's the point in it? You've just wasted your time.
So how do we make strong and compelling Idea?
Hero/Protagonist
Your heroes goal, your heroes goal is the thing that they want to obtain, accomplish, win rescue. Whatever the goal is, we need to make sure it's compelling, the reader has to be gripped from the first page to the last For instance. They might want to save the princess or find the treasure or kill the bad guy.
We also need to make the goal visible, and what I mean by this is that we need to be able to see when the hero is actually accomplished.
Visible Goals
So whether this can be killing the big boss or recovering the treasure or saving the hostage, we can physically see that the hero has reached their endpoint. And one.
Invisible Goals
Say we're going to write a movie where our heroes goal is to make two people fall in love. Is this a physical goal that we can see? No, we can't we can't see if two people have fallen in love, so that's not a physical gold. So how can we change it? OK, let's say that the goal is to make them kiss for the first time that's visible. We can see if the two people kiss. However, would you pay your hard earned money just to watch that? No. I don't think so. How do we make it more compelling?
How we can make our goal more compelling?
The first thing we can do is add some stakes. Now, the stakes are what the hero stands to lose. If he fails in achieving his goal. The higher the stakes, the more compelling the goal. And nothing comes higher than death.
- So this could be the death of the hero himself or another character, such as taken ransom.
- It could be the death of an entire town. So 30 days of night or the rock or it could even be the death of everyone on the Earth, such as Armageddon or deep impact.
We've got to make sure that our stakes are as high as possible to make the outcome compelling. We want our audience to be willing for our hero every step of the way to succeed.
That's what the stakes are for.
You might be thinking, what about other genres, like romantic comedies that have people dying in them, do you? Well, we don't know, but we have a symbolic death, and that's of losing your one true love and therefore your chance of happiness. So if you're writing a script which doesn't obviously fit in with the sense of death, think of it in this kind of psychological way.
- it could be the loss of innocence.
- the loss of hope
- the loss of morality
- All of these kind of symbolic deaths could be considered as high stakes.
Urgency
We've also got to ensure that the hero desperately wants to achieve his goal, and this is where the high stakes helps again. I mean, what would be the point in watching a film where the hero isn't particularly bothered if he wins or, you know, he loses, if he doesn't care, no one else is going to care.
Antagonists
Well, we all know that every movie needs a bad guy and bad guys are also called antagonists. The antagonist has to be in direct opposition to our hero. They either want the same things, our hero.
- A James Bond film, the villain might want to get these nuclear codes, but James wants them as well. They're in direct opposition and they want the same thing or they might stand in the way of our hero attaining that goal.
- The antagonist wants the girl for himself now one of the two people that went to fall in love. What's more, he wants the hero out of the picture. So both of these things are therefore going to stop our hero from reaching his goal.
Genre
I'm always one for saying that you should probably write in the genre you love, I mean, if you hate watching horror, for instance, why would you consider writing one? Having said that, sometimes it's actually fun to play around with genre, especially at this idea stage, this concept stage.
I mean, maybe you could find an original concept to make your movie even better just by switching genres. For example, there's always been a lot of, say, zombie movies, you know, survivalist movies such as like 28 days later. But Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright decided, well, let's make a comedy version of a zombie film. And they gave us Shaun of the Dead, which did really, really well.
Try in a different genre, try the different stakes, try it with a different twist on it, and then just see what you come up with. We want to come up with a lot of different options here.
ObstaclesThe next thing we need is the movie needs obstacles and we need lots of them. Our audience wants to be taken on a journey of ups and downs. He's going to reach his goal. They're not going to reach that goal. They are. They're not. It's actually this yes, he will succeed, no, he won't succeed sequence is actually going to drive all of our act to.
Your story must enable a sympathetic character to overcome a series of increasingly difficult, seemingly insurmountable obstacles and achieve a compelling desire.
Just think of the broad strokes and a list of obstacles your hero could face.
- Hero's wife asked him to not play this match, but he did not listen
- Hero lost his child while his wife was in labor all alone while hero was playing an international match
- Hero's wife blame him for the life lost
- Hero's wife not talking to him anymore
- Hero lost all the will and is now doing 9-5 job and is fat and unfit
- Another match opportunity comes up and he could build a hospital but
- There he is out of form, fat, not practice etc etc etc
Ticking Clock
Finally will add a ticking clock.
- It can be the literal ticking clock of like a bomb waiting to go off in a James Bond film.
- It can be a ticking clock like crank where Jason Statham is racing against his heart basically to get a cure before his heart stops.
Ticking clocks are important because if the hero can put off doing his goal until next week or next month, there's no tension in the film, we're not willing for him to do it because there's no real hurry.
This is the kind of stuff that makes your reader flip those pages. They want to see how are you going to get out of this or what's going to happen next. So that's why it's so important.
Our final concept
Logline for back to the Future.
When a high school student, Marty McFly, that's our hero, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time traveling DeLorean, he must make his parents fall in love again, the goal, and find a way to return to the future before he ceases to exist. And that's our stakes.
Take your time
Take your time, please take your time.I know you wants to go and write the script, but I don't want you to waste your time here. I don't need to get halfway through a script and you've spent weeks doing it and then you give it to someone to read and they say, Oh, I don't really like the idea.
Take your time on this and I promise you it'll save you later.
Would they pay to see your movie?
Final Recap
- GOAL - What is your Hero’s goal?
- STAKES - What happens if he fails to reach his goal (the worse the better)?
- ANTAGONIST - Who is trying to stop your hero?
- OBSTACLES - What stands in the way of your hero achieving their goal?
- TICKING CLOCK - What ticking clock or clocks help to add the tension?
- GENRE - What genre are you writing for, could you maybe twist it into a different genre?
Protagonist (The Hero)
The hero is the most important character in the script
Why do we need one?
As an audience member or a reader, we need to feel grounded. We want to be shown one person's story and how other characters interact with that story and that protagonist. That's the role of the hero. They're the ones that are guiding us through the movie. It's their script, their story. And we are experiencing what he or she experiences now in order for us to care about what happens to this person.
We want the audience to feel dismayed when the hero goes through a rough patch and overjoyed when they get back on top.
So how do we get our audience to care about our protagonist, to empathize with them?
- Give the hero undeserved misfortune
- Get the hero to pet the dog
- Make the hero funny, cool, quirky or awesome at their job
Undeserved misfortune
The character has had something bad happen to them that was not of their own doing.
As an audience member or as a reader, this instantly makes us feel for them.
So what is empathy?
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. Therefore, if you can feel a character's hurt or loss or pain, we connected with them.
- ROSE CALVERT (Titanic)
- Rose is trapped in a marriage arrangement she doesn’t want.
- Cal (her Fiancé) is a bully to her.
- She longs to live life to the fullest but the strict Victorian values won’t let her.
- EMPATHY: We connect with Rose because she is trapped in a loveless relationship and longs to be free. The rest of her life looks set and there’s nothing she can do about it.
Pet the Dog
The hero does something kind to or helps someone more vulnerable than themselves, usually involving animals or children.
we connect with them because of it.
- FLETCHER (Liar, Liar)
- Fletcher is quite unlikeable as a hard hitting lawyer.
- He uses the “claw” to tickle his son Max.
- We see that he is a caring and loving father.
- EMPATHY: Fletcher is not the nicest of people and uses any means necessary in order to win his legal cases. It would be hard to connect with him if it wasn’t for the obvious love and care he has for his son Max. In this, he is figuratively “petting the dog”.
Funny or Cool
Now, why would this work? Well, we all like hanging around people that make us laugh or very charismatic.
We want to be with them. We want to be like them.
- Jules and Vincent (Pulp Fiction)
- They're not exactly nice people. You can't say what great people I want to be like that. They're killers. So they use this technique to get over that fact. Even though they're killers, they're funny, they're cool, and they have great dialogue and they play off each other and they make us laugh, so we connect with the characters even though they're not likable.
- Deadpool, Indiana Jones, and Jack Reacher?
- They're all uniquely funny, quick witted and cool, they've got great lines, snappy lines that they can shoot back at people.
Awesome at their job
This is seen a lot in action movies, but it's not limited to action movies, so you can use it in anything you want.
They can break into anywhere. They can kill anyone. They can do all the things that you basically could never do. But you want to be able to do. You'd like to be like that. You'd like to be able to kick -- and drive Aston Martins and drink martinis, go to tropical places, all have all the knowledge that they have how to hack security systems.
You want to be like them. And that is the connection.
Anti-Hero
Could be described as a flawed hero. They are anything from misguided individuals to liars or even murderers. Yet we can still empathise with anti-heroes even though they are not necessarily nice people. We are able to connect with them if we can understand and share their feelings. We can use the previous techniques in order to do this.
You want to be like them. And that is the connection.
- JOHN WICK
- John Wick is a killer but uses all 3 techniques to help us connect with him.
- His wife has died of cancer. (Undeserved Misfortune).
- He cares for a new puppy (Pet the Dog), until it is killed by a mobster (Undeserved Misfortune)
- He is a legendary hitman who will stop at nothing to get his man (Awesome at his job).
- Result: We are rooting for John to win.
CHARACTER ARC
A Character Arc is where you hero has one set of behaviours and beliefs at the start of the movie and pretty much the opposite at the end.
They have grown.
- SCROOGE (Christmas Carol)
- At the start: Scrooge is mean, miserly and a downright A**hole.
- During the movie: 3 Ghosts show Scrooge the error of his ways. He realises he has been living his life all wrong.
- At the end: Scrooge loves Christmas, is generous and happy.
You remember back in the concept stage, we set what the hero's goal was. Well, this transformational arc will help them achieve that. It's only by achieving the transformation that they can then reach their goal.
It doesn't matter how many times someone says something to you. It's only when you realize there were mistakes or how you want to change your life. There's when it really matters, and that's when you actually embrace change and you you change from the inside. So by the end of the story, we've got Scrooge, who is the opposite of his self. He's generous, he's happy, he loves Christmas and he's everything that he wasn't at the start.
So how do we know what to give? Well, the answer is based on what your story is about, it's linked to your heroes goal, we then give the character an inner conflict or doubt it's this inner conflict that they have to overcome during the movie. By changing their character and their traits and their beliefs, they can overcome this inner conflict. And that's how they can reach that goal. If they don't overcome it, they won't reach the goal.
The inner conflicts are universal. We've all had these kind of problems at some point in our life. So just like PO, maybe sometimes we don't believe in ourselves enough or we let fear control us and don't let us do what we want to do. We haven't overcome that fear. We can be overprotective or sometimes we're not completely honest. So having a good transformational arc is your chance as a writer to give you a perspective on how you should live a good life. And this is what makes your script unique.
THE GHOST
The ghost is something that has happened in the character’s past which has caused their inner conflict or present situation.
- BRUCE WAYNE AKA BATMAN
- Bruce’s Ghost Bruce Wayne’s ghost was when he fell into the well and had all the bats surround him. This ignited his fear. So…
- Inner Conflict: Fear.
- Repercussions: Due to this fear, he wanted to leave the theatre early and his parents were killed in a street robbery. His guilt from this event thereby compounds his inner conflict.
- DO WE NEED AN ARC?
- Not necessarily. There have been movies which have been very successful in which the hero has no real arc.
- Should you write a transformational arc in your script?
- I’d say yes.
- HOW DO WE MAKE OUR HERO TRANSFORM?
- Through relationships with other characters. The hero can’t change by himself. Instead, he has other characters and events which help him see where he has been going wrong, how he can change, how he must change.
- The hero may be resistant to it at first, he may slip back into his old ways when things start to go wrong. However, when he truly commits, he will come back with a vengeance and succeed.
Antagonist (The Villain)
The antagonist is anti hero.
The antagonist is the person who's going to stop at nothing to either thwart your heroes, attempt at reaching their goal, or they want to achieve their own goals. And the hero is actually getting in their way.
I mean, just imagine what The Dark Knight would have been if he hadn't had the Joker in it or Harry Potter, if it didn't have Voldemort or even die hard. If it hadn't had Hans Gruber, they'd have been completely different films and probably very bad films. A good villain is paramount importance if you ever want to write a good script.
Always Remember
- A villain it NOT who's totally cold or callous.
- They're not just evil people that want to destroy everything and for no apparent reason
Villains are also human with emotions.
Let's take Hitler, for example. I mean, he was one evil person, wasn't he? He killed millions of people in utterly inhumane ways. But just for one second, imagine if you were in Hitler's shoes. I know that's horrible thought, but just for me, imagine you were in Hitler's shoes.
Would you think you were an evil person? You wouldn't, would you?
- He thought he was the good guy doing the right thing. He thought that having a pureblood Aryan race was the way forward and he was bullied when he was a kid and he blamed Jewish people. And that confirmed to him that the Jewish people are bad. But what I'm trying to point out is the things he did were for reasons he had the reasons they might have been skewed. But to him, they were legitimate reasons. He didn't think he was a villain. He thought he was the good guy. From our perspective, obviously, he is evil villain.
Always Remember
- If your hero is fighting a large corporation or group e.g. the Nazis, make sure that there is one person that is the ‘face’ of this group. This person is then classified as the antagonist.
- The hero can bring down the corporation by defeating this singular person.
- The exception to this is if the hero is fighting the environment such as space, desert etc. Goal is to get out of this environment and back to safety.
WE CANNOT FIGHT A FACELESS BEING
Contrast
In any screenplay, something that is extremely important is contrast and we need contrast to the dramatic conflict, and this doesn't mean just physical conflict, as we've just discussed, where contrasting our antagonist goal opposition and stakes with our heroes one.
- The dark side
- Try thinking of the antagonist as the dark version of your hero. Contrast is the key.
- What would your hero be like if he didn’t deal with his inner conflict, lost his morals or changed his belief structure? What would he be like if he had been raised differently, had been shunned or bullied?
- Our goal is to end up with a well rounded and nuanced character. Let’s see how others are doing it…
The Theme
Writer’s perspective on a specific moral question
So it's this message or moral that makes the story universal because it's talking about a part of the human experience that we all share. So it doesn't matter what age or race or religion you are, it's part of being human. And it's that questions that we we've all asked ourselves over time and all pondered. And that's what it's about. It adds something for the audience to think about now during the movie itself, but it also continues after the movie's finished. So it's going to stick in their minds. And that's what makes your movie more than just a story.
Theme is Question
It's about asking questions that the audience will think about even after the movie has finished.E.g. Star Wars: His theme was about, is technology more powerful than the force?
I think that theme is actually probably the hardest thing to grasp when you're writing your script as it's the most conceptual. Personally, I try to come up with a theme before I start, because I think that's the most timesaving way to do it.
But you don't have to if you don't want to. If you want to just get the draft done and then think what my theme could be about, then that's fine.
- WHAT IS THEME?
- Theme could be described as the writer’s perspective on a specific moral question.
- It is the message or the moral that makes the story universal because it is talking about a part of the experience that we all share. Theme transcends gender, age and race.
- What you as a writer want to say about the world, what you feel deeply about.
- A theme adds to the entertaining nature of a story by adding something to think about, not always consciously the questions that the theme raises should stick in the audience’s mind well after the credits have rolled.
- THEMES AS QUESTIONS
- Can love survive death? Ghost and Titanic.
- Is technology more powerful than faith? Star Wars.
- Can hope conquer despair? The Shawshank Redemption.
- Is developing new technologies a good thing? Terminator, IRobot.
- Do you have free will or is everything pre-destined? The Matrix.
- E.g. Bluelight blocking glasses
- Theme: If Sun doesn't hurt then how come laptop hurt your eyes?
- Then use this comparison theme all along the story
- A drop of salt doesn't make glass of water salty
- A small torch can light entire house
Always Remember
Your audience is intelligent. Never shove your idea of what is right or wrong down people’s throats. People
People don't like being told what to what to do. So you've got to balance it out. You've got to have arguments for and against or on either side of the question.
So say we want our theme to be about the use of technology and how bad social media is And it's like the worst thing in the world because you as the writer don't like it for some reason.
- You might go about writing a script where the teenage characters get hideously murdered because they've been on Twitter or something.
- And then you've got a a teacher which tells you how bad social media is and how it's the worst thing in the world, et cetera, et cetera.
- Imagine sitting there watching that or reading as a script? It'd be so annoying, wouldn't it?
- No one wants to be preached, that they want to be involved in a discussion or a debate or something that they can think about.
- Don't tell people what they should think.
THEME WARNING
Remember School?
When you were at school and you had like an English essay and they gave you a sentence and then said, discuss at the end, theme should be that kind of thing where some characters, will think one way, other characters will think the other way.The hero has to make up their mind and therefore you have to make up your mind as well.
- What are you passionate about? What interests you? Maybe it’s something you heard or even a philosophical question you saw?
- What makes you angry or what do you believe in? Is there something you watch in the news or maybe a political message that you think is wrong?
- Themes are universal so what questions divide people throughout the world?
- USE THEME AS THE BACKBONE
- Show the opposing sides of your thematic question through
- Action
- Dialogue
- Character attitudes
- Theme should be as invisible as possible, working in the subtext of the story.
- This is how it will enter the audience’s mind and allow them to make their own decisions.
- Thematic Question: Do you have free will or is everything pre-destined?
- Use: Every scene with Neo is about him making a choice. This is because choice is how we would define free will over pre-determined destiny, where there is no choice.
- Do you choose to take red or blue pill?
- Do you choose to give information or I torture you?
Theme Summary:
- Try to think of a universal theme you are interested in/passionate about.
- How could you phrase it as a thematic question?
- How does this theme fit as the spine of your story?
- Does your theme relate to the characters and your hero’s inner conflict? If not, could you change things to make it all link together?
- How will you show both sides of the argument? The for and against aspects of your thematic question? Will you assign one side to the antagonist? What about your other characters?
- How can you raise the thematic question SUBTLY through dialogue, actions, decisions?
Supporting Characters
An aid to the hero.
As hero progresses along his journey, he's going to meet other people and these supporting characters are just there to tag along with him. They've got a purpose in both the plot as well as the hero's arc itself.
- They affect the external plot.
- They help the hero get over his or her inner conflict.
- They provide different sides to our thematic argument.
- They provide drama through different ideas and beliefs.
- We can give each character a memorable first entrance or an action or description so that readers remember that person.
- We can give characters different vocabulary, different speech patterns, different senses of humor.
- We should definitely give them all different personality traits, and that works for a number of reasons, but it's especially good when it helps with the scenes.
Types of supporting characters:
The Stakes Character
- The stakes character is the embodiment of the hero’s stakes (What happens if they fail).
- The most basic application would be… if the hero doesn’t succeed, the stakes character will die.
- The stakes character drives the hero to accomplish his or her goal.
- E.g. Hero should save a girl from a psychopath. 'GIRL' is the stakes character
AFFECT THE PLOT
The Contrasting Character
- Contrast clothes, accessories
- Contrast age, build
- Contrast accents, education, beliefs, background
- E.g. 3 friends in the Hangover. 1 is alpha male, 1 is risk averse and 1 is carefree.
CONTRASTING
Attitude to the Hero
- Different views towards hero himself. One might think he’s great, one might distrust etc.
- Gives different viewpoints on decisions.
- The group’s dynamics add tension and dramatic possibilities.
- E.g. A movie is about relationships. This is how Hero will change.
ATTITUDE TO THE HERO
Inner Conflict
- Ripley distrusts Bishop because he is a robot at the start of the movie
- She trusts him with her life by the end.
- They have completely changed their relationship because of the actions each has taken throughout the course of the film.
- Just as the hero is changed by plot and relationships, so too are the other characters.
- Brian starts out as an outsider to Dom Toretto and his gang. Dom doesn’t trust him.
- Brian becomes one of the family and Dom looks upon him as a brother
- E.g. A movie is about wat. Two captains not trusting each other but at the end he and the hero becomes best friends.
Inner Conflict
Theme Support
Characters on the either sides of the theme.
- Obi-Wan believes the power of the force is greater than technology. NO
- Governor Tarkin (the Antagonist) believes technology is more powerful than the force. YES
Theme
Structure
The 3-Act structure.
Why Structure?
- Stories have used structure since they were first told over the camp fires
- All the films you see at the cinema use structure yet they are not the same
- It breaks a script up into manageable chunks, a few pages long at a time.
3 ACT STRUCTURE
Can refer to it as simply; a story with a beginning, middle and end.
- Act 1. Introduced to the main characters and the problem that the hero faces.
- Act 2. The hero attempts to solve this problem.
- Act 3. The problem is either resolved or not.
Structure is to Help not Hinder
Now depending upon your content type, these numbers could differ. The above table is based on a standard 110 page script.
Act-1: Overture
Pages 1-10
In the first ten pages we need to introduce the hero, the stakes character and the villain (or something representing the villain) as well as give an overall sense of the genre, feel of the movie and any information we need about the story world.
Hero- Connect and empathise.
- Introduce their ordinary world. This means we see them how they're truly living at that specific moment in time.
- See inner conflict, possible ghost. Values and beliefs. So this is the before picture prior to the journey that the movie's going to take us on. So before any transformational arc or anything, it's the beginning point of them.
- Introduce villain or representation.
- The audience should know upfront that the opposition the hero is going to face is daunting.
- So maybe we see someone stealing nuclear codes or maybe a heist or someone being cut to shreds by an unknown being or something like that.
- So maybe we see someone driving a car and suddenly gets a heart attack.
- Whatever is the audience should know up front that the opposition, the hero is going to face is daunting. It's going to be a challenging mission for them to reach their goal..
- The stakes character is the human embodiment of the stakes in relation to the hero.
- Combine meeting the stakes character with information about the hero themselves.
- Make it obvious what genre you are writing in.
- What is the feel of the movie? Let them know your unique voice.
- Information you need to understand what is going on. Exposition.
- Think what you would need to include. So, for example, do you need to give a brief history, such as in Underworld, where we see there the long running battle between the werewolves and the vampires? If we hadn't seen that history, if we haven't been told what's going on, it wouldn't really make sense to us what it would be confused going in.
Hard-hitting Intro
If possible use Overture scenes for a memorable intro.
- Overture scenes are often used at the beginning of horror films to show what the hero will be up against.
- Overture scenes are also often found in action movies.
- E.g. You could start off with a high octane sequence filled with explosions and or you could see the villains plan in action where someone's stealing nuclear codes or doing a heist such as in Batman The Dark Knight, while in a horror we might see a deadly curse or an exorcism gone wrong or a gruesome tale of some kind.
- It can also incorporate the heroes ghost, which, if you remember rightly, is the past event, which has led to that in a conflict.
- In the movie, The Hills Have Eyes,, we see a group of scientists who were killed by the hillbillies. I mean, this has got no further significance at all. The scientists have not seen again. But it straight away introduces the bad guys, the villains, the hillbillies and their murderous nature. It gives us a feel of the movie straight away.
- In the movie, Exorcism, the overture scene tell us it's going to be about the demons and exorcisms, but it also gives us a good sight into our hero. And at the same time, it's showing us his ghost (the past thing that has lead to this situation) and his inner conflicts, which was caused by this event. So we're getting a huge triple whammy of things here in the space of a very, very short time along with a lot of information in an entertaining way.
- In the movie, San Andreas , The first scene starts with The Rock, who's showing off his all around action hero skills. He pilots this helicopter into a ravine to rescue a girl whose car's gone off over the edge and it's hanging precariously. And he's got no further plot significance at all. The rest of the movie is about a huge earthquake. So it's got absolutely no relevance. But it just shows us the genre we're in and it shows our hero.
- In the movie, Cliffhanger, I think it does a lot better than San Andreas as it links our hero with his ghost and his inner conflict at the start of this movie. We've got Sylvester Stallone's friend, Howell, who's taken his girlfriend up to this really, really high bit of mountain. The fiancé is halfway across the zip wire when one of the buckles goes off on her safety harness and she's clinging on the zip line for dear life. Gabe, who Sylvester Sloan's character goes on the wire to rescue her and he reaches her hand and she grabs his hand. But the glove comes off and she slips and she falls to her death.
What's so good about it is we don't expect it. We expect him to savor. And it's therefore one of the most memorable openings I've ever seen because she actually plummets to her death. So we instantly empathize with Gabe because of this. We know how he must feel.
He went out against his friend Hal's wishes on the line to save this woman. And he didn't manage to save her. But it also provides the ghost which with which he'll struggle with throughout the rest of the movie. It shows his inner conflict of guilt because of this.
Overture!!
Act-1: Inciting Incident
Pages 12
The next thing a is the inciting incident. Now, this is the event that sets the whole story into motion. Without the inciting incident, the hero would stay in their everyday world, nothing would change, everything would go on as normal and basically you'd have no story is really easy to understand what it is with a few examples.
- The Martian: Matt Damon wakes up to find himself alone on Mars.
- Toy Story: Woody finds Buzz in his spot on Andy’s bed.
- ET: Elliot finds ET in the garage.
- Jurassic Park: The Grants agree to go to Jurassic Park and Boggs makes a deal to ship dinosaur embryos off the island.
- Wazir: The terrorist killed hero's daughter in a shootout incident.
- Bad Boys: The cops find $100million of drugs has been stolen.
- Die Hard: Hans Grubber and his friends take over the Nakotomi building.
Inciting Incident
It's also worth noting that the hero doesn't necessarily have to be involved in the inciting incident, which sounds strange, but it's true, however, because of the inciting incident that makes them get involved.
Inciting Incident!!
REFUSAL OF THE CHALLENGE
In movies where the hero has been offered a chance to do something either at or just after the inciting incident, there is often a beat where the hero initially refuses. However, someone or something will then convince them to change their mind.
It's not necessary but a good to have a refusal scene.
Act-1: MOVEMENT FORWARD
Pages 12
We now have the event which gets our story moving but we haven’t reached take off on our hero’s challenge just yet. We need one more push to get them there. It is at this point in the story that something happens which ensures the hero will be going on his or her journey. It is the edge of the cliff and there is only one way to go.
- Up: Karl is told he will lose his house. He therefore comes up with a plan to stop that happening.
- Live Die Repeat: Tom Cruise is forced to get onto the military ship which will take him into the battle zone.
- Dodgeball: Gordon says they can play a dodgeball tournament in order to get the money to save Average Joe’s gym.
- The Matrix: Neo decides to go with Trinity to meet Morpheus where he is given his infamous choice between the blue and red pill.
- How will you introduce your hero, villain and stakes characters?
- Have you created empathy with your hero and do we see their inner conflict or ghost?
- Will you use an Overture scene?
- How will you make sure the reader knows what genre he or she is reading?
- What is the inciting incident that gets the story rolling?
- How does the hero get forward movement to propel them to the end of Act 1?
- Have you made sure we know who the hero, villain and stakes characters are? Is it crystal clear what the hero’s goal is and what happens if he fails? Have you shown the hero’s inner conflict and therefore implied what their transformational arc might be?
Act-2 Part1
Pages 12
The beginning of Act 2 is where these obstacles start to come into play and throughout the rest of the story, these obstacles will become bigger and harder for our hero to overcome.
- Obstacles create tension and tension generates a great experience for the audience.
- We want to make the audience sit on the edge of their seats.
- Obstacles are there to prevent the hero from reaching their goal.
- Obstacles can be big or small, physical or mental.
- The hero must overcome each to continue on their journey.
Devising Obstacles
We can divide Act 2 part 1 (from beginning of Act 2 up to the midpoint) into 7 pairs of yes/no beats. This will provide the yes “he’s going to succeed” and the no “he’s not going to succeed” feeling that we are striving for.
DODGEBALL- Yes 1- The team are entered into the regional dodgeball finals the following day to get a place in the coveted Las Vegas open. If they win this one game, they are through.
- No 1- Wight Goodman is watching their plan through a hidden camera.
- Yes 2- When Average Joe’s go to the qualifier, there is only one team to beat.
- Yes 2- When Average Joe’s go to the qualifier, there is only one team to beat.
- No 2- The opposing team comprising of girl scouts, beats them hands down. Average Joe’s will not be going to the Las Vegas Open.
- Yes 3 - The girl scouts get disqualified because one of their players is caught taking anabolic steroids and a beaver tranquiliser.
- No 3 - While Average Joe’s are out celebrating, Wight and his Purple Cobras arrive. Wight taunts them, telling them his team will also be going to the Las Vegas open and are going to kick their ass.
- Yes 4- Patches O’Hoolaghan, the legendary Dodgeball coach, comes up to Peter outside the bar and tells him he will be Average Joe’s new coach.
- No 4- Despite Patches’ training, the team are still terrible.
- Yes 5- Kate, the representative from the bank, throws a ball and smashes Wight’s hidden camera. She is a fantastic thrower. Peter and the team ask her to join them.
- No 5- Kate refuses on the grounds that it is unethical. Back to square one for the team. Meanwhile, Wight finds out about Kate’s throwing skills and decides to woo her. DODGEBALL ACT 2 YES/NO’s
- Yes 6- Wight tries very unsuccessfully to woo Kate. Instead, she smacks his head into a wall and tells him to leave.
- No 6- Wight is furious. He warns Peter that as soon as the Purple Cobras win in Vegas, he will tear down Average Joe’s gym and use the land for a parking lot.
- Yes 7- Kate agrees to play for Average Joe’s.
- No 7- Even though they are going to the Las Vegas open, they know there is a mountain to climb.
This leads us to the Midpoint, the team arriving at the Las Vegas Open. From this point on, there is no turning back, they must continue to the bitter end.
Midpoint - Point of no RETURN
The point beyond which one must continue on one’s current course of action because turning back is physically impossible.
In romantic comedies, the midpoint is usually the moment when someone or something threatens the couple's newfound happiness. However, the hero's past, the point of no return, they've already fallen in love. So you've got to continue to fight for the future happiness.
- Alien - The Xenomorph bursts out of Cane’s chest.
- Gladiator - Maximus returns to Rome to take on Commodus.
- The Dark Knight - Rachel is killed. Bruce must stop the Joker.
- The Mummy - Imhotep rises from the dead.
- Jurassic Park - The T-rex attacks the group.
Sometimes it is helpful to write down the midpoint first.
Act-2 Part2 (OVERCOMING OBSTACLES)
Pages 12
- We see a shift in the hero from being reactive to becoming active.
- The obstacles will become much more intense.
- Obstacles are there to prevent the hero from reaching their goal.
- The hero’s arc is changing the character.
- Another 7 more yes/no pairs.
- Final “no” is a very important one…
ALL IS LOST
About three quarters of the way through the story, everything will go horribly wrong for your hero and he will be at his lowest ebb. The goal will seem impossible to achieve. To find what this is for your script, what is the worst thing that can happen to your hero at that moment?
Think about the worst possible thing that can happen to your hero to reach the goal right now. Like at this moment in the story.
- Star Wars - Obi-Wan is killed.
- Aliens - Newt is taken by the Alien Queen.
- Die Hard - Hans realises Holly is John McClane’s wife.
- Home Alone - The wet bandits know Kevin is home alone and are going to break into his house tonight.
- The Matrix - Morpheus is captured and is going to be killed.
- Dangal - Hero's father is not there in the audience to coach her, she must fight this final match on her own.
Act-3: THE FINAL SHOWDOWN
Pages 12
- This is the final battle our hero must fight.
- A ’YES’
- A ’NO’
- A big ’NO’
- A final ’YES’
Happy Ending
If possible we should see your hero in the “after” snapshot. Their world has regained balance. All is well.
Writing
An opportunity to be creative.
Metaphors and Similes
The next thing we can do to get our description really popping is using metaphors and similes.
- These are a great way to get as much visual information across as possible. Below are few examples
- A blinding cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart coursing with phosphorous light.
- The entire screen with racing columns of numbers. Shimmering like green- electric rivers, they rush at a 10-digit phone number in the top corner.
- Suddenly his face, his whole body dissolves, consumed by a spreading locust-like swarm of static as Agent Jones emerges.
- The other good thing about metaphors and similes are they're very useful when you're trying to convey something that's quite difficult or complex or lengthy to describe. So by comparing your subject to a location or an object we can relate to, this helps the reader visualize what you mean without having to go into too much detail and write too much.
- For instance, if you described a location like an Apple store. Instantly, we can imagine what it would be like to be, clean and chrome and modern environment because we know what the Apple store is like. People can visualize it in their mind.
- Or maybe you could describe a ship drifting like a ghost across the sea or something like that, which helps us imagine a calm nighttime scene with a creaking vessel alone, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean kind of thing.
Rich visuals in a few words
Specificity
Specificity is another way to help our reader visualize our writing, thus keeping them in our story world. It should be used if it can give tell us something about a character. Below is a sentence and each one paints a different picture.
- Tom’s car rumbles across the tarmac.
- Tom’s 1984 Chevrolet station wagon rumbles across the tarmac.
- Tom’s Ferrari Enzo rumbles across the tarmac.
Give us some details.
Action Verbs
Action verbs describe physical or mental action. We read them everyday but when people start to write, they sometimes forget and use basic verbs instead.
She walks through the room.The verb ‘to walk’ has no real descriptive power in it. It is the child’s version of a verb. What could you use that would describe your character’s action in much greater and more vivid detail?
She strides, she limps, she strolls, she paces, she steps, she tip-toes, she marches etc. If in doubt, use the Thesaurus.
More than just the average
Sound
Instead of: The arrow smashes into the Orc’s chest.
How about: THWACK! The arrow smashes into the Orc’s chest.
- Air HISSES through the ventilation duct.
- The tires SCREAM as it accelerates.
- The wounded soldier HOWLS in pain..
Add impact with Sound
Character Description
When writing character descriptions, do not write it in purely physical terms, instead describe their persona.
- The Matrix (The Wachowskis): NEO, a man who knows more about living inside a computer than outside one.
- Schindler’s List (Steven Zaillian): Oskar Schindler - salesman from Zwittau - looking almost reputable in his one nice suit.
- The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont): ANDY DUFRESNE, mid-20's, wire rim glasses, three-piece suit. Under normal circumstances a respectable, solid citizen; hardly dangerous, perhaps even meek. But these circumstances are far from normal.
- Notting Hill (Richard Curtis): WILLIAM, 35, relaxed, pleasant, informal. He walks down Portobello Road, carrying a load of bread.
- Training Day (David Ayer): DETECTIVE SERGEANT ALONZO, in a flannel shirt, reading the paper in a booth. The gun leather tough LAPD vet is a hands-on, blue collar cop who can kick your ass with a look.
A memorable first impression
Show, Don't tell
Even though we are writing a script which will be read, we are still dealing with a movie which is a visual medium. Therefore we want to visualise action.
Instead of: Gracie is ecstatically happy!
How about: Gracie screams with joy!
Instead of: INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT JAMES enters the kitchen. The floors and countertops are littered with a month’s worth of filthy takeout boxes.
How about: INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT JAMES enters the kitchen. He treads carefully through the pile of filthy takeout boxes littering the floor. Swipes containers from the overflowing countertops.
It's all visual
Scenes
Building blocks of a SCRIPT.
Just as strands of DNA are the building blocks of life, scenes are the building blocks of a screenplay. If we were to place an individual scene under the microscope, it too would have its own structure.
- Every scene is a mini story that has a beginning, a middle and an end.
- Whose scene is it?
- What is the goal of the scene?
- What is the conflict within the scene?
- Who?
- When we're designing our scenes, you've got to establish one character that drives the scene. It could be the hero, but it doesn't have to be. It could be the antagonist. It could be the stakes character or even a secondary character.
- What? Rescue someone or Beat the bad guy could be the main goal but scene goal is smaller.
- Main goal: Heroes main story goal is to defeat a gang boss in order to save his family
- Scene1: To get the address of the gang's hideout from one of the boss's goons
- Scene2: To get to the main location.
This is an incremental step that would lead the hero either to or away from the main story goal, depending if the hero succeeds in obtaining the information or not. So if the second goal is to get information from this goon, he either gets it, which is one of our yeses, or he doesn't get it, which is a no, it's a setback. And this is all leading towards our main goal is to find the big boss and find his family.
So every time we write a new scene, we've got to establish what the goal of the scene is for the lead character, whether that's the hero or the character or antagonist or whoever it is. The rest of the scene is then about whether the character can achieve the goal or not and what methods they use to do it, just like a script, we can't make it easy. Otherwise it's going to be a flat and boring scene.
How to create interesting scenes?
Well, first of all, we're going to create conflict, conflict in the scene like conflicts in great in the greatest script is of utmost importance. If there's no conflict and said the scene is just flat and boring.
Always Remember
- Conflict doesn't have to an argument.
- Conflict can be psychological, such as making a hard decision.
- Or trying to pick up the courage to say something
- It could be an outer conflict, like a car chase, a storm or, yes, a fight.
Conflict - Inner and Outer
Scene Conflicts and Opponents
We must make sure our character cannot obtain the scene goal easily or dramatic tension will be lost. In order to do this, we must use these various types of conflict to create obstacles
- Character against themselves.
- Hero wants to give a critical feedback
- Hero's opponent: His own brain says, don't say that because you will embarrass yourself.
- Character against another character.
- Hero wants to meet the CEO
- Hero's opponent: Receptionist wants to go to daycare to pick her baby therefore she won't let hero meet the CEO.
- Character against the environment.
- Hero wants go inside the space shuttle
- Hero's opponent: Mars' weather is not allowing him. It's windy and cold.
Each opponent tries to stop the lead character from reaching their goal.
Always Remember
To make your scene better, don't just think from Hero's POV, try to think from Opponent's POV.
- What is the reason of the opponent?
- What is goal of the antagonist?
- You don't have to let audience know the reason, but this reason will make the scene pop out?
Point of view
Use Yes/No in a Scene
We can make an action scene where our hero is going to confront an enemy on a high rise rooftop, and his goal is to capture this case that this enemy's got, which has got a secret codes in it.
yes, no parings to help provide dramatic tension to the scene.
- We could have the hero hit the enemy, which is. Yes, he's getting towards his goal of getting that suitcase.
- But the enemy's got a knife. So that's a no. You know, take a step back.
- The hero could kick the knife away, which is. Yes,
- But the enemy punches the hero in the head and he nearly topples off the building, which is, you know, a big no.
- The hero could regain his balance, which is. Yes,
- But now the enemy pulls out a gun again. We're about to know they clash and the hero somehow makes the enemy shoot himself.
- The enemy plummets off the rooftop and the hero grabs the case, which is yes. He's got it. Yes.
So in a simple action scene like this, we've used escalating obstacles. Things have slowly got harder and harder. They started off with fists. Then we went with knife. Then we went with a gun. And then we've created tension by throwing in yes beats. The hero is going to win and no beats the hero is not going to win.
Bit textbook but it is used so many times.
Stakes, Ticking clocks, and Tension in a Scene
Just like our main script, each scene should have a stakes of some kind
- If the hero or character doesn’t succeed in attaining their scene goal, what will happen?
- A Ticking Clock allows us to build probably the most important emotion in any movie. TENSION.
Tension and Suspense are very similar.
Always Remember
Every scene we write must take the story forward. It either take our hero 1 step closer or 1 step away from the main goal. If it doesn't do that, then just cut it out.
What's the point?
Suspense
A state or feeling of excited or anxious uncertainty about what may happen?
How to create Suspense?- Must involve a character we care about.
- The threat to this character must be apparent and it must be very real.
- The threat to this character has to be apparent and it's going to be very real.
- So this is the stakes.
- It doesn't mean that the character always has to be in a life threatening situation.
- It could be something such as if the character doesn't get this specific piece of information, all is going to be lost.
- The outcome must be uncertain.
- If we saw that same character in the dark somewhere and there's a great possibility that there will be mugged, but we're just not sure, then the suspense keeps us on the edge of our seats.
Tension = Suspense + Time
Tension
We want to see if Bob is going to get munched by this alien, we stretch out for as long as possible, but without it becoming boring if he was caught straight.
How to create Tension?- For example, if he was caught straight away and they alienate him straight away, we might feel a bit of shock. We might have a quick jump, but that's it. The feelings then go.
- Instead, we want to make him wander around some more in the dark and look around nervously at the sound and get that tin can to fall over.
- Suspense plus time equals tension and tension is what people love to sit and watch.
- A ticking clock helps build tension.
- There is a fix amount of time before the worst happens.
- As time progresses, uncertainty builds.
- As long as the stakes are high, the effect is extremely powerful.
So even though you know that the hero is probably going to survive, it's the obstacles and the uncertainty and the tension that actually make you feel something. And that's what that's what writing is about, is making the reader or the audience feel something and get their heart beat faster.
Scene Switch
When entering a scene, what happened to the character before this scene? What is their current state of mind? To exit a scene, using a bridge is often helpful to smooth out the jolt between them:
- A character can talk about an upcoming event. We then cut to that event in the next scene.
- A character could mention another person. We then cut to a scene involving that person.
- We can use dialogue, carrying on in voiceover into the next related scene.
Entering and Exiting
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