Improve The Read, Part 1
01/10/11 12:10 Filed in: Practical Advice | Theory
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I talked about the New Mission of the Screenwriter in my last entry. Evoking the emotional experience of the movie is, of course, easier said than done. How exactly does the writer do such a thing? How do we get the reader to "see" the film in their mind's eye? Instead of that cold, distant feeling that they just finished reading a document?
I wrote before that I spend 80% of my time on improving the quality of the read. Dialogue is without question the easiest and quickest part of writing a screenplay for me. There's no doubt in my mind the extra effort is worth it.
As with all writing, it takes practice. You will get better and better at it the more you do it. You will have to balance what feels like contradictory goals and sometimes it will feel more like art than craft (because it's both). This is a good thing! Don't let this intimidate you! It should excite you instead! This is the kind of problem solving skill you acquire as a screenwriter that will separate your work from the pack.
At first I was going to write a single entry with a partial list of "to dos" but within a couple hours the ambition of the project was clear. This was going to have to be in parts. And probably a lot of parts.
So here is my first entry on some of the most important practical things I have learned as a professional screenwriter on how to improve the read of the script and evoke the emotional experience of seeing the film:
1) Whatever you write, it should take no longer to read on the page than you anticipate it being on the screen.
Remember, you are evoking the emotional experience of seeing the film. Why give anything more importance in the script than it will receive on the screen? You are holding the readers hand and taking them moment by moment through the movie. If it takes two seconds on the screen, it should take two seconds (or less) to read.
DO NOT take a thick paragraph to describe something that is barely a blip to the audience. (First, don't ever write a thick paragraph anyway, but it's even worse for something with little to no screen time!)
Focus on the essence rather than the details
If you take the time to list details you are implying those details are on the screen long enough for the audience to absorb them. That's great, if those details are paid off. If they're not, the reader will realize that you may not always know what's important and what isn't and they will eventually scan past your action lines since they no longer have faith they will need them to understand the action.
If your characters step into a wealthy apartment, just simply say:
Opulence. Whoever lives here has too much money and too much time.
That's enough. You do not have to list the proof of this statement! It's not important! You will have to find what's appropriate for each scene, of course, but you get the idea. What's important here is the impression the reader (the audience) is exposed to, not the details for what makes it true.
It should also be noted that the reader will read between the lines. If your hero "sits" we will figure out that they sit in a chair. There is no need to mention the chair beforehand. That sort of thing is for stageplays, not screenplays. The only time you need to get into those kind of details is if the characters does something unusual. If they sit on the desk, or on the floor. Then you want to get specific.
Remember, you want to take the reader moment by moment through the film and when a person watches a movie they don't think to themselves, "Oh, look a chair!" before anyone sits in it!
Give the reader the images and emotions in the order and the pace the audience will receive them.
This goes for details in a fight scene. It should be as rapid and as hard hitting as the fight itself.
Listen to a sportscasters on the radio
Football, baseball, basketball, it doesn't matter. Hear how they capture the emotion of the moment in present tense?That's what you want to do. Imagine yourself the witness of the movie and you're transmitting the action, scares and excitement of the film to someone over the radio.
You no longer have time to get into detail of each moment because the next moment is already upon you! You want to describe what is happening NOW and not what just happened! And capture the emotion of being there. In your inflection, your word choice and in your energy. There is no quicker way to lose the momentum of the story than excessive detail. Seriously. None.
You want this story to feel like it flies. You want the emotion to burst off the page. You want the reader to have seen the film in his or her mind's eyes and just know in their gut that it works as a movie. You want them to "see" the film like the listener "sees" the game.
Remember your audience. Communicate the movie, not the production.
Next in this Series: finding the emotion and energy through word choices.