Stuff to Read

If a screenwriter isn’t writing something or watching something, they’re probably reading. And no screenwriter’s bookshelf is complete without some titles focusing on the craft itself. These essential books about screenwriting will provide guidance, reference, and inspiration for any writer on your list.   

Books About Screenwriting

• Story by Robert McKee — $23.47 from Amazon | $37.99 from Barnes & Noble | $39.53 from Bookshop.org
• The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler — $18.18 from Amazon | $29.95 from Barnes & Noble | $27.85 from Bookshop.org
• Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder — $12.69 from Amazon | $22.95 from Barnes & Noble | $21.34 from Bookshop.org
• The Screenwriter’s Bible (7th Edition) by David Trottier  — $23 from Amazon | $23.95 from Barnes & Noble | $25.06 from Bookshop.org
• Screenplay by Syd Field — $13.79 from Amazon | $15.99 from Barnes & Noble | $16.74 from Bookshop.org
• Screenwriting is Rewriting by Jack Epps Jr. — $29.95 from Amazon | $29.95 from Barnes & Noble | $34.44 from Bookshop.org
• Classical Storytelling and Contemporary Screenwriting by Brian Price — $46.95 from Amazon | $46.95 from Barnes and Noble | $56.34 from Bookshop.org
• The Protagonist’s Journey by Scott Myers — $20.08 from Amazon | $18.99 from Barnes & Noble | $28.74 from Bookshop.org
• The Anatomy of Genres by John Truby — $15.39 from Amazon | $21 from Barnes & Noble | $19.53 from Bookshop.org
• Kill the Dog: The First Book on Screenwriting to Tell You the Truth by Paul Guyot — $19.95 from Amazon | $19.95 from Barnes & Noble | $19.95 from Bookshop.org

Books About Movies, TV Shows, and Hollywood

Reading about writing is great, but inspiration can also be found in the stories of how beloved movies, TV shows, and Hollywood institutions came to be. Whether your screenwriter likes comedy or drama, action or romcoms, there’s a book on this list they’ll love. 

• Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears by Michael Schulman — $28.33 from Amazon | $36 from Barnes & Noble | $37.20 from Bookshop.org
• You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything by Walter Hickey — $27.49 from Amazon | $30 from Barnes & Noble | $27.90 from Bookshop.org
• Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer — $26.10 from Amazon | $29 from Barnes & Noble | $26.97 from Bookshop.org
• MCU: The Reign of Marvel by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards — $31.50 from Amazon | $35 from Barnes & Noble | $32.55 from Bookshop.org
• Warner Bros: 100 Years of Storytelling by Mark A. Viera — $26 from Amazon | $40 from Barnes & Noble | $37.20 from Bookshop.org
• They Shouldn’t Have Killed His Dog: The Complete Uncensored Ass-Kicking Oral History of John Wick, Gun Fu, and the New Age of Action by Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman — $15.92 from Amazon | $28.99 from Barnes & Noble | $26.96 from Bookshop.org
• No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own by Erin Carlson — $23.49 from Amazon | $29 from Barnes & Noble | $26.97 from Bookshop.org
• Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History by Alan Sepinwall, Josh Schwartz, and Stephanie Savage — $20.29 from Amazon | $28.99 from Barnes & Noble | $26.96 from Bookshop.org
• Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of Airplane! by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker — $29.99 from Amazon | $30.45 from Barnes & Noble | $32.55 from Bookshop.org
• From Hollywood with Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy by Scott Meslow — $15.59 from Amazon | $27.99 from Barnes & Noble | $26.03 from Bookshop.org
• Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of the Godfather by Mark Seal — $17.69 from Amazon | $24.49 from Barnes & Noble | $26.96 from Bookshop.org
• We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie by Noah Isenberg — $15.94 from Amazon | $17.95 from Barnes & Noble | $16.69 from Bookshop.org
• I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends by Kelsey Miller — $11.49 from Amazon | $16.49 from Barnes & Noble | $17.66 from Bookshop.org
• Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman — $14.29 from Amazon | $19.49 from Barnes & Noble | $20.45 from Bookshop.org

Software, Schooling, & Subscriptions

Give the gift of software this holiday season! Screenwriting software is the gift that keeps on giving every time your screenwriter sits down for a writing session. But since it’s highly likely that a screenwriter already has Final Draft, a subscription or writing class might just provide the inspiration they need to make it through their next script. 

• Final Draft 12 — New for $249.99 | Upgrade for $99.99
• Scriptnotes Premium Podcast Subscription — $29.94 for six months | $49 for one year 
• Masterclass Annual Membership Subscription — $10, $15, or $20 per month
• Script Anatomy Screenwriting Classes — Gift cards available starting at $50
• ScreenCraft eCourses (various topics) — $49

Enter Now  |  Final Deadline in 22 days

Writing Tools

Screenwriters may toil for hours and hours in front of their laptops, not typing a word, but there are tools of the screenwriting trade just like in any other profession. A change of pace thanks to a new keyboard, some story cards, or writing gloves might just do the trick this year. 

• QwerkyWriter Retro Mechanical Typewriter Keyboard — $249.99 from Amazon
• Writer Emergency Pack — $9.99 from Amazon
• Save the Cat Story Cards — Story Beat Card Pack for $12.95 | Develop Your Story Card Pack for $12.95
• Storymatic Storyteller Cards — $31.95 from Amazon
• Writing Dice — $19.95 from Amazon
• Fingerless Writing Gloves — $29 from StoriArts
• Typewriter Pencil Cup — $18.99 from Amazon
• It’s Only a First Draft Coffee Mug — $17.99 from Amazon 

Fun Screenwriting Gifts

Screenwriters just wanna have fun, too! If the educational or practical doesn’t suit your fancy this gift-giving season, check out the items below for some cozy, silly, and amusing options that are sure to bring a smile to your screenwriter’s face on Christmas morning. 

• Marcel the Shell Figurine — $30 from A24
• Movie Clapboard Blanket — $19.99 from Amazon
• A24 Screenplay Books — $60 from A24
• Careful or You’ll End Up in My Screenplay Sweatshirt — $41 from Etsy
• Screenwriter Era T-Shirt — $24.99+ from Etsy
• Binging With Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated From Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows — $16.59 from Amazon | $26.49 from Barnes & Noble | $30.23 from Bookshop.org
• Custom Movie Slate Clapboard Christmas Tree Ornament — $18+ from Etsy
• Writer’s Block Sign — $13.50 from Etsy
• Custom Movie Script Poster — $15 from Etsy
• Screenwriter Beanie — $30 from Etsy
• Custom Screenwriter’s Journal — $25 from Etsy
• Writer’s Desk Candle — $23 from Etsy
• Script Poster by Cinematic Scribbles — Available on Etsy, prices vary
• Finish Your Script Vinyl Sticker — $2.25 from Etsy

Gift Cards 

If you waited until the last minute to do your shopping and not even Santa could ship something in time, gift cards are always great. Treat the screenwriter in your life to some movies, a paid writing retreat, tunes to fill the silence while they write, or fuel for those tough writing sessions (AKA: coffee). 

• AMC Theatres
• AirBnb
• Spotify
• Starbucks
• Fandango
• HBO Max
• Netflix
• Apple TV
• Disney Plus
• Amazon Prime Video
• Hulu
• Paramount Plus
• Peacock
• Showtime

Want More Gift Ideas? Check Out ScreenCraft's 2022 Holiday Gift Guide for Screenwriters!

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post ScreenCraft's 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Screenwriters appeared first on ScreenCraft.

While you’re brainstorming brilliant ideas, keep these tips in mind.

Got a great TV pilot? Enter it into the TV Pilot Screenplay Competition!

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The Three No-Nos

Let’s get one — okay, three — things clear to start.

No births. No deaths. No marriages.

When it comes to specs, you don’t want to alter the makeup of the show. You can’t just kill off a main character, introduce someone brand new, or marry two characters off. Birth, death, and marriage are the kinds of big life events you want to stay away from in spec scripts.

Of course, there are certain instances when a birth or death would occur naturally within the world of a show.

If you’re speccing Grey’s Anatomy, for example, it’s wholly possible that someone would come into the hospital and end up dying in the operating room. Or a patient might discover they have a medical complication with their pregnancy that causes one of the doctors to re-evaluate something in their personal life.

But you’re not going to kill-off Meredith Grey or suddenly announce that Miranda Bailey is pregnant. There are just some things — well, three things — you don’t do with specs.

Read More: The Literary Manager's Process of Selling Your TV Spec Pilot  

Bridgerton (2020– )

Make a Nice Sandwich

It’s true, you can write a spec script of the first episode of your show’s next season. But it’s a risk you must be willing to take. 

The name of the game in specs is longevity — you want your spec script to have the longest shelf life possible. If you write a spec of the first episode of season three of Bridgerton, and then season three premieres and the actual writers of the show have gone in a completely different direction, your spec is essentially useless.

Instead, try to find a way to sandwich your spec script between two existing episodes of the show.

This has become increasingly difficult as shows have gotten more and more serialized. It’s much harder to find a place within the latest season of Only Murders in the Building to situate a spec episode than it is for Abbott Elementary.

So, you have to look for gaps. 

As you’re rewatching your show, try to find any gaps — either between episodes or within storylines — where you might be able to sandwich in a spec. Keep an eye out for time jumps and pay attention to where the elapsed time in between episodes is a bit vague.

What happens between episodes three and four? Find out in your spec: episode 3.5!

Read More: What is a Story Engine and How Can It Help Your TV Pilot

Only Murders in the Building (2021– )

Be Normal, But Stand Out

I’m sorry if I’m the first person to break this to you, but your spec episode isn’t going to get made. You could write the best spec of The Sex Lives of College Girls imaginable, but Mindy Kaling isn’t going to buy it and produce it for the upcoming season.

The good news is… that means you have incredible freedom when it comes to what your spec episode can be about.

With specs, you want to stick to the series’ established structure and format, utilizing the major characters and locations to demonstrate that you’re capable of writing someone else’s show. BUT! You don’t have the budgetary restrictions or time constraints that must be taken into consideration when it comes to filming actual episodes of the show. 

Say you think it would be hilarious for the vampires of What We Do in the Shadows to visit the Statue of Liberty and then get stuck there when the sun comes up. The producers of the show might tell you that Liberty Island as a location poses too many production limitations and difficulties, but you don’t have to worry about that because you’re just writing a spec! Your spec isn’t going to be made… so go for it! 

Above all, you want your spec script to be memorable. So, write a “normal” episode of the show when it comes to structure, format, and tone, but take big swings in terms of story so that you stand out.

Read More: How to Structure a Great TV Pilot 

Abbott Elementary (2021– )

Shine The Character Spotlight

Specs are a great opportunity to shine a spotlight on unusual pairings of characters. Every show has its typical pairs… but what about characters who don’t often interact?

Take Ted Lasso. Wouldn’t it be fun if Coach Beard and Rebecca had a storyline together? Or what about Coach Beard and Keeley? Coach Beard and Roy? Basically, put anyone with Coach Beard and you’ve got a winning spec.

In all seriousness though, look for characters who aren’t often paired up and center your spec on that new and unique dynamic.

Or bring one of the minor or recurring characters to the forefront. Keeping with our Ted Lasso example… maybe there’s a spec to be written about Mae, the barkeep at the Crown & Anchor. Or Roy’s niece Phoebe, or Will, the new kitman in season two.

The point is, shows are populated with tons of characters, all of whom have stories you can tell in your spec.

Read More: 7 Unusual Ways to Describe Characters in Your Screenplay

Ted Lasso (2020–2023)

Build on the Afterthoughts and Throwaway Details

When I’m planning to write a spec, I purposefully go overboard on the note-taking while I rewatch the show. As I do this, I make sure to keep a running list of little details.

Anything can go on this list — a piece of character backstory that isn’t fully explained, a throwaway anecdote that was probably only included because it provided a good punchline, details that seem like afterthoughts but could become much more. I even add questions that I have about the characters or plotlines. 

Then, when I’m trying to figure out what my spec episode could be about, I look to this list for inspiration. Without fail, I can always find a kernel of something to center my spec around. 

When I was writing a spec to sandwich into the second season of Ted Lasso, during my rewatch I noticed that, in the wake of Earl the Greyhound’s untimely demise in episode one, Rebecca mentioned that the club made a hefty donation to a local dog shelter called “Barkingham Palace.”

Ding! Inspiration. I centered my whole spec episode around the team visiting Barkingham Palace to volunteer with the shelter dogs.

Using these small details that are already part of the show to build up into a full episode not only proves that you know the series well, but it helps make your spec feel like part of the show’s world. 

Read More: How to Watch a TV Show You Want to Write a Spec Script For

Put Yourself on the Page

Yes, writing a spec means that you’re writing someone else’s show. But that doesn’t mean you can’t infuse your script with your own unique perspective and voice.

Maybe there was a teacher who had a big impact on you in middle school and that relationship is something you can turn into a storyline for Abbott Elementary. Or a friend told you a mortifying story of a hook-up gone very wrong that could become the basis for an episode of Sex Education. Or maybe a lesson you learned after years of therapy could become a theme for a spec of Shrinking.

Don’t be afraid to mine your own life for story ideas. The more you can put yourself on the page, the better.

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post Tips for Coming Up with an Idea for Your TV Spec Episode appeared first on ScreenCraft.

And by research, I of course mean watching episode after episode after episode of the show you’ve chosen to spec.

But this research isn’t leisurely. Oh no, it requires diligent analysis and extensive note-taking. In order to write a spec script that will wow readers, you must know the show you’re speccing inside and out.

So, without further ado, a master list of the things you should know about the TV show you’re planning to spec.

Read More: What is a Spec Script (and Why Should You Write One)?

Got a kickass TV Pilot? Enter the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Competition!

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Succession (2018-2023)

Basic Questions

What Platform Does the Show Air On?

Overall, there’s a big difference between a show that airs on HBO and one that airs on CBS, so it’s important to know what platform your show is produced for when preparing to write your spec script. For example, a show airing on CBS might have a 12 or 24 episode order; whereas, a show on HBO might give you more freedom of episode numbers. Your show could air 8, 10 or 12 episodes a season. The platform will dictate how much story you might be able to contain in each episode.  

How long is the show?

Historically, TV shows are either a half-hour or one-hour long (including commercials). Nowadays, streaming has changed the game in terms of show length — with some shows solidly in between half-hour and hour long, and others well over one-hour. Make sure you take a look at the typical length of your show’s episodes.

What’s the show’s genre?

Comedy or Drama. Drama or comedy. What genre does your show fall into? Typically, half-hour shows are considered comedies and hour-longs are considered dramas, but there has been some crossover in recent years. If you’re not sure, try checking the show’s IMDB or Wikipedia page or seeing which category the show competes in for various awards.  

What’s the general tone?

Try to think of tone as an extension of genre. Is the show a black comedy? A coming-of-age comedy-drama? A mockumentary? While a show like Barry technically competes for awards as a comedy, it also features psychological and crime elements, a tragicomic tone, and dark humor.

Read More: How to Choose a TV Show to Spec

Only Murders in the Building (2021-)

Story & Plot

Is the show episodic or serialized?

When writing a spec script, you need to know the nature of the series’ overall story.

Episodic shows are made up of self-contained stories. These kinds of shows focus more on what happens to the characters than any larger, overarching plotline. For example, shows like CSI, Bones, Law & Order are episodic; whereas, Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building is considered serialized 

Serialized shows feature ongoing stories and are built upon longer storylines and extended character growth.

What are the show’s episodic elements? What are the serialized elements?

These days, most shows feature both episodic and serialized elements. So, try to pinpoint which parts of your show are episodic and which are serialized.

For example, the primary storylines in Abbott Elementary that revolve around the trials and tribulations of the school are episodic. The character relationships (like between Janine and Gregory or Janine and Barbara) are serialized but develop at a very slow pace because the primary storylines take center stage. An example from an episodic TV show like CSI follows the "case of the week” model. In this model, this week’s case takes up about 75-85 percent of the episode and then the remaining real estate is dedicated to character arcs that might be season arcs or just episode arcs.  

Where do the show’s stories come from?

What is the constant source of material for the episodes’ storylines? To figure this out, consider what the main conflict is. Does the show center on a singular character and how they deal with life’s challenges like The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt? Is the show a procedural, with different “cases” each week? Is there a central situation or relationship that the whole show hinges on? Or maybe, like in Game of Thrones or Stranger Things, the world provides the stories. 

How many storylines are typically featured per episode?

Half-hour shows often have A, B, and C-storylines, while hour-longs could have twice as many. You’ll also want to consider what each storyline is usually about. Do the storylines always follow a particular character or story element? And do the storylines intersect, or are they typically kept separate from one another?

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017-2023)

Characters

Who are the main characters? Who are the supporting characters?

I’m not talking about just making a list of the character names. To write a great spec script, you need to know who the main characters are. What makes Ted Lasso, Ted Lasso?

When examining the characters, you want to look for both exterior and interior details. Note any important physical qualities, defining characteristics, personality quirks, fatal flaws, and redeeming qualities. You’ll also want to know about each character’s personal history — their backstory, family and friends, and any pivotal life events.

Read More: Why You Should Avoid Writing Passive Characters (& How to Make Them Active)

For example, a simple way to break down half hour vs. hour drama structure is use the conflict rule. In half hour, the protagonist's main conflict comes from the people in his or her life. For example, if we were to say that Monica is the central character in Friends, most of her life conflict comes from the people around her - her ex-best friend, ex-roommate, her neighbors, her brother, etc. She's the straight woman trying to make it broke in NYC and they are the chaos around her messing up her life. The same goes for Seinfeld - Jerry is the straight man and Kramer, Elaine and George bring the chaos into his apartment every week. In 1-hour dramas, typically the chaos comes from the protagonsist/s job. That's why working somewhere like in a police station or hospital is a great place for a show to be set because there is endless drama for the writers to pull from. 

Are there any recurring characters?

Recurring characters are those who sometimes appear on a show but are not a pivotal part of every episode. These characters have been established as part of the show’s world, so it wouldn’t be unusual to craft a spec script that features them. For example, what kind of story could you come up with for a Ted Lasso spec that features Rupert Mannion, Trent Crimm, Roy’s niece Phoebe, or Rebecca’s friend Sassy?

What are the key character relationships of the show?

During your research, make sure to take note of the character relationships. Michael Scott adores Ryan Howard, who is in an on-again off-again relationship with Kelly Kapoor. Kelly works in the annex with Toby, who has a crush on Pam, who is dating Jim, who is rivals with Dwight… and so on and so on. All the characters on a show have some kind of relationship with one another. Build the web of character dynamics and you might just find an interesting relationship to focus your spec episode on.

Ted Lasso (2020-)

The World

When and where does the show actually take place?

The first step in examining the world of your show is the basics of setting. Where is the series set? And what time period does it take place in? 

What are the commonly used locations (sets)?

If you were writing a spec of The Office, it’d be odd if your script didn’t include at least one scene that takes place in the Dunder Mifflin office. As you watch your show, keep a list of the primary and recurring locations. To go a step further, check existing scripts for your show to see how the sluglines are formatted and write yours the same way.

What are the rules of the world?

There are dragons in Game of Thrones, but if a dragon showed up in NCIS or Law and Order, a reader would immediately toss your script in the trash. To write a spec, you need to know any rules of your show’s world. Does it take place in our normal world? What fantastical elements are part of the fabric of the series?

Why it matters? 

The audience wants to come back every week, every episode, to that world. Niche worlds have become even more popular nowadays. Streamers love niche worlds because they can offer their users a specific experience based on other viewing data. So shows with a specific world like ladies wrestling - that's the world of Glow -- let the audience know you're going to get ladies wrestling with each episode.

CSI: Vegas (2021-)

Structure

One of the most important things about writing a spec is proving that you know the show’s episodic structure.

When it comes to structure, you’ll want to track some, if not all, of the following things:

• How many acts are there per episode?
• If it’s a comedy, is there a cold open and/or tag? For dramas, is there a teaser?
• How many scenes are in each episode?
• How many scenes are in each act?
• How long are the scenes?
• Does the show have act breaks? If so, on what kind of story beat does the show usually act out?

Structurally, you’ll also want to mimic the show’s actual scripts. How long are the scripts for your show? How many pages for each act? 

Spec scripts are supposed to illustrate that you can write someone else’s show, and understanding and being able to write to a certain structure is a critical component in that. If the show features a cold open and you don’t write a cold open in your spec, that’s going to be a huge red flag.

Grey's Anatomy (2005-)

Theme

What is the show really about?

Theme is what a series is really about underneath all that plot. You’ll want to know what themes are inherent to the show’s DNA. What universal qualities can any viewer relate to?

How does the show handle or address theme?

You’ll want to mimic however your show typically handles theme in your spec script. Some shows are more blatant about theme than others, and you’ll need to know where your show falls. For example, if you were writing a spec of Grey’s Anatomy, that would mean writing an opening and closing voiceover speech for Meredith that subtly speaks to that episode’s theme.

Read More: Tips for Coming Up with an Idea for Your TV Spec Episode

What We Do in the Shadows (2019-)

Everything Else

Does the show feature any narrative storytelling devices?

Fleabag breaks the fourth wall. Jane the Virgin and Never Have I Ever feature omniscient narrators. What We Do in the Shadows is a mockumentary, so the characters often do talking heads. If your show relies on a narrative storytelling device, you need to know it!

What is the overall perspective/point of view of the show?

Shows tend to be fairly omniscient — the camera goes wherever it needs to go, following any of the characters, to convey the story. But occasionally there will be a show that is from one particular character’s point of view, meaning that the camera sticks to that character in every scene. You’ll want to know what the POV of your show is so that you don’t stray from what’s already been established for the series. 

Are there any recurring bits or running jokes? Does anyone have frequently repeated phrases? Are there any recurring props or motifs?

I’m talking about the douchebag jar in New Girl, the Sunday Funday episodes of You’re the Worst, or Joey saying, “How you doin’?” in Friends. These elements are perfect fodder for spec episodes, so make sure you’re keeping an eye out for them during your research.

Is there anything else that makes this show distinct?

No detail is too much when you’re analyzing the show you’re going to spec!

Read More: 5 Essential Elements Every Spec Script Should Have

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So you’ve done your research and know whatever show you’re speccing like the back of your hand, which means it’s time to get to work on your episode.

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post How to Watch a TV Show You Want to Write a Spec Script For appeared first on ScreenCraft.

For you TV writers out there, it’s time to start writing yet another spec episode.

And that begs the age-old question… what TV show should you spec?

Never fear. I’m here to help.

Imagine this post as a process of elimination to whittle down your options for what series to spec. We’ll start with the big, obvious cuts and work our way until you’re left with a few good options.

But first, let’s go over what a spec is.

Got a great TV spec script? Enter it into the ScreenCraft TV Pilot Competition!

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What Is a Spec Script?

What is a spec script, anyway? When it comes to feature scripts, “spec scripts” refer to scripts written on spec or “speculation.” Writing something “on spec” in Hollywood is just code for “free.” No one is paying the writer to work on the script, nor is there any guarantee that the script will get made. Most of the time, no one’s actually expecting the script at all.

Read More: What Is a Spec Script (and Why Should You Write One)?

So, What’s a Spec TV Script?

Spec scripts for TV are similar, and they come in a couple of flavors. 

• Sample episodes of an existing TV series
• An original TV pilot wrote on spec

Now that we’ve nailed down what a spec script is for TV let’s go over how to choose a TV show to spec. There’s one guiding principle regarding what shows you can spec and which are totally off-limits.

Friends (1994)

The Show Must Be On

Unfortunately, you can’t spec a show that has already concluded its run or been canceled. We’d all love to write a spec of The Office. Or The Sopranos. Or Friends. The list of great shows of days past goes on and on.

I know what you’re going to say. Wasn’t there a guy who wrote a Seinfeld spec about 9/11, and it got him staffed?

Yes. In 2016, comedian Billy Domineau wrote a Seinfeld spec about Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer in the days following the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and put it online for the world to see. And yes, he did write for Family Guy a few years later, and then Saturday Night Live a few years after that.

Like everything else when it comes to screenwriting, there’s always one exception to the rule. And Billy is that one-in-a-billion exception. 

So, when choosing a show to spec, just stick to what’s current — a show that is currently airing (or in between seasons) on a broadcast network or streaming platform.

That still leaves a lot of options, though. How do you choose from all those current series?

Stick to the Warner Bros. List

Every year, the folks behind the Warner Bros. Television Workshop publish a list of Accepted Shows for their spec script requirement.

Given that Warner Bros. is the biggest TV fellowship program that still requires a spec for its application, it’s typically safe to assume that if it works for WB, it’ll work for other contests and fellowships too.

You want to get the most out of your spec as possible, so it’s best to write something that will be eligible for most, if not all, of the programs you’re applying for.

The Warner Bros. Accepted Shows list is fairly large and always has a wide variety of shows to choose from. 

Legends of Tomorrow (2016)

Spec a Show You Know and Love

Take that list of possible current shows and cross off anything you haven’t seen or don’t like. It could be the most critically acclaimed, award-winningest, most popular series on the planet, but if you don’t like it, that will come through in your writing.

In this case, there’s no reason to justify why you don’t like a show. If you can’t stand adult animation, you’re obviously not going to write Bob’s Burgers or Archer. If you don’t like superhero stuff, Legends of Tomorrow, The Boys, and Batwoman, all get the boot.

This is part of the spec-choosing process, where you can eliminate with abandon, so cross things out to your heart’s content.

Read More: Tips for Coming Up with an Idea for Your TV Spec Episode

Grey's Anatomy (2005)

Not the First or the Last

With the list of possible series you have left, there are a few other extenuating circumstances to consider.

First, try to avoid any show in its very first season. With freshman shows, the risk of cancellation and the reader must know the show itself is high. And, if the show gets canceled, your spec is useless. Unless you know that the show will be renewed for season two, my advice is to stay away. Similarly, avoid any show that’s in its very last season. Once the show is over — you guessed it — your spec is useless.

The sweet spot for shows to spec is those in their second, third, or fourth seasons. They’re new enough so that readers will know them, but they’re not so long-running that everyone’s sick of reading specs for them (*cough* Grey’s Anatomy *cough*).

Read More: The Fastest Way To Give Your Spec Scripts a Killer Hook

Go for the Good

The next thing to consider is the toughest to define. You want whatever show you choose to spec to be GOOD.

For a spec, you want something fairly popular — enough in the zeitgeist and cultural conversation that a reader, even if they weren’t up all night binging the latest season, will know if your script captures the show's essence.

You want something that is generally well-regarded in Hollywood. It doesn’t have to be the critical darling that no one actually watches, but you also don’t want it to be the show critics have universally panned and written off as a lost cause.

The show you pick will likely be more of one than the other — slightly more popular than critically acclaimed, or vice versa — that’s okay. Just keep those elements in mind when making your decision.

Stranger Things (2016)

Build Your Brand

Finally, the last thing to consider is your personal brand as a writer.

If you write half-hour comedies, you’ll probably not want to choose Stranger Things, no matter how much you ship Steve Harrington. If your thing is medical dramas, it’s probably not wise to choose Emily in Paris, no matter how quickly you watched season three. 

That said, you also want your spec script to show your range.

Keeping with our last example, if you write medical dramas, a Grey’s Anatomy or The Good Doctor spec would seem the easy choice. But, paired with your original scripts, those aren’t going to show anything new about you as a writer. Instead, try another hour-long procedural drama like 9-1-1 or Evil. Something in the same vein as your originals but isn’t exactly the same.

You want to choose a show to a spec that will complement your writing (and your current samples). This goes for the genre, format, subject matter, and overall tone.

Read More: How to Watch a TV Show You Want to Write a Spec Script For

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Choosing a TV show to spec can be daunting, but it doesn't have to be. There are a few key factors to consider before making a decision. Firstly, you should choose a show you are passionate about and deeply understand its themes and characters.

Secondly, it's important to consider the popularity and longevity of the show to ensure it will be relevant in the industry for some time. Additionally, you should research the show's production company and its track record to gauge its potential interest in new material.

Lastly, make sure to review the show's writing style and structure to determine if it aligns with your own strengths and preferences. Considering these factors, you can confidently choose a TV show to spec and create a winning script that showcases your writing skills.

Now that you’ve chosen which show you’re going to spec, it’s time to grab a snack and a notebook and do the thing we all love — watch a lot of TV and take notes.

Read More: The Literary Manager's Process of Selling Your TV Spec Pilot

CHECK OUT OUR PREPARATION NOTES SO YOU START YOUR STORY OFF ON THE RIGHT TRACK!

The post How To Choose a TV Show to Spec appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Thankfully, with a story, there’s no need to convert to the metric system.

Let’s uncover what you need to know about story beats and examples from popular movies.

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The Units of Screenplay

Everything that can be measured can be broken down into several increments, and screenwriting is no different.

Whether you’re writing a movie or television episode, the largest unit of a script is the act. Features are typically structured into three acts, while the number of acts for television episodes varies depending on length, genre, and distribution platform.

The next smallest unit of the screenplay would be the scene. Differentiated by slug lines and changes in time, location, or storyline, scenes are the backbone of a screenplay. 

But even smaller than a scene is the story beat.

Read More: How To Write a Screenplay: A 10-Step Guide 

All About Story Beats

A story beat is a shift in the narrative. Story beats can be emotional turns, incidents or events, actions, and reactions, or realizations. They can even be small shifts in narrative tone or a character’s emotional arc. 

Essentially, beats are small moments that move the story forward. Scenes are made up of many beats. Some may be obvious, while others are much more subtle. Unlike volume or mass measurements, story beats are not an exact science.

But if your scene only has one beat, you need to be seriously questioning the purpose of the scene in the overall story. After all, if nothing is changing — if the story isn’t moving forward — what is the point of the scene?

Story Beat, Not a Beat of Dialogue

While story beats are an essential element of narrative structure, they are not explicitly written into a script like a slugline or act break. 

“BEAT” or “A BEAT” in a script should not be confused with a story beat. When a screenwriter explicitly writes “beat,” they intend it to be a pause in the action or dialogue, not calling your attention to a beat in the story.

It’s a note for the actors and production team and has nothing to do with the story structure.

Now that we’ve discussed what a story beat is, let’s look at some examples using scenes from 2023 Oscar-nominated movies.

Read More: What Can We Learn From the 2023 Oscar-Nominated Shorts?

Examples of Story Beats in Movie Scenes

Example #1: The Disruptors Arrive in Greece

From Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery 

This Act One scene is important for setting up the dynamics between the group of characters in this multi-layered murder mystery.

If we break the scene down into story beats, it looks like this:

1. Benoit sits alone on the pier. Lionel walks up. A car horn sounds, and Claire arrives. She greets Lionel happily.
2. The beep-beep of a tuk-tuk! Birdie Jay arrives in all of her wide-pant-legged, floppy glory. Her assistant Peg is there too. They notice Benoit.
3. OMG a gunshot! Duke and Whiskey arrive on a motorcycle.
4. Everyone greets one another, and they wonder aloud why Benoit is there. He says that Miles invited him.
5. Another horn! The ship is here! And a car horn! Miles’ Butler arrives with disinfectant shots. Benoit asks Claire about their group and their yearly trips.
6. Everyone begins to board the boat when there is one final car horn. Andy arrives, to everyone’s surprise.

While Rian Johnson could have had everyone arrive simultaneously, it would’ve been a far less interesting scene and wouldn’t have told us nearly as much about the characters.

Download the script! 

Example #2: Meet Jobu Tupaki

From Everything Everywhere All At Once

Broken down into story beats, this pivotal scene in Everything Everywhere All At Once looks like this:

1. The freight elevator opens, and Jobu Tupaki walks out with a pig on a leash. Evelyn recognizes her as her daughter, Joy.
2. Jobu confronts the police officer, and he puts her in handcuffs. But she breaks the cuffs and makes the officer explode into confetti.
3. Jobu takes out two other police officers, manipulating reality as she does. Evelyn flees in horror.
4. The third officer shoots Jobu, and Evelyn screams, thinking her daughter has been shot. Jobu reveals that the blood is only ketchup.
5. Jobu takes out the third officer, and Evelyn finally realizes that Jobu is not her daughter, Joy; she’s the evil antagonist trying to destroy the universe.

By exaggerating the moment when the antagonist is fully introduced, Daniels is able to effectively highlight the emotional realizations and show just how dangerous and powerful Jobu Tupaki really is.

Download the script!

Example #3: Sammy Meets His Hero

From The Fabelmans

 While this is quite a long scene (four-and-a-half minutes!), there aren’t actually that many story beats:

1. Sammy looks around in awe at the film posters on the office wall. John Ford walks in and ignores Sammy. The secretary goes after him with tissues. The secretary returns, tells Sammy he has five minutes — probably one — and advises him to get rid of his tie. Sammy goes into Ford’s office and waits as Ford lights a pipe. Finally, Ford asks why he wants to take pictures.
2. Ford asks what Sammy knows about art, then tells him to look at one of the paintings on the wall and describe it. Sammy describes it, but Ford says: “NO. NO.”
3. He asks where the horizon is, and Sammy answers. Ford has him look at another painting and asks again about the horizon. Sammy answers. Ford gives him advice: “When the horizon’s at the bottom, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s at the top, it’s interesting. When the horizon’s in the middle, it’s boring as shit.” Then he tells him good luck and get the fuck out.
4. Sammy leaves but immediately returns and says a hurried but gracious thank you.

By slowing down the turns in action, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner manipulate the audience’s experience to mimic Sammy’s.

Download the script!

Summary

Understanding story beats is a critical piece of becoming a great screenwriter. By breaking down the story into its component parts, writers can ensure that their narrative is cohesive, engaging, and effective. Whether you're working on a feature film, television series, or any other type of screenwriting project, mastering the art of story beats is essential to creating compelling and successful stories.

The post What Is a Story Beat? appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Don’t worry, I’m here to demystify all things regarding “spec scripts,” “on spec,” and “speccing” — did I just make “spec” a verb? Yes. Yes, I did.

Okay, let's go!

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What Does "Spec" Actually Mean?

To get straight to the point, “spec” is short for “speculation.” The longer name for a “spec script” is “speculative screenplay.”

Writing something “on spec” in Hollywood is just code for “free.” No one is paying the writer to work on the script, nor is there any guarantee that the script will get made. Most of the time, no one’s actually expecting the script at all.

Okay, fine, maybe if you already have representation and have told them you’re going to write an amazing spec script that’s basically Romeo and Juliet but it takes place in space, your manager or agent might be expecting the script at some point in the relatively near future.

But the point is, most spec scripts are written for no reason other than because the screenwriter wants to.

You think you have a great idea for a story and speculate that Hollywood (and audiences around the world) will think so, too, so you go ahead and write the script. That, my friends, is a spec script.

Read More: The Fastest Way To Give Your Spec Scripts a Killer Hook

The Difference Between Movie Specs and TV Specs

So, we know that writing “on spec” means writing a script for free with no guarantee that it will be produced. However, that doesn’t mean that spec scripts are the same for movies and television. 

Movie Specs

For features, a spec script is an original story. It’s not what you think the next Spiderman movie should be, or another installment of Knives Out, or the sequel to Casablanca. It’s original material, original characters, and an original story all born from the depths of your amazing writerly brain.

TV Specs

In TV, a spec is almost the exact opposite.

TV spec scripts are speculative episodes of existing and usually ongoing television series.

You pick a show you love, develop an idea for an episode of that show, and write the episode using the existing characters, storylines, and settings.

For example: say you love What We Do In The Shadows. You think, “Wouldn’t it be hilarious if there was an episode where Laszlo and Nadja celebrate a big relationship anniversary?” So you watch some WWDITS, study the episodic structure, characters, and themes, and write this story you’ve come up with into a full episode. It’s your original story placed within the context and using the material of an existing show.

Read More: How To Choose a TV Show to Spec

Friends (1994)

When Is the Right Time To "Spec"?

One of the big questions about TV specs specifically is what shows you can and should "spec."

Look, we all watched The Office about a billion times during the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean you should write an Office spec. As a general rule, TV specs should target ongoing shows, not shows that ended ten years ago, or TV shows that only lasted one season. Also, don't mix two shows to create a seemingly fun mash-up. For example, a Friends spec titled: The One Where They Meet the Gang from Seinfeld would be frowned upon even though it sounds like a cool concept.

Writing television specs is a way to demonstrate your abilities as a TV writer. To stand out, it's important to be knowledgeable about the current landscape of ongoing airing shows. This might mean watching something new (maybe even a network show — gasp!) to find the right series to spec.

Can You Write Original TV Pilots on Spec?

Don't worry — original TV pilots can be written on spec, too!

Original television pilots are also technically spec scripts. They fall into the same category as feature specs. You have an original idea for a TV show, develop the world and characters, decide on the episodic structure, and write the first episode or two on spec.

Remind yourself, though — no one’s asking for it, no one’s paying you for it, and it most likely won’t get made into an actual series. But hey, you believe the story is a TV show (not a movie) and you want to write it yourself, dammit. Bravo!

Read More: 5 Essential Elements Every Spec Script Should Have

TV Spec Script: Why You Should Write One

Television writing is a ladder. It’s rare that someone offers you a position on the top rung if you haven’t climbed all the way up. This is just a fancy way of saying — you’re probably going to get a job writing someone else’s show before you get a job creating your own.

TV specs have gone a little out-of-fashion in the last decade, with a priority being put instead on writers having original pilot samples. Many people in the industry don’t read TV specs as regularly as they used to, so many writers end up thinking that writing a TV spec is a waste of time. Just because you can write an original TV pilot doesn’t mean you can write a TV spec. As I talked about in the section above, writing a spec of an existing television show is one of the best ways to show that you understand the fundamentals of episodic television.

Read More: Now is the Perfect Time to Turn Your Feature Spec into a TV Pilot

If you can come up with an original idea for a Ted Lasso storyline and write a speculative episode with all of the heart, humor, and Dad jokes of an actual Ted Lasso episode, then that proves you’re ready to be staffed on someone else’s show.

To write a great TV spec, you have to study the show itself, anyway. In doing so, you’ll learn things about writing for television that will help immensely when you are developing your own show and writing an original pilot script.

Read More: How to Watch a TV Show You Want to Write a Spec Script For

Writing a Spec Script Can Be Rewarding

Writing on spec means writing for free. Sometimes writing a feature or pilot spec is the best way to show proof of concept.

Say your manager, agent, or producer friend doesn’t really understand your story idea. They just don’t believe in it like you do. If you write it on spec, it’s not just an idea anymore. It’s words on paper that others can read, connect with, and get excited about.

There’s also an immense amount of freedom in writing on spec. Writing on spec allows the writer to avoid notes from producers, executives, and studio heads, unlike writing on assignment for Disney, Universal, or Netflix. In this way, writing on spec ensures that you write the script the way you want it to be written.

Yes, there’s an inherent risk with writing on spec — that it will never sell or be made. But specs have become classics before — ever heard of Good Will Hunting or Thelma & Louise? If you put your money where your mouth is, write one hell of a script, and it opens doors for you in Hollywood, the risk of the spec might just be worth it.

Read More: 5 Reasons to Have True Story Screenplays in Your Spec Portfolio

What Are You Doing?

Stop reading this article and start speccing already!

The post What is a Spec Script (and Why Should You Write One)? appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Thanks to Marvel, the idea of many universes existing at the same time seems about as normal as brushing your teeth.

But I’m here to break the news. Yes, I’m sorry to say it, but the MCU never got the multiverse right.

It took DANIELS, two writer/directors with the same first name, an everything bagel, some googly eyes, and people with hot dog fingers to finally get the multiverse movie right.

What is the Multiverse?

Before we get too deep, I want to take a minute to talk about the multiverse.

The concept of the multiverse is the idea that there are an infinite number of universes outside of our observable one. These other universes contain infinite versions of our universe, in which every possibility of every conceivable event, choice, action, or scenario is played out.  

Basically, if in this universe you had to choose between pancakes and waffles for breakfast this morning and you chose pancakes… there’s another universe out there where you chose waffles.

Here's Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain:

The Multiverse as a Storytelling Device

Though the multiverse really exploded into the public consciousness of pop culture in the past 10 years or so, the idea has been prevalent in storytelling for decades.

Both DC and Marvel comics introduced the multiverse back in the 1960s, first with the Flash, but quickly with many other characters like Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman.

But this isn’t just a trope seen in comic books; the idea of the multiverse has popped up in Doctor Who, Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, and the James Bond franchise.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

As culture writer David Sims puts it in a roundtable discussion published by The Atlantic, “[The multiverse] is how you explain that both Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck play Batman, right? Comic books publish for decades. Things change, new writers come in, and things get revamped. It’s how you explain everything.”

And that’s how the multiverse was predominantly used for decades — as a storytelling device that helped explain why some characters came back from the dead and others were played by different actors every dozen or so years.  

MCU and the Multiverse

Back in 2018, the award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse used the multiverse to bring together different versions of the web-slinging hero, including a female Spider-Woman, a pig Spider-Man, an anime Spider-Man, and a brooding film noir Spider-Man.

Not long after, the multiverse made its way to the Phase Three movies of the MCU, culminating in Avengers: Endgame, in which the titular heroes rely on the multiverse to defeat Thanos and save the universe.

Endgame spun audiences into Phase Four, which brought WandaVision, Loki, and Spider-Man: No Way Home, to name a few.

While, I’ll admit, seeing three iterations of Spider-Man together on the big screen was pretty freakin’ cool, none of these Marvel movies or shows have used the concept of the multiverse as anything more than a plot device. The "multiverse movie" became a subgenre that was barely entangled in the roots of its multidimensional story engine.

Loki may flit around the many universes and end up meeting a version of himself that’s a crocodile, but he never has to deal with the existential, philosophical repercussions of the multiverse.

For Marvel, the multiverse is just a convenient crutch. It’s an easy way to keep a fan-favorite character alive when another storyline necessitates their death or have two unlikely characters band together for a fun adventure with no consequences to the main timeline of their stories.

But by ignoring the existential, philosophical ideas at the heart of the multiverse, Marvel is doing their cinematic universe a severe narrative disservice, which is exactly what Wisecrack's Michael Burns points out in his video essay about the philosophy of hit film Everything Everywhere All At Once. 

The Multiverse as a Metaphor

In his video essay, Burns dives into the history of existentialism, outlining how it sprung from the idealist movement before it and in opposition to metaphysics, as well as the various ways existentialist philosophers of the early 20th century differed in their thinking on the subject.   

Burns then details the various ways these philosophical principles show up in the characters of Everything Everywhere All At Once — from Jobu Topaki’s nihilist view of the universe to Waymond’s optimistic call for kindness.

At the beginning of the movie, Evelyn, Joy (AKA: Jobu), and Waymond are all dealing with their own existential crisis in some way. As their world is thrown into chaos with verse-jumping, a monstrous IRS agent, and an everything bagel of doom, the multiverse doesn’t just serve as obstacles in the plot, it compounds and complicates the emotional arcs of the characters.

See, the brilliance of Everything Everywhere All At Once is that it uses the multiverse as a metaphor, not a plot device.

Do Choices Even Matter in the Multiverse?

In an interview with The Ringer, writer/director Daniel Kwan said that when he and Daniel Scheinert started writing, they were already frustrated with multiverse narratives.

“And the frustrating thing about them is that no one is willing to go to the logical conclusion, which is infinity. If every single choice branches off into another universe, there should be an infinite number of universes, which means narrative doesn’t matter; choices don’t matter. Why should you care at all?” 

What he’s talking about are stakes. Superhero movies may use the multiverse as a plot device, but because it’s just a handy way to bring characters back from the dead, audiences often leave those movies feeling like nothing they saw matters.

After all, if you watch your favorite caped crusader sacrifice himself to save the world, but the trailer for the next movie he’s in dropped on YouTube last week… what’s the point?

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Raising the Stakes Makes the Multiverse Matter

With Everything Everywhere All At Once, DANIELS solved this problem by making the movie center on a single family. ScreenCraft recently featured an interview with DANIELS on the Script Apart podcast, in which Daniel Kwan says:

"Basically, [in the opening act] we were setting up the problem for our character – this idea that in a chaotic world pulling your attention between different things, it becomes impossible to just look at the people you love and see eye to eye with them. And that accidentally hurts people."

Yes, the world might cease to exist if Evelyn doesn’t reach her full potential and verse-jump to stop Jobu Topaki from sucking everything into the black void that is the everything bagel, but the real conflict of the film is between a mother and daughter.

The heart of the story is Evelyn’s tenuous relationship with her daughter, Joy.   

In reality, if confronted with the existence of the multiverse, any one of us could descend into a regret-filled spiral about paths-not-taken like Evelyn. Or, like Jobu Topaki, we could end up believing that nothing has any meaning at all.

How DANIELS Got the Multiverse Movie Right

Burns says in his video essay that, in the end, the film seems to perpetuate the idea that, “just because reality doesn’t come pre-loaded with meaning doesn’t mean that we can’t create truth in our own lives.”

In this way, DANIELS finally got multiverse storytelling right. They looked at the infinite, incredibly personal chaos the multiverse presents when added to any story and actually followed that thread to an emotional conclusion.  

“The remarkable thing about the structure of this movie is that, however wild its channel-flipping, it’s essentially working you through a logic problem about the point of life,” said writer Spencer Kornhaber in the Atlantic roundtable discussion.

As Burns points out, this all comes to a head in the emotional climax of the movie — when Evelyn and Joy are standing in the laundromat parking lot, faced with the decision about whether or not to give up on each other or keep trying even though it’s painful.  

“Here, all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense,” Joy says.

“Then I will cherish these few specks of time,” Evelyn responds.

It’s possible to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once and view the multiverse as a metaphor for depression, ADHD, code-switching, generation gaps, digital identities, the 24-hour news cycle, regret, or acceptance. Or it’s possible to watch the movie and see its use of the multiverse as a metaphor for every one of these things, everywhere, all at once.

By embracing the infinite possibilities of what the multiverse could add to their story’s plot, Daniels ended up with hot dog fingers, Racacoonie, arguing piñatas, sentient rocks, and so much more.

But by embracing the multiverse as a metaphor, they were able to inextricably tie this device to the theme of their story and say something bigger, something endlessly meaningful.

So, if you're interested in writing your own multiverse movie, studying Everything Everywhere All At Once should be top priority.

The post How “Everything Everywhere All At Once” Gets the 'Multiverse Movie' Right appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Let's go over what character arcs are, the different types that you can utilize, and how to craft them in your own screenplays.

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What is a Character Arc?

Transformation. Change. Evolution. Development Journey.

All of these words refer to the same thing when we’re talking about the people who populate our stories — Character Arc.

Character arc simply refers to the change that happens to a character over the course of a story, whether it's an internal change or an external change.

A grumpy curmudgeon becomes a ray of sunshine. A naïve teen grows up. Someone with a strong moral compass is tested until they ultimately choose villainy. A rebel learns to be part of a team.

There are countless ways a character can change throughout the course of a story, but their character arc can typically be categorized into one of three types: positive, negative, or flat.

Positive Character Arcs

I would argue that a large percentage of movies and TV shows fall into this category. The positive character arc is just that — positive.

These kinds of character journeys involve self-improvement, maturity, and growth. A protagonist faces some kind of conflict, learns an important lesson, changes for the better, and overcomes the internal or external flaw.

The overcoming is key. Positive character arcs are distinguished by some kind of victory or favorable growth.

Great examples of positive character arcs can be found in two very different movies — Schindler’s List and Finding Nemo.

'Schindler's List' | 'Finding Nemo

In the former, Oskar Schindler goes from being someone who only cares about making money to a man who willingly spends his fortune to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. It’s a huge, positive character arc set against a tragic backdrop. 

In the latter, an overprotective, helicopter parent learns that he has to let go of his child in order for him to grow up. It might take the form of an animated clownfish, but it’s just as great a character arc.  

Positive character arcs end with the protagonist as an improved version of themselves. They have overcome obstacles, triumphed against conflict, and changed for the better.

Just don’t confuse a positive character arc with “happily ever after.” Plenty of positive character arcs don’t end with the protagonist riding off into the sunset.

La La Land features two positive character arcs in Mia and Sebastian, but the romance plotline of the story ultimately ends with the couple living separate lives. They don’t end up together, but both characters have learned something and are better off than when they started.

Similarly, Casablanca’s Rick Blaine starts as a shell of a man who “sticks his neck out for nobody,” but ends as a hero who willingly sacrifices his own happiness for the greater good of the world. He doesn’t get his “happy ending,” but his arc is undeniably a positive one.

Negative Character Arcs

This category could also be called “tragic downfalls,” for this is the category of Hamlet, Walter White, Anakin Skywalker, Daenerys Targaryen, and Alexander Hamilton.

Negative character arcs are set apart by one thing — failure.

Protagonists in these stories ultimately do not succeed. Instead, by the end, they are worse off than when they started. The change or growth that has occurred to or within them is inherently negative.

Characters with negative arcs descend into evil, become corrupted, or fall victim to flaws of their own personality. It’s no wonder that many of these stories end in death.

The signature example for this type of character arc is that of Michael Corleone in The Godfather.

'The Godfather'

At the beginning of his journey, Michael insists he is nothing like his family. He’s a military man, steadfast and determined not to end up enmeshed in the world of crime.

But as Michael reacts to the events of the story — the attack on his father, the murder of his first wife and his brother, the betrayal of a confidant after Vito’s death — he fails. He becomes more and more involved with the mob until he assumes his place as the Godfather.

By the end of the movie, Michael is more powerful, sure, but definitely not a “better” person than when he began.

Negative character arcs may not be as common as positive arcs, but they’re all over Hollywood history. Just look at Citizen Kane, Sunset Boulevard, Psycho, Memento, or just about anything by Martin Scorsese.

Flat Character Arcs

The third and final type of character arc is… well it’s barely an arc at all.  

Flat character arcs are categorized by no significant change in the protagonist. In these stories, the protagonist is tested and battles various conflicts but ultimately stays true to their original convictions.

It’s not that there’s no change in the story, it’s just that the change doesn’t occur to or within the protagonist character. 

These kinds of character arcs are most often found in mystery and adventure narratives — plots that are episodic in nature, with endings left open-ended for the possibility of the protagonist’s return for another chapter.

It’s Hercules Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and, arguably, Indiana Jones. These characters might battle Nazis, track down murderers, and face death on super-secret spy missions, but they don’t undergo any personal changes in those journeys.

Indiana Jones | James Bond | Sherlock Holmes

With these kinds of stories, it’s less about the change that occurs within a character and more about the outcome of the plot — the solving of a mystery, the seeking of an object, or the saving of a world.

Flat character arcs are fairly easy to identify in movie franchises like Mission Impossible or installments of the MCU, but they can be found elsewhere.

Back to the Future features a flat arc in Marty McFly, a character whose personality, morals, and opinions remain the same over the course of his crazy time-traveling journey. 

Similarly, Forrest Gump, Detective Benoit Blanc, Ferris Bueller, and the ensemble of characters in Spotlight also fall into this category. Flat character arcs may be rare, but they’re not unheard of.

How to Craft Your Character's Arc

When crafting your story, try asking some of these questions to assess various elements and determine whether your character’s arc is strong enough.

Goal

What is your protagonist’s goal? By the end of the story, do they succeed or fail in achieving that goal? Do they learn some kind of lesson along the way? If so, is it inherently positive or negative? 

Obstacles & Conflict

What obstacles does the protagonist face in pursuit of their goal? What conflict arises in their journey (external and/or internal)? How does your character react to these obstacles and conflicts? Are their reactions positive or negative, or are they changed by the conflict positively or negatively? 

Stakes

What happens if the protagonist does not achieve their goal? How will they be affected by success or failure?

Starting Point & End Point

Who was your character when their journey began? Who are they at its conclusion? How would you describe the change that has occurred to or within them along the way?

The post Understanding the 3 Types of Character Arcs appeared first on ScreenCraft.

It’s hard to imagine since now we can stream whatever we want with the click of a button, but there was a time when a single reel of film wasn’t enough to hold an entire movie. So there was a person whose job was to go into the projection booth and change the reel at a certain time.

Eventually, this was instantaneous and audience members weren’t even aware the reel was being changed. But way back when, in the early, early days of movies, changing the reel wasn’t an easy task.

In fact, it required multiple breaks in the movie to give the projectionist enough time to swap the reels — kind of like a commercial, but without the ads for toilet paper and cars and prescription drugs and the latest Apple Watch.

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During these breaks, audience members were left in the dark as they waited for the movie to resume. And if they weren’t enjoying the movie, they could decide to just leave the theater, which is every screenwriter’s worst nightmare.

The screenwriters of Hollywood knew that a roughly two-hour movie would require eight reels that could hold 15-minutes of film, so they started writing to those reels.

And that’s how the 8 sequence structure was born. Since then, it’s been one of Hollywood’s best-kept secrets.

What is 8 Sequence Structure?

8 sequence structure is the idea that a feature-length movie can be broken down into eight parts (AKA: sequences) (AKA: reels).

Basically, a two-hour, 120-minute movie can be broken down into eight sequences that are roughly 12 to 15 minutes each.

Some screenwriters like to think of these sequences as self-contained “mini-movies” because they each have a beginning, middle, and end of their own. Back in the days when film reels needed to be changed, screenwriters would write to a cliffhanger so that audience members wouldn’t up and walk out of the theater because they were bored.

Technologically, 8 sequence structure is no longer necessary — theaters don’t need eight different film reels to show a movie anymore — but the idea of the eight-sequence structure has endured.

Nowadays, call them what you will — sequences, reels, sections, parts, mini-movies — the point of eight-sequence structure is to make developing, outlining, and writing your screenplay easier.

The thought of writing 120 pages is daunting, but writing eight sequences… now that seems much more manageable.

8 Sequence Structure vs. 3 Act Structure

The beautiful thing about 8 sequence structure is that it fits neatly into the traditional 3 act structure that dominates Hollywood storytelling.

3 Act Structure

• Act One is the beginning and covers roughly 25% of the story
• Act Two is the middle and covers roughly 50% of the story
• Act Three is the end and covers roughly 25% of the story

When you break that down further into 8 sequence structure: the first two sequences make up Act One, the next four are Act Two, and the final two comprise Act Three.

8 Sequence Structure

• Act One = Sequences 1 and 2
• Act Two = Sequences 3, 4, 5, and 6
• Act Three = Sequences 7 and 8

This kind of structural breakdown is especially helpful when writing the middle of your screenplay.

Act Two is the longest part of the story and typically sucks up plot like a hungry vacuum. A lot of writers end up stranded in Act Two because they’re not sure how to get their characters to the finish line.

But with 8 sequence structure, Act Two is just four different sequences (or stories, if you will). And it’s much easier to write four little stories than one big one.

Breaking Down the Eight Sequences

Naturally, even though movies are vastly varied in subject, genre, and tone, the eight sequences can be summed up by what they contribute to the story.

Sequence 1 = Introductions

The first sequence is our introduction to… well, everything. In this first section of the movie, we meet the characters, get to know the world they’re in, see hints at upcoming conflicts and tension, and learn the basic premise of the story. Sequence One typically ends with the Inciting Incident.

Sequence 2 = Dilemma

After the Inciting Incident, there’s usually a period of time in which the protagonist considers the Call to Action. They debate whether or not to leave their familiar, comfortable world and proceed into the unknown. That’s what happens in this sequence, though it will look different in every story. By the end of Sequence Two, the protagonist is on the journey that will take them to the end of the movie and there’s no turning back.

Sequence 3 = First Obstacle

This is the start of Act Two; the protagonist has officially entered the new world. During Sequence Three, the protagonist faces their first real obstacle, new tensions and conflicts arise, and the stakes are raised.

Sequence 4 = Midpoint

Some might call Sequence Four, along with Sequence Three, the “Fun and Games” of the movie. These two sections deliver on the “Promise of the Premise.” In Sequence Four, the protagonist faces another obstacle or dilemma that comes as a direct result of what happened in Sequence Three. This sequence usually ends with the Midpoint.

Sequence 5 = Twists & Turns

Sequence Five usually contains the twists and turns of Act Two. This is when secrets are revealed, relationships are tested, tensions rise, obstacles get more challenging to overcome, and protagonists are really put to the test. In this sequence, the protagonist typically rebels against whatever growth they’re confronted with, wanting instead for things to stay the same.

Sequence 6 = Culmination / Low Point

All of Act Two culminates in this: Sequence Six. Things have steadily gotten more and more difficult for the protagonist, all leading to the Culmination or Low Point. At the end of Sequence Six, the protagonist finds themselves at a point of Culmination (positive) or a Low Point (negative) that directly leads to the next sequence: the Climax.

Sequence 7 = Climax

This is it. The big moment. The massive fight scene. The come-to-Jesus moment where your protagonist must change or die. Everything is on the line and the stakes have never been higher. It all happens in Sequence Seven, and we, the audience, learn whether or not the protagonist “succeeds” or “fails.”

Sequence 8 = Resolution

Sequence Eight is the narrative epilogue. It’s what happens to your characters after their success or failure during the climax, including a look at how they have been impacted by that success or failure. In this sequence, the journey we’ve been on since Sequence One comes to an end. And… fade to black.  

8 Sequence Structure Examples

Now that we’ve covered what 8 sequence structure is in theory, let’s look at some case studies featuring well-known movies. 

'La La Land' (2016)

Case Study #1: La La Land

The Oscar-winning musical romance about an aspiring actress and up-and-coming jazz musician is 123 minutes and breaks perfectly into the eight 12 to 15-minute sequences.

Sequence 1 = Meet Mia

At 17 minutes, this first sequence is a little bit longer because of the opening song and dance. But story-wise, Sequence One covers everything we need to know about Mia. We see her at work at the Warner Bros. coffee shop, at an audition, at home with her friends, and post-Hollywood party when she finds out her car has been towed and ends up in a jazz bar. 

Sequence 2 = Meet Sebastian

Next, La La Land backs up to introduce Sebastian, showing his day leading up to his first run-in with Mia. We learn about his obsession with jazz, meet his sister, and see him go to the restaurant where he plays upbeat Christmas tunes until he can’t take it anymore. Sequence Two ends with Seb ignoring Mia when she tries to talk to him.

*Sequences 1 and 2 cover the first WINTER section of the movie*

Sequence 3 = Mia and Sebastian reconnect and get to know each other

This is the start of Act Two and this section includes the pool party, the song and dance that is A Lovely Night, the walk around the Warner Bros. backlot, and their first trip to the Lighthouse to listen to jazz. The final scene of Sequence Three also serves as the first scene of Sequence Four — Mia finds out that she got a callback audition… 

Sequence 4 = Falling in love

… and they make plans to see a movie together. Seb sings wistfully on the Hermosa Beach pier in City of Stars, and the rest of the sequence is taken up by their movie date at the Rialto that culminates in a kiss at Griffith Observatory.

*Sequences 3 and 4 cover the SPRING section of the movie*

Sequence 5 = Double down on their dreams

In Sequence Five, Mia and Sebastian help one another commit to their dreams. Mia writes a one-woman show and, after a run-in with an old bandmate, Sebastian decides to join a pop-jazz group. The sequence ends with the song Start a Fire when Mia and Seb start to both figuratively and literally drift apart.

*Sequence 5 encompasses the SUMMER section of the movie*

Sequence 6 = Trouble in paradise

Sequence Six sees the happy couple torn apart. First, Mia and Seb get into an argument during what should be a nice surprise visit. Then Seb forgets about a photo shoot, which causes him to miss Mia’s one-night-only play. Mia, distraught by the low turn-out, says it’s over. She’s going home to Nevada. 

Sequence 7 = The audition

In the big climax of the story, Sebastian drives to Nevada to find Mia and tell her about an audition she landed because of her play. She explains why she wants to give up on acting, but he convinces her to return to LA for the meeting, which is the song Audition. Sequence Seven ends with Mia and Sebastian in Griffith Park, wondering what their future will hold.

*Sequences 6 and 7 are the FALL section of the movie*

Sequence 8 = Five years later

The epilogue of La La Land takes place five years later. We see that both our protagonists have achieved their dreams — Mia has become a famous actress and Seb has a successful jazz club, but they’re no longer in each other’s lives. The bulk of this sequence is the rightfully named Epilogue song, in which we see what could have been. In the end, Mia and Sebastian go their separate ways, better for knowing each other.

*And Sequence 8 is the final WINTER section of the movie* 

'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' (2003)

Case Study #2: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

The first installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is a great example of a longer movie that can be broken into 8 sequence structure. With a total runtime of 143 minutes, the eight sequences end up being roughly 17 to 20 minutes long.

Sequence 1 = Welcome to Port Royal

The first sequence includes the prologue scene with Young Elizabeth and Young Will, during which Elizabeth takes his pirate medallion. Then, in the present, we meet Elizabeth Swan, Will Turner, Captain Jack Sparrow, and Commodore Norrington. After Norrington’s promotion ceremony, Elizabeth faints from the heat and her oxygen-restricting corset and falls into the sea. Jack jumps in and saves her.

Sequence 2 = Attack on Port Royal

Jack manages to escape the dock, only to get locked in a sword fight with Will at the blacksmith workshop. He ends up in jail and Elizabeth contemplates Norrington’s marriage proposal from earlier as day turns to night. But, under the curtain of night, the Black Pearl wreaks havoc on Port Royal. This sequence ends with Will unconscious on the street, Jack still stuck in jail, and Captain Barbossa deciding to keep Elizabeth on the Black Pearl despite her attempt to invoke parlay.

Sequence 3 = Assemble the crew

Norrington refuses to listen to Will’s idea about how to get Elizabeth back, so he goes to Jack and springs him from jail. Together, the two steal a ship and sail off to Tortuga. There, Jack buddies up with his old pal Gibbs to assemble a crew. Meanwhile on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth has dinner with Barbossa and learns the terrifying truth of the pirates’ curse.

Sequence 4 = First attempt to break the curse

Jack and his new crew catch up with the Black Pearl on the Isla de Muerta, where Barbossa tries to break the curse by using Elizabeth’s blood. It doesn’t work because she isn’t the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner, and the resulting fight ends with Will rescuing Elizabeth and leaving Jack to be captured by Barbossa’s crew.

Sequence 5 = Pirate battle!

Will and Elizabeth return to the ship, while Jack manages to stay alive by taunting Barbossa with the information of whose blood he needs to break the curse. Eventually, the Black Pearl catches up to the Interceptor and there’s a fierce battle between the two pirate crews. The Interceptor is blown up, leaving Elizabeth to believe that Will is dead.

Sequence 6 = Stuck on the island with all the rum

Surprise! Will isn’t dead. He makes a deal with Barbossa, but it backfires, and the crew of the Black Pearl maroon Elizabeth and Jack on a tiny spit of land in the middle of nowhere. Elizabeth and Jack get rip-roaring drunk, and Jack wakes to Elizabeth burning the rum to make a smoke signal. Norrington rescues them and Elizabeth accepts his wedding proposal so he’ll agree to go after Will.

Sequence 7 = The battle to end the curse

This Pirates of the Caribbean movie has an incredible Sequence Seven, by which I mean that the entire sequence is the climax of the movie. Jack convinces Barbossa’s crew to attack Norrington’s men before sacrificing Will. So the cursed pirates rage an all-out battle against the British that includes a Troy-like diversion with a pink parasol and dingy. Elizabeth manages to free Gibbs and the rest of the crew, but they leave her behind in favor of taking back the Black Pearl. Inside the cave on the Isla de Muerta, Jack picks a fight with Barbossa that turns into an epic sword fight that ends with Will breaking the curse just as Jack shoots and kills Barbossa. Outside, the broken curse causes the remaining pirates to surrender to Norrington’s crew. Sequence Seven ends with Jack realizing that he’s been left behind by his crew once again.

Sequence 8 = Jack escapes and returns to the Black Pearl

In the resolution of the movie, Will and Elizabeth watch grimly as Jack is about to be sentenced to death back in Port Royal. But in a bold move, Will throws caution to the wind — he confesses his love for Elizabeth and risks his life to help Jack escape the gallows. The two end up cornered, but when Elizabeth chooses Will, Norrington decides to let Jack go free. He makes one last illustrious speech, purposefully trips over the ledge, and falls into the sea. Will and Elizabeth kiss as Jack returns to the Black Pearl and steers his ship toward the horizon.

'When Harry Met Sally…' (1989)

Case Study #3: When Harry Met Sally…

Nora Ephron’s beloved romantic comedy is a great example of how 8 sequence structure can contract to accommodate a movie with a shorter runtime (all hail the tight-90).

Sequence 1 = When Harry and Sally drive to New York

This first sequence includes grapes, a debate about Casablanca, days of the week underpants, and the first of many incredibly complex meal orders. Most importantly, it introduces the thesis of the movie — the debate about whether or not men and women can be friends. Sequence One ends with Harry and Sally going their separate ways in New York, expecting to never see each other again.

Sequence 2 = When Harry and Sally run into one another at the airport

In the second sequence and last part of Act One, Harry and Sally find themselves on the same flight and end up continuing their argument from years before — but are not even close to becoming friends yet.

Sequence 3 = When Harry and Sally finally decide to be friends

Ten years after the story began, Harry and Sally both find themselves single again when they spot each other in a bookstore. After a long chat about relationships, they decide to start a friendship.

Sequence 4 = When Harry and Sally both “get back out there”

This is the “Fun and Games” of When Harry Met Sally. It’s the Casablanca scene and the batting cage scene and the scene at the MET with the funny accents and, most importantly, the orgasm scene at the deli. In this sequence, Harry and Sally become better friends, but they also both start dating again.

Sequence 5 = When Harry and Sally deny their feelings for each other

Harry and Sally dance at a New Year’s party and find themselves cheek-to-cheek, feelings clearly swirling in the air as the countdown to midnight begins. So in a hilarious attempt to set each other up with someone else, Harry and Sally go on a double date with their friends Jess and Marie — Harry with Marie and Sally with Jess. Things are not going well, to say the least, and by the end of the night, it is Marie and Jess who end up in bed together.

Sequence 6 = When Harry and Sally both deal with their exes

Though Harry and Sally both say they’re “fine” in regards to their respective break-ups, during this sequence they both end up falling to pieces. A run-in with his ex-wife leaves Harry angry about a wagon wheel coffee table, and a phone call from her ex-boyfriend leaves Sally tossing Kleenex around her apartment with reckless abandon.

Sequence 7 = When Harry and Sally sleep together and it’s super awkward

OMG! Harry and Sally finally act on their feelings for each other and have sex… but afterward, it’s incredibly awkward. So awkward that they can’t even be around one another. In fact, Sequence Seven ends with Sally slapping Harry at Jess and Marie’s wedding.

Sequence 8 = When Harry and Sally kiss and make up

Harry tries to apologize to Sally, but she’s not having it. Both are completely and utterly miserable without the other. In the end, Harry runs across New York City to a New Year’s Eve party where he confesses his love for Sally just after midnight. She returns the sentiment, they kiss… and live happily ever after (with the chocolate sauce on the side, of course).

Tips for Using 8 Sequence Structure

When looking at a story in terms of the 8 sequence structure, keep these things in mind.

Name Your Sequences

First, try to name your sequences. This applies to the sequences that make up Act Two in particular. As you saw in the case studies above, giving the sequences a distinct name can help focus your story, especially when you’re trying to come up with enough plot to fill out those murky middle sections.

Use it Just for Act Two

In fact, a lot of screenwriters who utilize 8 sequence structure only use it for Act Two. Acts One and Three usually come together pretty easily, what with them being the beginning and the end. So, if it helps, just use 8 sequence structure to break down Act Two. Ignore sequences 1, 2, 7, and 8 if you want.

Sequences are "Mini-Movies"

It can also be helpful to think of each sequence as its own story, or “mini-movie.” In that way, each sequence should have its own beginning, middle, and end, and its own goal for the protagonist.

Each sequence should build on the last, rising in intensity until culminating in the climax of the story and resulting resolution. The end of one sequence should serve as the beginning (or the basis) for the next, and so on.  

8 Sequence Structure Isn't an Exact Science

And more than anything else, remember that 8 sequence structure is not an exact science.

Traditional 8 sequence structure is based on a two-hour, 120-minute movie. But some movies are shorter than that and some are longer. In these instances, the sequences are adjusted accordingly.

Even the suggested “rules” of what each sequence contains is a rough idea. Some movies have Inciting Incidents that occur in the first scene of the story, while others don’t have a Midpoint at all. Others have short resolutions, meaning that sequence 8 is significantly shorter than 12 to 15 minutes long.

At the end of the day, 8 sequence structure is just one way of looking at story. If you find it helpful, great. If not, that’s okay, too. There are many other story structures out there — even ones that are pretty unconventional — so do your research and find which one works best for you.

The post 8 Sequence Structure: The Best-Kept Screenwriting Secret appeared first on ScreenCraft.

There’s plenty to learn from the three-time Academy Award-nominee, who was a prolific journalist, novelist, playwright, and screenwriter of some of the most iconic romantic comedies ever, including When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail .

Here are 8 pieces of writing advice from the Queen of Rom-Coms.

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On Stories

“As a young journalist, I thought that stories were simply what happened. As a screenwriter, I realized that we create stories by imposing narrative on the events that happen around us.”

Things happen to us every day. We go to work, file our taxes, make mediocre meals, talk to therapists and strangers, forget to switch the laundry, and walk the dogs.

Stories don’t become stories until we tell them. It is the telling that makes them special, the telling that brings them to life.

Nora Ephron

On Structure

“Structure is the key to narrative. These are the crucial questions any storyteller must answer: Where does it begin? Where does the beginning start to end and the middle begin? Where does the middle start to end and the end begin? … Each of those things is entirely up to the writer. They are the hardest decisions for any writer to make about any story, whether fiction or nonfiction. If you make the right decision about structure, many other things become absolutely clear. On some level, the rest is easy.”

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Seems so easy, right? Wrong.

Structure can be so simple, yet so difficult. What Nora is suggesting is that if you start with structure, everything else will fall into place.

On Tragedy and Comedy

“My mother wanted us to understand that the tragedies of your life one day have the potential to be comic stories the next.”

There’s a thin line between tragedy and comedy. Nora knew this better than anyone — her bestselling novel Heartburn (and the movie adaptation that followed) was a thinly veiled retelling of the unraveling of her second marriage.

It’s a good way to look at life and an important lesson in perspective — something you see as a comedy is someone else’s tragedy and vice versa. There are many ways to tell the same story, after all.

On Working

“I go through periods where I work a great deal at all hours of the day whenever I am around a typewriter, and then I go through spells where I don’t do anything. I just sort of have lunch — all day. I never have been able to stick to a schedule. I work when there is something due or when I am really excited about a piece.”

Some writers are frustratingly vague about how their writing actually gets done, and I love how frank Nora was about her process. Knowing that there are days when the words will flow and days when they don’t and it’s okay either way, is something that I, as a young writer, find incredibly freeing.

Unless you have the pressure of a deadline, approach your writing project with flexibility. Write when you’re inspired, lunch when you’re not.

On Writer's Block

“I’ve had friends who occasionally call and say, ‘I’m blocked!’ And I’ve said, ‘Well, how are you going to pay the rent?’ To me it was so obvious, you just had to work through it. In the old days, I would just type the piece over and over in the hopes that it would somehow push me into the next sentence. But you don’t do that anymore with computers. I think one thing that you do is just make notes. You have to sit in a period called ‘not-writing’ and write pages and pages of anything that crosses your mind. Or you can read things that will help you … the point is you do something, whether or not it’s the actual writing.”

Behind the scenes of 'Bewitched'

There are plenty of conflicting opinions about how to combat writer’s block, but I prefer Nora’s take on it — just do something. Take notes on your project. Or about something that isn’t your project. Read a book. Go for a run. Perfect your key lime pie.

Doesn’t matter what, as long as you’re doing something. And eventually, you’ll find your way back to writing and the block will be gone.

On Motivation

“I just want to go on making movies, and some of them will be completely meaningless, except, of course, to me.”

Too often, novice writers fall victim to the trend known as “trying to please the Hollywood execs.” They try to identify the next big trend in screenwriting and write a script they know will sell, but that they have no passion for.

Nora didn’t care if her stories were meaningful to millions, she just wanted to write things that meant something to her. And that passion came through in her scripts. So first and foremost, always write for yourself.

On Life

“Everything is copy.”

Okay, this advice actually comes from Nora’s mother, but it’s a phrase she repeated so often that it became one of her trademarks.

In journalism, copy means content. “Everything is copy” basically just means that everything could be turned into a story.

Nora Ephron

As writers, our own lives often bleed into our work unintentionally. Our emotions, opinions, and beliefs end up on the page in one way or another. But if you follow Nora’s footsteps, nothing is off-limits and you don’t have to be subtle.

If you’re a writer, everything is story.

On Writing

“The hardest thing about writing is writing.”

Very true. But always remember that the best thing about writing is also writing.

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 8 Pieces of Writing Advice from Rom-Com Queen Nora Ephron appeared first on ScreenCraft.

They say that real life is stranger than fiction, so it only makes sense for screenwriters to turn to true stories when it comes time to put pen to paper.

Movies based on true stories can be just as inspirational, harrowing, heartfelt, dramatic, unbelievable, and funny as those that are purely fiction. Plus, they have that intriguing “based on a true story” quality that makes them even more appealing to audiences.

The 40 movies on this list run the gamut from historical epics to musical memoirs to nose-to-the-grindstone narratives, but just because they’re all based on true stories doesn’t mean they’re all the same. There are many ways to tell a story, after all.

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Spotlight (2015)

Spotlight follows a team of investigative reporters at the Boston Globe as they attempt to expose the systemic sexual abuse cover-up by the Catholic Church. This Best Picture-winning movie features a stellar ensemble, gripping drama, and a highly realistic portrayal of the journalistic process.

Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

Named for one of their most well-known songs, Bohemian Rhapsody tells the story of Freddie Mercury and the formation of the legendary rock band Queen. The movie features all of the biggest Queen hits and culminates with an incredible recreation of the group’s famous Live Aid performance in 1985.

On the Basis of Sex (2018)

Before the notorious RBG became a beloved American icon, she was a hardworking, scrappy lawyer who decided to take on a tax law case that would become a landmark in gender discrimination. It doesn’t hurt that the screenplay was written by the late, great Supreme Court Justice’s very own nephew.

Hustlers (2019)

The story of a group of cunning, down-on-their-luck former strippers who decide to swindle their Wall Street clients by running up their credit cards sounds too crazy to be true. But in fact, Hustlers is based on real events detailed in a 2015 New York Magazine article.

Moneyball (2011)

Moneyball the movie was based on “Moneyball” the non-fiction book by Michael Lewis, who wrote about the Oakland Athletics’ 2002 season during which general manager Billy Beane attempted to rewrite America’s favorite pastime using an analytical, numbers-based “moneyball” approach — phew, that was a moneyball mouthful. But with Aaron Sorkin’s magnificent monologues and Brad Pitt’s gorgeous hair, how can you go wrong?

'Moneyball'

Wild (2014)

Can you imagine hiking over 1,000 miles through the wilderness? Me either. I can’t even imagine hiking 10, but hey -- I’m a writer, not a hiker. Wild is the crazy true story of Cheryl Strayed, who, after her life fell apart, decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail on an epic journey of self-discovery and healing.

Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

In the 1950s, an epic battle played out on the silver screen. The most interesting part? The men engaged in the battle didn’t actually interact with one another. Good Night and Good Luck tells the story of how journalist Edward R. Murrow and his CBS news team took on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his anti-Communist musings during the height of the Red Scare using their weapon of choice: television news.

Hidden Figures (2016)

We all know that NASA put a man in space in the 1960s, but until 2016, not many knew about the incredible women who helped make that happen. This feel-good biographical drama follows Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, three female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the height of the Civil Rights era.

Schindler’s List (1993)

This classic film follows Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who saved over a thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. Spielberg’s epic WWII drama will go down as one of history’s most well-known movies based on a true story.

Judy (2019)

Though most people know her from The Wizard of Oz, Judy turns its eye on beloved actress Judy Garland. The film flashes back to her playing Dorothy Gale as a teenager but frames the overall story by focusing on Garland’s sold-out “Talk of the Town” concerts in London near the end of her life.

'Judy'

Lincoln (2012)

Yet another Spielberg historical epic, Lincoln follows America’s sixteenth president in the final four months of his life, as he works to abolish slavery at the end of the Civil War and cement his legacy.

Jackie (2016)

Partly based on a Life magazine interview from 1963, Jackie provides an inside look at one of America’s most well-known First Ladies immediately following the most difficult experience of her life.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

This over-the-top black crime comedy is, indeed, based on the true story of disgraced stockbroker Jordan Belfort. Not only does it have a record amount of swear words, but The Wolf of Wall Street also features a protagonist who speaks directly to the audience about the legality and morality of his own actions.

The Big Short (2015)

Known for its inventive cameo appearances, fourth-wall-breaking narrator, and star-studded cast, Adam McKay’s comedy-drama explained how the financial crisis of 2008 was caused by a national housing bubble so well that it landed him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Farewell (2019)

Not all movies based on true stories are of the epic nature a la Lincoln or Schindler’s List. Sometimes the most affecting are those that come from very personal, very true stories, like Lulu Wang’s comedy-drama The Farewell. Based on Wang’s own life experiences, the movie follows a young 20-something Chinese American who travels to China with her family under the guise of a wedding, to see their terminally ill matriarch one last time.

'The Farewell'

Julie & Julia (2009)

Though we all eat three meals a day, not many biographical films focus on the kitchen. Julie & Julia, however, does just that. This comedy-drama tells interweaving stories of famous chef Julia Childs and young New Yorker Julie Powell, who set out to complete all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in one year.

Rocketman (2019)

Some people deserve a movie version of their life that’s just as fantastically epic as they are. Elton John happens to be one of those people. And the fantastical epic based on his life is Rocketman, a musical biopic that doesn’t hold anything back.

Titanic (1997)

The logline is simple: star-crossed lovers meet on a doomed ocean liner. The story at the center of James Cameron’s romantic epic may be fictional, but the backdrop of the story is entirely real — which makes this film truly unforgettable.

Walk the Line (2005)

When a musician makes it big, everyone wants to know how they became a star. Based on the singer’s own autobiographies, Walk the Line centers on country music artist Johnny Cash and tells the story of his romance with June Carter and explains how he sang his way to the top of the charts.

I, Tonya (2017)

In real life, figuring out the truth comes down to conflicting he-said-she-said perspectives. I, Tonya embodies this like no other film. With an inventive framing device and characters whose recollections of the events differ drastically, this biographical comedy-drama about controversial figure skater Tonya Harding is a roller coaster ride from start to finish.

'I, Tonya'

The Big Sick (2017)

It’s not often that romantic comedies are based on true stories, but when you have a romance as wild as Kumail Nanjiani’s, it’s totally deserving of a big-screen adaptation. Loosely based on Nanjiani’s real life story, The Big Sick follows a couple with vast cultural differences whose relationship is put in jeopardy when one of them is hospitalized.

Mank (2020)

Hollywood loves to tell stories about Hollywood. David Fincher’s black-and-white drama Mank focuses on Herman Mankiewicz’s development and writing of Orson Welles’ classic film Citizen Kane. It’s a movie about a movie — does it get any better?

Bombshell (2019)

Based on true accounts from former Fox News employees, Bombshell dramatizes the story of how several women put their careers on the line in order to expose decades of sexual harassment by CEO Roger Ailes.

Dunkirk (2017)

Christopher Nolan’s epic war drama details the WWII evacuation of Dunkirk through three different perspectives — soldiers on land, sailors at sea, and pilots in the air — in a cascading narrative that turned out to be one of Nolan’s biggest undertakings.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020)

Based on August Wilson’s play of the same name, this musical biopic starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman centers on a single 1920s recording session with Ma Rainey and her band.

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Though it was adapted from a novel of the same name, the basic events that transpire in The Other Boleyn Girl are entirely true. The historical romance recounts King Henry VIII’s relationship with two sisters from the wealthy Boleyn family, one of whom met an untimely end and joined the tragic line of Henry’s many doomed wives.

42 (2013)

There’s a reason the number 42 is retired for all Major League Baseball teams. That reason is Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player in the MLB, whose incredible story of overcoming adversity in athletics is told in the biopic42.

The Imitation Game (2014)

Sometimes it seems like Hollywood will never run out of stories from World War II to adapt for the big screen. The Imitation Game is another historical drama set in the second world war. It tells the true story of Alan Turing, a brilliant mathematician tasked with decoding the machine the Nazis used to send coded messages.

Marley and Me (2008)

Not all movies based on true stories are about big battles or awesome athletes — some are just about man’s best friend. Based on a memoir of the same name, Marley and Me tells the heartfelt story of how one mischievous Labrador retriever changed the lives of a newlywed couple.

Argo (2012)

Once upon a time… the CIA dreamed up a fake sci-fi movie in order to get into Iran and rescue some American diplomats during the 80s. And it worked. No joke. That’s the very true story of Argo, a historical drama thriller directed by and starring Ben Affleck.

'Argo'

The Social Network (2010)

Another Sorkin-penned biopic, The Social Network details the story of a little social website that would become a tech giant known ‘round the world. Yep, it’s the story of Facebook.

Seabiscuit (2003)

Long before social media trends… long before viral videos swept the Internet… there was a story about a racehorse that became a sensation across the nation. Based on Laura Hillenbrand’s meticulously researched narrative non-fiction book, Seabiscuit tells a classic underdog tale of a jockey and horse who made history in the “race of the century.”

The King’s Speech (2010)

Queen Elizabeth might have an entire Netflix show devoted to her, but if you want her dad’s story, you’ll have to check out The King’s Speech. This historical drama is all about the future king’s struggle with a speech impediment, and the friendship he develops with his speech therapist as he ascends the throne.

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Before Stephen Hawking was Stephen Hawking, he was a young man in love with a brilliant literature student. This romantic drama charts the relationship between Stephen and Jane Hawking as the former completes his groundbreaking work and struggles with a debilitating disease.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)

During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, a brave hotel manager saved the lives of over a thousand refugees by allowing them to shelter in his hotel. The incredible true story was later turned into a historical drama featuring Don Cheadle and Joaquin Phoenix.

'Hotel Rwanda'

The Glass Castle (2017)

Based on the memoir of the same name, The Glass Castle tells the heart-wrenching, beautiful story of Jeannette Walls’ childhood in poverty and her complex feelings about her upbringing later in her life.

Zodiac (2007)

Sometimes the most compelling stories are the ones that don’t yet have an ending. Zodiac is one of those stories. The 2007 film centers on the police manhunt for the Zodiac killer in the 1960s and 70s. The producers spent a year-and-a-half doing their own research into the Zodiac murders, though the case still remains one of the most infamous unsolved crimes in American history.

The Blind Side (2009)

The Blind Side is the amazing story of how Michael Oher overcame poverty to end up playing in the NFL. This sports drama is based on yet another Michael Lewis book that details the very true story of Oher and his adoptive parents.

Vice (2018)

There are plenty of movies about American presidents, but it’s not often that you come across a movie about a vice president. Adam McKay’s biting black comedy centers on the true story of Dick Cheney, the man who rose through the political ranks of Washington to become the most powerful VP in U.S. history.

House of Gucci (2021)

When an outsider falls in love with the heir to the House of Gucci, their romance becomes an epic battle for control over the iconic Italian fashion brand. Lady Gaga headlines House of Gucci, the film that tells the hard-to-believe true story of Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci.

'House of Gucci'

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 40 Incredible Movies Based on True Stories appeared first on ScreenCraft.

 Ah, rom-coms. There’s just something about ‘em.

But one of the most common critiques of the romantic comedy genre is that it’s too formulaic, overrun with cliched meet-cutes, trite lovers quarrels, and sappy romantic moments.

What’s a romantic comedy writer to do? Research!

So settle in, press play, and check out these 10 romantic comedy movies. You’re guaranteed to see your script with heart-eyes after this.

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When Harry Met Sally…

The modern rom-com wouldn’t exist without Nora Ephron/Rob Reiner classic. When Harry Met Sally… follows the two titular characters over 12 years in New York City as they attempt to find love and happiness, all the while attempting to answer the age-old question: “Can men and women ever just be friends?” When Harry Met Sally… is a masterclass in character creation, witty dialogue, and emotional, yet grounded scenes.

Palm Springs

We all know the trope of the infinite time loop — thank you, Groundhog Day! Then, 27 years after Bill Murray, we got Palm Springs, a fresh take on the time loop trope that hit home for viewers who were just settling into pandemic life.

Palm Springs follows the formula — Nyles and Sarah find themselves living the same day over and over again in Palm Springs, California. But where this movie differs is in its acknowledgment of how it follows the tropes of both time loops and romantic comedies — it’s self-aware storytelling in a refreshing, original way. 

About Time

On the surface, this Richard Curtis rom-com is about one ginger-haired Brit’s attempt to find true love using his unique time-traveling abilities. About Time does indeed deliver on that premise, but as the story unravels, you also realize that About Time isn’t just about romantic love — more than anything, it’s about familial love. 

In a landscape full of rom-com protagonists searching for their one true romantic love, the fact that Curtis chooses instead to focus the climax of About Time on the love that exists between family members is a heartwarming, totally unique spin on the genre.

Silver Linings Playbook

Rom-coms are, by nature, a genre mash-up. But that doesn’t mean you can’t add another genre into the mix. Case in point? Silver Linings Playbook.

This movie has a love story at its core, yes, but it also deftly rides the line between comedy and drama. The two characters in Silver Linings Playbook forge an interesting relationship while both dealing with — and excuse my language here — some really heavy shit. After getting out of a mental hospital, Pat struggles with anxiety and bipolar disorder, while Tiffany is still processing her grief and depression surrounding her late husband’s death. Not exactly your typical rom-com subject matter… and yet by the end of the movie, we want nothing more than to see Pat and Tiffany make it work.

The Big Sick

Most romantic comedies feature some kind of montage where we see the couple get to know one another and fall in love. Not many rom-coms feature extended scenes with the girl in a coma and the guy getting to know her parents. 

But then again, not many rom-coms are The Big Sick, which was based on writer and actor Kumail Nanjiani’s real life story. Sometimes life really is crazier than fiction.

Trainwreck

For so long, the romantic comedy genre focused on well-behaved, quirky women who had to get fun-loving, commitment-phobic men to settle down. But in this Judd Apatow rom-com, Amy Schumer plays a commitment-phobic career woman who meets and falls for a genuinely good guy. Nowadays, it might seem like the norm, but Trainwreck was a bit groundbreaking in how it turned the typical male and female rom-com roles on their heads.

Crazy Rich Asians

A lot of rom-coms tell the story of how they fell in love and the happily ever after comes when they get together at the end. Crazy Rich Asians chooses to start where most rom-coms end: with a happy couple taking a trip together.

Rachel and Nick head to Singapore for a friend’s wedding, where Rachel is tasked with impressing Nick’s crazy rich family and getting his mother’s approval. Instead of it being the story of how a relationship started, it’s the story of one of the obstacles in that relationship, a unique and original addition to the romantic comedy genre.

(500) Days of Summer

One of the most famous love stories is Romeo and Juliet, right? But people always tend to forget that Shakespeare’s classic is actually a tragedy. The tragic element of love is something that Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber decided to bake right into the central conceit of (500) Days of Summer.

We watch as Tom falls for Summer, romanticizes their relationship, gets his heart broken, and tries to get her back — and yet, from the opening, the audience is told that this rom-com doesn’t have a happy ending. The key takeaway here for rom-com writers is that it’s important not to ignore the other elements that often exist in love stories: tragedy, heartbreak, frustration, conflicting perspectives, and, most importantly, hope.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

The standard cast of a romantic comedy includes two romantic leads and a smattering of less important side characters. Not Crazy, Stupid, Love. Dan Fogelman’s ensemble rom-com about the contrasting ways different generations approach love features a massive cast that includes Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei, Joey King, and Kevin Bacon. Every character feels fully realized and each goes on their own individual journey, and Fogelman even manages to get Josh Groban in a few scenes.

Set It Up

While many of the movies on this list forgo some standard rom-com element in favor of originality, Set It Up does the opposite. It includes all things we’ve come to expect of rom-coms in a completely new way because they are baked into the very premise of the story. 

Set It Up follows two overworked 20-something assistants who decide to set their bosses up in a situation straight out of a romantic comedy. Meanwhile, they fail to realize that they’re the ones falling for each other in the traditional rom-com way we all know and love.

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 10 Films You Have to Watch If You’re Writing a Romantic Comedy appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Voiceover is one of the most hotly debated topics in the screenwriting world, probably because there are multiple ways it can be used.

While some screenwriters are vehemently against it, if used well, voiceover can actually enhance a story in interesting ways. So let’s look at three different ways you can use voiceover in your script.

As Interior Monologue

Unlike novelists, screenwriters can’t typically get into their characters' heads. But voiceover allows you to do just that.

Using voiceover as interior monologue means that you can reveal a character’s inner thoughts, feelings, and opinions without having them voice those things to the other characters in the story.

A great example of this kind of voiceover can be seen in the movie Fight Club. Throughout the story, the audience is treated to a near-constant stream of interior monologue narration from the Narrator. This voiceover defines the tone of the entire movie and is one of the reasons it’s so memorable.

It’s actually because of the voiceover that the big twist at the end of Fight Club comes as such a gut punch — we think the Narrator is telling us the truth because he’s speaking with authority in the first-person, but in actuality, he’s an unreliable narrator.

To see how the voiceovers in Fight Club were written, check out the script here.

As Non-Diegetic Commentary

Some novels have third-person narrators — narrators who aren’t involved in the story but have enough knowledge of the goings-on of the story that they’re the ones telling it to the reader.

In the same way, some films feature a narrator who speaks to the audience through voiceover but never appears on screen. This type of voiceover is non-diegetic, meaning that it has no root in the action that takes place in the story.

Non-diegetic voiceover functions the same on the page as it does on the screen — it allows someone to impart information about the story without interrupting the action of the story itself.

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For example, in About Time, Tim leads the audience through the story with non-diegetic narration about his family, career, search for love, and time-traveling abilities. We never see him speak any part of this narration on-screen, but we know it’s him because he’s the protagonist in the story. 

Most often the non-diegetic narrator is a character somehow involved in the story, but every once in a while, a movie comes around that has a true third-person narrator.

(500) Days of Summer features one such third-person omniscient narrator. The audience never learns the identity of this all-knowing narrator, but he is an integral part of the experience of the movie. You can download the script here if you want to see what this looks like.

As Diegetic Storytelling

We humans tell stories all the time — it’s sort of our thing. So it only makes sense that the characters in movies we watch tell stories too.

But the thing about telling stories is that it’s not very visually engaging. It’s one thing to hear a character tell a story, it’s another entirely to see that story play out on screen. This is where voiceover comes in.

A character can start telling a story in a scene, and then the screenwriter can continue that story in voiceover while showing what happened in a flashback.

It’s a little hard to explain in writing, but it’s something done in movies and TV all the time. For a perfect example, check out this clip from the beginning of National Treasure.

This kind of voiceover is known as diegetic, meaning that it has a root in the action of the movie and isn’t disembodied (even if we can’t see the speaker at all times).

Ben’s grandfather tells the story of the Templar’s Treasure while the audience gets to see what he’s talking about on the screen in a series of flashbacks. After all, seeing knights fight over treasure is much more interesting than watching Christopher Plummer tell the story in its entirety. Download the script for National Treasure to explore diegetic voiceover.

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While these three uses of voiceover may be the most common, there are plenty of other ways to employ voiceover in your script.

You could have an on-screen narrator like A Series of Unfortunate Events, use voiceover to bookend your story like Christopher Nolan does in The Prestige, have various characters speak in voiceover like Election, or have an in-story narrator speak in voiceover to another character in the story (ahem… Stranger than Fiction).

When it comes to voiceover, the possibilities are endless. But before you write V.O in your script, make sure you’re using voiceover for a good reason.

If you’re considering using voiceover in your screenplay, check out our Guide to Narration and Voiceover.

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 3 Ways to Use Voiceover in Your Script appeared first on ScreenCraft.

It’s that time of year again.

A time filled with baked goods, cups of cocoa, wrapping paper, constant carols on the radio, and thinking about the year to come.

Yes, that’s right. It’s time to make another round of New Year’s resolutions.

And if you’re a screenwriter, that means setting some concrete writing goals for 2022. Here are five screenwriting resolutions you should make this year.

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Set Reasonable Writing Goals

What writer isn’t guilty of setting completely unrealistic writing goals?

We’ve all done it — claimed that we’re capable of churning out 120 pages in a weekend or rewriting our entire script in a single night. And time and time again, we fall short.

So this year, avoid the disappointment and make a resolution to set reasonable writing goals for yourself.

Everyone writes at their own pace — whether you’re Speedy McScreenwriter or Slow and Steady Scripter, set goals that make sense for who you are as a writer.

Maybe that’s one page a day, maybe it’s 10. Regardless, you’ll be grateful if you’re realistic with your writing goals instead of overzealous.

Try a New Genre or Format

As writers, we tend to silo ourselves into specific genres and formats.

To be honest, it’s not entirely our fault — people are always asking, “What kinds of stories do you write?” and we have to give some kind of answer. That, and many of us do have a habit of writing in the same genres and formats over and over again.

This year, make a resolution to branch out. If you write TV pilots, try your hand at a feature. If you write only sci-fi features, experiment with a romantic short.

Trying different things can be a refreshing challenge, something that can reinvigorate your writing and test your abilities as a screenwriter.

Read More Scripts

I can’t be the only screenwriter who says I’m going to read the script for this movie or that TV show and then never follows through.

The worst part is that I have no excuse! Scripts are so readily available online, it’s easier than ever to find the script for one of your favorite films.

Not only that, but screenwriters can learn so much from reading scripts. Things never look the same on the page as they do on the screen, and every screenwriter has different techniques for dialogue, sluglines, action paragraphs, and structure.

It’s important that screenwriters continue to read the very things they’re trying to write. After all, you wouldn’t go on the Great British Baking Show without at least baking one batch of cookies at home first, right?

Check out The Script Lab, where they have hundreds of scripts to download for free. Download a bunch of your favorites and resolve to read at least one script a week in 2022!

Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

They say that comparison is the thief of joy. I say it’s the thief of writing productivity.

Every writer is different. Including you! One writer may thrive off strict deadlines, while another needs more flexibility. One writer might take to Twitter to discuss their ideas, while another prefers to be a little more secretive.

If you’re constantly comparing yourself to other writers, it takes up all the energy you could be using for writing. So don’t waste precious time comparing your writing abilities, stories, or prowess to others.

Forget the comparison and instead focus on getting the words on the page.

Finish That Draft!

Of all the writing resolutions you make for 2022, this one is by far the most important.

“You may not write well every day, but you can always edit a bad page,” said Phoebe Waller-Bridge. “You can’t edit a blank page.”

Taika Waititi, Stephen King, David Lynch, and many others have said something intensely similar. And they’re all right.

No matter how bad you think it is, just get that first draft written. Once you make it to FADE OUT, you can revise and edit until your script is the essence of screenwriting perfection.

But if you don’t finish the draft, you’ll never get to that part of the process.

If you only make one resolution for 2022, let it be to finish your damn draft!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 5 Screenwriting Resolutions You Should Make This Year appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Stuff to Read

Every screenwriter — and their bookshelf — can use a few more books on the art and craft of screenwriting. Not only do screenwriting books provide new and enlightening techniques for formulating compelling stories, but looking at our work through different lenses also gives us the crucial perspective we may need to jumpstart or finish a project.

• Binging with Babish: 100 Recipes Recreated from Your Favorite Movies and TV Shows by Andrew Rea: $14.99 on Amazon | $30 on Indiebound
• The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr: $13.83 on Amazon | $16 list on IndieBound
• Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey Into Story by John Yorke: $15.59 on Amazon | $18.95 on Indiebound
• The Creative Screenwriter: 12 Rules to Follow — and Break — to Unlock Your Screenwriting Potential by Julian Hoxter: $14 on Amazon | $15.63 on Bookshop.org
• Bulletproof: Writing Scripts that Don’t Get Shot Down by David Diamond and David Weissman: $17.63 on Amazon | $24.79 on Bookshop.org
• Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure by KM Weiland: $10.79 on Amazon | $10.79 on Indiebound)
• A24 Screenplay Books: $60

Notebooks!

Writers. Love. Notebooks. Honestly, gifting them a dozen basic composition books would keep them happy (and busy) all year long. But if you want to go above and beyond, here are a bunch of cool and very not basic notebooks worth checking out.

• Storyboard Notebook: $7.95
• “Movie Ideas” Notebook: $7.99
• Vomit Draft Formatted Screenwriting Notebook: $9.99
• Storyclock Workbook from Plot Devices: $24.99
• Aqua Notes Waterproof Notepad: $9.40
• A24 Office Notebook: $12

Subscriptions, Software, & e-Courses

If wisdom is what your writer friend seeks this holiday season, then these gifts will certainly sate their thirst for knowledge.

• Masterclass: $180 for one year (We recommend classes taught by Aaron Sorkin, Shonda Rhimes, David Lynch, Spike Lee, Judd Apatow, and Martin Scorsese.)
• Scriptnotes Premium: $29.94 for six months | $49 for one year
• ScreenCraft Screenwriting e-Courses: $39 & $49
• TSL 360: $12 for Monthly All-Access | $99 for Annual All-Access
• Script Anatomy: prices start around $500
• Final Draft 12 Screenwriting Software: $159.99

Script Coverage & Competitions

Light a fire in your screenwriter with the gift of a deadline and professional feedback on their script! There are so many great screenwriting competitions and script coverage services out there, so surprise them with something that could take their career and/or their project to the next level. (Warning: Could also lead to them feeling rejected and full of self-doubt...)

Competitions

Selecting a screenwriting competition can be daunting, especially if you're not a writer yourself. That's why you should check out Coverfly, which features contests that are vetted, reputable, and lead to success stories. Expect entry fees to be anywhere from $30 to $70, so make sure to load up a gift card with enough funds so they're ready to rumble!

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Script Coverage

What better way to show your special screenwriter how much you care than by gifting them the blessed experience of getting their script torn to absolute shreds by a professional script reader. Okay, okay...that's a bit of an over-exaggeration. Sometimes readers fall madly in love with the stories they read -- before tearing them to absolute shreds.

• WeScreenplay Format-Based Coverage: $59.99 - $199.99 (*Gift Cards available)
• ScreenCraft Genre-Based Notes: starts at $95
• Launch Pad Development & Studio Notes: $125
• TSL Notes: $39 - $119

Fun Stuff

Whether it's apparel, mugs, or the hottest (and pretty expensive) keyboard on the market for writers, we've got you covered for fun and quirky stocking stuffers. (Hmmm...you might need a pretty big stocking for that keyboard.

• “FADE IN” coffee mug: $13.95
• Minari Family Recipe Cards: FREE (Just download and print them out!)
• John August's Writer Emergency Pack: $15.99
• Storymatic Writing Game: $29.95
• Screenplay Poster Art: $16.00 for classic print | $45 for custom print
• “The Future of Film is Female” T-shirt: $19.99
• Typewriter Patent T-Shirt from Production Apparel: $23
• Storyclock Tee from Plot Devices: $24.99
• Qwerkywriter Typewriter Keyboard: $299.99

Finding the perfect gift for a writer is no easy task. You may not be able to present them with the perfect line of dialogue or more time to write, but hopefully this list has given you ideas for a gift that will inspire, motivate, and help them reach their writing goals.

No matter what you choose, gifting the screenwriter in your life something that shows you support their writing is what really counts.

WANT MORE GIFT IDEAS? CHECK OUT SCREENCRAFT'S 2023 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE FOR SCREENWRITERS!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post ScreenCraft's 2021 Holiday Gift Guide for Screenwriters appeared first on ScreenCraft.

The Academy Award-winning movie was based on a short story by sci-fi writer Ted Chiang called “Story of Your Life.”

Short stories are ideal for movie adaptations — they’re succinct, inventive, and often pack a thematic punch. Let’s dive into Ted Chiang’s short story and see how it compares with the finished film.

Spoilers ahead — don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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What's It About?

The basic premise of the story remained unchanged in the adaptation from short story to feature film — while telling the story of her daughter’s life, a linguist recounts her experience deciphering and learning an alien language. 

Characters

The central character is Dr. Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams in the movie), a brilliant linguist who is tasked with finding a way to communicate with the alien life forms that have arrived on Earth.

In the short story, she is joined by Colonel Weber and a physicist named Gary. The former’s name remains the same in Villeneuve’s film (played by Forest Whitaker), while the latter’s is changed to Ian Donnelly (played by Jeremy Renner). 

The movie adds several supporting characters who do not appear in the short story — General Shang, Agent Halpern, and Captain Marks — and gives a name to Louise’s daughter, who appears but is unnamed in the short story.

Additionally, while much about the two main alien heptapods is the same, their nomenclature is varied — Flapper and Raspberry in the short story, Abbott and Costello in the movie.

Structure

The short story starts on the night Louise’s daughter is conceived, with Louise presumably telling her daughter “the story of your life.” The chronology is unclear at first, with the narrative jumping around to various moments in the daughter’s life while continuously returning to Louise’s attempt to decipher and learn the heptapod language. 

In this way, Louise’s memories from her daughter’s life serve as the thematic throughline of the story, while the alien language storyline acts as the main plot.

The structure of “Story of Your Life” is so inventive, so well-suited to the story, that Arrival really doesn’t need to deviate from it in any substantial way.

The movie, like the short story, begins and ends on the night Louise’s daughter is conceived. 

In both, Louise’s daughter’s tragic death is disclosed from the very beginning — revealed in the second paragraph of the short story; the first few minutes of the movie.

And in both, Louise’s prior knowledge of her daughter’s death is hinted at but not fully realized until the end of the story.

In terms of the heptapod plotline, the movie keeps the timeline from Chiang’s short story almost completely intact. Louise is first approached by Colonel Weber, then she travels to the alien landing site, and spends a period of time working to decipher a way to communicate with the heptapods.

Scenes

Many of the scenes from “Story of Your Life” appear in the final film adaptation, including Louise’s initial meeting with Colonel Weber, the use of the word “human” to first communicate with the heptapods, and the non-zero-sum game sequence. 

However, the short story is information-dense — Chiang uses plenty of pages to explain the linguistic principles, scientific theories, and step-by-step process needed to establish communication with the heptapods, not to mention the attention-to-detail spent on explaining the heptapods’ relationship with mathematics.

For an epic visual story, all of that complex, heady information must be translated into concrete, externalized scenes.

Most of the academic explanations and “science stuff” become fully-fledged scenes in the movie — a great example of which is the “nature of a question scene.” 

In the short story, Louise can simply explain these concepts to the reader through her internal monologue. In the movie? Not so much. So instead there’s a scene where Louise dissects a question for Colonel Weber on a whiteboard.

And while the short story is relatively meditative in nature, the inherent drama of an “alien landing” story must be emphasized more for the big screen.

Notably, the movie includes scenes that show how the world reacted when the heptapods landed, the utter weirdness of Louise’s first experience in the alien spacecraft, and her first meaningful contact with Abbott and Costello.

Point of View and Tone

As evident from the title, “Story of Your Life” the short story uses a combination of first- and second-person point of view. The story is told from Louise’s perspective, as something that she is recounting to her daughter — the unnamed “you.” 

Chiang is also deceptively clever with his use of tense.

Take the first paragraph…

“Your father is about to ask me the question. This is the most important moment in our lives, and I want to pay attention, note every detail. Your dad and I have just come back from an evening out, dinner and a show; it’s after midnight. We came out onto the patio to look at the full moon; then I told your dad I wanted to dance, so he humors me and now we’re slow-dancing, a pair of thirtysomethings swaying back and forth in the moon-light like kids. I don’t feel the night chill at all. And then your dad says, ‘Do you want to make a baby?’”

'Arrival'

Much like the way Louise comes to understand time thanks to the heptapod language, the short story moves effortlessly between past, present, and future tense. Often, as in the example above, within the span of a single paragraph.

The film can’t play with tense in the same way as the written story, but it does use flashbacks and voiceover to achieve the same effect.

Arrival begins and ends with Louise’s voiceover, mimicking the basic sentiments of the first and final lines of the short story. This narration provides the tone for the entire story. Louise is the first and last voice we hear and, though by the end it’s clear that she’s speaking to her daughter, it’s also like she’s talking to us, the audience. 

Other Significant Differences

There are a number of other significant differences between Chiang’s short story and Villeneuve's film, and all have to do with the difference in medium.

Why the Heptapods Came to Earth

In the short story, Louise explains that the heptapods had come to Earth “to see” or “observe,” and by the end, there’s no more explanation than that.

“We never did learn why the heptapods left, any more than we learned what brought them here, or why they acted the way they did.”

That reasoning works perfectly fine for a meditative short story but wouldn’t work for movie audiences, so screenwriter Eric Heisserer beefed up the explanation.

In the movie, when Louise is forced to ask the heptapods why they came to Earth, they respond “offer weapon.” The ensuing chaos from the interpretation of that phrase ultimately leads the story to its climax — in which Louise uses her newfound fluency in the heptapod language to stop a global meltdown. This necessary change heightens the drama of the movie’s third act. 

Louise's Daughter's Death

Another important change comes in the form of the daughter’s tragic death. In Chiang’s short story, Louise’s daughter dies in a rock-climbing accident when she is 25 years old, but in the movie, Hannah has a rare, untreatable disease that leads to her death.

On the surface it may seem like a trivial change, but Chiang’s version lends itself to a darker interpretation of the story. If Louise knew her daughter was going to die in an accident, why didn’t she try to stop it? Whereas, in the movie, Louise knows Hannah will die of a rare, unpreventable disease, but chooses to have her anyway and experience the beauty of her child’s brief life. 

'Arrival'

In the story, Louise’s decision is framed as a question.

“From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum or a maximum? These questions are in my mind when your father asks me, ‘Do you want to make a baby?’ And I smile and answer, ‘Yes,’ and I unwrap his arms from around me, and we hold hands as we walk inside to make love, to make you.”

But the movie ends with Louise’s decision in the form of a statement…

“So, Hannah, this is where your story begins. The day they departed. Despite knowing the journey, and where it leads, I embrace it. And I welcome every moment of it.” 

It’s a subtle change, but one that makes Louise a more sympathetic and relatable protagonist. 

---

Arrival is just one of many successful movies which use a short story for its source material. And like with any adaptation, changes were made to bring “Story of Your Life” to the big screen.

But, just as Louise learns when she becomes fluent in the heptapod language, by going back to the beginning and examining where the story started, we can better understand how it ends.  

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Analysis of ‘Story of Your Life,’ The Short Story that Became ‘Arrival’ appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Screenplays are made up of sluglines, action paragraphs, and dialogue. Given how simple sluglines usually are, it’s safe to say that dialogue is at least 45% of any script, if not more. 

The things the characters say to one another often carry the entire narrative, so it’s critical that the dialogue be interlaid with meaning and theme. 

But — there’s always a but — you never want your characters to sound overly expository, cliché or trite, or foolish. After all, people in real life rarely say exactly what they mean. 

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This is how subtext comes into play. 

Take a look at the following quote from writer/director Greta Gerwig… 

“People always use words to not say what they mean. They constantly use language to avoid saying the things that are true. In Lady Bird when her mom is yelling at her about the room, what she wants to say is ‘I’m scared.’ And she can’t say that. So she says, ‘Why do you never clean up your room?’”

That’s subtext. 

To put an official definition to it, subtext is the implied or metaphorical meaning or theme in a piece. 

When applied directly to dialogue, it’s all the hidden meaning, unsaid feelings, and thoughts that are too difficult to say aloud. It’s what’s in between the lines, so to speak. 

Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird is a study in subtext. Any conversation between Lady Bird and her mother, Marion, is laden with unspoken truths. 

The scene Gerwig references in her quote is a perfect example, as is the “give me a number” scene that takes place later in the film. 

Lady Bird gets herself expelled from school by sharing her thoughts at a pro-life assembly at her Catholic high school, and when Marion finds out, she’s furious. In the heat of their argument, Marion says, “Do you have any idea what it costs to raise you and how much you’re just throwing away every day?” 

Enraged, Lady Bird tells her mother to give her a number. “You give me a number for how much it cost to raise me. And I’m gonna get older and make a lot of money and write you a check for what I owe you so that I never have to speak to you again.” 

Marion responds, “Well I highly doubt that you will be able to get a job good enough to do that.”  

It’s a heartbreaking, emotional scene, full of subtext. 

The things Lady Bird and Marion say are meant to hurt each other because neither can say how she really feels. 

If they said exactly what they meant, it would’ve looked something like this… 

MARION

We don’t have a lot of money. I’m doing the best I can, but you don’t seem to appreciate any of it.

LADY BIRD

I just want you to acknowledge that my dreams and ambitions are bigger than this town we live in.  

MARION

Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to lose you.

But — like, I said, there’s always a but — if Lady Bird and Marion had said exactly what they meant in that scene, the ending of the movie wouldn’t have worked. It would’ve been a completely different story, a completely different journey for Lady Bird. 

That’s the impact of subtext. It adds layers of meaning to your story, hiding truths behind what characters say and what they mean.

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post One Greta Gerwig Quote Can Teach You Everything You Need to Know About Subtext appeared first on ScreenCraft.

We are all the main characters of our own lives, it’s true. In real life, most of us take things day-to-day, just meandering and reacting to whatever life throws our way. It’s okay for us to be pretty passive. The same cannot be said for movies.

Screenwriters need characters who are, above all else, active. Let's explore what active and passive characters are and why it's usually a better idea to avoid writing passive characters in your stories.

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Active vs. Passive Characters

Generally speaking, in storytelling, there are two kinds of characters: active and passive. And movies and TV shows rely primarily on the former.

Active characters take action. They make decisions and choices that fuel the story and move it forward.

These characters have goals — from as small as a glass of water to as big as saving the world — and their determination to achieve those goals creates the stakes of the story.

Passive characters are, naturally, the opposite. They wait for things to happen instead of making them happen. They’re reactive, not proactive.

Whereas active characters impact the story, passive characters sit back and experience the story.

If you imagine an active and passive character taking a road trip together, the active character jumps into the driver’s seat and the passive character takes the passenger seat, just along for the ride.

'The Godfather'

Why Protagonists Need to Be Active

You don’t see a lot of truly passive protagonists on screen, in part because they’re just not as relatable to audiences.

Even though being relatively passive is truer to life, it doesn’t translate to the big screen. Audiences want their main characters to have a direct impact on their own story.

This is because character growth is most satisfying when it comes organically from the characters themselves, not when it is forced upon them by some external force.

For example, think about Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Though he first appears as the sheltered son, the one reluctant to get involved in the family business, it is his decisive action to kill a rival mafia boss and corrupt police officer that propels the plot forward at the story’s midpoint and springboards his own personal arc to become the family’s new Don.

If Michael hadn’t been the one to decide to kill Sollozzo and McCluskey — if, say, his brother Sonny forced him to do it, or McCluskey was going to kill him and Michael retaliated in self-defense — his character arc wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying.

Deceptively Active Protagonists

Active protagonists take action, while passive protagonists wait for things to happen and then react to them.

But there are main characters who are deceptive, seemingly passive on the surface but fundamentally active at their core.

Plenty of protagonists are passive until something happens that forces them into action.

Casablanca’s Rick Blaine appears to be a passive protagonist for most of the movie, reacting to the things that happen in his café and sticking his neck out for nobody. That is, until Act Three when he’s the one making definitive choices that impact the story’s resolution.

Even still, there can be active characters who are reactionary in nature.

In The Dark Knight, the Joker’s decisions fuel the plot and move the story forward. Batman reacts to what the Joker does, but he’s not a passive character because he’s actively trying to stop the villain --- his decisions in doing so directly affect the story.

There can also be active protagonists who, despite their actions, don’t have much of a character arc at all.

In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Big Lebowski, the protagonists’ decisions fuel the plot of the story but don’t spur any meaningful change in the protagonists themselves.

At the end of his day of playing hooky, Ferris Bueller is still Ferris Bueller. In these cases, it’s okay for the protagonist to remain the same because the major character growth actually occurs for one of the supporting characters (In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it’s Cameron).

'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'

When Writing a Passive Character Is Okay

Most of the time, the main characters in movies and TV need to be active. But there are some instances in which a passive protagonist may be beneficial to the larger story.

Passive characters like Max in Mad Max Fury Road and Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby serve as a point-of-view character for the story — we view the true hero or protagonist, Furiosa or Gatsby, through their eyes. These characters are the audience’s way into the world of the story, and therefore don’t need to be truly active because the story’s not really about them at all.

Finally, on occasion, there are protagonists who are reactionary and passive to illustrate the broader scope of a story.

The titular character in Forrest Gump, as well as Mason in Boyhood, are passive protagonists who react to the situations and circumstances of their lives accordingly. These movies are more epic in scope, focusing more on the nature of life than a particular journey. In these cases, it’s okay for the main character to be passive because the story’s about something much bigger than them.

With few exceptions, audiences prefer protagonists who are active over those that are passive. Active protagonists are easier to relate to, understand, and root for, and are often the characters that we love most.

So, When in Doubt…

Always go with active protagonists. 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Why You Should Avoid Writing Passive Characters (& How to Make Them Active) appeared first on ScreenCraft.

All metaphors aside, revising is tough work that can seem impossible if you don’t know where to start. So I suggest breaking your script down to its smallest unit: scenes.

Part of every screenwriter’s revision process should be going through their script scene-by-scene to determine if each scene is working effectively or not.

To do just that, here are 10 questions that will help you figure out which scenes are working and, more importantly, which ones aren’t.

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What is the Scene About?

This first one can be a doozy. Because you’re not trying to figure out what the scene is about on the surface — no, you need to determine what the scene is about in the grand scheme of things.

Examine your scene from a bird’s eye view, so to speak. What is the scene doing for the overall story? And what is it about thematically? 

Maybe the scene establishes a key relationship, introduces the antagonizing force, or sets up the protagonist’s internal conflict. Maybe it raises the stakes, leads the characters in a new direction, or propels the plot forward in an important way.

All of those are completely valid reasons for a scene to exist. But if you don’t have an answer to this question or the answer is, “It’s just a fun scene,” it’s a good indication that you should cut the scene completely.

What Happens in the Scene?

To use a theatre term, this question is all about the stage business. What are your characters physically doing during a particular scene?

Dialogue and action are the two primary elements of a screenplay, so it makes sense that what your characters do is just as important as what they say.

The actions your characters take can add critical meaning and subtext to your story. After all, it’s one thing for a character to convince his girlfriend that he truly loves her while he’s sipping tea, it’s another thing entirely if he’s busy sharpening a knife.

Whose Scene Is It Anyway?

First-person, second-person, third-person omniscient — just like literature, all movies and TV shows have a point of view. And while revising your screenplay, it’s critical to examine the point of view of each individual scene.

Now, I’m not talking about how you write the words in the script itself. This is about the point of view of the story in a larger sense.

Whose perspective is the scene from? If you had to assign a primary character (or, fine, a pair of characters) to be “leaders” in the scene, who would it be?

Some stories adhere to the equivalent of a first-person point of view, following one character throughout the entirety of the story. In these stories, the audience learns information as the POV character learns information.

Other stories may hop between two characters’ perspectives, focus on various characters in a larger group, or feature an omniscient narrator of sorts who knows everything and can comment on the story itself.  

There’s no right or wrong answer here, but you should try to pinpoint which character each scene belongs to and how that affects the audience’s perception of the story.

What Does the Character Want?

Once you know whose scene it is, the next question to ask is about the goal. What does the character want in this scene?

When your character wants something — even if it’s just a glass of water — that desire inherently creates stakes, obstacles, and conflict.

Stakes and obstacles are essential to your script. Who wants to watch a movie where everything goes the protagonist’s way and he has no trouble getting the thing he wants? No one, that’s who.

Scrutinize your character’s goal in each scene. Get really micro with it, too. Indiana Jones’ big goal in Raiders of the Lost Ark is to get the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis, yes, but he has a smaller goal in each individual scene that will get him one step closer (or further from) actually finding the Ark.

And if you have two main characters in a scene, be sure to answer this question for both characters. Sometimes the best drama occurs when two characters want completely opposite things.

'Raiders of the Lost Ark'

How Does This Scene Propel the Story Forward?

The scenes in your screenplay should be like a line of dominoes. When you push the first domino, it falls into the second domino, which falls and hits the third domino… and so on and so on. 

You want your scenes to cascade into each other like that line of dominoes, meaning that what happens in one scene should be reliant on what happened in the previous scene and should directly affect what happens in the next scene.

A slightly easier way to look at this is to consider whether a single scene impacts the plot of the story or the character’s arc. If it impacts either the plot or character arc, good; if it impacts both, great.

Every scene in a script has the same job: move the story forward in some way. That forward momentum can take many shapes, but it has to be present in the scene. If it’s not, best to cut ties before you get too attached. 

What Does the Scene Reveal about Character?

Some scenes are more about character than anything else — they establish who someone is, what internal conflicts they battle, and what their relationships are like with others.

For these scenes, you need to look critically at what the scene reveals about the character. This can be in action, dialogue, or the cumulative scene as a whole.

With that car ride scene at the beginning of Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig establishes the fraught mother/daughter relationship that holds up the entire movie in just a few minutes. We hear how quickly Lady Bird and Marion’s conversation about their audiobook turns into a fully-fledged argument. And we see that their relationship is so tense that Lady Bird is willing to throw herself out of a moving car rather than continue talking to her mother.

The things that we do and say reveal who we are, whether we want them to or not. Make sure that each of your scenes is revealing something interesting.

'Lady Bird'

What Is (and Isn’t) Being Said?

Ah, what a world we’d live in if everyone always said exactly what they meant. Unfortunately for us — and our characters — that fantasy land doesn’t exist.

What characters say during a scene is hugely important. The last thing you want is meandering, pointless dialogue. But on the other hand, you don’t want your characters’ speech to be unrealistic.

We humans are nothing if not messy communicators, and some of the best cinematic conflicts can come from miscommunication. Don’t be afraid to mine miscommunication for conflict in your script.  

So during revision, look at the dialogue in each scene and ask yourself two questions…

1. What’s being said?
2. What’s not being said?

What’s not being said is subtext. It’s the meaning behind their words, often the things they can’t — or don’t want to — say aloud. Using subtext, it’s wholly possible for your characters to have a surface-level conversation about wallpaper patterns when what they’re really talking about is getting a divorce.

Not all scenes need heavy subtext — sometimes you just have to explain something straight-up or get from one scene to another with transitionary dialogue. Just make sure your screenplay isn’t full of these simple dialogue scenes.

Does the “Charge” of the Scene Change?

For the last three questions on this list, take a step back from the scene. Stop dissecting individual lines and look at it more abstractly. 

First, consider the “charge” of your scene. By this, I mean the emotional charge. What emotion does the scene start with, and what emotion does it end with?

Think of a battery — on one end, there’s a positive charge, on the other, a negative. Just like that battery, your scene should have different emotions on each end.

You can assign rough designations to emotions to track the “charge.” The key is that you want this emotional “charge” to change during a scene. 

Scenes could start with joy (positive) and end with despair (negative), or the exact opposite. Longer scenes may go through several emotional changes. 

The change doesn’t need to be monumental, but it should be detectable in some way. Worst case scenario is to have a scene where the emotional “charge” simply stays the same the entire time. If nothing changes, what’s the point of including it?

Is There a Beginning, Middle, and End?

Just like your larger story, each of your scenes needs a beginning, middle, and end. 

Every scene should have an arc, just like your larger story and each of your main characters. In any given scene, something changes, stakes get higher, information is revealed — what happens will vary, but the structure should remain the same.   

When revising your script, try to identify the beginning, middle, and end of each scene. If you can’t pinpoint a particular part, dig into the mechanics of the scene. Are you ending too quickly without setting up what’s to come? Is there no change occurring during the scene? Does the scene happen seemingly out of nowhere, with no connection to the ones before and after?

Are You in Late and out Early?

Finally, use this screenwriting trick to determine if your scenes are too long.

Have you started the scene at the last possible second, and ended it as early as possible?

Cut the pleasantries and get to the good stuff — no one needs or wants to hear characters do the “Hi,” “Hi,” “How are you?” routine. And don’t let your scenes linger on too long. Once the good stuff’s over, end the scene and get out.

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Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the last thing you have to do when testing your scenes is check your spelling and grammar.

You could write a screenplay full of perfect scene after perfect scene, but if you forgot crucial punctuation or misspelled an important word, that’s all the script reader or executive will be able to remember.

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post 10 Questions That Will Help You Find Scenes That Don’t Work appeared first on ScreenCraft.

In this guide to Plot Devices, we’ll examine what they are, why you should use them, and, more importantly, when! — and we’ll explore some of the most common Plot Devices in storytelling.

What Is a Plot Device?

A Plot Device is any narrative technique that a writer uses to advance the plot of their story in some way.

There are Plot Devices that exist as actual physical objects in the world of the story, while others are more ephemeral storytelling techniques the writer uses to tell the story. Some Plot Devices that can even take the form of a character in the story!

In this way, there are two categories of Plot Devices — ones that affect the characters and ones that affect the audience. The distinction between the two is entirely trivial though because, at the end of the day, they’re all Plot Devices.

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Why Should You Use a Plot Device?

Plot devices often get a bad rap in the writing world because they can come across as contrived, arbitrary, or lazy. Those things can definitely be true if the Plot Device isn’t used effectively. 

But Plot Devices have been around as long as stories have been around, and I’d be willing to bet money that the majority of screenwriters have used a plot device or two, even if they weren’t doing so on purpose.

Like a trusty hammer or a staple flat-head screwdriver, Plot Devices are something writers can rely on as part of their toolbox. While characters and structure are the toolbox itself, Plot Devices can help a writer tell an intriguing story… if you know when to use them, of course.

When Should You Use a Plot Device?

Great question, thanks for asking!

The not-so-satisfying answer is that it depends entirely on the plot device. A story that warrants an Artifact of Doom will almost certainly be very different than one with a Love Triangle. Not all stories are the same and not all plot devices are created equal, so it should probably be a case-by-case decision.

To give a slightly more helpful answer, I like to abide by a general rule when it comes to plot devices: If your story needs one, you’ll know.

Common Plot Devices

Once you stop thinking of Plot Devices as taboo, they can actually be quite fun. Some Plot Devices have become associated with a certain writer or filmmaker, while others have spawned tropes and sub-tropes galore. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones.

Artifacts of Attraction

What’s in a name? Well, for this Plot Device… just about everything you need to know. Artifacts of Attraction are just that — objects that, for some reason, are so incredibly attractive to the characters in a movie that the desire to possess or protect them actually fuels the plot.

These items often possess magical powers or have immense financial or cultural value. After all, if an Artifact of Attraction wasn’t special, there wouldn’t be much of a reason for the characters to fight over it.

Three Amazing Examples

1. The Templar’s Treasure in National Treasure
2. The One Ring in Lord of the Rings
3. The Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Artifacts of Doom

Whereas Artifacts of Attraction often offer something positive and powerful, the same cannot be said for Artifacts of Doom. Dun, dun, duuuuuuuun…

This Plot Device can be dangerous and deadly, and has the power to corrupt, manipulate, or kill the characters we love. These objects pose a huge threat if people interact with them.

That interaction is the key to Artifacts of Doom — if people had just left well enough alone, everything would have been okay. But characters have an unfortunate tendency to get involved in things they shouldn’t, and that’s why Artifacts of Doom exist.

'The LEGO Movie'

Three Amazing Examples

1. The Infinity Gauntlet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
2. The Kragle in The LEGO Movie
3. Maleficent’s spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty

Chekhov’s Gun

“One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off,” wrote Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov.

Chekhov didn’t name this Plot Device after himself, but he did originate the storytelling principle that would become known as Chekhov’s Gun. In his play “The Seagull,” the main character carries a gun at the beginning of the play and uses that same gun to commit suicide in the final scene.

This Plot Device is all about plant and payoff — if the audience’s attention is directed to a specific element, that element should be critical in the overall story (because why include it at all if it’s not important?).

Good ‘ole Anton may have used an actual gun, but a Chekhov’s Gun doesn’t have to be a weapon at all. This Plot Device can take many, many forms…

Three Amazing Examples

1. The Hill Valley clock tower in Back to the Future
2. Harlan Thrombey’s circular display of knives in Knives Out
3. Cobb’s spinning token in Inception

Deus Ex Machina

Sometimes screenwriters back themselves so far into a corner that the only way to save their characters is an act of God. That’s the Plot Device known as Deus Ex Machina.

Literally meaning “God out of the machine” in Latin, Deus Ex Machina is when a seemingly impossible problem is solved in an unexpected and unlikely way. It’s a storytelling technique that dates back to ancient Greece and has come to be associated with lazy storytelling. Ideally, the solution to the characters’ problems doesn’t come out of nowhere.

While Deus Ex Machina doesn’t occur often in modern movies and TV shows, it can show up as coincidental, accidental, or “breaking the rules” solutions.

Three Amazing Examples

1. Dorothy accidentally defeating the Wicked Witch with water in The Wizard of Oz
2. The T-Rex that shows up and “saves the day” in Jurassic Park
3. Fawkes the Phoenix appearing in the titular chamber to save Harry and his friends in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Flashbacks

What’s that word for when a movie flashes back to something in the character’s past? Oh right! A Flashback. 

This is probably the most common Plot Device on this list — we’ve all seen a Flashback or two (or ten thousand if you watched Lost) and have a general idea of what they are. The explanation is in the definition, after all.

However common, Flashbacks can get messy if you’re not careful. It’s critical that you know the difference between the two categories of Flashback (Occasional and Structural) and not use this Plot Device as a storytelling crutch.

'(500) Days of Summer'

Five Amazing Examples

1. Structural Flashbacks in (500) Days of Summer
2. Occasional Flashbacks in Moneyball
3. Flashback B-Story in The Haunting of Hill House
4. In Media Res / “How We Got Here” Flashback in The Emperor’s New Groove
5. Various Uses in Arrival

Framing Devices

Imagine a picture frame hanging on your wall. The frame is nice, right? But the more important thing is what’s inside the frame — the picture or work of art that the frame surrounds. That’s essentially what a Framing Device is.

Framing Devices — or Frame Stories — are a way for writers to structure the tale they’re telling. It’s a Plot Device wherein a writer surrounds their primary story with a secondary one (they frame it).

Framing Devices can be tricky, but they can also be incredibly effective depending on how you use them within your narrative.

Three Amazing Examples

1. The grandfather reading the story of The Princess Bride
2. The Nested Story in The Grand Budapest Hotel
3. The documentary interview-style Frame Story of I, Tonya

Love Triangles

You know the drill. Boy loves girl. Another boy also loves the same girl. Girl… has to choose which boy she truly loves and wants to ride off into the sunset with.

This is the Love Triangle, a romantic situation involving more than two people. Yes, there can be love rectangles and pentagons and dodecahedrons… to keep things simple, if it’s a romance and there’s more than two, it’s a Love Triangle. 

Love Triangles are inherently unstable, which creates both external and internal conflict and provides a basic arc for the story structure. But the Love Triangle can’t be the only thing holding up your story — the characters have to be the foundation and the load-bearing walls, the Love Triangle is simply there to give the story some shape.

Three Amazing Examples

1. Rick Blaine, Ilsa Lund, and Victor Laszlo in Casablanca
2. Eilis, Tony, and Jim in Brooklyn
3. Christian, Satine, and the Duke of Monroth in Moulin Rouge!

MacGuffins

Alfred Hitchcock presents… the MacGuffin, a Plot Device that is often as mysterious and beguiling as the plot of the whodunit.

A MacGuffin is something — a statue, stack of cash, shrink ray, or giant sapphire necklace — that is absolutely crucial to the plot but has no real impact on the story.

Basically, MacGuffins have no intrinsic value themselves and add no meaning to the story, but they are entirely responsible for fueling the plot and the characters.

There’s some controversy around MacGuffins, but the true test is whether or not you could switch the MacGuffin with another object and have the plot remain absolutely the same. At the end of Casablanca, it wouldn’t have mattered if Ilsa and Laszlo were after the letters of transit or Rick’s fashionable fedora. All we care about is the love story.

The envelope of cash in 'Psycho'

Three Amazing Examples

1. That stolen money in Psycho
2. The titular statue in The Maltese Falcon
3. The “Rabbit’s Foot” in Mission Impossible 3

Meet Cutes

Ah, the Meet Cute. I’m just swooning thinking of this Plot Device, a staple of the romantic comedy genre.

A Meet Cute is the scene in which the two people who will form a romantic couple in the movie or TV show meet for the very first time. These scenes are usually funny, awkward, adorable, or all of the above, and they almost always occur in Act One.

This Plot Device has been used time and time again, so the crafty screenwriter must find a way to subvert expectations with their Meet Cute.

Three Amazing Examples

1. Kumail and Emily’s Meet Cute in The Big Sick
2. Lucy and Henry’s Meet Cute (and many subsequent Meet Cutes) in 50 First Dates
3. Annie and Officer Rhodes’ Meet Cute in Bridesmaids

Montages

Sometimes you need to show that a lot of time has passed. Other times you need to show a boxer going through intense training. Maybe you need to show a couple falling in or out of love, a group planning and practicing an elaborate heist, or that your character has tried on every dress in the store and still hasn’t found the right one.

In all of those cases, my friends, just use a Montage.

This handy Plot Device effectively conveys some kind of noticeable change in a story by condensing scenes into a shorter sequence or series of quick shots. Whereas other Plot Devices have rules for when and why to use them, Montages can be used without many qualifications.

Three Amazing Examples

1. The Baptism and Blood montage in The Godfather
2. The Peach Fuzz montage in Parasite
3. The love backstory in Up

Narration and Voiceover

Narration and Voiceover are two of the more complex Plot Devices on this list. To keep things simple, let’s think of it like this… if at any time during a movie or TV show, you can hear a character or narrator speaking but you can’t see them speaking those words aloud, it’s Narration or Voiceover.

Many writers will tell you to never use Narration or Voiceover but, given how many incredible movies and TV shows effectively employ this Plot Device, I think it’s safe to ignore that advice. Just make sure you understand how the Narration/Voiceover is functioning within your story before you type “V.O.”

'Fight Club'

Three Amazing Examples

1. The Voiceover Narration in Fight Club
2. The external narrator in Pushing Daisies
3. The complex use of both Voiceover and Narration in Stranger than Fiction

Plot Voucher

Sometimes there’s a certain item or object that is absolutely crucial to the resolution of the plot. It’s something the character probably picks up without much thought along their journey, only for it to come in handy later. That’s the Plot Device known as a Plot Coupon.

Plot Coupons are similar but slightly different than MacGuffins — MacGuffins drive the plot, while Plot Coupons are just objects collected along a character’s journey through the plot. Oftentimes, characters don’t even know that the Plot Coupon is valuable until they end up using it much later in the story. 

Three Amazing Examples

1. The cursed coins of Cortez in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Black Pearl
2. The Rita Hayworth poster in The Shawshank Redemption
3. The Death Star plans in Star Wars: A New Hope

Red Herrings

Smell something fishy? It’s probably a Red Herring.

This Plot Device is common to the mystery, thriller, and sci-fi/fantasy genres, but nowadays can be used in just about any kind of story to distract from a big reveal.

Red Herrings are essentially false clues — people, information, objects, events, a filmmaking element that misleads the characters or the audience and distracts them from what’s really going on.

'Frozen'

Three Amazing Examples

1. True love in Frozen
2. The stolen cash in Psycho
3. Racism in Get Out

---

Plot Devices may seem taboo in the screenwriting world, but they’re much more common than you think. 

And when used effectively, they can elevate and enhance your stories in unforgettable ways. 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post A Screenwriter's Guide to Plot Devices appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Screenwriters talk a lot about goals.

I don’t mean personal goals — although we discuss those quite often too — I’m referring to character goals. The things our characters want and need. The things that ultimately force them to take action and make decisions and go through the story we’re telling.

But sometimes the idea we have in our head isn’t shaped much like a story at all. It has a really interesting character, a great setting, or a compelling premise, but no structure, no arc.

That’s where Kurt Vonnegut comes in.  

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What Is Vonnegut’s Glass of Water Rule?

In his book Bagombo Snuff Box, author Kurt Vonnegut laid out eight rules for writing, the third of which was the following: 

"Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."

While Vonnegut may have been writing these rules specifically for short fiction, this rule, in particular, can be interpreted as something of a guiding star principle for screenwriters.

Vonnegut’s “Glass of Water” rule is simple.

Every character should want something. Great, easy enough. And that something doesn’t have to be complicated at all, it can be as simple as a glass of water.

How Vonnegut’s Glass of Water Rule Can Help You

We writers tend to overcomplicate things. In our attempt to be original and stand out from the neverending pile of other scripts, we create complicated plots, character arcs, and story structures, often at the detriment to what’s really important: a concrete goal.

Establishing a Goal

A goal creates story arc and structure; it inherently provides a trajectory for the story because the protagonist will either succeed or fail at getting the thing they want.

Let’s use the glass of water as an example for a moment.

Say we have a character named Wendy, who really desperately wants a glass of water. Getting that glass of water is her goal, the thing she’ll be working toward in the story.

What does she do? Well, it depends on the situation obviously. In the most uneventful version of the story, Wendy goes downstairs, opens the fridge, and pours herself a glass of water. There are no obstacles or conflicts and the story is over in less than 60 seconds.

But if she’s lost in a desert, broke and can’t afford to pay yet another water bill, or fighting for the last bottle of clean water on Earth in a post-apocalyptic setting, the glass of water takes on a whole new importance. It starts to give the story some shape because there are stakes.

Raising the Stakes

Even simple goals come with stakes — what will happen if the character doesn’t achieve their goal. If Wendy doesn’t get that last bottle of clean water on Earth, she might die. The true stakes are about life and death.

When your character wants something, that desire not only creates stakes but also comes with a deeper need. Wendy wants the water to quench her thirst, sure, but deep down she needs the water to survive.

Wants and Needs

Wants and needs are the bread and butter of screenwriting. Without them, our stories don’t have much shape at all.

Look at The Big Lebowski. What does The Dude want? It all goes back to that rug that really tied the room together. Maybe not quite as simple as a glass of water, but pretty close.

In fact, when you strip away all the story stuff and investigate what want is at the heart of most stories, you find a lot of incredibly simple desires. 

Lady Bird’s titular main character just wants to get out of Sacramento. In Booksmart, the two friends want to spend their last night before graduation partying. All Jack Sparrow really wants in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie is to get his ship back.

When your character wants something, that provides you, the writer, the opportunity to construct obstacles for them to overcome. It should never be as easy as walking downstairs and getting a glass of water — unless, of course, there’s a home invader lurking in the kitchen that Wendy must fight before she can get to the fridge.

Wants create stakes and obstacles and point to deeper character needs. It’s never just a glass of water.

Seemingly simple wants fuel great movies. Elle Woods just wanted to get her boyfriend back, but Legally Blonde became about so much more than that. When his crew left him behind, Mark Watney had to find a way to survive on his own in The Martian. Seems simple, until you add in the fact that he had to figure out how to survive on Mars.

So make sure your character wants something… even if it is only a glass of water.

The post How to Use Kurt Vonnegut’s 'Glass of Water' Rule in Your Writing appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Are you hearing voices?

Don’t worry, it’s probably just some good ‘ole Narration. And by the end of this article, you’ll know everything there is to know about Narration and Voiceover, I’m sure of it...

*Omniscient Narrator: She isn’t sure at all, folks. The best she can do is hope.

 So, let's dive right into this plot device -- how it works, how to use it, and how to avoid its many cliché pitfalls. But first, what's a plot device?

What Is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are storytelling tools or narrative techniques that writers can use to impact their stories.

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What Exactly Are Narration and Voiceover?

Well, it’s complicated. They’re not exactly the same, but they’re not exactly not the same either.

To help untangle this, let’s look at some dictionary definitions from our friends at Merriam-Webster.

Voiceover is…

• The voice of an unseen narrator speaking
• The voice of a visible character expressing unspoken thoughts

Narration is…

• The act or process of narrating a story
• A commentary delivered to accompany a movie, broadcast, etc.

It gets especially confusing because Narration in movies and TV is almost always Voiceover Narration (meaning it’s words voiced over another visual). But Voiceover can just be Voiceover.

To make it even more confusing, these words have vastly different meanings depending on the industry — advertising, movie marketing, podcasting, and radio producers all use these same terms to mean slightly different things.

For our purposes (movies and TV shows), think of it like this: if you can hear a character or narrator speaking, but you cannot see them saying those words aloud on the screen, it’s Narration or Voiceover.

Before we move on, I will concede that even though they’re not *technically* the same thing in function, it doesn’t matter when it comes to what’s written in the script. Regardless of whether you’re using Narration or Voiceover, you type the same two letters after your character name — V.O.

So yes, in a sense it’s all Voiceover. But writers should think about how the Narration or Voiceover is functioning within their story before they write those two little letters.

So, What’s the Difference?

Many creatives use the terms “Narration” and “Voiceover” interchangeably, and, given the definitions above, who could blame them? They seem like essentially the same thing.

I tend to think of it like this — Voiceover is more of a filmmaking device, while Narration is more of a storytelling device.

Anytime a character’s voice from one scene is put over another scene, it’s Voiceover.

In this way, Voiceover functions as a handy filmmaking technique — instead of showing two scenes back-to-back, one in which a character explains an incident and another in which we see that incident, Voiceover makes it possible to smash those two scenes together. It’s a way of utilizing the medium of filmmaking to expedite storytelling.

But Narration is a little different. Since Narration is the telling of a story, those movies and shows that feature Narration typically have someone functioning as a Narrator.

Novels can be written in first-person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient point-of-view, and likewise, film and TV Narrators can be involved directly or indirectly in a story.

To see what I mean, check out these examples of varying levels of Narrator involvement:

• First-person — Forrest tells his own life story to strangers on a park bench in Forrest Gump
• Third-person limited — Red narrates Shawshank Redemption, which is the story of his friend Andy Dufresne
• Third-person omniscient — An unknown Narrator takes the audience through the story of Tom’s heartbreak in (500) Days of Summer

All of these examples are Voiceover Narration, meaning that there is a Narrator voicing a story over other images.

Try to remember the distinction like this — True Voiceover has an on-screen counterpart that appears somewhere in the course of the story. True Narration, on the other hand, is more internal or thematic and is often woven into the narrative structure of a piece. Voiceover Narration is a bit of both.

Diegetic vs. Non-Diegetic

When you’re watching a movie, there are certain elements that exist in the world of the story and others that exist solely for you, the viewer.

Diegetic elements are those that exist within the world of the story, and Non-Diegetic elements are those that do not.

The easiest way to understand the difference is to think about music and sound. While the characters in a story can hear music playing in a restaurant (Diegetic), they cannot hear the movie’s score that has been added in post-production (Non-Diegetic).

Using the same logic, Narration and Voiceover can be either Diegetic or Non-Diegetic.  

If the Voiceover or Narration has some kind of on-screen, in-world source it can be traced back to, it’s Diegetic.

Conversely, if the Voiceover or Narration does not have an on-screen, in-world source, it’s Non-Diegetic. Non-Diegetic Voiceover or Narration is often used to convey a character’s inner thoughts or feelings to the audience.

In these cases, whether the person speaking is a character in the story or a third-party narrator, the voice is disembodied. For example, there is Narration from the main character in About Time, but we never see him speak any of this Narration on-screen, nor do any of the other characters hear it in any way. It’s completely non-diegetic.

Sometimes the distinction between diegetic or non-diegetic is left up in the air for the majority of the story. In the first season of Bloodline, John Rayburn leads the audience through most of the episodes with Non-Diegetic Narration about what happened with his brother Danny. Only in the final episode of the season is it revealed that this Narration is actually a Diegetic speech John is giving over a campaign dinner in his bid for Sheriff.

While the distinction between Diegetic and Non-Diegetic might not seem too important when taken at face value, it’s critical to think about how a narrative technique like Narration or Voiceover will function within your story.

Case Study

Now that you’re an expert in Voiceover and Narration, let’s take an in-depth example.

Voiceover Narration In Fight Club

Okay, here we go — I’m gonna break the first rule of Fight Club and talk about Fight Club.

In this movie, an unnamed main character (played by Ed Norton) serves as the Narrator. He tells the story of how he met an enigmatic soap salesman named Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt), started a fight club, and became embroiled in an anti-corporate organization causing chaos around the city.

The big twist of the movie — in case you haven’t seen it — is that Tyler Durden doesn’t exist. He and the Narrator are the same person.

And the reason that twist works so well is because of the Non-Diegetic Voiceover Narration throughout the movie.

When you watch Fight Club, you’re treated to an almost non-stop stream of Voiceover Narration from the unnamed Narrator. He goes on and on about his horrible white-collar job, his disdain for consumerist culture, his persistent insomnia, and his growing confusion about the overall objective of Project Mayhem.

Because audiences are prone to thinking that Narrators who speak directly to them are inherently trustworthy, the screenwriter is able to subvert those expectations by having Fight Club’s main character be incredibly unreliable.

'Fight Club'

Now, for the most part, we don’t see the Narrator speak this Narration aloud on-screen, which would imply that it’s Non-Diegetic Voiceover Narration — internal Narration voiced over the movie’s images that has no in-world source. The fact that none of the other characters in Fight Club hear this Narration is only further evidence.

However, there is one scene that throws everything up in the air.

Not only does the Narrator break the fourth wall in this scene and talk directly to the audience about Tyler’s professional life, but Tyler himself interrupts the Narrator’s explanation and acknowledges the presence of the external audience.

Since the Narrator and Tyler are the same person, does this narrative anomaly count as an in-world source of the Voiceover Narration (making it Diegetic)? Does the fact that we see the Narrator speak some of his typical Narration aloud mean that it isn’t true Voiceover Narration?

At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter. I am Jack’s Voiceover Narration and Fight Club is a great example of a movie that cannot be separated from its plot device.

Other Movies and Shows With Voiceover or Narration

• A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Adaptation
• Amelie
• American Beauty
• The Big Lebowski
• Casino
• Dead Like Me
• Election
• The George of the Jungle movies
• Goodfellas
• How I Met Your Mother
• Inception
• I, Tonya
• Jane the Virgin
• Life Itself
• Memento
• Molly’s Game
• Pushing Daisies
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• Stranger Than Fiction
• Taxi Driver
• Trainspotting
• Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone
• The Usual Suspects

How to Use Narration and Voiceover in Your Story

The age-old, stereotypical advice about Voiceover and Narration is to never use them. But, like with many plot devices, Narration and Voiceover can actually make good stories even greater, if you use them effectively, of course.

Before you type those two little letters, consider these questions…

How is the Narration/Voiceover Functioning Within the Story?

Does the Voiceover have an on-screen source at some point in the story? Is the Narration woven into the structure of the story itself? Is it a bit of both?

Regardless, make sure you have a clear idea of how the Narration or Voiceover will function within the story before you start writing.

Why Are You Using V.O.?

Are you using Narration to convey inner thoughts, feelings, or emotions? Is it a purely technical function to show a more interesting scene while a character tells a story? Or maybe an on-screen narrator provides expository information crucial to the story that the audience won’t get any other way.

The information provided by the Narration or Voiceover should be something the audience cannot get otherwise. If you could get the same info from something on-screen, you probably don’t need to use this plot device.  

Am I Telling Something I Should Be Showing?

Film is a medium of show, don’t tell, a rule more relevant than ever when it comes to Narration and Voiceover. In general, if the information you’re trying to convey to the audience could be shown through on-screen action or dialogue, it’s probably best to nix the Voiceover or Narration.

Am I Using the Voiceover or Narration as a Crutch?

The biggest issue with this plot device is that writers tend to use it as a crutch. Instead of finding ways to externalize their story for the audience to see on-screen, insecure writers head straight to V.O. and have their characters spell things out for the audience.

This is how Voiceover Narration gets a bad rap — if you’re using this plot device to take the easy way out, it’ll come across as lazy screenwriting. And who on earth wants that?

Does the V.O. Make the Story Better?

When it comes to Voiceover and Narration, I don’t think the relevant question is whether or not you could remove the Voiceover and still have the story make sense.

Sometimes, the Voiceover or Narration is integral to the very structure of the story. Without the Voiceover or Narration in I, Tonya, Molly’s Game, and How I Met Your Mother, the stories basically fall apart. It’s not a bad thing, the writer has just effectively used this plot device to create the story.

But there are plenty of examples in which you could take the Voiceover Narration out and the narrative still holds up. In my opinion, if your story has enough stability to stand up on its own, that’s the sign of a great story. But sometimes Voiceover Narration adds something thematic, something special, to a story that actually makes it better 

Would About Time work without Tim’s Narration? Would the ending of The Shawshank Redemption still hit home without Red’s? Yes… but they just wouldn’t be the same. And that’s the sign of great Voiceover Narration.

Whether you’re using an omniscient narrator or simply cutting to another scene while a character is talking, Voiceover and Narration are critical storytelling devices every writer must understand.

Now, as the Narrator of this article, I have to insist you stop reading this article and get back to writing immediately.

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Narration and Voiceover appeared first on ScreenCraft.

What’s a writer to do when he or she absolutely must explain something critical to a story that just so happened to take place before the story started?

Easy! Just use a Flashback.

These plot devices are all over the place in movies and TV, so chances are you know generally what they are. However, let's dig a little deeper into how they work, what different types there are, and how you can use them in your own stories. Before we do that, lemme flash back and explain what a plot device is in the first place.

What Is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are storytelling techniques writers can use to impact the plot or narrative structure of their story.

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Flashbacks

Gotta love it when the definition of the word is really just the word itself.

A Flashback is when you flash back to the past during the course of a story. See?

In all seriousness though, Flashbacks are pretty much exactly what they seem to be — a scene (or sequence of scenes) that deviates from the main story to show something that happened before the events of the primary storyline. 

It’s the moment in Ratatouille when grouchy critic Anton Ego tastes Remy’s signature dish and is suddenly back in his mother’s kitchen as a boy, eating the very same dish.

'Ratatouille'

Flashbacks are a plot device writers can use to provide important backstory, content, or thematic meaning for the primary story. They can be used only once or many times over, can be triggered by something in the story itself (like the ratatouille), or appear completely unprompted.

Using Flashbacks can be tricky though, because even though they sound simple on the page, in the reality of a movie or TV show, they can get messy.

For the most part, Flashbacks can be categorized in one of two ways:

1. Occasional
2. Structural

Occasional Flashbacks

Occasional Flashbacks are just that — occasional. They might happen once or twice throughout the course of a movie, but they’re not woven into the underlying structure of the story.

Despicable Me is a great example of a movie with Occasional Flashbacks. We jump to Gru’s childhood several times to see where his fascination with the moon comes from and contextualize his complicated relationship with his mother, but nothing more. These are quick, go-to-the-concession-stand-and-you’ll-definitely-miss-them scenes and then we return to the main storyline with the minions, fluffy unicorns, and shrink rays.

'Despicable Me'

Without the content of an Occasional Flashback, a story might make sense, but it probably won’t be as meaningful.

Writers can use Occasional Flashbacks when they need to provide crucial backstory or context in the middle of a story, or at the very beginning of a story.

Many popular movies begin with a Flashback and then jump forward in time to the main storyline.

Sweet Home Alabama does this by starting with a scene that shows young Melanie and Jake’s first kiss on the beach when they are 10 years old. It then skips ahead to “present day,” when Melanie is a grown woman living in New York City.

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of movies and TV episodes that employ this technique — they start with a short scene to establish the characters, setting, or plot in some way and then jump ahead to the main storyline (usually with the words “X Years Later” appearing on screen for a few seconds to orient the audience).

Structural Flashbacks

The opposite of an Occasional Flashback is a Structural Flashback — Flashbacks that are critical to the structure of a story. 

In these stories, the Flashbacks function in the same way as load-bearing walls. Without the Flashbacks, the whole building (or, the whole story) falls apart.

Think of how Titanic is set up: it’s framed as an 80-year-old woman telling her story to a team of researchers. But nobody walks away from Titanic talking about that part because we can’t get over the meat of the story — what happens on the boat! All the star-crossed romance and tragedy is the bulk of the story, though it’s technically a Flashback from the “present” storyline where Rose tells her story.

Titanic is a pretty straightforward example of a Structural Flashback using a Framing Device to introduce the main story. But there are a few other common ways Flashbacks can be integral to a story’s structure.

In a Flashback B-Story, the writer tells two interwoven stories, the second of which takes place in Flashback to the first.

In Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, two storylines move forward separately throughout the film — telling two parallel but connected narratives.

The “present” storyline sees Sophie grappling with her grief over her mother Donna’s death while preparing for the big reopening of the Greek hotel she inherited. And the Flashback B-Story follows a young Donna as she follows her destiny, has several love affairs along the way, and ends up putting down roots on the Greek island where she raises her daughter.

Sophie and young Donna don’t interact — their stories play out separately — but they are connected on a deeper level.

'Mamma Mia'

Another common Structural Flashback is the In Media Res Story, also known as the “How We Got Here” Flashback Story.

Movies and TV shows that use this structure start in media res, meaning that the story opens in the middle or near the end and then goes back to illustrate “how we got here.”

Billy Wilder’s classic Sunset Boulevard uses this kind of Structural Flashback by starting with the image of a body floating in a celebrity’s pool and then going back to tell Joe’s story from the beginning. And Forrest Gump features a version of the “How We Got Here” Flashback Story by having Forrest relay various parts of his story to each stranger who sits on the bench next to him. 

The key with “How We Got Here” Flashback Stories is that the story continues past the starting point, even if it’s just a little bit!

Sunset Boulevard returns to Joe’s body in the pool and then continues forward to show how faded actress Norma Desmond reacts to the police at her house. It’s not much continuation, but it’s just enough to fully resolve the story.

Why Flashbacks Work

Internal memory is the real-life equivalent of the cinematic Flashback. As we go through our daily lives, we are constantly remembering things that have happened to us in varying degrees of depth.

Sometimes, like the term infers, it’s just a flash. Other times, we ruminate on an event or scene from our past for an extended period of time.

Audiences understand Flashbacks because it’s something we do every day.

So when there are Flashbacks in a movie or television series, the audience inherently understands that the character is not traveling back in time and literally reliving their past. It’s more like a memory.

What If It's The Future, Not The Past?

Well, if you’re jumping ahead to the future, that’s a flashforward. And if you’re hopping over to an alternate reality or otherwise separate timeline, that’s a flash-sideways.

While stories that feature a flashforward or flash-sideways may seem fundamentally different than those with Flashbacks, as plot devices, the three techniques function in essentially the same way.

Case Studies

Phew! Now that you’re a Flashback fanatic, let’s analyze a few examples from well-known movies and shows.

The Occasional Flashback in Casablanca

First and foremost, Casablanca is a love story. But when Ilsa Lund arrives at Rick’s Café Americain, the audience doesn’t quite understand why Rick is so affected by her. 

Then, about halfway through the movie, after Rick has spent an evening getting drunk and feeling sorry for himself, we get an extended Flashback sequence to explain everything.

In this sequence, we see that Rick and Ilsa fell in love when they lived in Paris. When the Nazis invaded France and took over the capitol, they made plans to flee. But Ilsa never showed up at the train station, leaving Rick heartbroken and confused.

This is the only Flashback sequence in the movie and it serves a very specific purpose: to provide backstory and contextualize the main story. 

Everything makes much more sense after we see the Paris Flashback sequence; we understand Rick’s motivation and can comprehend what’s at stake for him in a completely new way. And the Flashback’s ability to establish stakes is ultimately important because of the ending.

If the Flashback hadn’t shown how important Ilsa is to Rick, we wouldn’t feel as gutted when he ultimately sacrifices his own happiness and puts her on that plane (and Casablanca probably wouldn’t have gone down in history as one of the best movies of all time, but I digress…).  

'Casablanca'

The Structural Flashbacks in (500) Days of Summer

This off-beat romantic comedy tells a nonlinear love story, features an omniscient narrator, and includes some of the best use of split-screen I’ve ever seen.

(500) Days of Summer also uses Structural Flashbacks in a really fun way by hopping around a single storyline and showing different days along the course of the main character’s romantic relationship with the titular Summer.  

The movie starts on Day 488, then goes all the way back to Day 1, jumps ahead to Day 290, goes back to Days 1 to 4, then up to Day 154, and so on and so on.

The love story is presented in bits and pieces, completely out of order, but the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Altogether the larger narrative tells the complete story of a man who rediscovers himself thanks to a girl he once loved. 

'(500) Days of Summer'

More Examples of Flashbacks

Occasional Flashbacks — Batman Begins; Toy Story 2; Moneyball; The Perks of Being A Wallflower; Sleeping With Other People; The Bourne Supremacy; Frozen; Jane the Virgin; Crazy Rich Asians

Structural Flashbacks — Big Fish; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Notebook; The Usual Suspects; Citizen Kane; It’s A Wonderful Life; The Prestige

Flashback B-Stories — Deadpool; The Godfather Part Two; Mank; Manchester By The Sea; The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

In Media Res / “How We Got Here” Flashback Stories — American Beauty; Bohemian Rhapsody; the pilot episode of Breaking Bad; The Emperor’s New Groove; Fight Club; The Greatest Showman; basically every season of How To Get Away with Murder; Iron Man; Moulin Rouge!; Thor

Various Uses of Flashbacks — Arrival; Inception; LOST; various episodes (and the sixth season) of Scandal; the 8th episode of WandaVision

When to Use Flashbacks in Your Story

Writers who want to use Flashbacks are often met with the same advice: “Never use Flashbacks.”

Given that so many movies and TV shows make good use of Flashbacks, I’d say that advice is total bunk. But it does serve as a good warning for novice writers.

Flashbacks should not be used willy-nilly as a crutch for thin storytelling.

So before you sign on the dotted line and commit to using a Flashback of some kind in your story, ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is the Flashback Occasional or Structural?
2. What exactly does the Flashback add to the story?
3. Could you convey the same backstory, context, or thematic material in a way that doesn’t require a Flashback?

If you’re using a Flashback, there has to be a damn good reason. Otherwise, audiences are going to see right through this plot device and leave the theater cursing your name. 

So, consider what the Flashback brings to the table and why it’s absolutely essential it be included in the meal.

Internal vs. External

Another important question to ask yourself is: Who can see the Flashback?

Is the Flashback for the audience’s purpose only? Or is the character experiencing the Flashback memory too?

Again, no time travel here, but sometimes Flashbacks can be experienced by the characters in a story. In Silver Linings Playbook, there are brief Flashbacks to the day that Pat discovered his wife was cheating on him.

These Flashbacks are internal, meaning they occur in the narrative — Pat himself is remembering what happened, but the audience is getting a glimpse into the past through that memory.

On the other hand, if the Flashback really only exists for the audience, it’s external. Basically, it’s part of the story for the audience but not for the character.

External Flashbacks are often shown with accompanying voiceover while a character recalls an event from their past because it’s more interesting for the audience to watch a scene than it is to watch someone telling a story. 

Think about it… what would be more engaging in Inception? Watching Cob tell Ariadne how his wife died? Or watching Mal play forebodingly with a knife and retract bit by bit from her life until she lets herself fall from a building while a distraught Cob watches?

'Inception'

Consider the Tone

Finally, before committing to a Flashback, you have to consider how it will affect the overall tone of your story.

Flashbacks are considerably easier in literature because novels can get right inside a character’s head in a way that film simply can’t. A character’s internal life — thoughts, emotions, memories, all that jazz — is fair game in books. Not so much in film.

Writing FLASHBACK in a slug line is also fairly easy, but remember, the audience won’t be reading your screenplay, they’ll be watching it on screen. So you must visualize how the Flashback will appear on-screen before you write it, whether it’s superimposed text, a change in color or aspect ratio, or some other visual or auditory sign.

Not all stories can handle the tonal shift that comes along with jumping away from the main storyline. This is partly why the standard advice surrounding Flashbacks is “Never use them” — if your story can be told chronologically without deviating from the main storyline, that’s probably the best way to go.  

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Flashbacks are a useful and often misunderstood plot device. They’re easy to get wrong and quite difficult to pull off, but if your story calls for a Flashback, it’ll undoubtedly be better for it.

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Flashbacks appeared first on ScreenCraft.

You have a list of good ideas, you understand the ins and outs of script formatting, and you’ve officially declared yourself a screenwriter.

Now, how much time should you really be devoting to writing?

Ah, the age-old question.

If You Write at All, You’re a Writer

It’s a bit like “If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound?” or “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?”

If someone says they’re a writer but they don’t spend every hour of every day putting words on the page, can they call themselves a writer at all?

Which came first: the writer or the story?

While you may not be a published writer or a professional writer or a paid writer, if you put words on the page, you are a writer. Plain and simple as that.

But that doesn’t really answer the burning question of how much time you should be spending with your butt in the chair, typing on a keyboard.

Thankfully, the answer is pretty simple.

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Do What Works for You

When it comes to writing by hand, I’m pretty slow. But on the other metaphorical hand, I can type over 80 words a minute. I know, I know — whoop-dee-doo, good for me.

My point is: some people type fast and others type slow.

Not all writers are created equal.

Some writers need months for developing and plotting and outlining before they even think about opening a new Final Draft document. Others can pitch an idea and churn out 100 pages in a week. (No joke, I once saw a tweet by someone boasting that they had written their screenplay in 24 hours. 

Work within your own capabilities, leaning on your own strengths and needs.

If the best way for you to finish a project is by doing writing sprints (looking at you, John August), great! If you need to take your time and go one page a day, that’s great too!

Make your own schedule. Take your time.  

Writing isn’t easy, and there’s no reason to make it harder on yourself by trying to adhere to unrealistic standards. Any so-called expert or popular website spouting that a certain pacing or cadence of writing is empirically right or wrong is lying.

As I said, some people can sit down and hammer out 10 pages in no time at all. Some people can write amazing screenplays without creating any kind of outline.

Do what works for you and don’t try to force yourself to be some kind of writer you’re not. Be the writer you truly are.

But If You’re Getting Paid…

Spec scripts — the TV kind and the feature kind — are inherently difficult because you’re writing them on-spec (on speculation). No one is asking for them. It’s all you, baby!

But it doesn’t get any easier when there is someone asking for a script and you have a hard deadline to hit. In fact, sometimes, that makes it even harder.

These days, the standard contract for a feature screenplay assignment is 10 to 12 weeks for a first draft. Not a lot of time… not impossible either. But there’s no set number of hours you should be writing every day to complete any given assignment.

Again, you should always go back to your screenwriting strengths.  

I personally like to break down a big project into more manageable pieces. That’s the joke, right? “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

How do you write a screenplay? One line at a time. 

If you are most creative in the early hours of the morning or absolutely have to sit down and write for two hours every single day without interruption, great. Set your alarm and make yourself a little writing closet to shut yourself in!

Or if you can only tackle that tough scene while blasting heavy metal, press play and turn up the volume! To each their own.

Set personal deadlines for smaller tasks. Create lists of things to cross off so you can see how far you’ve come. Come up with a routine that works for you.

And Remember, It’s All Writing

Don’t forget that rewriting is writing too.

Polishing and revising your script is often more important than finishing that first draft — it’s the part of the process where you take what you have and improve it. After all, if there aren’t words on the page, you can’t rearrange them to sound better.

But even if you’re not typing furiously and wearing the letters off of your keys, the story you’re writing is still alive and well in your mind. It may sound cheesy, but you take it everywhere you go.

Mull over scene ideas while you’re stuck in traffic, eavesdrop while you’re in the checkout line at Target, and scribble on napkins when you’re out to eat.

As one of my favorite on-screen writers likes to say, “It’s all writing!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post How Much Time Should You Really Be Devoting to Writing? appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Story-ception is the most obvious and comedic answer, and it’s not entirely incorrect.

A story within a story is what’s known as a Framing Device, a plot device used frequently to structure both movies and TV episodes.

Let’s dive into what framing devices are and how you can use them to make your storytelling more dynamic and entertaining. But before we do, what's a plot device, anyway?

What Is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are storytelling techniques writers can use to impact or move their stories forward, handy tools every screenwriter should have in their back pocket.

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What is an Framing Device?

Imagine a picture frame.

Doesn’t matter what color it is or what image is inside.

Got one in your mind? Good.

That picture frame is your movie. The frame itself — those four sturdy sides around the beautiful image — is how you tell the story of the image behind the glass. It’s the story around the story or, more broadly, a story within a story.

Story-ception, ladies and gents!

Alright, if you want to get technical about it instead of metaphorical, a Framing Device (or Frame Story) is a narrative technique wherein a writer surrounds their primary story with a secondary one. In other words, they frame their main story with another story.

Framing Devices lead the audience into the larger narrative, oftentimes by having characters in the outer story tell the primary story in some way.

It’s 80-year-old Rose recounting her story of star-crossed love set on a doomed ocean liner voyage in Titanic. It’s Forrest Gump with his box of chocolates talking to anyone who sits next to him on that bench. It’s how, in every single episode of How I Met Your Mother, Ted Mosby tells a piece of his backstory to his very bored-looking kids.

But a Framing Device doesn’t have to appear as literal storytelling on screen. Letters, books, documentaries or interviews, diaries, and journals can all serve as Framing Devices too.

Think about how the documentary interview footage steers the story in I, Tonya or how The Notebook is set up as a man in a retirement home reading a story to a fellow resident — both are exceptional uses of Framing Devices that lead the audience into the main storyline.

Sometimes the Framing Device — whatever it is — actually exists to plant a seed of doubt in the audiences’ mind as to whether the inner story is true.

Which story is real and which is fiction? Is it all a dream, hallucination, delusion, or tall tale? We’ll probably never know…

'Titanic'

Why Framing Devices Work

Frame Stories are a tale as old as time.

Seriously, some of the first known stories to feature Framing Devices date back thousands of years to ancient Egypt (“The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” and “The Eloquent Peasant,” if you’re wondering!) There are early examples in Homer’s epic Greek poetry, folk tales from the Islamic Golden Age, and classic British literature.

The long history of this plot device alone is proof enough of its effectiveness, but there are also myriad other reasons Framing Devices work as a structural storytelling technique.

First and foremost, Frame Stories allow the writer to anticipate the audiences’ reactions.

This technique, called procatalepsis, is most often used in speech but works just as effectively in writing. If a character is telling the primary story, their on-screen audience can pose questions or raise issues the real-life audience might have about the story.

The Princess Bride does this particularly well by having the grandson interrupt the story to ask questions about Buttercup, Humperdinck, and the other goings-on in Florin.

Overall, Framing Devices are a way to get audiences into complex, fantastical, or meta stories. Using a Framing Device is a bit like easing yourself into the water by dipping a toe in before doing a cannonball right into the deep end.

Framing Devices can help a screenwriter establish context, introduce a character, and/or set the tone. Additionally, the outer Frame Story often adds crucial thematic meaning to the larger narrative.  

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Montages

Things That Are NOT Framing Devices

Sometimes one plot device just isn’t enough. And that’s okay! It’s totally acceptable to combine a framing device with another storytelling technique.

But it’s not acceptable to believe that these other devices are exactly the same as Frame Stories.

Flashbacks vs. Framing Devices

Say it with me! Just because it’s a Flashback doesn’t mean it’s a Frame Story!

This can get confusing because the main narrative within a Framing Device is often a Flashback (for the perfect example of this, read more about The Grand Budapest Hotel below).

But not every Flashback is a Frame Story.

For example, Casablanca features an extended flashback sequence right in the middle of all the drama. The Paris flashback is a great sequence that provides much-needed context for the story… but it’s not a Framing Device. It’s just a Flashback.  

Voiceover vs. Frame Stories

Here we go again! Just because there’s Voiceover doesn’t mean it’s a Frame Story!

Now… can voiceover function as a Framing Device? Absolutely yes.

Dan Fogelman’s family drama Life Itself does this particularly well — using the narrator to move the audience through seemingly unconnected stories until the final scene when all the storylines come together and the outer Framing Device is revealed.

But Voiceover and Frame Story are not synonymous.

Think about Richard Curtis’ romantic comedy About Time, in which voiceover by the main character, Tim, provides context and commentary throughout the entire film. But Tim’s voiceover is not set up as a Framing Device. It’s just a really great Voiceover.

Case Studies

Now that you understand the concept of Framing Devices, let’s take a look at a few examples.

The Framing Device in The Princess Bride

“When I was your age, television was called books! And this is a special book.”

Is there anything better than a grandparent reading you a story on a day when you’re stuck in bed with a nasty cold?

Well, to the kid in The Princess Bride, yes, his baseball video game is much better. But only until he realizes how incredible the story his grandfather’s reading really is.

The Princess Bride is a classic example of a Framing Device. The main narrative of Buttercup, Westley, and all their friends and foes unfolds through the Framing Device of a grandfather reading from a beloved book.

It’s a straightforward and effective way to ease the audience into the fantastical, heightened storybook world of Florin and allows the grandson to sporadically interrupt the narrative to question the plot on behalf of the real-life audience.

There’s even a slight twist at the end of the film that highlights another function of Framing Devices.

After the grandfather has finished the story, the grandson asks if he’ll return the next day to read the book again. The grandfather obliges, saying Westley’s catchphrase “As you wish” with a knowing smile.

These final moments of the movie use the Framing Device to make the audience wonder if the story is real and the grandfather is an older Westley. The best part? The Princess Bride doesn’t answer that question, so it’s up to the audience to decide.

'The Princess Bride'

The Framing Device in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Writer/director Wes Anderson is particularly fond of Frame Stories, and The Grand Budapest Hotel is a perfect example of a complicated use of this plot device.

The main narrative of Anderson’s winding tale of two employees at the glorious Grand Budapest is framed by not one, not two, but three — three! — Frame Stories.

When you have this kind of Frame Story within a Frame Story within a Frame Story, it’s what’s known as a Nested Story. In these cases, the stories are “nested” one on top of another on top of another, which sounds more complicated than it actually is.

The movie begins with a young woman visiting the grave of a renowned writer known simply as “The Author.” In her hands, she carries his book “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”

From there, we go into the story of that book to what I can only assume is meant to be the Introduction or Prologue chapter by the Author himself. Here, we see the Author speak directly to a camera to set up the story he’s about to tell.  

That brings us to a third Frame Story, which centers on the Author as a young man, visiting the Grand Budapest many years after its prime. There, he meets an elderly man named Zero Moustafa, who recounts the film’s main narrative, which itself centers on his own adventures as a young man.

Now that’s story-ception at its finest.

Interestingly, Anderson and his director of photography Robert Yeoman decided to shoot the movie in a handful of various aspect ratios, a technique that helps the audience visually identify which Frame Story they’re in at any given moment.  

The Grand Budapest Hotel is also a great example of a Framing Device that adds depth to the overall narrative. The elderly Zero Moustafa comments on how the main narrative ends, giving the overall story some much necessary thematic resonance.

'The Grand Budapest Hotel'

Other Examples of Framing Devices

• The reporter trying to find the true meaning of “Rosebud” in Citizen Kane
• Alan Turing tells his own story to the police in The Imitation Game
• Borden and Angier’s diaries function as a Framing Device within a Framing Device in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige
• The movie adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera features a Frame Story that centers on an elderly Raoul
• Adult Gordy reacts to tragic news and remembers his childhood in Stand by Me
• The main narrative of The Usual Suspects is presented as courtroom testimony
• The sole surviving Spartan recounting the story of the final battle in 300
• Usnavi telling the story of a few days In the Heights (this Framing Device is not part of the stage production though!)
• Dan Fogelman’s Life Itself is presented as a series of nested stories all part of a larger Frame Story
• One could argue that the entire sixth season of LOST utilizes a Framing Device in the flash-sideways storyline

How to Use a Framing Device in Your Story

Frame Stories have been used so often that many viewers see them as lazy storytelling. Like many Plot Devices, a Framing Device should only be used if your story warrants one.

See, if you add a Framing Device to your script without good reason, the audience will undoubtedly be left wondering why it was there in the first place.

Framing Devices are too often set up in the beginning and then subsequently forgotten about by the time the credits roll. And why go to the trouble of setting up the device if you’re not going to use it?

With little exception, for a Framing Device or Frame Story to be warranted, it must have a larger narrative purpose or be inextricably tied to the story’s themes.

The documentary interview Framing Device in I, Tonya is warranted because it contributes to the overall theme of conflicting viewpoints. Could the story have been told without the documentary-style interviews? Yes, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as good of a movie.

'I, Tonya'

Another reason to use a Framing Device is to call attention to the story itself.

Framing Devices can highlight a main character’s unreliability or make the audience question whether the story is fact or fiction, dream or reality.

Check out this list of questions before you commit to a Framing Device…

1. Is the Framing Device critical to the story you’re telling? (AKA: Does it have a larger narrative purpose?)
2. Is the world of your story fantastical, magical, or trippy enough to require easing the audience in?
3. Does the Frame Story highlight the artificiality of storytelling or make the audience question the story’s validity?

If your answer to any of the above questions is “yes,” congratulations, you’re the proud new parent of a Frame Story!

Framing Devices are an interesting plot device screenwriters can use to affect the structural foundation of their story.

But before you hang that frame on the wall, make sure to question whether it needs to be there in the first place.

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Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Framing Devices appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Unlike many plot devices, montages can be seen everywhere in film and television. Name a movie or TV show and it probably features a montage.

It’s also a useful tool every screenwriter should have in their writing arsenal. Audiences understand and love them, they help compress narrative and save valuable page space, can be used in infinite ways in any genre imaginable, and — arguably the best part — if you’re using them for the right reasons, they’re pretty damn effective.

So, let’s take a look at what montages are and how they're used specifically as a plot device. But first, what's a plot device?

What Is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are handy techniques that writers can use to propel or impact a story’s plot in some way. 

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What Is a Montage?

If you really want to get technical about it, a montage is actually a film editing technique. But it’s just as useful for screenwriters. 

A montage is a series of shots that effectively shows the passage of time, shortening or lengthening of physical distance, condensing of information, or some other notable change in narrative.  

In editing, a montage is a series of shots or short, interconnected scenes. Unfortunately, there’s no hard-and-fast rule for how to format a montage, but the most common formatting techniques involve writing a series of short scenes in different locations or listing the various things that occur in a single location. 

When it comes to montages, if you’re writing one, you’ll know. And when you see one, whether on the page or on the screen, you’ll know. 

Types of Montages

As the video above illustrates, not all montages are created equally. Yes, at their core, they serve the same function — to condense. But what they condense can be drastically different. 

In this way, there are countless types of montages. 

Some montages show the passage of time, while others indicate a variety or growing number of locations. Still others indicate the progression of a relationship, illustrate the universality of an experience or convey a large amount of important information. 

There are montages for good times and sad times, failures and successes. There are falling-in-love montages, costume-test montages, boredom montages, planning montages and training montages, death montages and sex montages, terrible interview montages, and writer’s block montages. 

Think of a change, any change, that could occur in a story and there’s probably a montage of it in a movie somewhere. 

I doubt you’ll find an exhaustive list of every type of montage in existence (although the list on TVTropes.com is certainly helpful). Just know that there is incredible freedom in what a montage can convey. 

Why Montages Works

Audiences know and understand what montages do because we see them so often. 

When we watch something, we go in with the understanding that it has been edited and implicitly understand that there will be invisible cuts between shots and scenes. Indeterminate amounts of time often go by in those minuscule cuts, which is something we accept as an element of filmmaking. 

So unless you’re writing a real-time narrative, you’ll probably find yourself needing to simplify something in your story. That’s where the montage comes in. 

Montages are handy and effective ways writers can condense information, convey some kind of change or development in the story, or give the audience crucial information without sacrificing valuable page space. 

There’s nothing wrong with a good montage sequence, so don’t be afraid to use them. 

And remember, for this plot device it’s less about the content and more about the effect the technique has on the audience’s understanding of the narrative.

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Artifacts of Attraction

Case Studies

Now that you know montages are a thing of infinite possibilities, let’s explore some concrete examples. 

The Baptism and Blood Montage in The Godfather

Say what you want about The Godfather, you can’t deny the effectiveness of the third act’s “Baptism and Blood” montage. 

Throughout the (insanely long) movie, we’ve watched Michael Corleone slowly ascend to the top of his Italian American mafia family and the montage near the end of the film cements his character arc, showing how he’s changed from reluctant son to ruthless leader.

This montage is all about contrast — between who Michael was and who he is, between his calm demeanor in the church and the chaos he has ordered to take place on the streets, and between the idyllic, highly religious symbolism and the merciless, brutal murders of the other mafia members.

The Peach Fuzz Montage in Parasite

Bong Joon Ho’s Best Picture has a lot going on, which makes it the perfect film for a montage. And boy does it have a good one.

Parasite’s “Peach Fuzz” montage happens near the end of Act One after three of the four Kim family members have succeeded in infiltrating the wealthy Park family. All that’s left to do is get rid of the current housekeeper. 

As the video below explains, the montage takes place over about five minutes and consists of 60 shots. In this sequence, Bong Joon Ho effectively establishes why the current housekeeper is so difficult to remove, as well as shows the Kim family create and practice their plan to manipulate Mrs. Park into firing the housekeeper for their own benefit.  

Not only does this montage compress time, narrative, and information, it also skillfully references itself (in specific shots and careful pacing) and foreshadows some of the crazy events to come.

Montages in Animated Movies

Maybe part of the reason we so easily understand and accept montage sequences is that we see them starting at a very young age. 

Animated stories are full of montages — especially Disney animated musicals, in which the montage is often combined with a song. 

Consider these variations of the musical montage in animated movies: 

• “Hakuna Matata” and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight?” in The Lion King
• “A Whole New World” in Aladdin
• “When Will My Life Begin?” in Tangled
• “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” in Mulan
• “Love Is An Open Door” in Frozen
• “Strangers Like Me” in Tarzan
• “Where You Are” in Moana
• “Zero to Hero” in Hercules
• “Something There” in Beauty and the Beast
• “Colors of the Wind” in Pocahontas

Montages in animated movies often focus on drastic visual change (to show the progression of time), repetition (to drive a point home for young viewers), or visual variation (for expository purposes). 

How to Use a Montage in Your Story

Unlike other plot devices, montages can be used without many qualifications. If you need to convey something quickly, use a montage. 

That said, you shouldn’t write a montage just because. These sequences are highly effective at illustrating certain things, but cannot replace dramatic, well-written scenes. 

Before putting a montage on the page, it’s probably best to question why you’re writing the sequence as a montage in the first place. If the montage exists for one of the reasons below, keep on keeping on. But if it’s to get out of writing a particularly difficult scene, I think you know what must be done.

Montages work particularly well if you need to:

• Jump forward in the narrative without skipping the content completely 
• Show the progression of time 
• Illustrate a change in physical location, or highlight a variety of locations
• Display the development or deterioration of a character, relationship, or setting
• Compare and contrast or juxtapose the experiences of two characters
• Weave several storylines together
• Convey a lot of information quickly (in the vein of a highlights reel) 
• Show the repetition of an important element in the story

Many montages do several of the things on this list at once. Again, there aren’t written-in-stone rules for what a montage can or can’t do. 

The Parasite montage effectively conveys narrative progression, jumps forward through time relatively quickly, and weaves a handful of characters’ actions together to create a whole. In Mulan, the montage during “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” shows the progression of time, the repetition of training, and drastic character development in just a single song. 

When weighing the pros and cons of writing a montage, consider what you’re trying to convey in the first place and how you can manipulate the known montage form to subvert audience expectations. And remember, every scene should exist on the page for a reason — even in a montage.  

Montages can also be helpful in the revision process. If, when revising, you realize that many of your scenes feel repetitive, you have two choices. One, condense them into a single scene, or two, reformat them as a montage. 

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Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Montages appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Maybe it’s a particular pen that fits just right in your hand, the last DVD for a carefully curated collection, or a script signed by a beloved writer/director.

If we were characters in a screenplay, any of these things could serve as an Artifact of Attraction, a plot device that creates obsession so strong it actually affects the plot of the story. 

Let’s take a look at what makes an artifact of attraction such a powerful storytelling tool, but before we do, what's a plot device, anyway?

What Is a Plot Device?

Every so often a writer just needs something to move the plot of their story forward. Plot devices are handy storytelling techniques that do just that. 

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What is an Artifact of Attraction?

The definition of Artifacts of Attraction is in the name itself. These objects are attractive to characters, so much so that the desire to possess or protect them fuels the plot. 

Whether magical or mundane, these objects have an undeniable allure. Characters are fascinated by, obsessed with, or passionate about Artifacts of Attraction to the extreme. 

Consider Davy Jones’ heart in the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie or the Facebook IP in The Social Network, both of which are Artifacts of Attraction. One is magical, one mundane to the extent that it’s an idea, not an object. 

The key element in determining whether an object is an Artifact of Attraction or not is desirability. 

While any old object can be desirable to a single person for personal reasons, Artifacts of Attraction are valued and sought after by many. This is how the Artifact of Attraction affects the plot. 

Before we move on, it’s important to note that there is some crossover in plot devices here. If the object will hurt a character mentally or physically, it can serve double duty as an Artifact of Attraction and an Artifact of Doom. 

Davy Jones' heart | Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Why Artifacts of Attraction Work

While a story centered around an object incredibly valuable to one person could be deeply profound, that object doesn’t function as an Artifact of Attraction in relation to the plot. 

Like I said before, an Artifact of Attraction only works if more than one person wants it. 

Sometimes that’s as simple as having two people fight over it, other times many different groups and individuals are involved in the quest. 

Artifacts of Attraction produce conflict between characters because of their monetary, magical, or inherent value. 

Characters will race to be the first to obtain or destroy these objects, battle each other to control these objects, or start wars to stop the bad guy from using these objects. 

The effort to do those things and the conflict that comes with that struggle is why this plot device works so well. 

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Artifacts of Doom

Case Studies

Now that you’re obsessed with Artifacts of Attraction, let’s explore a few examples. 

The Artifact of Attraction In National Treasure

On a dark, stormy night, a grandfather tells a young boy about a secret passed down through their family over many generations. 

“What was the secret?” the boy asks in reverence. 

“A treasure,” the grandfather replies. “A treasure beyond all imagining.”

This is when Ben Gates’ quest for the Templar’s Treasure began. His obsession with this elusive Artifact of Attraction is what fuels the adventure at the heart of National Treasure. 

The search for the Templar’s Treasure creates the entire plot of the film, and Ben’s unrelenting fascination with it actually pulls other characters into the action — his sidekick, love interest, enemy, and even the director of the FBI. 

As an Artifact of Attraction, the Templar’s Treasure works because it functions on various levels of value — it is of great personal value to the protagonist, immense financial value to the antagonist, and incredible historical value to the world. 

It doesn’t hurt that it’s been missing for centuries, a mystery that gets every audience member invested since we don’t know what exactly the treasure is and desperately want to find out. 

The Artifact of Attraction In The Lord of the Rings

If you know only one thing from Lord of the Rings, it’s Gollum’s oft-repeated phrase: “My precious.” 

His precious is, of course, the One Ring, the Artifact of Attraction at the center of the fantasy series. 

As Artifacts of Attraction go, the One Ring is of the magical variety. (It also functions as an Artifact of Doom, but you can read about that later)

Sauron helped create the Rings of Power, but then secretly forged the all-powerful One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. He kept the ring for himself, but because he infused the ring with his own power, he ultimately became dependent on having it in his possession. 

Long story short, the One Ring ended up with Bilbo Baggins and the adventure began. 

The One Ring is also special in that its evil magical power allows it to manipulate and corrupt anyone who encounters it, so much so that they turn into crazy cave-dwellers named Gollum. 

The quest to find or destroy the One Ring fuels the major characters and sustains not just one movie, but an entire series. 

Other Examples of Artifacts of Attraction

• The Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• The Elder Wand / Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter
• Facebook Intellectual Property in The Social Network
• Davy Jones’ heart in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
• The titular lost city in Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• The Sword of Kahless in Star Trek

Should You Use an Artifact of Attraction in Your Story?

All things considered, Artifacts of Attraction are pretty rare. This plot device won’t work in every story and should be used with care. 

If you’re going to include an Artifact of Attraction, make sure to adhere to the following elements: 

• The object should be so valuable it inspires obsessive behavior 
• The object must be desirable by multiple characters
• The object causes something to happen within the plot of the story (usually a quest or race) 

Keep in mind that Artifacts of Attraction are integral to the stories they inhabit. If you can remove the object with no change to the overall story, it’s not an Artifact of Attraction.

Finally, if possible, try to add an extra layer of value like in National Treasure. If you can create obsession for the audience as well, you know your Artifact of Attraction is firing on all cylinders. 

Artifacts of Attraction are shiny but tricky. While this plot device can be very attractive for screenwriters, it should only be used if it truly helps move the story.

Like with the comparable Artifact of Doom, if your story has one or needs an Artifact of Attraction, you’ll know.

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Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post ​​Everything You Need to Know About Artifacts of Attraction appeared first on ScreenCraft.

This week’s plot device manipulates, corrupts, terrorizes, and sometimes kills the characters we love dearly. It has no agency of its own but is capable of bringing down entire civilizations. 

I'm talking, of course, about the Artifact of Doom.

Dun, dun, duuuuuuun… 

Let’s take a look at these dastardly plot device dynamics. But first...

What Is a Plot Device, anyway?

Plot devices are tried-and-true narrative techniques that writers can use to affect the plot of their story. In the case of Artifacts of Doom, MacGuffins, and Artifacts of Attraction, they are physical objects that fuel the plot. 

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Love Triangles (in Movies & TV)

Enter Now  |  Final Deadline in 22 days

What is an Artifact of Doom?

Pretty much exactly what it sounds like — an object that somehow causes terrible disaster or destruction.

Yes, it’s just an object, and yes, it’s often relatively small in size, but Artifacts of Doom should not be underestimated just because they’re shiny (just ask Gollum). 

Artifacts of Doom are evil, if not inherently, then because of their immense potential power if used for evil. These plot devices can make someone the most powerful wizard in the world, cause eternal sleep, erase half the population of the universe, or create an army of the undead. 

These plot devices are powerful, inanimate objects. They pose a huge threat, but if and only if people interact with them. 

But an object — no matter how evil — has no agency of its own. So the power of an Artifact of Doom lies in what it could be used for, how it manipulates or affects the person who uses it, or what might happen if it’s interacted with. 

One of the hallmarks of an Artifact of Doom is that if the character had just left it alone and minded his or her own business, nothing bad would’ve happened. That’s where the story comes from.

'Avengers: Infinity War'

Hold on, Isn't That a MacGuffin?

They may seem like MacGuffins, but there’s a key difference. 

MacGuffins could be swapped out for something else with no impact on the narrative and can appear as objects, characters, information, or events. Artifacts of Doom are just that — artifacts — and what they are is crucial to the story itself (you definitely couldn’t swap the Infinity Gauntlet for a regular old glove and have Endgame remain unchanged).

Not only that, but Artifacts of Doom pose an ever-present threat to the characters. While MacGuffins may lead characters into dangerous situations, Artifacts of Doom are dangerous in and of themselves. 

How Artifacts of Doom Function Within Stories

Artifacts of Doom are powerful objects, usually powerful magical objects. Therefore, they most often show up in fantasy or sci-fi stories.  

But the impact these dangerous objects have on the plot is the same regardless of genre. 

No matter what it is, the Artifact of Doom creates the plot of the story. 

The existence of that spinning wheel is the reason Sleeping Beauty’s parents sent her to live with a trio of fairies in the woods. Thanos’ plan to use the Infinity Stones to wipe out half of all life in the universe forces the Avengers to try and stop him. 

The Artifact of Doom isn’t enough to sustain a story without interesting characters, and it isn’t why a viewer will connect with a story — it’s just an object, after all — but it does lead directly to the plot.  

In stories that use this plot device, the character using an Artifact of Doom must be stopped or the Artifact of Doom itself must be destroyed. This must be done at all costs, or else whatever Doom the Artifact can cause will come to fruition. 

'Sleeping Beauty'

Case Studies

Now that you know what this plot device is, let’s examine a few movies that center around an Artifact of Doom.

The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings

This Artifact of Doom is alluded to right in the title. 

After helping with the creation of the Rings of Power, the Dark Lord Sauron of Middle-earth secretly forged the all-powerful One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. 

While the other rings were inherently powerful, Sauron had to infuse the One Ring with his own power, which created a paradox. With the Ring, Sauron was much more powerful than before, but because he used his own power to create it, he became dependent on having it.

The One Ring grants power to anyone who wields it and is nearly indestructible, which would make it an Artifact of Attraction all on its own… but that’s not all! 

Because the One Ring contains Sauron’s evil power, it will slowly corrupt anyone who encounters it. (Just look at poor Sméagol.)  

The mere existence of the One Ring fuels the plot of the entire series, including the prequel The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins finds the One Ring in The Hobbit and passes it on to his cousin Frodo, causing the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. 

'The Lord of the Rings'

The Kragle in The LEGO Movie

Imagine the world is made of LEGOs. But not just buildings and whatnot… you’re made of LEGOs too. What could be the worst possible thing to happen if you were made of LEGOs? 

Krazy Glue, that’s what. 

And that’s basically the premise of The LEGO Movie. 

The evil Lord Business plans to use the Kragle (known to us humans as Krazy Glue) to permanently freeze everything in the LEGO world, so an everyLEGOman named Emmet leads a resistance movement to stop him. 

The Kragle is the Artifact of Doom, Emmet stumbles upon the Piece de Resistance (which looks a lot like the glue bottle’s cap), teams up with some wacky sidekicks, and the journey is underway. 

'The LEGO Movie'

Other Examples of Artifacts of Doom

• The Infinity Gauntlet (AKA: all six of the Infinity Stones used together) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
• The Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter
• Maleficent’s spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty
• The videotape in The Ring
• The titular cauldron in The Black Cauldron
• The Lament Configuration in the Hellraiser films
• The board game in Jumanji
• Pick an episode, any episode, of Warehouse 13, a TV series based entirely on various Artifacts of Doom

How to Use an Artifact of Doom in Your Story

To be frank, Artifacts of Doom don’t work in most stories. 

Since they’re woven into the narrative itself (there wouldn’t be a story without the existence of whatever the Artifact of Doom is), you can’t just throw an Artifact of Doom into your story and assume it will work. 

Sometimes plot devices can be used in any story, but that’s just not the case with these. It might sound a little cheesy but listen to your story. If it needs an Artifact of Doom, it’ll let you know. 

If you are using an Artifact of Doom, just remember that they’re all about stakes — establishing, raising, and maintaining the stakes of a story. 

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'

Since the object causes a terrible catastrophe of some kind, these stories function on the highest level in terms of stakes. Audiences will be invested because, most of the time, the stakes are literally life or death for the main character. 

Preventing whatever Doom the Artifact will bring often comes at great personal risk or loss for the main character. Throughout the journey to destroy the Artifact of Doom, the character typically wrestles with morality or the temptation of power. 

Artifacts of Doom can be dangerous, so use them at your own risk.

Like the characters in these stories… it’s usually best if you leave Artifacts of Doom alone and pretend like they don’t exist. If your story has one or needs one, you’ll know. 

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Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here! 

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Artifacts of Doom appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Though they’ve been prevalent in storytelling of all kinds for thousands of years, love triangles in movies and TV shows are often used as a crutch in thin, weak stories. But when constructed well, a love triangle can enhance profound storytelling.

Let’s jump in and examine the dynamics of this three-sided romantic plot device. But first...what's a plot device?

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Red Herrings

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What Is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are storytelling mechanisms writers can utilize to impact the plot of their story.  

Understanding Love Triangles

Imagine that a typical romantic relationship is a perfect line between two people, with love going back and forth on that single line.  

Using that logic, the term “love triangle” refers to a romantic situation involving more than two people. 

There are many variations of the love triangle setup, with the most common being when Person A and Person B both love Person C, who must choose between the two. 

Though the triangular shape might imply that the three people are in a polyamorous relationship (or “throuple”), the triangle typically involves two people who are competing for the third person’s romantic attention or one person in love with two different people.  

One of the most well-known examples of this is in the 2004 movie, The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel of the same name. 

Teenage Allie and Noah fall madly in love during one summer in Seabrook, South Carolina, but are torn apart by her disapproving parents and World War II. A few years later, Allie is engaged to another man, Lon, when she comes across a newspaper article about Noah. She returns to Seabrook, where she is forced to confront her lingering feelings for Noah and make a difficult choice. 

This difficult choice between two potential romantic partners is the crux of all love triangle stories. 

But What If There Are More than Three Sides?

What if there’s a fourth person involved? Or a fifth? 

Though the “triangle” part implies three people, I would argue that any kind of complicated romantic relationship with three or more people can still be considered a “love triangle.”

Technically, The Notebook featured a fourth person — while Allie was off getting engaged and planning her wedding to Lon, Noah was spending nights with a woman named Martha. 

And many TV shows feature intersecting or morphing love triangles — consider all of the variations in Jane the Virgin and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, or the myriad of triangles and quadrangles created in the first several seasons of The Office with Jim and Pam (and Roy and Katy and Karen). 

Feel free to call it a “love square,” “love rectangle,” “love pentagon,” or the undefined “love shape” if you really want to be technical about it. 

But in my estimation, it’s much easier to generalize and call any kind of romantic entanglement with more than two people a “love triangle.” The semantics don’t really matter if the plot device has the same impact on a story.  

History of Love Triangles

Love triangles have been around forever. There were probably dramatic love triangles playing out among cavemen, whose star-crossed stories were lost to time or crumbling cave walls. 

But in all seriousness, there are prominent examples of love triangles throughout history and in all forms of storytelling. Love triangles show up in the Bible (Jacob, Leah, and Rachel), Greek mythology (Ariadne, Theseus, and Dionysus), ancient history (Cleopatra, Mark Antony, and Julius Caesar), and medieval legends (Tristan and Iseult).

William Shakespeare popularized love triangles in the 1600s with Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet (as well as some overlapping, complicated “love shapes” in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and classic authors like Alexandre Dumas, Jane Austen, and Emily Brontë added to that popularity in the 1800s.

Love triangles have been on screen since the invention of film and television, and to date, three of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time adjusted for inflation feature passionate love triangles — Gone with the Wind, Titanic, and Doctor Zhivago.

Why Love Triangles Work

Though the triangle is, in reality, a perfectly stable shape, in storytelling, a love triangle is inherently unstable.

One person in the triangle gets jealous or confesses their feelings for another and throws off the triangle’s balance, or one person in the triangle is dead, or two of the triangle’s points are siblings — the love triangle’s instability creates great fodder for conflict, fueling the plot of countless movies and episodes of television.

That’s exactly what a love triangle is supposed to do as a plot device — fuel the plot of the story. 

Audiences tend to choose sides when it comes to love triangles, and if the fandom has created “teams” to be on, it means they’re invested in the story and connected with the characters.

At their essence, love triangles work because they create conflict (both internal and external), generate opportunities for dramatic or comedic situations, and provide a basic story arc to follow since there’s a romantic choice that must be made. 

But love triangles can’t be the only crutch holding up your story. There needs to be something else, something deeper for the love triangle to be most effective, whether that’s the protagonist’s inner personal turmoil or identity crisis, a layered, profound theme, or life or death stakes.

'The Office'

Case Studies

Now that you know how love triangles should function, let’s dive into a few examples. 

The Love Triangle in Casablanca

The classic 1942 romantic drama Casablanca features a well-known love triangle between the three lead characters — the cynical café owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), the beautiful Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), and famed resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). 

Triangularly speaking, Rick is in love with Ilsa, who reciprocates that love but is married to and loves Victor. 

What’s interesting about the love triangle in Casablanca is that the character with two suitors is not the protagonist. Casablanca follows Rick, not Ilsa. It’s his romantic decision, not hers. and the romantic decision at the story’s core is not Ilsa’s to make. 

In the end, it’s not Ilsa choosing between Rick or Victor, it’s Rick deciding if he’s going to be with Ilsa or let her go. 

'Casablanca'

The Love Triangle in Sweet Home Alabama

The 2002 rom-com Sweet Home Alabama also features an interesting love triangle between Melanie, an up-and-coming New York fashion designer, her hot-shot political fiancé Andrew, and her childhood flame Jake. 

What each of these men symbolizes for Melanie is what makes the love triangle of Sweet Home Alabama so compelling. 

Andrew represents her new life in the big city, while Jake represents her small-town roots. Over the course of the movie, the audience is shown that both men are good choices for Melanie, and her final decision ultimately comes down to much more than love: it’s about which version of herself she really wants to be. 

'Sweet Home Alabama'

Other Examples of Love Triangles

In Film — Brooklyn, The Graduate, Fight Club, The Princess Bride, Love, Actually, Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby, Some Like It Hot, Shakespeare in Love, Beauty and the Beast, Bridget Jones’ Diary; Sleeping with Other People, The Hunger Games; This Means War; It’s Complicated, Twilight, Dear John, How Do You Know, The Kings of Summer, Les Misérables, Mean Girls, Shrek

On TV — Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, Never Have I Ever, Gilmore Girls, Friends, Downton Abbey, Glee, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Parks and Recreation

How to Use a Love Triangle in Your Story

You may think audiences are tired of love triangles, but there’s a reason writers continue to use them: they work. The key is in making sure that the story isn’t overwhelmed by the love triangle. 

The Love Triangle Isn’t the Point

The romantic entanglement of the love triangle can’t be the only thing holding up your story (ahem — Twilight) and it can’t be overwhelmed by more important storylines (looking at you Hunger Games). 

While love triangles can provide conflict and create tension that can add to the plot, there must be something deeper and more meaningful at the heart of the story for audiences to truly care. 

More to the Main Character

Just like there must be more to the story, there must be more to the main character. The protagonist stuck in a love triangle cannot be defined by their romantic decision. That may have worked back in the day, but not anymore. Audiences expect more of their characters nowadays. 

Protagonists must have personal wants and needs aside from their suitors, non-romantic goals that motivate them, and something truly at stake in the romantic decision (not just one girl or the other).

Two Suitors, Both Alike in Dignity

Speaking of one suitor or the other, love triangles are most effective when the two suitors are both genuinely good options for the main character. 

To put it simply, if one suitor sucks and the choice between the two is painfully obvious, the love triangle isn’t working and the audience will see right through it. 

Love stories between two people can be plenty dramatic on their own, so make sure that if you have a love triangle, both suitors are equally great choices for the protagonist. 

Like in Brooklyn and Sweet Home Alabama, ideally, each suitor will end up representing something about the main character’s wants and needs that he or she must choose between. Neither choice is wrong; they’re just different. 

Turn the Triangle Upside Down

If a love triangle shows up, audiences automatically know what to expect of the story. As a writer, it’s important to be aware of those expectations so you can play into or subvert them. 

Instead of the standard love triangle set-up (Person A and Person B both love Person C, who must choose between the two), try flipping the love triangle on its point. 

Maybe it’s a true triangle and Person A loves Person B, who loves Person C, who loves Person A. Maybe it’s some other amorphous shape and there are more than three people involved. Maybe the setup is traditional, but the conflicts, tensions, or resolutions it creates are unexpected. 

Just make sure that it always comes back to the larger story at hand, not simply the romantic shape. 

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Love triangles are a tried-and-true way to infuse a story with conflict and tension, but over the years have become cliched and overused. Today’s screenwriters will do best when they try new variations of the typical love triangle. After all, when love is involved, anything’s possible.

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Love Triangles (in Movies & TV) appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Ever gotten to the big reveal of a movie and wondered to yourself, “How did we get here? How on Earth did I miss that huge clue?” Well… it’s probably because the writer used a tried-and-true plot device called a Red Herring.

Let's dig into this very popular plot device, exploring what it is, where it came from, and how you can use it to write better screenplays. But first...what's a plot device?

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About MacGuffins

What is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are storytelling techniques writers can use to move the plot of a story forward in some way. 

So, What Exactly is a Red Herring?

Not a fish, that’s for sure! There’s actually no such species, so the name of this plot device is itself a bit of a Red Herring. 

In storytelling, a Red Herring is a false clue. It’s anything that misleads or distracts from the larger question or mystery at hand. 

The mystery, thriller, and horror genres have always been rife with Red Herrings, but nowadays you could work one into any kind of story to distract from a big reveal or revelation. In fact, Red Herrings can be used within a story to mislead the characters or by the writers themselves to mislead the audience. 

A Red Herring can be just about anything — a character, a piece of information, a physical object, an event, or even an element of the filmmaking. And it doesn’t matter if the use of the Red Herring is intentional or unintentional; if it misleads, purposefully or not, it’s a red herring.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

Why Red Herrings Work

Red Herrings are a bit like magic tricks — they work best when you don’t realize what’s really going on. 

Magic tricks are all about misdirection. While the magician is prompting you to look at something shiny in his left hand, he’s carefully hiding the multi-colored scarf up the sleeve of his right. Red Herrings function on the same level, distracting characters from the larger questions or prevent audiences from predicting the outcome of the story. If you don’t notice them until it’s too late, that means they’re working well. 

Much like Chekhov’s Gun, Red Herrings hinge on expectations. Unlike Chekhov’s Gun though, Red Herrings don’t require a payoff. So, if the Red Herring is a gun and it distracts you from the actual weapon (which is a knife), it never has to be fired for the plot device to be used effectively. 

The History of Red Herrings

False leads started to become known as “Red Herrings” in the early 1800s when an English journalist named William Cobbett used the term to compare the media’s premature reporting of Napoleon’s defeat to the practice of using smelly fish to distract hound dogs from chasing rabbits. 

But while Cobbett gets credit for the origin of the term itself, authors and storytellers have been using false leads to surprise audiences since they started telling stories in the first place. Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used Red Herrings in their mystery stories, and the technique, like most, made the jump to film in the 20th century. 

Red Herrings are still alive and well (albeit sometimes smelly) at the movies, although the Golden Age of Television saw a new application of this plot device — serialized television shows are full of red herrings used to stretch and enhance plotlines or coax viewers into watching another episode. 

Case Studies

Now that you understand how Red Herrings should function within a story, let’s take a look at how they’re used in a few popular films. 

**Shouldn’t have to say it given this topic, but there are spoilers ahead** 

Red Herrings in Psycho

Hitchcock loves a good Red Herring — for stories, not for dinner, of course! And Psycho is full of ‘em.  

The first Red Herring is the money Marion Crane steals from her boss. Not only does the plotline about the stolen cash lead to a dead-end in the middle of the movie (with Marion dead in a bathtub), but Norman Bates unknowingly lets it sink to the bottom of a swamp when he disposes of Marion’s body. The money is ultimately unimportant, serving only to distract the audience from the bigger question about what’s really going on at the Bates Motel. 

Norman’s “mother” also serves as a Red Herring, as do the non-diegetic screeches of violin that put the viewers on high alert. 

Read More: What Makes A Killer Horror Movie Character? Common Horror Character Archetypes

'Psycho'

Red Herrings in Frozen

Animated movies often feature Red Herrings (in part to make the story interesting for the adults in the audience), but 2013’s Frozen took things up a notch with a Red Herring within a Red Herring within a Red Herring. Or, as you might call it, Red-Herring-Ception.

When Elsa accidentally hits Anna with some of her magic, the trolls reveal that only “an act of true love” will stop Anna from turning to ice. Naturally, everyone (audience included) believes this means that Anna must get Prince Hans to kiss her because, you know, true love’s kiss solves all. 

But… Red Herring Reveal… Hans isn’t Anna’s true love! He’s actually the movie’s villain! This means that the weaselly Duke of Weselton was also a Red Herring.

Anna realizes she loves Kristoff, so she sets off to smooch him instead when she sees Hans about to kill her sister Elsa. So she jumps in front of his sword just as the curse is complete, and turns to ice. 

And… Red Herring Reveal Number 2… Anna immediately thaws out because the real “act of true love” was in her sacrificing herself to save her sister. 

'Frozen'

Other Examples of Red Herrings in Movies and TV Shows

• 12 Monkeys: The Army of the 12 Monkeys
• Get Out: Racism
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Sirius Black
• Scream: Billy getting stabbed
• Saw: The "reveal" that Zep Hindle is Jigsaw
• Big Hero 6: Alistair Krei
• The Sixth Sense: Malcolm helping Cole with his "dead people" problem
• WandaVision: Dottie
• The Usual Suspects: Basically Verbal's entire testimony
• Blade Runner 2049: K being the "Chosen One"
• Captain America: Civil War: The Winter Soldiers

How to Use Red Herrings in Your Story

Modern audiences are savvy and can sniff out obvious Red Herrings faster than a hound dog chasing a rabbit. But that doesn’t mean this plot device can’t be incredibly useful if employed in a smart, original way. 

Bake Red Herrings into Your Plot

Not literally, of course. No one wants stinky fish in their stories. All this means is that any Red Herring should be essential to the story itself. If you took the Red Herring out, the story should completely fall apart. Otherwise, why include it in the first place? 

Use Every Part of the Fish

By which I mean, it’s necessary to understand the difference between withholding information and misleading attention. Writers must employ Red Herrings to divert the audience or characters’ attention, not use them to intentionally leave out crucial information. Remember that a satisfying ending is one that could have been pieced together sooner if only the clues had been seen in a different light. 

To Fish, Or Not To Fish

Red Herrings can be used on purpose or by accident. A writer cannot control what every audience member perceives, and therefore must realize that some details may be construed as Red Herrings upon viewing. 

Intention doesn’t matter with Red Herrings — if it looks like a Red Herring and smells like a Red Herring (i.e. if it’s distracting), it’s a Red Herring. Do you think Christopher Nolan intended for that spinning top in Inception to be a giant, perplexing, still-talked-about-ten-years-later Red Herring? No. But that’s what happened. 

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Red Herrings are a staple of the mystery, thriller, and horror genres, but can be found in just about any kind of story. If you need to distract your characters or audience, grab a stinky scarlet fish and get to work!

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Red Herrings appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Sometimes it’s a briefcase full of money. Sometimes it’s an expensive piece of jewelry or a priceless statue. Other times, no one really knows what it is — not even the filmmaker. 

They’re all MacGuffins. 

Let's take a deep dive into this strange, Hitchcock-coined plot device and explore how you can best use it in your screenplays. But first...what's a plot device?

More Plot Devices: Everything You Need to Know About Chekhov’s Gun

What is a Plot Device?

Plot devices are narrative techniques writers can use to impact the plot of a story.  

What Are MacGuffins?

A MacGuffin is something that is crucial to the plot but has no real impact on the story. 

MacGuffins keep the plot moving forward, force the characters into action, and create tension and conflict, but they don’t have any intrinsic value themselves or add any meaning.

It could be an object, a character, an event, or a piece of information. It’s whatever the characters are after, whatever is fueling the storylines. 

True MacGuffins could be switched for something else entirely with absolutely no impact on the story — swap the statue that’s “the stuff that dreams are made of” in The Maltese Falcon for a diamond, a stack of cash, or one of Bogart’s signature fedoras and the story stays the exact same.   

If the item is interchangeable and irrelevant to the larger story, it’s a MacGuffin. 

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Why MacGuffins Work

Understanding why MacGuffins work hinges on the crucial and sometimes confusing relationship between plot, character, and story. 

Story emerges when characters move through a plot. 

While plot is what happens in a movie, and the characters are who it happens to, the story is the result. Story is what it’s all about, what it means. 

And MacGuffins impact the plot but don’t add any meaning to the story itself. So, whatever the MacGuffin is (the object, character, event, or piece of information) isn’t actually important at all. 

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the characters in Titanic are trying to find the Heart of the Ocean, a handmade bracelet, or an invaluable dinglehopper. All we really care about is Jack and Rose’s love story.

The root of why MacGuffins work lies in the writer understanding why viewers connect with a story in the first place — it’s not about a cool object, destructive weapon, or interesting fact; it’s about the characters. 

The Heart of the Ocean necklace in 'Titanic'

The History of the MacGuffin

Master of mystery Alfred Hitchcock coined the term and popularized it in the 1950s, but the use of MacGuffins in storytelling predates the name itself. 

Greek mythology features one of the oldest MacGuffins in Jason and the Argonauts’ quest for the elusive Golden Fleece, and the myth of the Holy Grail is simply an Arthurian example of a MacGuffin. 

In the early days of filmmaking, silent-film star Pearl White was known to use the term “weenie” to describe whatever insignificant object the characters in her series “The Perils of Pauline” were chasing after. 

Hitchcock's MacGuffin

Hitchcock popularized his definition of MacGuffins with his 1935 film The 39 Steps, but then continued to use the device in Notorious, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho, just to name a few. For Hitchcock, MacGuffins had to be incredibly important to the characters, but otherwise meaningless to the story and the audience. 

George Lucas' MacGuffin

Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas, however, would come to interpret the term differently. Lucas believed that the audience should care about the MacGuffin almost as much as the characters do, a stark difference to Hitchcock’s preferred definition. 

At the end of the day, I’m not sure it matters if you’re Team Hitchcock or Team Lucas. Either way, MacGuffins drive the plot and motivate the characters, but don’t add much deeper meaning to the story. Whether or not the audience cares about the MacGuffin is a little out of your control anyway. 

Case Studies

Let’s take a look at how several popular movies use MacGuffins to influence the plot and motivate the characters. 

The MacGuffin in Casablanca

This classic film features a great example of a MacGuffin in the form of the highly sought-after letters of transit. 

As the narrator explains at the beginning of the movie, refugees from around Europe fled the Second World War and ended up in Casablanca, where they wait and wait and wait to escape to America. It’s nearly impossible to secure an exit visa, but the rumored letters of transit will allow safe passage, no questions asked. 

The letters change hands and end up hidden away in Rick’s Café Americain, where Ilsa Lund and Victor Laszlo come looking for them as their ticket away from the Nazis. 

The letters of transit may influence the plot — they motivate the characters to act and cause them to argue, lie, and manipulate — but they aren’t really that important in the grand scheme of things.  

The characters want to find them, sell them, or get rid of them, but the pieces of paper themselves don’t add anything deeper to the story. At its heart, Casablanca is about love, loyalty, patriotism, and sacrifice, not a few flimsy pieces of paper. 

The letters of transit in 'Casablanca'

The MacGuffin in Psycho

Given that famous shower scene and the crazy reveal at the end, people could be forgiven for not remembering that Psycho doesn’t actually start at the Bates Motel. In the beginning, it’s all about some money. 

Secretary Marion Crane steals a large amount of cash from her boss and goes on the run, stopping for the night at a motel with plenty of available rooms. Unfortunately, that’s where Marion’s storyline meets an untimely end (in the aforementioned shower), but that’s not where the movie ends. Not by a long shot. 

After Marion goes missing, her sister, boyfriend, and a private investigator all get involved in the mystery surrounding the Bates Motel. The stolen money is simply a conduit into the much larger story about Norman Bates and the true goings-on at his eponymous motel. 

In fact, by the end of the movie, most viewers have forgotten about the stolen money altogether… because the money never really mattered. It was a MacGuffin (and a Red Herring — Plot Device Double Duty!).

The envelope of cash in 'Psycho'

Other Examples of MacGuffins

• The statue in The Maltese Falcon
• Whatever’s in that damn briefcase in Pulp Fiction
• The rug that ties the room together in The Big Lebowski
• The Heart of the Ocean in Titanic
• The Tesseract in Captain America and The Avengers (only within the context of these individual movies, not when considering the MCU as a whole)
• The “Rabbit’s Foot” — whatever that is — in Mission Impossible 3
• The briefcase full of money in Fargo
• Those microprocessors in The Departed
• Doug the Missing Groom-To-Be in The Hangover
• Unobtanium in Avatar
• The shrink ray in Despicable Me
• The sorcerer’s stone in the first Harry Potter movie  
• Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan
• The Holy Grail in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings

How to Use a MacGuffin in Your Story

MacGuffins often get a bad rap for being the sign of lazy storytelling, but when used correctly can actually be quite effective. That said, not all stories will benefit from having a MacGuffin.

We Must Find the MacGuffin Before They Do!

Everyone’s seen a movie where the characters are after something — you know, that thing they absolutely must get their hands on before the bad guys do. Well, that thing was probably a MacGuffin. 

Adventures and thrillers are beset with MacGuffins, and for good reason. They serve a purpose in these kinds of quest stories when written well, but when written poorly, the MacGuffin can end up being a crutch for weak, surface-level storytelling. 

That’s why… 

The Characters Have to Care

Keep in mind that what the MacGuffin is doesn’t really matter — a pot of gold, a delicious hamburger, or a shoe will do just fine. 

Whether or not the audience cares about the MacGuffin is unimportant. The audience cares about the characters and if the characters care about the MacGuffin, that’s good enough. 

Meaning Doesn’t Come from MacGuffins

The MacGuffin — whatever it is — is just a plot device. It’s something to get the action going, motivate the characters, and make things happen. By itself, it doesn’t mean anything. 

If you’re going to use a MacGuffin, make sure that you don’t layer it with your story’s deeper meaning. Meaning should be embedded in the characters and the theme, not the MacGuffin.

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MacGuffins can be tricky plot devices, but immensely effective if used correctly. Just don’t lean on a MacGuffin as a crutch, make sure that your story stands on its own!

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About MacGuffins appeared first on ScreenCraft.

A sentiment true in life but especially true in writing, and one that also describes a plot device called Chekhov’s Gun. Chekhov’s Gun may be a signature of the mystery and sci-fi/fantasy genres, but it can be used effectively in just about any kind of story.

So, let's dig into what Chekhov's Gun is, how it works, and how you can use this plot device to elevate your screenplays. But first...let's go over what a plot device actually is.

What is a Plot Device

Plot devices are narrative elements used to enhance or propel the story you’re telling. 

Where Did Chekhov's Gun Come From?

The theory of Chekhov’s Gun originates with 19th-century Russian playwright and short-story writer Anton Chekhov.

Chekhov might not have named the concept after himself, but he did outline the principles of the plot device in several letters to colleagues. “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off,” Chekhov wrote. 

Chekhov, of course, perfectly used the plot device that now bears his name in his most well-known play, “The Seagull.” The main character carries a gun around at the beginning of the play, and by the end has used that same gun to commit suicide. 

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What is Chekhov's Gun?

Chekhov’s Gun simply refers to any seemingly unimportant element that becomes significant later on in the story. 

“Remove everything that has no relevance to the story,” Chekhov wrote. “If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.” 

Basically, Chekhov’s Gun is a narrative principle that states that if the audience’s attention is drawn to some kind of element in great detail, that element should be somehow necessary in the overall story because — theoretically — if the writer hadn’t included it, it wouldn’t be important. 

Chekhov wasn’t suggesting that writers purposefully hide importance from their audience, merely that they should not bother with details that aren’t significant. Why have the main character walk onstage with a rifle if that rifle isn’t going to be used at some point, right? 

Does it Have to Be a Gun?

Anton Chekhov used an actual rifle in his story, but a Chekhov’s Gun doesn’t have to be a gun — or any weapon, for that matter.

A Chekhov’s Gun can be just about anything — a physical object, character traits or personality quirks, or even a line of dialogue that conveys important information. If it turns out to be important by the end, it’s a Chekhov’s Gun. 

It’s also good to note that while Chekhov’s Gun is often used interchangeably with foreshadowing, the two terms are not quite the same. Foreshadowing hints at what is going to happen in a story, while the theory of Chekhov’s Gun implies that if something is included in the beginning, then it must be important by the end. In this way, Chekhov’s Gun is a type of foreshadowing. 

Why Chekhov's Gun Works

Chekhov’s Gun is all about making a promise to the audience and keeping it. Essentially, it’s about plant and payoff.

When a writer draws the audience’s attention to something — say, a gun — it sets up an expectation that the gun will be used at some point in the story. If the gun isn’t used, audiences will leave disappointed, wondering why there were multiple close-up shots of said gun if it wasn’t actually important to the plot.

But if the gun is used, even in a small way, it completes an arc that leaves audiences feeling satisfied. 

For viewers, Chekhov’s Gun works because it establishes and fulfills expectations. For writers, the theory of Chekhov’s Gun can serve as a guiding compass for which details to include and how to fulfill and subvert audience expectations. 

Case Studies

But what does Chekhov’s Gun look like on screen? And what if it’s not a literal gun? Take a look at these few films that skillfully use Chekhov’s Gun. 

**Warning: Spoilers ahead!**

Chekhov's Gun in Back to the Future

Screenwriters Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale layered Back to the Future with plenty of Chekhov’s Guns, but the most prominent example is the town clock tower. 

Gun is Presented

Early in the movie, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer are walking through town when a volunteer approaches them to campaign for saving the Hill Valley clock tower. She tells the teenagers it hasn’t worked for 30 years because it was struck by lightning, and Marty gives her a coin so she’ll leave them alone.

Gun is Loaded

When Marty accidentally travels back in time to 1955, he notices that the clock is actually functional — a quick, amusing, and seemingly inconsequential shot.

Gun is Fired

Then at the movie’s climax, when Doc figures out how to send Marty back to the future, their plan hinges on Marty’s knowledge of exactly when a bolt of lightning will hit the clock tower. Lightning strikes, Marty returns to 1985, and the clock stops working.

Chekhov's Gun in Knives Out

A drop of blood on a white sneaker, the sarcastic coffee mug, Linda’s “game” with her father, the fact that Marta pukes whenever she tells a lie — Knives Out by Rian Johnson is laden with effective examples of Chekhov’s Guns. But the most glaring (and fun) example is that menacing circular display of knives in Harlan Thrombey’s library.

Gun is Presented 

During the detectives’ initial round of interviews at the beginning of the story, the various characters are shown sitting against a massive display of knives, all pointing inward. In fact, the display of knives can be seen in so many scenes of the movie, viewers might be desensitized into thinking it’s simply a clever prop or a textbook Red Herring. 

Gun is Loaded

Then, in the revealing flashback sequence, Harlan is chatting with Marta while she readies his nightly medication and is framed by a very sharp knife balanced on a stand. He talks about his family, musing that Ransom is “playing life like a game without consequence until you can’t tell the difference between a stage prop and a real knife.” He then takes the very real knife and stabs it into the table in front of them.

Gun is Fired

Finally, during the climax scene when Benoit Blanc has an epiphany and pieces the mystery together, the display of knives appears to point right at his head. When Marta gets Ransom to admit the truth, he grabs one of the knives from the display and lunges at her. But when they land on the vintage rug, Ransom pulls the retractable knife from Marta’s chest and realizes it is just a fake. (Gun fired.) 

Other Examples of Chekhov's Gun

• The Rita Hayworth poster in The Shawshank Redemption
• Ripley’s unusual skill with the power loader in Aliens
• The highly explosive canisters of oxygen in Jaws
• Charles Foster Kane’s sled in Citizen Kane
• The Wayne Enterprises monorail in Batman Begins
• Cobb’s spinning top token in Inception
• Various examples (including the compass that doesn’t point north and the pistol with only one shot) in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise
• That loose nail on the basement steps in A Quiet Place
• Tony Stark’s Arc Reactor in Iron Man
• Throw a dart and you’ll probably hit one in any given episode of Lost
• The Harry Potter series (both the books and movies) are full of Chekhov’s Guns

How to Use Chekhov's Gun in Your Story

When used effectively, Chekhov’s Gun enhances audience satisfaction. The trick is in understanding the simple concept of setup and payoff. 

If you spend an obvious or inordinate amount of time calling the audience’s attention to something, it should be important to the plot or story in some way. 

Put simply, if you take the time to set it up, make sure to pay it off in the end. 

Get Rid of Unnecessary Elements

An easy thing to do is check whether your script adheres to the theory of Chekhov’s Gun by scanning through to see if there’s anything unnecessary. Have you included a detail or piece of information that doesn’t end up being important by the end? If it’s not important, it’s probably best to lose it. 

Make Sure the (Chekhov's) Gun is Loaded

Be careful though, attempts to use this plot device can easily go awry. Sometimes a Chekhov’s Gun is fired without it being loaded (no setup) or loaded without ever being fired (no payoff), both of which leave audiences disappointed.  

But when used skillfully, a Chekhov’s Gun can add an additional layer to the story’s overall meaning. Harlan’s fake and real knives in Knives Out is a perfect example, as is Christopher Nolan’s use of Cobb’s spinning top totem in Inception to call attention to the movie’s larger theme of perspective.

From how they present the “gun” to the audience to how fast or slow it is fired, to how important it seems to the plot — the best writers will use various elements of the Chekhov’s Gun principle to spin the plot device on its head and make their storytelling even better. 

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While Chekhov’s Gun is most common to the mystery and sci-fi/fantasy genres, a good writer can make use of it in any kind of story. Just make sure that you choose a “gun” that makes sense for your story and your characters — which, in a large majority of cases, probably means it’s not a gun at all!

Check out our other plot device breakdowns from this series here!

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller from the middle of nowhere, Ohio. She’s had jobs in travel writing, movie trailers, and podcasting, and is currently getting her MFA in Screenwriting at the University of Texas at Austin. When not writing, Britton is most likely belting along to Broadway musical soundtracks, carefully making miniature bookshelves, or napping with her dog, Indiana Jones. Find more of her writing on her website or follow her on Instagram.

The post Everything You Need to Know About Chekhov’s Gun appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Summer’s starting, audiences are returning to theaters, the world is going back to normal, and the long-awaited movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Tony-winning musical is finally here. 

After years in Hollywood Development Hell, In the Heights has made it to the big screen. Not only is it a landmark in terms of on-screen representation for Latinx minorities, but the film also features a unique storytelling technique every writer can learn from.

There’s no antagonist.

Lemme say that again. In a movie that has groundbreaking on-screen representation — that’s getting a superhero-esque marketing push from Warner Bros., no less — there is absolutely no villain or antagonizing force in the plot. 

And there doesn’t have to be.

'In the Heights'

What is In the Heights About?

The story of In the Heights takes place over a few incredibly hot summer days in the Washington Heights neighborhood in upper Manhattan. It centers on Usnavi, a young bodega owner who yearns to return to his family’s roots in the Dominican Republic, and a cast of other dreamers who live on the block. 

In the titular opening song, Usnavi establishes who everyone is and what they’re struggling with in the barrio. As the melody crescendos, Usnavi (played in the film by the incredible Anthony Ramos) tells the audience exactly what they can expect from the story. 

“We’re taking a flight to a couple days in the life of what it’s like in Washington Heights.” And that’s exactly what you get — a couple days of what it’s like in Washington Heights. 

We see characters wrestle with decisions they must make — to leave or stay, to come clean or continue lying, to give up or keep chasing a dream. Usnavi, Benny, Nina, Vanessa, Sonny, Mr. Rosario, and the ladies at Daniela’s salon all struggle to deal with the harsh realities of life. 

Technique: Slice of Life Storytelling

In the Heights is slice-of-life storytelling at its finest. Audiences are dropped in, given a whole new world and cast of characters to love, allowed to spend some time, and then sent on their way. 

There’s no uber-powerful villain to defeat, no fight for survival against the elements or disastrous apocalyptic event. The characters in In the Heights are simply up against real life and everything that comes with it. 

One might argue that “gentrification,” “death,” or “the blackout” serve as antagonists, but I’d say that while those are all present in the story, they serve only as elements of conflict and not constant antagonizers within the plot.

'In the Heights'

What Drives In the Heights' Story?

Instead, what propels the story forward are the tensions that exist between and within the characters. 

Every character has a sueñito — a “little dream,” as Usnavi explains, or, for storytelling purposes, a goal. In some way, they’re each grappling with the issues of home, identity, community, and legacy. 

Tension and obstacles are inherent when a character wants something — whether that be to move downtown, get the girl, or find success in America. A goal creates an arc, a journey for the character to take; it gives them something that propels them forward. And as long as that arc comes to fruition in some way, you know you’ve got a successful story on your hands. 

There doesn’t have to be a Thanos-level antagonist, a nuclear event that alters the world as we know it, or a villain with access to Jeff Bezos levels of money to spend on weapons. Real life is dramatic enough, and there’s plenty of tension in everyday situations to sustain the plot of a two-hour movie. 

When this slice-of-life style storytelling is done well, the result is something like In the Heights — a joyous, exuberant, wonderful tale that reminds us just how incredible life can be if we only have the paciencia y fe to look around and see it.

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Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. When not buried in a book or failing spectacularly at cooking herself a meal, she’s probably talking someone’s ear off about the last thing she watched. She loves vintage typewriters, the Cincinnati Reds, and her dog, Indy. Find more of her work on her website, or follow her on Instagram.

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post One Amazing Storytelling Technique You Can Learn from 'In the Heights' appeared first on ScreenCraft.

The group had a lively conversation that covered everything about the Action & Adventure genre, from essential elements of great scripts, writing interesting action sequences, and the importance of collaboration. 

Here are five lessons from the discussion.  

Great Action is Moved by Emotion

Avatar. Die Hard. The Avengers. Tomb Raider. Transformers. What do all of these action/adventure scripts have in common? 

Russo explained: “Before you can even get into action/adventure, you want to talk about what the best scripts have in common.” 

It’s true — a good script is a good script, no matter the genre. The panelists threw out important elements, including: 

• A great concept
• A relatable “normal” hero
• An interesting antagonist
• Some kind of mystery or puzzle
• Plenty of set-pieces
• Global stakes and personal self-discovery

Schwartz added that the best action/adventure stories feature personal emotional arcs for the protagonist, which will mean the audience is both exhilarated by the action and moved by the emotion. 

“The global stakes of your story, that is what tests the character’s journey. That’s gonna push the character into self-discovery. They’re going to learn more about themselves through these events that are going on,” Russo said, before adding: “The main narrative plot needs to be pushing your character into that self-discovery.” 

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Make it Interesting on the Page

Along with covering broader subjects, the panelists went into detail about some technical writing issues too, answering questions like: How do you create white space on the page when writing long action sequences? How much detail should be included in action-heavy scenes?

Schwartz stressed the importance of making the action paragraphs as interesting to read as the dialogue, and Russo added that you should probably question why there’s no dialogue in the first place if you’re writing action paragraph after action paragraph. 

De Souza suggested playing around with the flow of your writing — by incorporating the sluglines into the action paragraphs, for example (a trick he learned from William Goldman’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) — and leaning into creating a stylistic mood without getting caught up in left/right directions.  

But when it comes to detail, Russo summed it up perfectly: “Put as much [detail] as you can on the page, knowing in the back of your mind that it’s gonna change and that’s a good thing.” 

When It Comes to Action, Location is Key

We all remember that high-rise building in Die Hard, the elevator fight in Captain America: Winter Soldier, and that rotating hallway sequence in Inception. Location is everything, especially in action/adventure stories. 

“If you are writing a fight in a Starbucks, it should be a different fight than the fight in a Western saloon,” De Souza explained, before listing off a manor of interesting coffee shop items that could be used to harm an opponent. 

“Use what you have,” Schwartz said, before adding that the Arrow writers would often collaborate with their production crew at the beginning of a season to brainstorm locations and stunts they hadn’t used before. 

Collaboration Can Make Your Action Better 

Cusack then emphasized the importance of writing character, setting, and mood really well, and letting the production crew bring it all to life. 

While it may be every screenwriter’s dream to go off to a cabin in the woods, write a killer script, hand in their pages, and call it a day. But, the panelists explained, the reality usually involves a lot more people. 

De Souza recounted exploring locations with stuntmen, while Russo said that he likes to collaborate directly with the director for big action scenes. Schwartz also explained that TV writers rooms depend on people who are relentless with coming up with their own ideas but also rely on people who enthusiastically support other writers’ ideas. 

“The more you can bring people into the process, the better,” Russo said. 

Know How to Solve Development Notes

NOTE: “We can’t shoot that. It’s too expensive.” 

SOLUTION: Get collaborative. Ask the executives, producers, director, and crew to help brainstorm alternatives. 

NOTE: “Make the script shorter and cheaper.” 

SOLUTION: Fewer sets and fewer characters. Fewer scenes that take place at night, less weather, and less water.  

But, at the end of the day, writers shouldn’t let proleptic notes limit their imagination. 

 “The number one thing you should be thinking of is, ‘How do I tell the best story that is the most unique, with the coolest characters and the coolest set-pieces?’” Cusack explained, then added with a laugh, “And then wait for the executive’s annoying notes.”

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. When not buried in a book or failing spectacularly at cooking herself a meal, she’s probably talking someone’s ear off about the last thing she watched. She loves vintage typewriters, the Cincinnati Reds, and her dog, Indy. Find more of her work on her website, or follow her on Instagram.

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post 5 Lessons from 'Raise the Stakes: How to Write Action & Adventure That Sells' appeared first on ScreenCraft.

I’m not just talking about the first scene — although that is pretty important, too. No, what I’m referring to is the inciting incident.

An inciting incident is the moment, event, or decision that thrusts the main character into the action of a story. 

Also often known as the catalyst, the inciting incident is crucial for a story arc. Not only does it propel the main character into the plot, but it also creates conflict, establishes a goal, and provides the trajectory for character growth. 

Examples of Inciting Incidents

Inciting incidents can be enormous or minuscule, life-changing or mundane. It’s Indiana Jones getting sent to recover the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ugarte giving those letters of transit to Rick in Casablanca, and little Boo sneaking through the flowery door to shake up Mike and Sully’s world in Monsters Inc.

But inciting incidents can be tricky. It’s not easy to pinpoint exactly what gets the ball rolling in some stories, especially when the inciting incident isn’t the first thing that happens. 

In the Hangover, the inciting incident isn’t when the guys decide to go to Vegas, it’s when they wake up the morning after and realize that Doug is missing. And in the TV series Friday Night Lights, the inciting incident doesn’t happen until near the end of the pilot episode when, during the first game of the season, quarterback Jason Street is paralyzed in a tackle.

'Booksmart'

But no matter when it occurs, the inciting incident changes the main character’s life or current situation. It alters their trajectory and forces them to take action in some way.  

In Booksmart, the inciting incident is the moment Molly realizes she and Amy have spent four years isolating their peers and no one actually cares where they’re going to college. That realization causes the best friends to embark on a night full of parties and spurs the personal growth they experience the next day. 

It’s rare, but sometimes the inciting incident even happens off-screen before the start of the movie. Take The Breakfast Club. All five characters did something to wind up in detention on a Saturday, but we don’t see any of those things on-screen. 

Is Your Inciting Incident Working?

Whether it’s something that happens to your main character, something your main character realizes, or something your main character does, the purpose of all inciting incidents is the same. 

But how do you know if the inciting incident is working in your story? 

The answer is surprisingly simple and can be answered with two "yes or no" questions. 

• Does the inciting incident set your character on a completely new path? 
• Could your character go back to the life they had before the inciting incident? 

If the answer to question one is “no” or the answer to question two is “yes,” then you’ve got a problem. The inciting incident must propel your character on a new path, one so altering that they cannot return to the life they knew before. 

Identifying the inciting incident of your story might seem trivial, but it’s actually critical in ensuring that your story arc is as effective as possible.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. When not buried in a book or failing spectacularly at cooking herself a meal, she’s probably talking someone’s ear off about the last thing she watched. She loves vintage typewriters, the Cincinnati Reds, and her dog, Indy. Find more of her work on her website, or follow her on Instagram.

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post What Is An Inciting Incident (and How Do You Know If Yours Is Working)? appeared first on ScreenCraft.

Chances are the first title that came to mind, even if you never saw it or liked it or were into it, came from the Action & Adventure genre. Good instincts!

Action & Adventure films have taken the top spot at the box office for the last eleven years -- in fact, apart from an animated family movie taking the crown every now and again (Toy Story 1 & 3, Shrek 2, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas), there hasn't been a non-Action & Adventure film in the top spot since 1994 when Forrest Gump hit theaters.

It’s enough to make any screenwriter wonder why action movies are so darn easy to get financed -- or better yet, why studios are so willing to take financial risks worth upwards of $200 million solely on Action & Adventure films. 

Let's dig in!

"Mama always said life is like a box office -- nothing ever really changes and then you die."

Action & Adventure Movies Offer an Almost Guaranteed Return on Investment

Sometimes it seems like audiences are inundated with Action flicks, but here's a fun fact: For every Action film made in North America since 1995, five Drama films were made. As far as genre goes, Drama and Comedy make up the majority of the production pie, but here's the rub -- Action & Adventure make up most of the profit pie.

So, to answer the question -- why are studios all too happy to gamble on these insanely expensive movies -- I’m going straight to a term more commonly used when high school seniors are looking into colleges — return on investment. 

That means that studios and production companies can rely on the finished movie making back its budget, plus an additional profit. In that way, action movies are good investments financially. They’re almost guaranteed to make money, especially internationally — even movies that underperform in the U.S. can be huge hits overseas. *cough-John Carter-cough*

Why Do They Have Such a High ROI?

Let's go another level deeper. What is it about action movies that makes them such a slam-dunk in terms of ROI? What is it that snaps so many people out of their Netflix binges and streaming-induced comas in order to draw them back into movie theaters? 

That, my friends, has everything to do with marketability. 

'Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker'

An Easy Concept = An Easy Sell

When deciding which projects to fund, executives are thinking about the ROI. They’re wondering if, at the end of the campaign, they’ll get their money back and then some. High-concept ideas, especially those that fall into the “action movie” category, are just no-brainers. 

Action movies are, in almost every case, high-concept. An oft-misunderstood term, high-concept simply refers to an idea that can be easily communicated. High-concept ideas are those that don’t take a lot of explaining, those that can be understood in just a sentence or phrase. 

For example, take a look at the loglines of some recent action movies… 

Earth's mightiest heroes must come together and learn to fight as a team if they are going to stop the enslavement of humanity.

A newly fostered young boy in search of his mother instead finds unexpected super powers and soon gains a powerful enemy.

A covert team of immortal mercenaries is suddenly exposed and must now fight to keep their identity a secret just as an unexpected new member is discovered.

See what I mean? Each of those three ideas is easily digestible, not to mention the fact that the reader gets a complete idea of what action they’re going to be seeing on-screen. High-concept stories are easy to sell because they’re, in turn, easy to market to the public.

(For the record, those movies are Avengers: Endgame, Shazam!, and The Old Guard respectively.) 

Action & Adventure Films Are Easy to Watch

The Intense Draw of Cinematic Escapism

Escapism! We all want it, especially since COVID has us unable to even escape the four walls of our own homes.

Action & Adventure movies are not only fun and exciting, they’re also often removed from reality, or at least present a souped up version of it that is really cool and really enticing and we should just live there. (Please?) This means that they’ll draw large crowds of those who want to escape the monotony of their 9-to-5 work weeks on a Friday night by watching an epic car chase, fight scene, or battle sequence. 

Simple Storytelling

Unless you're watching a Christopher Nolan movie-puzzle like Tenet, you can just sit back, relax, and eat your popcorn knowing the Action & Adventure film you're watching won't make you have to think too hard about its plot, themes, or characters.

The plot goes from Point A to Point B, the themes are relatable and easily identifiable, and the characters are either somewhat simplistic or are a part of a franchise and are basically like family now.

Keep in mind, though, especially those of you who want to write your own Action & Adventure scripts, that simple doesn't mean bad or unoriginal. There are many great movies out there in this genre that go against the current by telling unique stories like Mad Max, featuring diverse leads like Black Panther, or making bold choices with genre tropes like Kill Bill.

You can do this, too, with your own work. Just be sure to keep in mind what makes this genre so appealing to audiences and financiers alike.

More info coming soon  |  Remind Me

Britton Perelman is a writer and storyteller based in Los Angeles, California. When not buried in a book or failing spectacularly at cooking herself a meal, she’s probably talking someone’s ear off about the last thing she watched. She loves vintage typewriters, the Cincinnati Reds, and her dog, Indy. Find more of her work on her website, or follow her on Instagram.

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The post For 11 Straight Years, This Movie Genre Has Been the Box Office King appeared first on ScreenCraft.

We all know that choosing to watch a new TV show is a bit of a risk.

Will it be worth the time invested? What if the characters are awful? What if it all goes down the tubes after three episodes?

All valid concerns.

The TV writer’s job is to introduce skeptical audiences to a whole new world full of interesting characters. Each and every pilot episode has a nearly insurmountable number of challenges to overcome — establish the world, introduce the major and minor characters, set up the plot and conflict, convey theme, and so on and so on.

The pilot of Ted Lasso tackled this Herculean task with ease, as fan Trung Phan pointed out in a Twitter thread that details exactly how the writers make viewers love the main character in less than three minutes.

Phan’s breakdown of how audiences first meet the charming Coach Lasso is spot on, highlighting how, with just a handful of storytelling concepts, the writers make us love Ted in 157 seconds flat.

1/ Ted Lasso is amazing.

I re-watched the pilot episode w/ my Hollywood screenwriter friend.

He explained to me frame-by-frame how quickly the writers make us love Lasso...

...incredibly, it only takes 157 seconds.

Thread 👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/ZWmpKAV0vS

— Trung Phan 🇨🇦 (@TrungTPhan) December 3, 2020

Character Building

First, let’s consider how we initially see Coach Ted Lasso — not in person, but in a giant smiling headshot during a SportsCenter segment. As Scott Van Pelt details Ted’s move across the pond, it’s basically impossible to look at anything except Ted’s giant smiling face. And it’s delightful. We like him before we’ve even seen him in person.

During the same segment, we see Ted dancing with his players in a locker room. It’s silly and joyful and makes us giggle because we already love this guy who isn’t afraid to break it down and look ridiculous.

The headshot and dance serve as our first impression of Ted, even if it is a secondhand first impression. By introducing Ted to the audience in this way, the writers are able to build Ted’s character before he even appears on-screen. If other people in the world of the show think highly of a character (and it’s clear — Ted’s players LOVE him), the audience is more likely to feel the same.

Show, Don't Tell

But audiences don’t want to be told how amazing a character is for too long, they have to see it for themselves. This is where the age-old storytelling adage “show, don’t tell” comes into play.

At this point, viewers have seen about 45 seconds of Ted Lasso, but not in the flesh. We think he’s a cool guy, but we’re not 100 percent sure yet. So when he and his mustache finally appear in full glory, it’s crucial that Ted’s actions show that he’s just as amazing as we think he is.

We meet the real Ted Lasso on an airplane — not just on an airplane, but as he’s leaving an airplane bathroom. I don’t know how airplane bathrooms make you feel, but Ted looks totally unaffected by whatever he just experienced inside that cramped hellscape.

He makes his way back to his seat and is about to dig back into his Jack Kerouac book when someone recognizes him and wants a selfie. Instead of being annoyed, Ted hams it up for the photo. Then, after chatting with his assistant coach, Ted settles in and checks his phone, fondly smiling at the photo of his wife and son on the screen.

'Ted Lasso'

Passing/Failing Tests

Writers build obstacles for characters to overcome, but we also (either knowingly or unconsciously) create tests for characters to pass or fail. Every situation, dilemma, or choice a character is faced with is a test of character, showing audiences what kind of person the character truly is.

In Ted Lasso’s case, we want him to pass with flying colors.

If he denied the excited fan a selfie, we’d think twice. If he was a jerk when that same guy said he was nuts for taking this coaching job, we’d definitely second-guess our opinion about him.

But Ted passes every test he’s given in this scene, even choosing to make a joke and lighten the mood when his chat with Coach Beard could have gone much differently. “But hey, taking on challenges is a lot like riding a horse. If you’re comfortable while you’re doing it, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

And There's More

After just 157 seconds, we officially love Coach Ted Lasso.

But first impressions aren’t enough. If we love Ted after our first three minutes with him, we have to love him in the next three episodes too. The Ted Lasso writers again — to use a sports reference not at all in line with the show’s story — knock it out of the park.

In the next few episodes, Ted shows what a genuinely good person he is over and over again. He carries his own bags instead of letting a chauffeur take them, drinks tea even though it tastes like brown water, eats Indian food even though it burns his mouth, makes a point to learn people’s first names, and gives hand-picked novels to his players. And I haven’t even mentioned the biscuits yet!

'Ted Lasso'

Ted Lasso’s not the only character who gets this type of incredible less-than-three-minutes-and-you’re-in-love introduction.