Why do we call them Screen – Plays?

Want your script to stand out from the crowd? Want it to be read from cover to cover and passed from hand to hand?

It’s time to discover your inner playfulness.

Playfulness is not the opposite of seriousness. In fact, the most serious writers are often the most playful.

Who could be more serious than Kafka? And what could be more playful than the idea of a trial with impossible rules, or a man who wakes up transformed into an insect?

Go to any good production of a Shakespeare tragedy and you’ll find it full of wit, surprise, invention and trickery.

We all love reading a script where the writer plays with us, leads us here and there, turns the tables on us, uses a little wit in a description, an enjoyable piece of word play in dialogue.

In the first scenes of Bonnie & Clyde, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow flirt, tease and taunt each other – drawing us into caring about the characters and making their rapid shift to brutal violence all the more shocking.

Playing with the audience is fun for both sides. The Coen Brothers have built their careers out of toying with our expectations, as did Hitchcock.

And the playfulness can occur in many different ways. Two recent films both have fun with their opening scenes. Scene 1 of The Town toys with the idea that something is about to happen, which doesn’t… yet.

While the script of The King’s Speech gets great enjoyment from an opening description of a plummy announcer who thinks he’s God’s gift to the world of broadcasting.

Go over your recent writing and pick a few places where you could try a lighter touch. A sharper phrase. A neater surprise. A swift removal of some of the heavier clutter.

Of course, as with the greatest games and sports, you can only be truly playful when you thoroughly immerse yourself in the techniques and have mastered the skills.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and play as you grow and learn.

After all, we do call them Screen-Plays. So go play.

Sneaky Ways To Hide Exposition

As the June Weekend Summer School comes closer I’ve been working on some of the advanced techniques we’ll be covering, and one of the most crucial is how to handle exposition.

This one really sorts the professionals from the wannabes, and I’m going to share one of my top exposition techniques with you here.

First, if you want to have serious fun working thoroughly on professional screenwriting skills, from linear and non-linear, flashbacks and strong characters, to top-level editing, believable dialogue and evocative visuals, over a weekend at the end of June, and do it as you would in a studio, then the link to find out more and to book your place is:

http://www.euroscript.co.uk/screen-play.html

Meanwhile, back to exposition. Many writers think exposition means clunky dialogue-ridden scenes where the characters tell you important but heavy-handed information such as:

“Did you know you can get jobs that help you get out of the ghetto?”

“No, really, would that help us escape deportation and also buy eggs that we can’t get inside?”

“Funny you should say that…”

In fact that is what is technically known as bad exposition! I call it “overt” exposition.

Great scripts are full of exposition, but in “covert” form – great writers are adept at hiding their exposition so that you get the information without noticing it. There are 22 different ways of doing this, all of which we study at the Summer School, and I’m going to share the first of them.

If you’re interested in giving yourself a challenge, all 22 can be seen in a single brilliant sequence of Schindler’s List written by Stephen Zaillian. It’s the sequence approximately 25 minutes from the start in which Stern hires Jews in order to save them from deportation to the death camps.

Anyway, here’s the #1 exposition technique: dramatic action is the heart of all good scripts, so if you have exposition to hide, use the dramatic thrust of the scene.

For example, in the sequence from Schindler’s List, Stephen Zaillian first creates a strong dramatic throughline: Stern and his colleagues want to save as many Jewish men, women and children as possible, but the Jews of the time were confused and uncertain as to what was going on.

Within this context it is totally logical that Stern and his colleagues should use the information they have to try to persuade the Jews of the enormous danger they are in and how they can escape.

We are hooked by the drama, and in the process we learn a host of facts which will be essential to understanding the story that will follow.

Making the exposition part of the unfolding dramatic structure is a very powerful way of imparting information to the viewer in a hidden way. Try it in your current script.

However, be aware that it will not always be possible to make every piece of exposition dramatic. Sometimes the structure won’t allow it. Sometimes it would simply take too long, or involve action that would not be right at the time.

This is why we need the other 21 tricks.

Check out the movie and see how many different tricks Stephen Zaillian uses to slip exposition in without you noticing.

(You’ll need to watch the actual film, this sequence is not included in the early draft script available on the net).

As I say, we’ll be looking at all 22 ways to hide exposition in the weekend Summer School which starts 6.00pm on Friday June 24. I want to make this an intensive experience for a relatively small group, where you are immersed in the techniques of professional screenwriting whatever your level of expertise.

If you would like to be involved go now to http://www.euroscript.co.uk/screen-play.html.

Deep Language – Free Tip

The poet WH Auden said he would always back a would-be poet who loved language over one with a profound message.

In screenwriting we don’t talk much about language, and it is true that essentials such as structure and genre are crucial. Yet, once these have been sorted,  what do we have other than words? The greatest writers are surely those who have a passion for finding the right words, the best way to express themselves, the precise language that they need.

One of the best ways to learn about language is to read – read scripts, read novels, read poems.

But we also need to understand how language works at its deepest levels – to understand the deep grammatical structures – for it is these that profoundly affect the way we hear and understand – these deep structures can either create the strongest emotional effects… or ruin them!

What do I mean by deep structures? This topic is large and fascinating, and and mastering it will help any writer become enormously more skilful. Here is just one example:

The incomplete sentence.

Imagine a character (or a person) says “That’s useful.” The context may be clear, the meaning obvious, and yet the sentence is lacking. What is it that’s useful? Useful by whose standards? And perhaps most importantly: useful for what?

The reader/audience/listener must fill in the gaps from their own imagination. And this is good – because it draws them in, gives them role that is active.  In this short sentence, they have to work to create subtext, guess what the speaker really means, what their values are, and much more.

Sentences that leave something unsaid in this way give richness to language by asking you to complete them.

You might also say: “To be or not to be.” (Who is to be? What are they to be? What are they not to be?) or “An offer you can’t refuse.” (An offer of what? Can’t refuse or what?)

These are just a few examples – you might think it good to look back through this article and discover many other examples that I have used. Then try the pattern out for yourself and see how powerful it can be.

Once you start looking at scripts and listening to people speak you’ll find it used again and again. You will also find there are many other deep patterns that are just as effective.

They can be used to make scripts richer. They can also be used to make your pitches stronger, your ability to collaborate and argue your point more powerful and even to deal with criticisms and verbal attacks.