Screenplay Writing Part 2
Getting your screenplay into the proper format is easier and quicker than every using script programs. I use "Movie Magic Screenwriter" 
and it's a dream. You can start using it in 10 minutes of reading and just going for it.
But before you start to go for the full dialogue script, get your scenes down on a piece of paper so that you can get your story order together. Then you can look it over quickly, juggle and add scenes and see where your plot and characters are taking you by just looking at a few pages and getting a feel for the overall movie. And movie it is, not paper, not script form, but a tool for making a movie.
Once you're satisfied with your story, plot, characters, acts, twists, and climax, then you can start doing the scenes with dialogue on your pc script program.
And don't think you have to work on a script for a year. Great scripts have been written in weeks, the original "Manchurian Candidate" 
for example. And don't think it's such a big and troublesome piece of work. You only have to concentrate on and hold the audiences attention for 2 hours.
Just remember to get your story in gear by the 20 minute mark. That's the time the audience expects things to happen. If you're doing "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids", the kids should be shrunk by the 20 minute mark.
And watch out for that deadly 50 minute mark. That's where the audience usually gets saturated with what's going on and gets ready to channel change or go for popcorn. So give them a surprise, or twist, or re-energize the plot.
Endings are tough. But a rule of thumb is "The ending should be a surprise, but inevitable when you think about it later." Not easy to do, but cool when you pull it off. Best example: "Angel Heart" starring Mickey Roake & Robert De Nero. 
You'll be totally suprised when you see what happens to Mickey Roake at the end. But when you re-see the movie there are so many obvious clues to what will happen, that you feel like a fool for missing them. That's good writting.
Comments (5)
Writing for the big screen in differnet than for a novel right? Can you expound on that for us Paul?
Thanks!
Dear Paul,
A fellow named "Dread Pirate" recently visited my Xanga blog, WhenWordsCollide, and when I visited his blog, he had a link to yours. I am so glad he visited, and left this link, because now I can add your site to the list of those I visit. Since your blog hasn't been online that long, I was able to read your few entries so far. It is with great excitement that I find a fellow film buff and you're a "real" director as well, with excellent advice for anyone who ever stated "what I really want to do is direct". I loved the post on director commentaries. "Back in the Day" when collecting laserdiscs, of which I must have a thousand or so, one had to pluck down upwards of 200 dollars for the deluxe Criterion packages with CAV, director's commentaries, photo galleries etc. I'll cry large alligator tears when my barely functioning laserdisc player finally breaks down. I still can't find a Beta I player and I edited most of my MikeVideos on Beta I back in the 80s. You mention Frankenheimer and Grand Prix, and I've got to agree about the excellent "soap opera dialogue". I still have my laserdisc of that title (in widescreen, the reason why I began collecting laserdiscs, as CED's only widescreen film was "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" before they went kaput. ) I'm one of the five or six people in the world who actually enjoy Frankenheimer's remake of the old "Island of Lost Souls". (Dr. Moreau) in 96.
Well, won't take up too much of your time. Love your use of the time machine icon, another favorite film of mine. I'll be back to read more of your musings and advice.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher,fool
hey, great advice, as usual. you are awesome.
Ooh, thanks for all the tips.
Paul,
Tell it to Stephen Spielberg. (ahem) This is an interesting and informative entry, for sure. You point out the major differences between the "show me style" practiced by filmmakers like DePalma, and the quiet art of Hawk's bravura work. The major difference, I would surmise, is because early filmmakers like Hawks, Ford, Vidor, Sam Wood, etc were second generation filmmakers, honing the craft of cinema. They grew up "making" movies, where today's directors grew up "watching them". The third generation is taking copy/paste filmmaking to it's ridiculous extremes.
I hope future directors heed your advice here. Very fine images of Rio Bravo from the University of Alabama film program. I've been on that site before. I'd use the "standard version" of imdb for your director links (to DePalma in the above post). Not all of us have premium, you know.
Carpenter (whose first feature, "Assault on Precinct 13" (and which has been remade again!) was an "homage" to "Rio Bravo"), Spielberg, De Palma, even Scorsese, who admits in his director's commentaries which masters he steals from, Baz Luhrmann, Joel Coen, countless others, have the "show me style." I certainly admire these directors, but they love to call attention to themselves.
Directors who "hide behind the style" and let the story drive the picture, and who "learned" from Hitch instead of attempted to copy his shots, are Terry Zwigoff, Terry George (His first feature, "Hotel Rwanda" I saw this weekend, and I can now say for certain the Academy snubbed this film, which is the Best Picture of the Year in more ways than one), Clint Eastwood, and Woody Allen.
Allen, in a recent documentary, admitted he didn't even know what he was doing when he started out, and learned everything about composition and camera setups from Gordon Willis and Carlo di Ponti, his cinematographers. The style of his early comedies (the funny ones) were borrowed from the Bob Hope pictures of the 40s.
Directors who hid behind the camera so well nobody knows who they are include Charles Walters, Norman Taurog (gotta love those widescreen Presley pics) and George Sidney. I can go on, but this is only a comment on a blog entry after all. You sure got me to thinking, though.
Bravo.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool (amateur movie historian.)
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