MONDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
CHAPTERS & SPLIT SCREENS
Our screenplays aren't just stories - we're in charge of the method used to tell those
stories. I call this the "story form". Most scripts use a standard form - beginning, middle
and end, but some benefit from using unusual story forms. Films like RUN LOLA RUN
and MEMENTO turn standard stories into exciting new experiences by finding unusual
ways to tell the story.
CITY OF GOD is a Brazilian film that was nominated for a whole bunch of Oscars (and didn't win any) - a true story - about a kid who grows up in the slums,
kid brother of a big time gang-banger, who becomes a famous photographer. It's a
great little film, worth renting or adding to your NetFlix cue. This film uses
so many interesting storytelling techniques, it's a smorgy of cool tools we might want to
use in our own future screenplays.
The movie opens with a bunch of heavily armed teenagers about to kill & cook a
chicken. But the chicken gets away, and they chase it through the streets - shooting at
it. A wild scene as a huge gang of kids chases the chicken down the street blasting
away and laughing. People on the streets dive for cover. Then we meet our hero - a
teen with a camera around his neck. He's talking to a friend... then the chicken runs
towards them. The gang-boss yells for him to grab the chicken. Hero misses it... and all
of the gang-bangers draw their guns and aim at him. Over a chicken? Then we see
behind our hero - a couple of police cars, doors open, armed cops spilling onto the
street. Our hero and his friend are trapped between gangbangers and cops in an all out
war!
Now that might be enough - what a cool situation - but the story flashes back (like
SUNSET BLVD) to our hero as a little kid defending a soccer goal (same exact position
- trapped between a kicker and the net) and we see how he came to get the camera,
came to be in that dangerous position.
But the story is not told the way we are used to - it's in "chapters". Each chapter has a
chapter title, and each chapter focuses on one element of the big story. So there's a
chapter called THE FLAT that is all about how one apartment is the headquarters for
drug dealing in the favela (slum city). For that chapter, the apartment is the star and our
hero is a supporting player. That segment is about our young hero and his peripheral
involvement in the drug culture of the favela. Even though the apartment is the "star" of
that chapter, every scene is about the hero in the apartment. His first visit, hanging
around older kids, to the day he's given a camera so that he can become the official
photographer for the gang.
The idea of using chapters is interesting. Maybe something I can use - or use a
variation - in a screenplay of mine. That input stimulated my creativity and may result in
some completely different output... but seeing things done in a way I've never seen
before prodded my imagination.
After seeing TIMECODE I thought it was an awful story with an interesting device - the
split screen. So how about doing a rom-com with a split screen? Her side and his side?
Or a cops & robbers movie with a split screen - one side showing the bad guys pulling
their heist, the other side showing the cops trying to prevent it? Guess what? There's a
Don Westlake novel that alternates chapters between bad-ass crooks pulling a
kidnaping and inept crooks trying to pull a copycat kidnaping (using the bad-ass guys
plans). That's kind of a split screen. There's an Ed McBain book (CANDYLAND) where
the first half is about a normal guy who becomes a crime victim and the last half is
about the cops trying to solve the crime. Kind of like LAW & ORDER but with the victim
& the cops. That might be an interesting thing to do in a script. All of that Tarantino
playing with time stuff comes from novels - the flashbacks within flashbacks in OUT OF
THE PAST.
In fact, the split screen rom-com idea was done in the third season of the British sit-com
COUPLING (a zillion times better than the cancelled Americanized version). In the episode, called
THE SPLIT, the couple at the center of the series gets into an argument and breaks up.
As they do, the screen splits and the rest of the episode is split screen - one side
following the guy and the other side following the gal. Humor is derived from the
different ways they deal with the exact same issues. Both are sitting by the phone
waiting for the other to call... their friends come over to console them, and each side
has a different method for dealing with the situation. When the guy breaks down and
dials her number, she almost answers... but her friends say she should give it a few
rings in case it's him. Meanwhile he realizes calling her so soon is a mistake and hangs
up. When she picks up the phone there's no one there. But now there's a huge
problem - if she *69s, she'll know he called. So he has to get one of his pals to call her
on their cell and then hang up. This creates suspense because her friends are trying to
get her to *69 and find out who called her. The split screen adds a source for contrast
between the two camps, creating humor. The split screen ADDS humor.
Brian DePalma is the king of split screen - and it is used for a specific purpose in his films. Basically, he created suspense cross cutting where the audience did the editing by looking back and forth between both sides of the screen. In the movie SISTERS one side of the screen shows a man cleaning up a crime scene - after his estranged wife kills a man she’s spent the night with. The other side of the screen shows a witness to the crime calling the police and the police arriving and approaching the crime scene. Will he get all of the blood cleaned up before the police arrive?
These are all tools - put it in your tool box and use it if you need it. You aren't going to
use an unusual story form on every script, but "Chapters" and "Split Screens"
may be the storytelling method that makes your script idea work better. MEMENTO
uses backwards chronology to put the audience in the protagonist's shoes. It wasn't just
a gimmick - it was the best way to tell the story.
Think about your story. Think about what you want the audience to feel. Find the way to
tell the story so that the audience feels/reacts the way you want them to.
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