THURSDAY'S SCRIPT TIP:
NOT ENOUGH CONFLICT
Producer Joel Silver says that you've got
to have a
"whammo" every ten minutes... an
explosion, a car chase, a fight scene, and exciting scene that
will keep the audience
interested. Silver believes that pacing is one of the most
important things in an action
film. But pacing and timing are critical to all genres -- if you
have a comedy that goes
twenty pages without a funny scene you're in trouble! Imagine
going for twenty
minutes without a heartbeat.
Our job as screenwriters is to rupture bladders.
Your script should be paced so that there is NO time for the
audience to get up
and
go to the rest room. They've spent $4 on a king sized Coca-Cola
which is empty about
halfway through the film. Now they're looking for that dead spot
so that they can run
to the bathroom. Your job is to make sure there are NO dead
spots.
That doesn't mean you should just throw in a car chase when
things get slow. That
might seem exciting, but it's all surface - empty calories. You
can't sustain a
screenplay on empty calories - you need the power of emotion.
Remember, the
purpose of external conflict is to expose character. If your
external conflict isn't
exposing character - isn't creating a dramatic situation - it
isn't doing its job. We won't
care about the car chase. That's just metal chasing metal -
movies are about
PEOPLE. Cars don't buy tickets, people do! The place to find
organic conflict is to dig
deeper into your story - go back to that emotional conflict and
create a scene that
forces your protagonist to make a decision. That may end up being
a car chase
scene, but it will be one with a purpose.
Finding the emotional conflict within the physical conflict transforms the cliche car chase
into something exciting and imaginative. Let's say our hero's emotional conflict is that he puts
his own well being before others... and let's create a car chase that illustrates that.
Our hero and the sidekick are being chased by the villains. The hero and sidekick run across
the parking lot to their car, villains right behind them! The sidekick is a few paces behind the
hero, yelling "Wait up! Wait up!", but the hero doesn't slow down. He climbs into the car, starts
it up... The villains get into their car and start it. The sidekick throws open passenger door.
Villains car roars to give chase... before the sidekick can climb in! The hero throws the car into
gear, speeds away, with sidekick running next to open door! "Jump in!" "Slow down!" But the
chase is on. The sidekick can't find the right moment to jump through the open car door. The
villains are speeding up. The hero speeds up... and the passenger door closes. Now the sidekick
is running beside a car with no way inside... and the villain's car is closing in. The hero has no
choice but to floor it. So the sidekick jumps on trunk of car as the hero speeds off.
Begin standard car chase... with sidekick hanging onto the back of thge
car for his life, feet dangling off the edge of the car. If the hero drives too fast, the sidekick
will fall off. If he fishtails the car around corners, the sidekick will fall off... but if he drives too
slow? You know that
cliche of villain's car ramming hero's car? It's different now that the
sidekick's legs are in the way. Now the sidekick's life is tied to the car chase, and whatever
the hero does will be tied to his emotional conflict - putting his well being nefore others. Plus,
we've given the audience what they don't expect - a car chase they haven't seen before. A car
chase with built in HUMAN emotions. A car chase we can CARE about. Plus a darned exciting
scene that helps illustrate the theme and emotional conflict of the story.
External conflict and emotional conflict are co-conspirators
in story. Both must be
present for a story to grow.
HOLIDAY BLOCK - older tips that haven't run for a while because site traffic is slow... look for a bunch of NEW tips at the beginning of the year!
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