Archive for the ‘screenplay structure’ tag

Understanding The Narrative Throughline

What’s driving your screenplay?  And why do you need to know?

Understanding what drives your script helps you determine the essential foundation of your story (or throughline) and allows you to strengthen the script by incorporating elements (scenes, sequences, and characters) that “serve” your story.

There are three-types of screenplays:
1. Character-Driven
2. Theme-Driven
3. Plot-Driven (also called Premise-Driven)

CHARACTER-DRIVEN
Character-Driven screenplays are essentially about the transformation of a character or a group of characters.  The natural throughline (or organizing principle) is the character arc of one or more of your characters.  Juno is a character-driven film.  There’s a theme and a premise, but the engine of the movie is Juno’s realization (transformation) that she’s not as mature as she thought, adults aren’t necessarily any more mature than teenagers, her parents are pretty wise and cool after all and, she’s actually in love with her best friend, her baby’s daddy, Paulie Bleeker.  If your script is character-driven your protagonist needs to have a compelling transformation.

PLOT-DRIVEN
Most action-adventure films are all about the premise.  Sometimes they have a vague underlining theme but few action protagonists experience any type of character transformation (James Bond is the same guy at the start of every film and the end of every film, from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace). If your script is plot-driven, you’ll need to have an exceptional premise – think Aliens, Ocean’s Eleven, Terminator, Jurassic Park, and Die Hard. An amusement park with dinosaurs– that start killing the tourists!  The most incredible Las Vegas casino heist ever – with escalating obstacles, complications, and life or death stakes!  Who needs character arcs?

THEME-DRIVEN
Theme-driven films are the hardest to pull-off successfully without sounding like you’re giving a lecture.  In a theme-driven film, the premise and characters are secondary to the message the screenwriter wants to convey.  If your script is primarily thematic, you must select elements that best illustrate your message but that also work on their own terms.  One such film that pulls this off brilliantly is the Oscar-winning western, Unforgiven.  The film Unforgiven has wonderful characters and a compelling plot, but every element in the script serves its central theme, which is:  violence doesn’t solve anything and actually makes things worse.  All of the elements in the film are carefully chosen to illustrate that point – the sheriff whose methods of “keeping the peace” are often more vicious than the crimes he prevents, the “eye-for-an-eye” vengeance that leads to suffering rather than justice, and the horror of wanna-be gunslinger when he’s faced with the reality of actually killing a man.

THE KID
That was… the first one.

MUNNY
First one what?

THE KID
First one I ever killed.

MUNNY
Yeah?

================

THE KID
(breaking down, crying)
Oh Ch-ch-christ… it don’t… it don’t seem… real… How he’s… DEAD… how he ain’t gonna breathe no more… n-n-never.  Or the other one neither… On account of… of just… pullin’ a trigger.

MUNNY
It’s a hell of a thing, ain’t it, killin’ a man.  You take everythin’ he’s got… an’ everythin’ he’s ever gonna have…

THE KID
(trying to pull him-self together)
Well, I gu-guess they had it… comin’.

MUNNY
We all got it comin’, Kid.

Screenplay Structure: How To Create Your Story Blueprint

STRUCTURE IS FORM
The structure of your screenplay is the foundation.  It supports the plot, theme, premise, characters, and all the crucial elements: beats, scenes, and sequences.  Without structure, your story would collapse.  Most screenwriters use a variation of the classic three-act structure, with specific structural elements within each act, to layout a script.

Creating a structural “blueprint” will help guide you through the outline process and eventually, with writing the complete screenplay.  You create your story blueprint by noting each event (or plot point) of your story that fits into the structural elements.  When you understand which plot point makes up each structural element (the Inciting Incident, the MidPoint, the Climax, etc.), you have poured the foundation for the structure of your screenplay. Now you can build on that foundation – writing the outline and creating the beats, scenes, and sequences of the script.

I have written a brief, mini-eBook, “Screenplay Structure: How to Create Your Story Blueprint”, to help you with this very-important step in the screenwriting process.  Just click on the book cover to download a free PDF copy and get started!

STAY-TUNED: In my next post I will explore the Plot-Driven, Theme-Driven, and Character-Driven Script.