Archive for the ‘script writing’ tag

Understanding What Motivates Your Characters’ Actions

In real life, people act with a reason. And screenplay characters need to do the same. Every character action requires motivation and intention. To create a logical story with strong, identifiable, and understandable characters, a writer needs to be aware of what drives his or her characters’ actions, and create behavior that is consistent with the characters he/she has developed.

So, what motivates your characters to do, say, react, and think as they do?

1. Previous Incidents or Backstory
Past events can influence a character’s actions. In Aliens, the character of Ripley distrusts the “synthetic person”, Bishop, because she previously had a bad experience with a robot (a really bad experience). Ripley’s driven to protect the young child Newt, because she lost the opportunity to mother her own child. How do past incidents or backstory influence your character’s behavior and choices?

2. The Unconscious Dark Side
No one is “all good” or always does the “right thing”. The unconscious dark side of a character can drive him to act in ways that go against his conscious self, whether it be as small as a little white-lie to avoid hurting a loved one’s feelings or as significant as bilking clients out of millions of dollars. What makes the police officer, devoted to justice and helping the vulnerable, take a bribe or look the other way at corruption within his department? The law-abiding, good, decent, and loving father in the film In The Bedroom is driven to kill his son’s murderer in an attempt to alleviate his wife’s suffering. What would make your character lie, cheat, steal, or even kill?

3. How A Character Gains and Processes Information
People experience life differently. Some gain information through direct experience, while some derive information through others’ experiences (note that in films your main characters will most often experience life directly). Some people process information emotionally and base their decisions on feelings, while others process information intellectually and base their decisions on principles and facts. How does your character gain and process information and how does that affect his actions?

4. Personality Disorders or Quirks
Woody Allen’s characters often suffer from neuroses that motivate their behaviors and attitudes. In Lethal Weapon, Martin Riggs’s depression influences his actions – including his willingness to take chances and his flirtations with suicide – and causes conflict with other characters, such as his partner, Murtaugh, who questions Riggs’s sanity (Riggs’s depression is a personality disorder triggered by a past event – his wife’s death). What personality disorders or quirks would explain your characters’ behaviors and choices?

Knowing what drives and motivates your characters’ actions will help you create fully developed, plausible characters, and a solid, logical storyline.

YOUR TURN: What techniques do you use to develop and support your characters’ behaviors and actions?

Already completed your first draft? Looking for professional guidance to ensure a productive rewrite? I offer comprehensive script evaluation, including an analysis and diagnosis of a script’s weaknesses, detailed development notes to solve underlying problems and enhance the script’s natural strengths, and a story map to guide you effectively and efficiently through the revision process. Want to learn how to write your first script or adapt a book into a screenplay? I’m committed to helping you achieve your writing goals. My online writing classes provide a focused structure and assignments that produce tangible results.

Four Ways To Foreshadow Conflict

To foreshadow conflict means to indicate or hint at the difficulties that will arise later in the story. Foreshadowing creates suspense and tension; the audience knows something’s going to happen – they just don’t know what or when. A story’s conflict is best foreshadowed in the first act, in the second and third acts, techniques for creating rising conflict are used to drive the story forward.

Here are four ways to foreshadow conflict in your script:

1. CREATE DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES
All scripts are driven by conflict. Setting up a story that is rife for discord and problems, with characters that must engage in struggles with one another or themselves in order to reach a final resolution, is the first step in foreshadowing conflict.

In the first act of the film Aliens, an inexperienced Lieutenant, a sleazy corporate guy, a creepy “synthetic person”, a group of young gung-ho marines, and a psychologically-scarred woman who survived a previous alien attack are thrown together on a mission to find why contact has been lost with a settlement on a remote planet – you just know something bad is going to happen.

2. SHOW CHARACTERS’ REACTIONS
When character’s react negatively to a situation – showing fear, stress, anxiety – it heightens the tension for the audience. In Aliens, Ripley’s response to being asked to become part of the group going out to check on the settlement (where she previously encountered the deadly alien) is immediate and emotional, “You want me to go back out there? Forget it!” We also see Ripley having recurring nightmares about the aliens.

3. SHOW THE UPCOMING OBSTACLES
Show the audience the problems, difficulties and troubles that lie ahead for the characters – doing so causes the audience to worry about what will happen to them. This is an especially effective technique when the protagonist is unaware of the obstacles but the audience knows what’s coming up (in Superman, the audience knows that Lex Luther has obtained kryptonite to use against the protagonist, but the hero is unaware of the trouble in store for him.)

In Aliens, screenwriter James Cameron provides plenty of foreshadowing using this technique:

* During the insurance investigation, Ripley tells the story of what happened to her and the crew of the Nostromo

RIPLEY
Look, I can see where this is going. I’m telling you those things exist. Kane, the guy that went in, said he saw thousands of eggs in that ship. Thousands… Just one of those things managed to kill my entire crew.

* Ripley retells the story to the marine crew to prepare them for what they may encounter

* While patrolling the med lab on LV-426, the crew discovers two living alien specimens in containers

* The crew finds a young survivor, Newt, who tells Ripley her family is dead and provides this foreshadowing dialogue:

RIPLEY
Newt, these people are soldiers. They’re here to protect you.

NEWT
It won’t make any difference

4. USE PROPS
When you show a dangerous item or an ominous situation – a gun, a knife, a walking trail alongside a steep cliff with no guard rail, a car that continually breaks down, a door that sticks shut – the reader will remember it and anticipate the conflict to come.

At the same time, if you use this device you need to pay it off. Paraphrasing playwright Anton Chekov: If you show a gun in Act I, you need to fire it in Act II. Props need to be set up effectively – not just for foreshadowing purposes but also for clarity and flow. If a character suddenly draws a gun to shoot her philandering husband in Act III, and the reader never saw or heard about the weapon until page 110, the reader’s going to be distracted wondering, “Where did that come from?”

In Aliens, the audience is shown numerous dangerous props
* Ripley learns how to use the loader prior to departing for LV-426
* Hicks gives Ripley a deadly weapon and shows her how to use it
* Ripley gives Newt a tracking device to wear at all times

YOUR TURN: What techniques do you use to foreshadow conflict?

3 Steps To Creating Supporting Characters

Supporting characters “support” the story, plot, theme, and most importantly, the protagonist – either with achieving his/her goal or obstructing the hero along his path.

Here are three steps to help you create effective supporting characters:

1. Clarify Function
You can determine which supporting characters are needed and create ways they will serve the narrative through-line (the things they will “do” in the story) once you have a clear understanding of their function and purpose. The supporting character’s function may be to:

Move the Story Forward
In The Sixth Sense, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) needs a dead-people-seeing kid (Cole, played by Haley Joel Osment) to move him toward discovery and redemption. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) needs supporting character Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) to help him get Back To The Future. Each of the supporting characters in Jerry McGuire (from Rod Tidwell and Ray Boyd to Avery Bishop and Bob Sugar) serve to teach the protagonist life-altering lessons.

Define the Protagonist
In Liar, Liar, the supporting character Max (Justin Cooper) helps define Jim Carrey’s character (attorney Fletcher Reede) as a self-absorbed, dishonest man, and a negligent parent – and the ongoing interaction between the two characters helps reveal the hero’s subsequent transformation.

Convey Theme
The character of Newt in Aliens is used effectively to expand upon the theme of ‘motherhood’ deftly woven throughout the story.

2. Create Contrasts
Contrasting the main character’s and supporting characters’ feelings, attitudes, lifestyle, opinions, and choices helps create conflict and complications, adds texture, and allows alternate points of view to be explored. In Star Wars, supporting character Han Solo – a daring, reckless, world-weary, “I don’t care about anyone but me” smuggler, contrasts sharply with protagonist, Luke Skywalker – a straight-arrow, clean-cut, idealistic but inexperienced farm boy.

3. Add Details
It’s the small, well-defined details that help create realistic and memorable supporting characters, from the calm, in control, matter-of-fact demeanor of Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe (Harvey Keital) in Pulp Fiction to the sarcastic, complaining, and bungling but deadly nature of Carl Showalter (Steve Buscemi) in Fargo.

YOUR TURN: What techniques do you use to create effective supporting characters?

15 Tips To Create Effective Subplots

1. Connect the subplot to the main plot line
A screenplay’s plot and subplots should be connected, with the subplots intersecting the main plot line. Without a connection to the main storyline, the subplot(s) will leave the audience wondering why they are in the film. They will feel misplaced and unnecessary.

2. Structure your subplots like a mini-story
Each subplot has a beginning, middle, and end, with clear turning points and a resolution – often closely following the timeline of the main plot.

3. Ensure your subplot has a purpose
Subplots should affect the “A” story line and move the plot forward. Think of subplots as having an agenda or goal to achieve.

4. Don’t incorporate too many subplots
Most films have two to three subplots. Too many subplots can take the reader’s focus off the “A” storyline and cause the narrative to become convoluted.

5. Use the subplots to expand or open up the theme
Well-constructed subplots expand on the theme of the story – if the theme of your story is love then each subplot should reflect that throughline. In the film Moonstruck, the subplot of Loretta’s father and his mistress, the subplot involving Loretta’s mother and Perry, and the subplot of Cosmo and his wife all expand on the theme of “love”.

6. Use subplots to reveal aspects of the main character
Subplots including “the love interest” or “the family conflict” can unveil the protagonist’s goals, desires, vulnerabilities, skills, and backstory

7. Use subplots to show character transformation and change
The protagonist doesn’t suddenly experience transformation, often a subplot is used to convey how and why the hero changes. In the film Back To The Future, Marty’s feelings about his parents change when he experiences them – via a subplot – as high-school teenagers in the 1950s.

8. Choose the subplot characters carefully
Supporting characters that are involved in subplots usually have an emotional connection to the protagonist that evolves as the story intensifies.

9. When possible, place much of the subplots’ storylines in Act II
By incorporating most of the subplot storytelling in Act Two, subplots can be used to alleviate many of the challenges of the Second Act.

10. Use subplots to add complications
In the film Changeling each subplot adds another layer of conflict. The main plot involves a mother trying to find her missing child, when the police locate a child and erroneously present him as the woman’s son [subplot] complications ensue, when the woman attempts to go up against the police department she is committed to a mental institution [subplot] and more complications ensue, etc. Well-crafted subplots can be especially beneficial in adding dimension and layers to a predictable storyline, such as in rom-coms, comedies, and horror stories.

ANALYZING YOUR SUBPLOTS

11. Separate each subplot from the main plot to examine and clarify structure – does each subplot have a set-up, turning points, and a resolution?

12. How many subplots have you created? If there are more than four can some be eliminated to clarify the storyline?

13. How does each subplot develop the story?

14. Does each subplot have a purpose? (reveal character, add complications, expand the theme….)

15. Do the subplots intersect the main plot? If not, how can you revise the subplot(s) to connect to the main plot?

YOUR TURN: What techniques do you use to create effective subplots?

Three Ways To Ensure A Satisfying Ending

A satisfying ending is natural and inevitable. It should be synergistic with the theme and the main character’s development. It should never feel forced.

THE AMBIGUOUS OR UNRESOLVED ENDING
The Ambiguous or Unresolved Ending leaves the conclusion of the story open to the viewer’s interpretation. We may have a pretty good idea how the story ends based on the set-up, but we’re not absolutely sure what will happen. This type of ending is rarely used by screenwriters – it can be tricky to string an audience along for two hours and then fail to provide an ending – however there are films that successfully master this technique and still satisfy viewers. Unfaithful, No Country For Old Men, Blade Runner, The Wrestler, and almost any film by David Lynch are examples of the Ambiguous or Unresolved Ending.

THE HOPELESS ENDING
Some writers refer to the Hopeless Ending as the “downer ending” or “negative ending.” I don’t necessarily believe that audiences leave a theatre feeling “down” or “negative” after experiencing a Hopeless Ending. Hopeless Endings can be powerful, moving, and insightful. Think about the films Chinatown, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, Blow Out, Planet of the Apes, Leaving Las Vegas, and Revolutionary Road – each a story with a Hopeless Ending.

THE HOPEFUL ENDING
Hopeful Endings are not necessarily “happy” endings. The final result may be sad, bittersweet, tragic, or ironic, the hero/heroine may lose the fight, the love interest, or even his life, but ultimately these stories convey a sense of hope; that the journey was worthwhile and noble, regardless of the outcome. Things don’t turn out so good for William Wallace at the end of the film Braveheart, yet the ending gives a sense of hope that the protagonist made a difference, that he lived his life on his terms, and that his cause will go on and triumph. Other films (especially rom-coms and comedies) are the upbeat, happily-ever-after, “feel-good” variety in which the heroes emerge from their conflicts and ordeals battered but stronger. Hopeful Endings are the most popular.

Sad-But-Hopeful Endings: Witness, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, American Beauty, The Perfect Storm, The Sixth Sense, Thelma & Louise, L.A. Confidential

Happily-Ever-After Endings: Working Girl, When Harry Met Sally, Sideways, Juno

THREE TIPS TO ENSURE YOUR ENDING IS SATISFYING

1. Determine what inevitable path the protagonist is on
Ben Sanderson’s self-loathing and downward spiral into alcohol in Leaving Las Vegas leads to his inevitable demise.

2. Be aware of the tone, style, and genre of your script
If you’re writing a breezy, fun rom-com your ending probably won’t include death, destruction, and hopelessness.

3. Pay off the theme
The Shawshank Redemption deftly interweaves the theme of “hope” throughout the film’s scenes of violence and loss – the inevitable and satisfying ending is one of hope. The theme of Chinatown is “the powerful always win” – the inevitable and satisfying ending pays off this theme.

YOUR TURN: What type of ending are you using for your story? Why is it the most satisfactory ending for your screenplay?