Scene Writing

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  • Scene Writing

    I know the old saying about "getting in late and leaving early" which is good advice, and I've also read that each scene should have a beginning, middle, and end. But can anyone point me towards any other tips or articles in regards to crafting individual scenes?

  • #2
    Re: Scene Writing

    Let's say you have a scene where you have two people entering a room and they start to talk and they leave the room. Just have talk in the scene and the hell with the other stuff.
    "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

    "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

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    • #3
      Re: Scene Writing

      If you haven't already, do check out all of Blake Snyder's books. On page 38 of "Save the Cat Strikes Back," he describes how a single scene can be written using his 15 beats, otherwise known as the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.

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      • #4
        Re: Scene Writing

        John August wrote a post with tips I find useful when I get stuck.

        http://johnaugust.com/2007/write-scene

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        • #5
          Re: Scene Writing

          Originally posted by gpolin View Post
          If you haven't already, do check out all of Blake Snyder's books. On page 38 of "Save the Cat Strikes Back," he describes how a single scene can be written using his 15 beats, otherwise known as the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.
          I'm not sure that's completely accurate. Doesn't he sat that you can write the entire SCRIPT in 15 beats? I could be wrong, just recalling off the top of my head-- I use the beat sheet when outlining a new story, but it's for major story beats not scene work.

          I'll double check when I get home.
          Best, FA4
          "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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          • #6
            Re: Scene Writing

            Originally posted by gpolin View Post
            If you haven't already, do check out all of Blake Snyder's books. On page 38 of "Save the Cat Strikes Back," he describes how a single scene can be written using his 15 beats, otherwise known as the Blake Snyder Beat Sheet.
            Can't tell if joking or not.

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            • #7
              Re: Scene Writing

              Originally posted by ricther View Post
              I know the old saying about "getting in late and leaving early" which is good advice, and I've also read that each scene should have a beginning, middle, and end. But can anyone point me towards any other tips or articles in regards to crafting individual scenes?
              http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp...Character.html

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              • #8
                Re: Scene Writing

                Originally posted by Ronaldinho View Post
                Can't tell if joking or not.
                No, not joking. Blake does use the 15 beats for the entire script. That's common knowledge. However, on page 38 of "Save the Cat Strikes Back" he claims you can use the same technique for a single scene. (You may notice that I am being very, very specific as to where you find this information.) He then goes on to give an example.

                It's serendipitous that I am currently reading this very book, having read page 38 just yesterday. Go check it out. No joke, my friend.

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                • #9
                  Re: Scene Writing

                  Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
                  I'm not sure that's completely accurate. Doesn't he sat that you can write the entire SCRIPT in 15 beats? I could be wrong, just recalling off the top of my head-- I use the beat sheet when outlining a new story, but it's for major story beats not scene work.

                  I'll double check when I get home.
                  Best, FA4
                  You are 100% correct. However, on page 38 Blake demonstrates how to apply the 15 beats to a single scene. I just read that page yesterday. Believe me. It's there. Right in "Save the Cat! Strikes Back"

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                  • #10
                    Re: Scene Writing

                    Something needs to be driving the scene. The best scenes are the ones where one character wants something from another that the other person is unwilling to give.

                    Start late, leave early. Try cutting the first two lines and last two lines of dialogue from the scene. You'll often find that you don't need them and the pacing will improve dramatically.

                    Finding the right end beat or "button" for the scene is also key, and something that a lot of writers don't pay much attention to, but it can make all the difference between a scene that feels flat and one that leaves you dying to get to that next scene.
                    Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Courier12

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                    • #11
                      Re: Scene Writing

                      Originally posted by ricther View Post
                      I know the old saying about "getting in late and leaving early" which is good advice, and I've also read that each scene should have a beginning, middle, and end. But can anyone point me towards any other tips or articles in regards to crafting individual scenes?
                      A scene has to have a reason for being there. That's something that functions on two different levels. It has to be true within the world of the story -- the characters within the world have to have a reason for being there, within each scene, doing whatever it is that they're going, but on a meta-level -- you, the creator of the world, have to have a reason for having brought the characters to that place at that time for your good reasons, having to do with the large scale structure of the story -- for reasons that the poor innocent saps whose lives within the story you are playing around with may know nothing about.

                      You make things happen within scenes in order to foreshadow future events, in order to force characters to make choices, to reveal aspects of their characters, to confront difficult moral issues -- things that they might not otherwise want to do.

                      They are forced to do them because you have created a chains of scenes and sequences that put them in situations where they are led to have those confrontations and make those decisions.

                      Those things don't just happen by accident, nor are they simply inevitable, even though, if you do it right, it may seem that way.

                      They consist of choices -- every character that you invent is a choice, every meeting is a choice, every need that a character has, every strength and weakness, every conflict between characters and especially within a character -- they're all choices that you make.

                      I was working on a script a number of years ago and I struggled with it for a long time and I couldn't make it work until I realized that the problem was that there was a missing character and as soon as I realized it and put that character in, everything came together and the script that I'd struggled with for almost a year came together in a matter of weeks.

                      As for advice about scene specifics -- first, you should know what the scene is about. Something (usually something pretty simply, in story terms) is going to happen in every scene -- from the start of the scene to the end, something will change -- a change in status for some character. He'll move forward in terms of solving the problem of the story -- win something, lose something, learn something, be properly directed, misdirected. Gain an ally, lose an ally, confront an antagonist.

                      If you were to chart it on a graph, he'd make progress either forward or backward on his journey toward his goal, whatever it is.

                      What shouldn't happen, in any scene, is for the story to stand still, for it to end up, at the end of a scene, in exactly the same place where it was at the beginning.

                      Move up the mountain. Fall down the mountain. Don't just sit where you are (obviously, there are "breather" scenes, but those scenes serve a story purpose -- characters generally gain insight during "breather" scenes).

                      Beyond that, you have to distinguish between what scenes are "about" within the world of the story and what scenes are about in a story sense.

                      Characters within the world of the story don't know about you. They don't realize that they are symbolic icons designed to explore and externalize thematic ideas about love or honor or patriotism or father/son issues or whatever happens to be on your mind.

                      And they shouldn't know. So even if scenes are actually "about" those ideas -- father/son issues, etc -- those underlying thematic issues that the "movie" is about -- you want to try to avoid having the characters talk about that stuff directly.

                      That is -- don't have your characters talk about what the scene is about -- or even worse, what the movie is about.

                      That is stuff that should be revealed through their behavior -- and people don't always simply act the way they feel.

                      Often, people don't even necessarily have insight into the way they feel or the way they act. Your job is to give us -- to give the audience that insight. We should understand why characters are acting the way they are acting. They may not understand, at least not right away.

                      One emotion suppressed often emerges as another emotion displayed. Grief suppressed emerges as anger. Insecurity suppressed emerges as cockiness.

                      It makes for a much more interesting scene to have a character display not what he is feeling but to displace an emotion -- to hold in one feeling -- one that he is unable to show -- and show something else instead.

                      That tension -- between the need to show a particular emotion and the inability to express it -- can make for a very powerful scene. That is because we become the surrogates for that unexpressed emotion.

                      The character cannot show his anger -- so we become enraged. He cannot show his grief -- so we feel his grief.

                      And that's always what you're looking to do -- to engage the reader/viewer -- to draw them in and to involve them in the emotion of the scene.

                      NMS

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                      • #12
                        Re: Scene Writing

                        Thanks for all the feedback.

                        Also nmstevens that was really in depth and helpful, thank you.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Scene Writing

                          I may have a new ebook on this subject for sale on Amazon...

                          You don't want your scenes to be sketchy or read like the placeholder for the real scene (I've read scripts like that), and this gets into that "beginning middle end" and "beats" thing. Think of how the scene changes within. Things might start out good, go south, get back on track, then finish... in a way that takes things in a different direction. Think about what you want *the audience* to feel from the scene and how your writing is creating those emotions. Make sure the *scene* is original, different than scenes like this in similar movies (you know, avoid cliches). Make sure the scene is part of the story, and the story can not live without it. If the script works without that scene, cut it. Does the scene "leave a mark on the audience"? Will they be thinking about that scene and talking about that scene later? If you think about your favorite scenes, they had an impact on you as the viewer... that's what you want.

                          Howard Hawks said you need 3 *great* scenes and *no* bad ones. The last part is most difficult.

                          Bill
                          Free Script Tips:
                          http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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                          • #14
                            Re: Scene Writing

                            PS: My Fridays With Hitchcock today is on FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and has some great stuff on set pieces and gags in scenes.

                            http://sex-in-a-sub.blogspot.com/201...k-foreign.html

                            Bill
                            Free Script Tips:
                            http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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