Lecture 10: Keeping the Audience in the Story

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Lecture 10Keeping the Audience in the Story
Psycho (1971) Screenplay by Joseph Stefano, based
on the novel by Robert Bloch

• Professor Christopher Bradley

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Previous Lesson

• Complications
• Complexity on Three Levels
• Inner Conflict
• Personal Conflict
• Extra-Personal Conflict

The Insider (1999) Screenplay by Erik Roth
Michael Mann Based on an Article by Marie Brenner
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Previous Lesson (Continued)

• Reversals
• In Scenes
• In Sequences
• In Acts
• Assignments

Fargo (1999) Screenplay by Joel Coen Ethan Coen
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This Lesson

• Maintaining Interest
• The Center of Good
• Curiosity and Concern
• Strategies
• Mystery
• Suspense
• Dramatic Irony

Wait Until Dark (1976) Screenplay by Robert
Carrington and Jane Howard Carrington, based on
the play by Frederick Knott
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This Lesson (Continued)

• Storytelling Challenges
• Surprise
• Strict Rules for Using
• Coincidence
• Comedic Design
• Point of View
• Avoiding Melodrama
• Logic Holes
• Assignments

Wait Until Dark (1976) Screenplay by Robert
Carrington and Jane Howard Carrington, based on
the play by Frederick Knott
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Maintaining Interest
Central Station (1998) Screenplay by Marcos
Bernstein and Jaoa Emanuel Carneiro, based on a
story by Walter Salles
Lesson 10 Part I
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The Center of Good

• The Center of Good is not necessarily a good
  person.
• This character can be deeply flawed, even
  criminal, but the audience must identify with him
  or her.

Central Station (1998) Screenplay by Marcos
Bernstein and Jaoa Emanuel Carneiro, based on a
story by Walter Salles
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Curiosity and Concern

• Raising questions in the minds of your audience
• Give your audience characters to care about!
• Goals
• A Moral Center

The Godfather (1972) Screenplay by Mario Puzo
and Francis Ford Coppola
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Strategies

• Mystery
• The audience knows less than the characters
• Closed Mystery
• Open Mystery

Donnie Darko (2001) Screenplay by Richard Kelly
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Strategies (2)

• Suspense
• The audience and characters know the same
  information

Rear Window (1954) Screenplay by John Michael
Hayes, based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich
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Strategies (3)

• Dramatic Irony
• The audience knows more than the characters

Fatal Attraction (1987) Screenplay by James
Dearden
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Strategies (4)

• Pause the lecture now and watch the clip from
  The Thing, keeping in mind McKees description of
  Suspense, where the audience and characters share
  the same information.

The Thing (1982) Screenplay by Bill Lancaster,
based on a story by John W. Campbell
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Storytelling Challenges
Gorillas in the Mist (1988) Screenplay by Anna
Hamilton Phelan Based on a story by Anna
Hamilton Phelan and Ted Murphy
Lesson 10 Part II
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Surprise

• Not what the audience expected to happen.
• The Color Purple
• Arthur
• Not how the audience expected it to happen.
• The Graduate
• Whats Up, Doc?

The Color Purple (1985) Screenplay by Menno
Meyjes Based on the novel by Alice Walker
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Surprise (2)

• Cheap Surprise
• Not integrated into story
• Detracts
• TRUE Surprise
• Integrated
• Deepens involvement

The Shining (1980) Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick
Diane Johnson Based on the novel by Stephen King
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Surprise (3)

• Pause the lecture and watch the clip from the
  film Carrie. Keep in mind what constitutes true
  surprise and cheap surprise.

Carrie (1980) Screenplay by Lawrence D.
Cohen Based on the novel by Stephen King
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Coincidence

• Remember the principle of Aesthetic Emotion.
  Coincidence is real, but inherently meaningless.
  It can be given transformative meaning in
  narrative.

Carrie (1976) Screenplay by Lawrence D.
Cohen Based on the novel by Stephen King
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Coincidence (Continued)

• Bring in coincidence early
• No Deus ex Machina
• One major coincidence per screenplay (with some
  exceptions)

Whats Up, Doc? (1972) Screenplay by Lawrence D.
Cohen Based on the novel by Stephen King
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Comedic Design

• The best comedies come, strangely, from anger.
• Comedy is mentally slipping on a banana peel.

Theres Something About Mary (1998) Screenplay by
Ed Dector John J. Strauss and Peter Farrelly
Bobby Farrelly
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Point of View

• Think of the story through the eyes of your
  protagonist.
• A child protagonist will see the world
  differently than a superhero protagonist.
• Switching points of view can lead to
  unintentional comedy. This is one of the
  problems with films such as Plan 9 From Outer
  Space and Mommie Dearest.

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Adaptation

• Remember, screenwriting is its own art and
  craft. Its narrative, but its different from
  playwriting, novel-writing, documentary or
  biography. What works in one will not likely
  work in a screenplay.

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Adaptation (2)

• Novels are the champion of inner conflict. In a
  screen adaptation, there must be a character with
  whom your protagonist externalizes that inner
  conflict.
• Theatre pieces are almost pure dialog. The
  omniscience of the camera means that most things
  dont need to be said, they are seen. Film is
  visual.
• Biographies are real. Narrative takes the real
  and creates meaning with it.

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Adaptation (3)

• To do an effective adaptation, you need
• Research
• To re-think the story events to be visual and
  cinematic, rather than internal or language-based

Wise Blood (1979) Screenplay by Benedict
Fitzgerald Michael Fitzgerald Based on the
novel by Flannery OConnor
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Avoiding Melodrama

• Make sure the actions of your characters are
  thoroughly, believably motivated. You want huge
  conflict, huge drama, but it must be about
  something. HIGH STAKES.

Mommie Dearest (1975) Screenplay by Robert
Getchel and Tracy Hotchner and Frank Perry and
Frank Yablans Based on the book by Christina
Crawford
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Logic Holes

• Forging Links
• Moving Quickly
• Admit the Illogic

The Wizard of Oz (1939) Screenplay by Noel
Langley and Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan
Woolf
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Assignments
The Shining (1980) Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick
Diane Johnson Based on the novel by Stephen King
Lesson 10 Part III
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Reading

• Read Chapter 6 in Story, Problems and
  Solutions.
• Do the Reading Review to be sure youre clear on
  what youve read!

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E-Board Post

• Post one example each of both Surprise and
  Suspense in a film you know well.

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Your First 10 Pages

• Remember! You should be working on this now!

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End of Lecture 10
True Lies (1994) Screenplay by Claude Zidi and
Simon Michael and Didier Kaminka

• Next Lecture
• Its What They Dont Know!