I started this blog to show my journey of being a screenwriter (I still believe I will be paid for this effort). The biggest frustrations of being a Spec screenwriter is the many of “rules” spec screenwriters are given. This is not a formal “do or don’t do” list but it shows up in the hundreds of articles I read. It’s like I have to break through some giant wall. It happens to us, as human beings. We are always having to prove ourselves to others, but once you do, you don’t have to follow specific rules, or guidelines.
Why are rules able to be broken once you are accepted in the world you want to join? In a way it seems like some initiation.
[personal memory] I remember when I became a member of the fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon. As a pledge, I had to go through 12 weeks of “training” of how to become a brother of the fraternity. I went through countless twelve to twenty four hours of non sleep, I was made to stand upright with my chin to my chest (humble position) for what seems like over an hour (I still can’t look directly down without pain). I was yelled at, made to remember useless facts, and treated like a dog. Yes, I would never trade that experience for anything (thank you SAE) but it basically sucked when I was doing it.
I could also make some similarities in regards to making it from a line employee to management, but I won’t. The biggest point I would make is that, spec writers (not including those paid writers who take chances writing spec scripts) are made to follow specific rules. The one, of the many, rules I would like to address today is that of the character introductions and, in general, action lines.
What I mean by character introductions, in terms of screenwriting, is that the reader (audience) is introduced through the description line (also known as action lines) of the writer’s characters in his/her screenplay. We as spec writers are told not to describe your characters in more than 2 or 3 lines. This will get in the way of pacing. It will turn the reader (that first person who has control of your screenplay) completely off, making him, or her throw it in the garbage and go on to the next of his or her 20 scripts to read that day. You can’t seem like you are writing a novel. You can’t write what can’t be seen on screen. You have to grab the reader in the first 10 pages. You have to jump right to dialogue - to the next scene and you must not let that reader drop your screenplay in the refused pile for any reason possible.
I follow this to the letter. Why shouldn’t I? It is what I am told by all the books, articles, and interviews of paid screenwriters I see every day.
With chin to my chest… I am humbled.
I started to read two of the most celebrated movies and screenplays of the current major motion picture history (I try to read at least some part of a screenplay everyday) and have found two random examples of how spec screenwriters are treated differently from those writers that have gotten into “the club”.
The first is from one of my favorite movies,
He is L.B. JEFFRIES. A tall, lean, energetic thirtyfive, his face long and serious-looking at rest, is in other circumstances capable of humor, passion, naïve wonder and the kind of intensity that bespeaks inner convictions of moral strength and basic honesty.
Written by John Michael Hayes
“Rear Window”
Based on a short story by Cornell Woolrich.
(This is an example of writing what you can’t see on screen.)
The second is from, the great, Paul Schrader…
TRAVIS BICKLE, age 26, lean, hard, the consummate loner. On the surface he appears good-looking, even handsome; he has a quiet steady look and a disarming smile which flashes from nowhere, lighting up his whole face. But behind that smile, around his dark eyes, in his gaunt cheeks, one can see the ominous stains caused by a life of private fear, emptiness and loneliness. He seems to have wandered in from a land where it is always cold, a country where the inhabitants seldom speak. The head moves, the expression changes, but the eyes remain ever-fixed, unblinking, piercing empty space.”
“Taxi Driver” written by Paul Schrader.
I love those descriptions. Can I get away with that? With the rules I have to follow, it is impossible. Both stories (movies) are exceptional and, in fact, iconic. I guarantee, those writers were paid before those words ever hit the page. What is a writer like me to do?
No comments:
Post a Comment