August Cooler
Had enough summer? Eenough heat? I hope not and that you’re all still enjoying yourselves.
Before I talk about anything else; a couple of blogs ago I’d mentioned Tarantino’s new film “Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood” which I have now seen so I’m including a link to a review of the film that’s worth reading. There have been many reviews but this one closely resembles my impression. Layered throughout the film, which is the altered telling of the Sharon Tate murders (and what the reviewer focused on more than I did) alongside, are some hilarious bits, and it is also visually a masterful Tarantino-esque evocation of Hollywood at the end of the 60’s, as well as a raw expose of the culture of emptiness and vulnerability and a completely, again true to Tarantino, unexpected turn at the end.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/opinion/quentin-tarantino.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190807?campaign_id=2&instance_id=11405&segment_id=15936&user_id=8f8441634a9e854fa629783d439593e8®i_id=717653820807
Enough of that because now I want to add to your sweetness and playfulness of summer with a fun game. So keep reading…
In the very act of writing you are using a muscle and contrary to the expectations of some being a writer it is not about inspiration and impulse. It is a set of muscles that can be developed and trained. Your imagination is a muscle. Focus and patience are psychological muscles. Questioning. The habit of questioning is a muscle.
This blog is not about dialogue but ask yourself, “why do people speak?” The answer is simply because they have something to say. Funny, serious, painful, embarrassing, aggressive. Always the interaction of intention, of familiarity or lack of. They are reaching out or withholding. A thousand different reasons, but they all need to convey something the audience needs to know to make your screenplay work. But one of the pitfalls for writers in the beginning is that all the characters in their stories sound the same. They sound like the writer. The same inflections. The same rhythms. The same underlying psychological values. They write the way they themselves speak. So becoming aware of this is essential and stretching beyond yourself is a must. And unlike novels or all other narrative writing, with a film you must deliver the full impact of your story in a limited amount of time. Screenwriting is about the essence. The essence of the story, the essence of the character, the essence of what the the scene is about, the essence of what the character wants to convey.
Maybe your character is being devious and trying to weasel information out of another character. If your character is scared, knows she’s going to die and wants the other person to tell her husband or partner that she loves them; your character will most likely speak in halting short spurts of words. The why is all important. What is the reason this character says something. What do they want? Take the secondary character, how would they respond? Would they fumble for words? Would they pray so the person dying will experience comfort? What are the words people say when they, we, speak to each other?
So here comes the game and in this blog I’m not talking specifically about dialogue instead we are taking a step backwards to look at the essence of character that begin…begin…with first impressions. In the image (another goodie from the newspaper several weeks ago) you see three characters. We know nothing about them. They each have a certain expression and attitude. And each one has a label suggesting a make of car their expression and body language suggests.
You have enough to go on to now write a character sketch/bio for each one. A paragraph or two at minimum, that captures the essence of each character.
See what you can do and if you like send it to me and we can have fun talking about it. We might even start a Comment thread so we can interact with each other. Enjoy, and don’t overthink it. Play play play…
Thank you for reading my blog and don’t forget to leave a Comment.
See you next time!