PART 3
WRITING AND STORY DEVELOPMENT
Part 3 (Chapters 7 through 11) deals with the director's responsibility to the script, that all-important document that initiates virtually all fiction films. The first step in creating anything at all—whether bridge, chair, song, or film—is to develop a full vision of the finished article. Subsequent work bridges the gap between the plan and its realization and makes the vision a reality. The fiction script is the vision and represents, in a standard and shareable form, the film developed in your head. Unlike documentary, which reflects a world already in existence, a fictional world must first be envisaged before it can be filmed, and the script is vital to this.
Problematic films almost invariably have problematic scripts, and knowing how to fully develop all the script elements before filming is a vital skill for any aspiring director. There is a great deal to learn, and as always, the best learning is by immersion in direct experience. If you are writing your first screen works, this chapter will get you started. If you are directing from someone else's screenplay, you'll find criteria throughout this part to help you assess how practical and well-written it is, and how to set about developing it from a director's perspective. Although I often address the reader as a screenwriter, my hope is that the director will become an expert at judging and developing scripts, rather than the writer of his or her own screen projects. This, as will be explained, gives you the best chance to win recognition as a director.
When you need reminders of the advice in this part, be sure to use the checklist at the end.
CHAPTER 7
Screenwriting Concepts
When You Direct from Your Own Writing
Start Making Working Partnerships
Why Reading a Script Is Difficult
Split-Page or TV Screenplay Format
Good Screenplays Are Not Overwritten
Write Behavior Instead of Dialogue
Personal Experience Needs To Be Enacted, Not Spoken
Recognizing Cinematic Qualities
Characters Trying to Do or Get
Static Character Definition—Only a Beginning
Dynamic Character Definition— Character in Action
Foundations: Step Outline, Treatment, and Premise
Why Not Write All Your Own Screenplays?
The Rise of the Entrepreneurial Producer
Dammit, I Want to Be a Hyphenation
The Dogme Group and Creative Limitation
Idea Clustering, Not Linear Development
Writing Is Circular, Not Linear
Write for the Cinema's Strengths
Screenplay: Form Follows Function?
Story Logic and Testing Your Assumptions
Creating Space for the Audience
Credibility, Minimizing, and Raising Story Tension
Directing from Your Own Screenplay
Act on Criticism Only After Reflection
CHAPTER 9
Adaptation from Art or Life
Using Literature or Actuality as a Springboard
Actor-Centered Films and Their Scripts
Integrating the Cast into the Script
A Script Developed from Actors Improvising
The Video Novel: An Improv Approach
CHAPTER 10
Story Development Strategies
Expanding and Collapsing the Screenplay
Character Development Problems
Fundraising and Writing the Prospectus