The Message - Screenwriting

What is Message?

It develops out of the relationships the characters have with each other.

It's a general truth that the main character comes to see.

It's the truth that the main character has been fighting against because of his want and because it is harder to be the truth (be one with the group) than it is to fight for what you want.

Oppression

Don't oppress your inner child.

thy creative spirit needs to play before the serious one starts getting down to business.

MAIN CHARACTERS - Screenwriting

Say you develop a world, characters, everything fits together.  But you can't come up with a conflict... because everything thing fits together.

That world is your "second act" world.  Your "underworld"

Brainstorm some characters who would NOT fit in with these characters.

A character who preaches opposite ideals.

A character who looks different

A character who's not welcome.

That's your main character and that's your first act.

Writing

DO NOT FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR WRITING

FALL IN LOVE WITH THE ACT OF WRITING

Write your movie

SQUARE THE CIRCLE

Two THEMES to every story

First 55 pages are about what every character WANTS
Next 55 are about what every character LACKS


Gotta write the first 55 to figure out the final 55.

First Scene

The first scene in your story will be an encapsulated essence of the entire story.  It will be the relationship problem and the external problem.

Story Structure

DON'T FEAR ACT 2 - Screenwriting

Act 2 is the guru's WARNING/SELLING TOOL.  Fearing it will lead you to rewrite looking for act breaks, midpoints, dark night of the soul, etc.  Don't let that generalized horoscope structure label system fuck with your work.

The trick is to write your first draft without rewriting until you finish the first draft.

Act 1) the first scripts you write, even if you tried rewriting while writing the first draft, are going to be crappy.  So just pound out the first draft.  See if you can make it any better after and if it's still a mess.  MOVE ON.

Act 2)  the more you get through first drafts and then look back at what could be fixed when your done, the better your NEXT story will be.

Act 3)  Which will lead to you writing pretty decent FIRST DRAFTS that will be EASIER to fix in subsequent drafts.


POWER THROUGH THE FIRST DRAFT.  GET ANGRY.  PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN AND WORK.

MIDPOINT - REVERSAL - SCREENWRITING

The midpoint of your story.  The major reversal.

In the context of RELATIONSHIPS.

At the midpoint, your main character's relationship that will change, clarity if it were, will become clear.

The Vs. of the story will be made clear.  The good guy and the bad guy will be made clear.

The two sides of the story.  The issue.  This will be made clear.

when to end a story

Why can't you stop and give them what they want?

Has any relationship changed?

Has the main character gotten anything new in their life?

Desperation - Screenwriting

Desperate to finish the script?

Desperation leads to stagnation.

Donny - The Big Lebowski

Donny's character for me symbolizes the viewer who's trying to understand what's going on but never quite gets it.

He thinks with his heart and not with his head.

And he thinks so hard with his heart he has a heart attack and dies.

Three Act Structure

Act 1 - Character becomes aware that other characters have a problem with them and...

Act 2 - Character learns what their relationship problem is from other characters.  Once they realize why other characters have a problem with them they can then take the final step...

Act 3 - Character sets out to prove to the other characters they can be what the other characters want them to be

SIMPLE STRUCTURE

PROBLEM - Character wants something.  Character has relationship issues.

REACTION - Character attempts to get something.  Character attempts to fix relationship issues.

SOLUTION - Character gets it.  Character fixes relationship issues.

Backstory in Screenplays

We write a story in order to understand the backstory.

A characters WANT in the present story is a REACTION to an event in the backstory.

As we develop the present story we develop and understand the back story.  We start to understand the action - reaction

How Coen Brothers write

Ethan: "That's kind of how you get the story going. "He has this problem. How do we make it worse?" That is the way we think about it as we're writing it."

Simple.

Coen Bro's on message and moral

"Q: Your other movies seem to have a moral or a message at the end. What do you see as the message of The Big Lebowski?

Coens: None....None of them have messages....You see a moral in them? Do we have morals?""

Just let the story do the talking. or whatever man.

The First Draft

Like your flawed main character as they enter the story and try to solve their problem, so to your first draft will be flawed.

If your first draft were not flawed, there would be no room for growth, no room for change, no story to be written.

It will not only be flawed but it is important that the first draft be flawed so that you too will overcome something.

FARGO - Using backstory to solve the present story

When Marge meets up with an old acquaintance named Mike the Coen brothers use it to help her solve the investigation.

They could have had Marge discuss the case with Mike.  Mike could have presented some ideas that might help the case/

But instead they have him portray the same behavior as Jerry.  They have him lie to Marge in order to get what he wants.   A little white lie.  He tells a tall tale about a mutual friend he was married to who died from cancer.

Marge speaks with another friend from her past who says Mike was never married to the girl and she's still alive.

The Big Lebowski - What is it about?

First)  The Big Lebowski conceit - What if there was a world in which no one was they thought they were except for one man.

And then what if this one man tried to be something they weren't?

Now all of the characters are "out of place"  Every single one is a fish out of water.

Take the scene when Walter thrashes the sports car with a crowbar and says "Do you see what happens?  Do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass?"

This scene is similar to the "pee on your rug Lebowski."  "I'm not Lebowski, I'm the "Dude", man."

The Big Lebowski is about mistaken identity and the innocent bystanders who reap the wrath of it.

You could also say it's about "Identity Crisis"

The "dude" is comfortable with his identity.  He's a pacifist.  He's not trying to be something else when the story starts.  He doesn't need to change.

While Walter is pretending to be a Jew.  He's got an identity crisis from his ex-wife and his relationship.

When the "Dude" becomes an aggressor, a whole short storm takes place.

The "Dude" abides.  While all the other characters want money, or to win, or a child, etc.

"This usage of "dude" was still in use in the 1950s in America, as a word for a tourist – of either gender – who attempts to dress like the local culture but fails."  -wikipedia

The "Dude" is a fish out of water so to speak.  And when the case is solved he goes back to his water.

This movie is about a character who is perfectly in sync who then becomes outrageously out of sync and finally back to sync.

It's a circular narrative, dude.

Words of Advice for Screenwriters

Don't judge your own writing. Judge your writing behavior.

Screenplay Analysis

"But this business of taking novels apart in order to show bored children how they were put together—there’s a madness to it."

Yeah.

FARGO - Theme

The characters WANT money in the first half.
The characters LACK honesty in the second half.


I wrote awhile back about the Character Flaw in Fargo.  I stated that "Minnesota Nice" was the character trait that is the draw of the story but will need to be overcome if the goal is to be reached.

Another name for the thematic element of "Minnesota Nice" is Trust.

From the very beginning of the story, the Coen brothers weave this theme into the piece.

"This is a true story" is written on the screen right before it begins.  Most people in the audience/readers trust that if it is written then it probably is true.

Jerry trusts the kidnappers.

Jerry trusts his father in law.

Marge trusts Jerry

Marge trusts Mike

Once Marge learns that Mike has been lying to her.  She returns to question Jerry.

Trust has been broken and now it's game on.

  

Raising the Stakes - screenwriting

Ask yourself if there is a missing character.

Is there someone who could apply pressure to the situation that you have left out?