September 27, 2008
September 03, 2008
Heart or Structure?
Sometimes, figuring out how to make that first act break work is quite tricky, especially when you're writing an ensemble film with criss-crossing narratives. But even though I'm come to be a huge believer in structure so I try to let my screenplays just play out as naturally as possible. But sometimes just trying to write without any sense of structure can be disastrous.
Recently, I've been watching films that have not held my interest in terms of story, so I've focused on figuring out the beats, and act breaks. The better the film --the more compelling the drama-- the less I think about how it's made. So it's both fascinating and disheartening to find myself discerning what makes a film work instead of actually enjoying it. And I wonder if it's me being overly academic about what I do and love, or if I've just have a run of bad luck in my viewing choices.
Last week some friends and I caught a pretty bad action-adventure movie on TV-- the kind of movie they usually love. This time, they were eager to turn it off, except that I started pointing out why it wasn't working: the nonsensical writing, the unfocused directing, the cheap sets, over-stylized lighting... My friends were fascinated. They started to realize what it was about the movie that was annoying them so much, and were so intrigued they actually chose to finish the damn thing. But mostly, they were fascinated that I could guess exactly what was going to happen and at what moment. It was an ill-structured screenplay with no heart.
The sad thing is that the premise behind the film could be cool. The pitch itself is so simple the first time I saw the ads for it I was hooked. I wonder if the first drafts of the screenplays were better and it was structured to death, or if it just needed more rewrites to get to the heart. Sadly, the directing would have ruined it anyway.
So I wonder... heart? Or structure?
Recently, I've been watching films that have not held my interest in terms of story, so I've focused on figuring out the beats, and act breaks. The better the film --the more compelling the drama-- the less I think about how it's made. So it's both fascinating and disheartening to find myself discerning what makes a film work instead of actually enjoying it. And I wonder if it's me being overly academic about what I do and love, or if I've just have a run of bad luck in my viewing choices.
Last week some friends and I caught a pretty bad action-adventure movie on TV-- the kind of movie they usually love. This time, they were eager to turn it off, except that I started pointing out why it wasn't working: the nonsensical writing, the unfocused directing, the cheap sets, over-stylized lighting... My friends were fascinated. They started to realize what it was about the movie that was annoying them so much, and were so intrigued they actually chose to finish the damn thing. But mostly, they were fascinated that I could guess exactly what was going to happen and at what moment. It was an ill-structured screenplay with no heart.
The sad thing is that the premise behind the film could be cool. The pitch itself is so simple the first time I saw the ads for it I was hooked. I wonder if the first drafts of the screenplays were better and it was structured to death, or if it just needed more rewrites to get to the heart. Sadly, the directing would have ruined it anyway.
So I wonder... heart? Or structure?
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