Filmmaking Basics Read online

  What three scents can take your muse to an inspired place for the project on which you’re working?

  Beyond Your Five Senses

  Sitomer continues: “There are different ways to tap into your sixth sense: through meditation, dreams, and listening to your gut instincts.”

  If you have trouble meditating, start by listening to guided meditation CDs. To use your dreams, think about a problem you want answered just as you’re falling asleep. You may dream the answer. Be sure to keep a pad and pen by your bed and write your ideas down as soon as you wake up. Sometimes, if you wake up at 4 a.m. and don’t write them down, by the time you wake up at 8 a.m. to start your day, you’ll have forgotten everything.

  Jessica Sitomer, the Greenlight Coach, is a long-time expert in the entertainment industry, having worked in all areas, from writing and acting to directing and development. She's produced a sitcom pilot as well as two television series, one for MTV and one that is now in post-production.

  For twelve of those years she's been a career coach for entertainment industry professionals. Within that period she served for seven years as the in-house career coach for the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600. There she coached over 1000 people one-on-one.

  In January of 2008, Sitomer launched her own business, The Greenlight Coach, Inc. With her upcoming reality show Lights, Camera, Action!, Sitomer is the Donald Trump of the entertainment industry, only instead of hearing you're fired, her goal is to get you hired! Visit www.TheGreenlightCoach.com

  Developing Your Story

  Many film industry professionals have written useful books and developed effective courses in writing a compelling script. Reading these will prove valuable as you proceed in your career. For now, let’s follow a few basics.

  Let’s assume you’re doing a 10-minute film. You’ve got 10 minutes to tell a very focused story. You will want only a few characters, minimal sets, tight settings. Keep it small and focused. You don’t have the opportunity to develop a long story arc or see a character grow through that arc.

  Maybe your story centers on a young man who has been dumped by a series of girls, can’t get a break, and finally finds someone in an unlikely setting. Start your story with the last rejection. Don’t give the viewer a visual history of all the turndowns.

  What’s the result of so many rejections? Depression? Over-attention to sports? A nasty attitude towards girls? An extremely low self image? Pick a response, and take your character through it. Then find an action or character that will inspire him to lift himself up. Keep it tight. Get the viewer to care about the young man. Surprise the viewer with a unique way out of the dilemma.

  Obviously, in 10 minutes this won’t be a saga, but it has to be a journey. Your character will endure obstacles and hardships, seemingly crushing ones, yet he will rise above it all and win out. His girl friend at the end may not be the one he goes on to marry, but she’s the one to restore his self confidence.

  Story Pacing

  Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. It sounds obvious, yet it isn’t easy to achieve. So many stories and movies lag, even die, in the middle after a strong start. Some stories end so unsatisfactorily that the audience will actually groan out loud.

  Start strong. Jump right in to the story. You don’t have a lot of time. Start at the last possible moment, make us care for your characters, and hold our attention for the span of the film. Then end it.

  Authentic Dialogue

  As a storyteller, you face the challenge of bringing your characters to life. How they speak will cause them to jump off the page/screen, or leave them inanimate. Dialogue is critical. No two people speak precisely the same way.

  The novelist and screenwriter Rita Mae Brown, in her book Starting from Scratch, discusses how to make your characters’ dialogue ring true. Brown explains that the English language originated from and still comprises two source languages: the original Anglo Saxon component and the later Latin/French element.

  These dual roots give the English language a unique richness, full of synonyms and subtle shadings of meaning. There is great potential for nuance, Brown says.

  What does that mean for your characters? A worker on a Detroit automaker assembly-line will probably use an Anglo Saxon vocabulary, including lots of four-letter words and staccato speech rhythms. A lawyer in a firm housed on Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan will likely use words with Latin roots and speak with a smoother cadence. This, of course, is an oversimplified example, but you get the point.

  We’re not talking about the jargon that surrounds any profession or lifestyle. The Manhattan lawyer and the assembly-line worker will certainly use the same terms when talking about last Sunday’s football game. But get them talking about the political arena and their vocabularies will change dramatically.

  Here are a few examples Brown offers in her book to illustrate word differences:

  Anglo Saxon Latin

  begin commence

  unlike dissimilar

  same identical

  deep profound

  lonely solitary

  Even a roomful of 13-year olds will exhibit nuances in their language. Learn to listen for the subtleties. A keen ear will help (Anglo Saxon)/assist (Latin) you in creating dynamic and memorable characters.

  The point is – make your characters real. You know very well how your friends and your own circle of contacts speak. Move outside that circle. To work at this, practice listening when you’re in a group of people. At a fast food restaurant, listen to the conversations around you. In a Carl’s Jr. you’ll see more tradesmen – construction, gardening, plumbing. Listen to their speech patterns and their vocabulary. In McDonald’s you’ll find families laughing, kids being noisy, travelers on a quick highway break, or older retired people eating a frugal meal. Observe and listen for patterns. If you visit a fine restaurant for a family celebration, hear how the other patrons speak. Go to a coffee shop and hear how business people talk about a real estate deal or conduct a sales pitch.

  The actual content isn’t so important. Catch the vocabulary, the speech patterns, the cadence of voices. Transfer that to your characters to make them more real.

  ProFile - Michael Ferris

  Here’s practical dialogue advice from Michael Ferris:

  A script is not a play - your goal is NOT to have dialogue that looks like a bunch of monologues. Try to keep 95% of your dialogue to 3 lines or less on the page. Clever dialogue is found in quick back and forth exchanges, not prose-y speeches. Think about one of the best screenwriters known for his dialogue - Aaron Sorkin. Have you ever watched a scene from The West Wing? It’s not a perfect example, but it illustrates the point that if you keep it snappy, it keeps it moving. And a fast moving script, like a fast moving story, is entertaining and - sometimes - it can move so fast that you don’t have time to realize whether it’s great quality or not. You just know you’re entertained. So, use it to your advantage. Keep the dialogue short, quick back and forths, and you’ll reveal plot and character just as quickly.

  Screenplay expert Michael Ferris began his career working for Oscar-winning producer Arnold Kopelson (Platoon, The Fugitive, Seven) and then worked for manager/producer John Jacobs (Blades of Glory, Beverly Hills Chihuahua). His experience being a Make A Wish® kid, coupled with later being able to help then film student Travis Beacham (Clash of the Titans, Pacific Rim) sell his first screenplay, inspired him to start Script A Wish.

  Tension

  Make us care about your characters. To do this, you’ll need to put your characters through hell as they move through your story. Every scene, no matter how short it may be, must have drama. Your main character wants something. She faces obstacles. Other characters want her to fail. They’ve got their own agenda. They want different things. They may not even be aware of that.

  The audience has to feel the tension in every scene. Whether it’s subtle or obvious, each character journeys through obstacle after obstacle until, finally, he ach
ieves his goal. Make the tension between characters vibrate with intensity when they talk to one another. Again, it may be subtle, but it’s there – and felt. Each character wants something, each positions himself to win, and they bang heads till someone prevails.

  Edge Habitat

  Set your story on the edge. Put your characters somewhere beyond their comfort zone, right at the edge of something unknown. Some call this place the edge habitat.

  In the world of nature, an edge habitat could be the edge of a heavily forested area. Some bird species, for example, will not thrive on the edge of the forest, but prefer the cooler and damper interior. Clearing land or building a highway through part of the forest will create edge habitats for species that are then forced to deal with change.

  In storytelling, an edge habitat is a unique place. A young woman’s edge habitat may be the weeks just after graduation from college. What do I do now? My college days are over. No more structured social life. No job prospects in a down economy. College friends gone back home or moved on to new locations. Do I move back in with my parents?

  In strict terms there may not be many definable edge habitats. Sure, movie stories are full of lead characters who find themselves in an unknown situation and must find their way back out. It’s a common story device. We think the edge habitat is different.

  An edge habitat could be the environment in a company where job layoffs are imminent. Your character must adapt to the uncertainty. For an elderly person, it could be a nasty fall, which leads to the almost certain move to a nursing facility.

  Don’t be afraid to place your characters in an edge habitat.

  Creating Emotion

  As a warm-up exercise, try working with your crew to create a spec commercial for a popular company, product or brand. Some filmmakers recommend this as a great way for an aspiring filmmaker to get noticed. Take a popular product, say the Apple iPad or Levi’s jeans or Coca Cola, and create your own :30 or :60 commercial. The challenge – create an emotional response in your audience in that very short time period.

  Character Names

  A quick tip if you’re having trouble coming up with names for your characters. Pop any recent movie DVD into your player and forward to the end credits. You’ll find dozens, even hundreds, of cast and crew names. Mix and match first and last names. Say them out loud. You can’t help but find a few strong names that will suit your characters.

  Brainstorming for Project Ideas

  One way to develop a good story involves collaborating with several of your friends or associates. You can use the brainstorming technique with them to create a solid story.

  Set up a whiteboard or a flipchart pad and easel, if you have access to these, and put out some color markers. Even large pieces of paper will do if necessary. One of you will be the scribe. Provide a few minutes of orientation for the creative team. Tell them that brainstorming is a process for developing creative ideas. In brainstorming there are no stupid or useless ideas. Everything that is mentioned goes up on the page. Only later does the group edit the ideas for value.

  With a webcam or FaceTime, you can even do this online if one of your friends is not local.

  Avoid interruptions. No cell phones, no distractions.

  Participants initially may be hesitant to offer an idea. It’s your responsibility to encourage participation and deter any negative reactions to ideas. After some time at this everyone will realize that they can offer ideas without any criticism or scorn.

  During this process the group may fall silent for a time. Don’t rush in to fill the gap. Let the silence lay for a while. Usually someone will step in with another idea and get it all moving again.

  After you’ve spent a solid block of time (minimum half an hour) on the brainstorming, you will begin to feel like you have enough ideas. Stop then, and begin to edit the ideas. Tape your flip chart pages to the wall if necessary. Let the team talk through what they like or dislike. Cross off ideas that all agree won’t work. Discuss possibilities. Narrow down to the one idea everyone likes. By the end of this discussion, all of you should be on board with one idea you will all support.

  Letting a group brainstorm toward an idea may leave you as producer/filmmaker feeling a bit out of control or vulnerable. Trust your own instincts. And trust the process. Even if you’re a bit unsure, know that you and your team still have to take the idea and run it through the entire production process till it’s complete. The process will shake out a bad idea, or unworkable components of a story.

  You may even find that you get partway into your project and then realize that it isn’t working. Your team may feel the same way. Drop the project if you all feel strongly about it. It’s all part of the creative process. Not every project works. Some projects need to be dropped before more time is wasted on them.

  Asking for Script Submissions

  As an alternative to brainstorming original ideas for your project, you may ask individuals to submit scripts for your review. Offer guidelines when you request the submissions. Length should be five to ten minutes. Format should preferably be standard script structure, but don’t be too fussy about format at this point.

  You and your team should read all the story submissions and then discuss them. Brainstorm all comments and ideas, then narrow it down to a final choice. Ensure that there is a true consensus. You’ll want everyone to be enthusiastically supportive of the story.

  Script Format

  For samples, you can access hundreds of movie scripts online. Copyrights may prevent you from downloading or printing them, but you can certainly read them to get a sense of how scripts are formatted and written. Since you will be producing your own screenplay, you don’t need to be overly concerned with formatting. Later in your career, when you want your screenplay read by professionals, you can focus on accepted scripting practices.

  ProFile - Ellin Stein

  What Not to Write in a Script

  UK-based script consultant and screenwriter Ellin Stein identifies several common pitfalls in screenwriting. This advice is directed more at an aspiring screenwriter than a filmmaker, but the advice will help you in putting your story together. Avoid these pitfalls, Stein says, and “your readers/viewers will approach your story in a state of expectation, as opposed to dread.”

  Here are several of her suggestions:

  No Looking, No Nodding, No Entering, No Exiting

  Every word you write is a chance to show the reader you can create dramatically compelling narrative that pulls us into the story and makes us want to keep reading. Don't… describe meaningless action like walking or glancing, unless it reveals character or sets up a significant development to come. Nodding does not reveal character - give the character a line so we know why they're agreeing. Similarly, why tell us someone enters? If they speak in a scene, they're obviously there. On the other hand, ‘John enters the room, unaware that his coat is on fire,’ will keep us reading.

  No Treading-Water Lines

  Dialogue must pull off the trick of sounding naturalistic while in fact being highly crafted. But it's possible for dialogue to be too naturalistic. You have very little room to tell your story, so every line needs to count. Make sure it needs to be said, and at that particular moment, for a reason. Don't have characters saying something just to have something to say. It happens all the time in life, but this is art.

  No Passive Voice

  Writing 101. ‘The envelope is torn open’ hardly has the dramatic impact of ‘he rips the envelope open’.

  Be Specific

  ‘Maybe some laundry on the floor’, ‘the action goes something like…’, ‘they discuss his trip’. You're the writer, this is a universe you're creating, so don't leave it up to other people to fill in the blanks.

  But Not Too Specific

  Don't direct. Even if you're planning to direct the script yourself, even if you are a director who's turned to writing, for purposes of the script you are only the humble writer. This means being very sparing with
directions, both for the camera and for action. You make a story cinematic by revealing character through action, not by specifying camera angles or every little detail of what happens in the shot. Tell us what's essential for moving the story along and leave out the rest.

  Let the Actors Do Their Job

  Don't tell us what the actors' expressions should be, unless it's not what we would expect, e.g. ‘as the coffin is lowered, there's a faint smile on her face’. Write the scene properly so we know what the characters are feeling and then trust your actors and director.

  Stein says, “The problems I've mentioned are all very easy to avoid and it doesn't require an enormous amount of talent to do so. Unfortunately, getting them right is no substitute for the ability to bring a story to life. The perceptive reader will have noticed I've avoided dealing with the big issues, like creating believable, involving characters who get up off the page and walk around, or tight, fast-moving structures. Those things are hard to get right. It's more like the difference between showing up for a job interview in a torn T-shirt and dirty jeans or looking sharp. It doesn't really affect how qualified you are, but it never hurts to make a good first impression.”

  As a script consultant, Ellin Stein has spent many years helping writers prepare their screenplays for submission to studios, production companies, agents, and directors. Solid Script (her company) projects have gone on to be accepted into major film festivals and picked up for development by leading Hollywood studios.