screenwriting 101
writing movies is hard ya'll.
you know when you get an idea like OMG, that'd make an awesome movie, check it: "there's this guy, right? and this thing happens to him. and now he has to do this crazy thing to get his life back in order". and thing is, you're probably right. it would make a good movie. the problem is, that's maybe 1/6 of your story, and it's only when you sit down to write it all out do you realize how many more ideas you need to make it work.
See, that part you came up with is called The Catalyst. Your story starts out in balance and then the Catalyst fucks up your protagonist's world, giving him or her a desire, problem, need, goal, mission or basically something to do.
Now that your character has a purpose in life, you need another idea they call The Big Event. This is an event, that's big and basically gives your protagonist a loss of control which he must regain. This is the part where your audience is like "ooooh shit!" and is thus prepared to sit through the second and third acts to find out what happens.
So, that should seem like enough to make for a movie, right? It would, except now you realize you need what's called "the pinch". it's another major plot twist that acts as the point of no return. The character is fully committed by this point and his/her motivation is reinforced or at least at this point becomes clear and you're no longer wondering why the hell he/she is going through all this trouble.
Crisis. It's the second major plot point that moves the story from its middle to the end. Your character has lost control, is trying to regain it, and at this point, you're supposed to wonder if he or she will actually pull it off. A crucial decision must be made... This is usually pretty tough because at the time you thought of that awesome idea, it didn't really occur to you how it was going to manifest itself into a crisis, or if it even had to.
So then, you have what is usually the most important - and ironically also usually the weakest part of the film - The Showdown. It all comes to a head, your protagonist and antagonist square off, battle it out -- the final struggle. Usually, this just entails some unrealistic moment where someone makes a heartfelt plea in the middle of a courtroom or a basketball game or some shit -- or the good guy and bad guy have a really long fight.
Even gayer than the Showdown is usually the Realization, which is just after the showdown or even slightly before or during it. It's the moral of the story. It completes the arch where your character has finished his or her journey, and needs to have changed, learned something, figured something out.
By this time, that awesome idea you had earlier probably isn't that great anymore. It sounded a lot better when all he had to do was that one crazy thing and it was all hilarious and bad ass or something. But now that great idea got all watered-down and convoluted and soiled by all the gayness you had to write up for the ending... it all makes you realize basically that you either 1) need a much stronger idea that can last through all these steps or 2) you need to be a better screenwriter in order to take such a simple idea and make a well-rounded screenplay out of it.
Every now and then, when i get stuck writing a movie, I refer to the text books and such that I have in hopes they'll guide me through it. But no. it only makes me realize how inept my screenplay is so far. So yeah. There you go. That's your lesson for today.
you know when you get an idea like OMG, that'd make an awesome movie, check it: "there's this guy, right? and this thing happens to him. and now he has to do this crazy thing to get his life back in order". and thing is, you're probably right. it would make a good movie. the problem is, that's maybe 1/6 of your story, and it's only when you sit down to write it all out do you realize how many more ideas you need to make it work.
See, that part you came up with is called The Catalyst. Your story starts out in balance and then the Catalyst fucks up your protagonist's world, giving him or her a desire, problem, need, goal, mission or basically something to do.
Now that your character has a purpose in life, you need another idea they call The Big Event. This is an event, that's big and basically gives your protagonist a loss of control which he must regain. This is the part where your audience is like "ooooh shit!" and is thus prepared to sit through the second and third acts to find out what happens.
So, that should seem like enough to make for a movie, right? It would, except now you realize you need what's called "the pinch". it's another major plot twist that acts as the point of no return. The character is fully committed by this point and his/her motivation is reinforced or at least at this point becomes clear and you're no longer wondering why the hell he/she is going through all this trouble.
Crisis. It's the second major plot point that moves the story from its middle to the end. Your character has lost control, is trying to regain it, and at this point, you're supposed to wonder if he or she will actually pull it off. A crucial decision must be made... This is usually pretty tough because at the time you thought of that awesome idea, it didn't really occur to you how it was going to manifest itself into a crisis, or if it even had to.
So then, you have what is usually the most important - and ironically also usually the weakest part of the film - The Showdown. It all comes to a head, your protagonist and antagonist square off, battle it out -- the final struggle. Usually, this just entails some unrealistic moment where someone makes a heartfelt plea in the middle of a courtroom or a basketball game or some shit -- or the good guy and bad guy have a really long fight.
Even gayer than the Showdown is usually the Realization, which is just after the showdown or even slightly before or during it. It's the moral of the story. It completes the arch where your character has finished his or her journey, and needs to have changed, learned something, figured something out.
By this time, that awesome idea you had earlier probably isn't that great anymore. It sounded a lot better when all he had to do was that one crazy thing and it was all hilarious and bad ass or something. But now that great idea got all watered-down and convoluted and soiled by all the gayness you had to write up for the ending... it all makes you realize basically that you either 1) need a much stronger idea that can last through all these steps or 2) you need to be a better screenwriter in order to take such a simple idea and make a well-rounded screenplay out of it.
Every now and then, when i get stuck writing a movie, I refer to the text books and such that I have in hopes they'll guide me through it. But no. it only makes me realize how inept my screenplay is so far. So yeah. There you go. That's your lesson for today.