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Sorry if this isn't the write place for this thread.
I'm currently preparing for my first original screenplay. I've been developing the story for about two years now and feel like I am ready to finally start putting the words onto paper.
I've started this thread because I'm curious how others approach a feature. Do you start with the story? The characters? Do you guys do a outline? I started with the story I want to tell. I created a mythology for my story and wrote a detailed history that leads up to the starting point of my screenplay.
Once I had backstory and lore in place, I started writing my characters. This has been very difficult for me. What I've been doing is writing backgrounds for each of my characters, trying to describe why they do the things they do and why they believe the ways to do. While I'm sure I will continue to tweak the characters and their motivations as I progress, I'm comfortable and happy with the group of people I've created, especially my protagonist, of whom I've written a lot of my own characteristics into.
I'm about to start my treatment... and I'm really not sure how to do it. I want to write a brief scene by scene that shows the basics, but I find I keep overwriting almost everything. Is it possible to put too much detail into a treatment? How do you guys write your treatments? Do you even use them?
Personally I can't sit down and say, okay time to write a feature. They idea has to come to me naturally and they generally come almost fully formed.
I write out basic scene layouts then just start writing. Dialogue is always the hardest but I always seem to get there in the end.
I am always very conscious of the fact that I need to have some sort of conflict in almost every scene and that my central characters should have an arc.
The character arc part is what I struggle with most. In my feature, my protagonist is an amateur filmmaker who has a bad habit of never seeing her projects through. The story is about her last shot to pursue her dreams and make a movie. Problem is the plot of my screenplay requires her to stop her pursuit of the film and instead fight for her life. Sorry for being so vague, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying.
How do you write your scene layouts? Do you write them like a treatment?
I literally have almost barely legible scribbles in a notebook I work from. For me nothing is overly structured.
I know others need complete layouts with keycards and the lot.
Character arcs are hard to get right. Easier said than done but just have to ensure they have learnt something or overcome something that they didn't know or were struggling with at the beginning of the feature. For example in my last feature which isn't on here one of the protags had to abide by the decisions made for him by his father by the end he learnt it was okay to live the life he wanted to. Is a simple arc and a simple example but you get the point.
The character arc part is what I struggle with most. In my feature, my protagonist is an amateur filmmaker who has a bad habit of never seeing her projects through. The story is about her last shot to pursue her dreams and make a movie. Problem is the plot of my screenplay requires her to stop her pursuit of the film and instead fight for her life. Sorry for being so vague, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying.
How do you write your scene layouts? Do you write them like a treatment?
~Zack~
Sounds very interesting.
I have written five features - all started in different ways. I won't bore you with the details because the most important one is just to write. i.e., if you are outlining and getting stuck - right some dialogue for use for later. If you are writing and get stuck - start googling images to see what your characters might look like, etc. A long winded way of saying if you are stuck on writing then at least do other things that support the writing and you will find yourself moving on.
In terms of the specific you detailed above about your character. I would start with:
What did she value before she was sick (e.g., fame? fortune? creative fulfillment? etc) versus what she valued during her struggle (family? health? spirituality? etc) and what did she value after she was healed and able to pursue the original goal again? These are three distinct steps IMO and you need to start blocking out the actions or dialogue that would support the different states she is in during this story.
1. You are procrastinating and prevaricating. You are doing this because you are scared of Mediocrity, Failure or Success. Recognise which one and allow yourself the leeway to fail. Scripts do not have to start off perfect. You can fix it all later.
2. Start. Anywhere, anyhow.
3. Finish.
4. Re-write.
You have your character arc already. She believes she needs to be a successful filmmaker to be fulfilled. She doesn't feel she is living, by the end of the film, having fought for her life, she understands the importance of life and what living really is. The journey, life itself.
Your character has three needs:
1. External need. To Live. 2. Emotional/Pstchological Need: To be fulfilled 3. Moral Need (Her behaviour will start off behaving in a way that affects others negatively, she needs to learn to overcome that...or not)
In your story there is a suggestion that she's not happy and she needs to make a film to be fulfilled. Your central moral problem is something like: How far can we pursue our own ambitions at the expense of others. Perhaps she's so obsessed with the film, that she's forgotten to see how wonderful her boyfriend, parents etc are. By the end, she understands better. Maybe she even goes to save them, or is willing to sacrifice herself for them in some way, or simply does something nice for them...depending on genre.
Stories work internally and externally. The external drives the internal. What she does and what happens in the story affects her emotionally, and affects the way she thinks. You just have to show that realistically.
Your character starts off frustrated...her needs are not being met. She decides to make a change, or something happens that forces her to change..a friend is successful, she argues with her parents, she is dumped by a lover. This is the inciting incident...and off we go into your adventure. By the end she's overcome all her weaknesses, having faced an opponent that wants the same thing as her (to live...literally or metaphorically) and whose greatest strength illuminates her greatest weakness...and inspires her to overcome them and succeed.
Your treatment is too long for a treatment that you will give to a Producer, but you can make it as long as you want whilst your planning your film. Just write it, then stick it in the script.
You can write it any way you want. Start at the end. In the middle. At the start. Just get the thing written.
Thank you guys for your advice. I'm beginning to get a much more clear picture of who my protagonist is now. I've got some tweaking to do yet, but with the advice you guys have shared I feel that I'm on the right path. Thank you guys.