Our latest lecture covered writing from a film-maker's perspective, which includes some themes that are unique, but also some that are universal. One in three ideas will be good, another (maybe) worth persevering with.
This morning our Film Making lecture covered writing for films. Although it was presented from a film-maker's perspective, there were themes that were universal.
From a film-maker's perspective, one in three scripts will be good, one will be so-so, and one will be not worth persevering with. That rule of thumb seems to apply across the board, so it's generally worth outlining three ideas simultaneously.
Very little in film is truly original, so there's no need to add pressure to oneself by looking for originality at the expense of characterization or other key elements. That's not to say that genuine innovation is bad, merely that it's not the be-all and end-all of scriptwriting. The key elements in filmic writing -certainly in Hollywood- are Character, Desire, Obstacle and Goal.
In terms of Character, we are given a character with whom we can identify. It may be that we are shown a Nice Guy.
What -or whom- does he Desire? It may that he is in love with the girl next door. The Obstacle may be the thug with whom she is going out.
The Goal will be how this inherent conflict is to be resolved. Either our hero gets the girl, or if he is beaten up by the thug, he may walk away from the girl, as the hero of Casablanca walks away from the girl, in the process achieving a new Goal.
One key text in this morning's lecture was James Webb Young's A Technique for Producing Ideas. The author is a former advertising executive hired by a major company to generate ideas, and he has some interesting points to make. I may well come back to this in more detail in a future blog, but Idea Generation is for a separate blog.
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