SamProof

• Unit of story that takes place in a single location during a continuous
• time period.

• The feel of the story
• - a feel that affects every element. It gives a movie it's distinct
• personality - like the tints and hues a painter uses.

There should always be more going on than what we actually see and hear. It’s the scene’s SECRET – the hidden story and usually the clues to it are inthe script.

The Style of writing

• one or two sentence encapsulation of your story. ‘The story in a nutshell.’ Usually 25
• words or less.

• 1) Receive the protagonists’ action
• 2) Leads the opposition
• 3) Frustrates the protagonist’s effort to
• solve the problem of the story.
• 4) Must REACT more than ACT

• 1) Dance around the subject – clever way to ‘not’
• talk about something by talking about it!

2) Say the opposite

3) Explode Clichés

4) Be zippy!

5) Banter is better

6) Character through dialogue

7) Personalized slang

8) Anti-dialogue

9) Contrast between characters

10) Contrast to location

11) Understatement IS a statement

12) Humor!!

13) Shortest distance

14) Five-line rule

15) Use contractions

16)Always ask ‘Why is this character speaking?’

IFBL – I Feel Big Little

Kind of as a prologue, or as a framing device

To bridge time

To lend a poetic or literary touch

To reveal interior thought

Makes dialogue more realistic

Adds layer of dramatic tension – tension between the spoken and unspoken

Makes the audience an active part of the drama – they have to really listen!

1) Who the lead character is going to be

2) What the story is going to be about

3) What the central conflict will be

4) What the lead character’s arc will be

5) Concept/hook

N-PC Non-Player Character

• Nature of the story: action/adventure (fast and furious writing vs. a quiet southern
• drama)

• Personalities of the main characters: (Educated Miles “Sideways” vs. Thelma and Louise –
• never went to college!) Their background fits with the way the script is
• written, and OFTEN lines up with the personality of the writer!

• 1. Relevance
• – the scene must be important, if not crucial.

• 2. Conflict –
• the scene must contain a clash of objectives and obstacles; what someone
• wants and what’s getting in the way.

• 3. Structure
• – the scenes must have a beginning, middle and an end.

1. A glimpse of the protagonist

• 2. Basic story idea, including goal and major
• obstacle

3. Sense of the genre

• 1) Scene headings
• 2) Scene descriptions
• 3) Character name
• 4) Dialogue
• 5) Parenthetical

Noir Confessional Flashback:

Multiple 1st person VO:

Inverted Structure: