Category: Screenwriting

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First, Write the Ending

The ancient Chinese military leader, Sun Tzu: “Begin with the end in mind.

Screenplays That Get Produced
“If you want to write screenplays that you can sell and get produced, you might want to consider writing your ending first. What? Yeah, well, check movies out that get produced. You know, those you pay $8 to $10 to see in the theater depending upon where you live and what time of the day and week you go to see them, and then read about the millions of dollars they made at the box office each weekend.

The Main Character
In almost every one of these movies, inevitably, the end is the defining moment in top box office movies. It is where the main character experiences an epiphany. The main character is challenged to confront and conquer his fatal flaw or go down to defeat. If you want to write screenplays that you can sell and get produced, you must build your screenplay to this moment in the movie. The tension must be wound so tightly that it feels as though everything is going to pop, like the drawn string releasing from a bow. SNAP!

The Villain/Antagonist
How can you create this kind of tension that is so necessary in great drama unless you know where you are going in your screenplay? The villain (in fiction, the villain represents evil) or the antagonist (in fiction, the antagonist can represent someone or something that is not evil, but who or what is competing with your main character or protagonist for the golden ring) must represent your main character’s fatal flaw. In other words, what your villain or antagonist seeks or has is what your main character has been seeking to overcome (your main character’s goal)throughout your screenplay. So, you must have your main character defeat the villain or antagonist in order to overcome his fatal flaw and win.

Movie Example
The movie, “Ransom”, starring Mel Gibson is one of many examples. Mel Gibson plays a good person. His son is kidnapped by an evil man. Through a series of events, Mel’s character has to become less and less nice with others if he is to save his son until he is confronted with defeating the kidnapper or losing his son forever. He is forced to kill the kidnapper, and in true Hollywood fashion, not only kill him, but obliterate him. Not that I condone this kind of violence in movies, because I don’t, but the example is there. When Mel’s character finally overcomes his “niceness”, it is only then that he saves his son.

Another Movie Example and Character
Another example, in “Warriors of Virtue”, a $56 million MGM movie for which I was a writer/consultant, Ryan, the main character seeks to conquer his disability, he wears a brace on one leg. In order to accomplish this, he has to overcome his fear of being too weak to succeed in physically achieving in entity. It all happens in the climax when he is confronted by evil itself, Komodo. Will Ryan win, or will Komodo win? It all circulates around Ryan’s disability which is really in his mind even though he has a disabled leg. Komodo wants to destroy to Ryan. How will Ryan escape? Or can Ryan stand his ground and defeat Komodo?

9 Writers and 4 Producers
How did nine writers and four producers arrive at this ending/climax? By determining beforehand how we wanted the movie to end. We spent days and weeks obsessing over this. The question was, what was Ryan’s goal and how does he achieve it? How could we attract an audience and incorporate this story idea? A teen boy. Did he smoke? Shoplift? Beat up other kids? Or run away from fights? Was he physically strong or physically weak? What kind of boy was Ryan? With his disability, we knew we had to come up with something that gave him no possible way to achieve his goal because that’s what high concept movies are all about, to have the main character overcome all odds and win. One of the producers came up with the suggestion that Ryan is afraid of life because of his physical disability.

Character Transformation
How could we write a story where he could learn how to overcome his fear of life because he is physically disabled, and thus, inept with respect to physical activities of most all teen boys? Well, I suggested, let’s first look at how he will be after he wins at the end of the movie. I suggested we create a character transformation arc. In order to this, I suggested that we take Ryan from a fearful boy to a confident young man. Between that kind of beginning and that kind of ending, I suggested we build the arc. So, I asked, how will Ryan defeat his fatal flaw and Komodo?

The Ending/Climax
The producers told us to each write the ending/climax. A combination of endings appeared. It wasn’t easy. Actually, writing the ending first felt like trying to empty the Pacific Ocean with a coffee cup. After several hours of musing over the endings which the writers wrote, the producers sent off two writers to write the screenplay with a couple of endings they selected. Eight months later, they called me to rewrite their draft. The first thing I looked at was the ending. The first thing I did was rewrite was the ending.

“Warriors of Virtue”
Three years later, “Warriors of Virtue”, was released in over 2,000 theaters in the United States. The Sunday afternoon I slipped into the theater with my wife to see the movie, the theater was packed with kids and parents. I watched the audience more than I watched the movie that Sunday afternoon, particularly when the ending/climax appeared. Guess what, I felt a special thrill when I noticed the audience sliding closer and closer to the edge of their seats as Ryan’s transformation evolved. At the end/climax, many of them crouched from their seats to cheer Ryan on as he defeated his fear and Komodo in a most unusual way. It was at that point I was convinced that writing endings first in my screenplays is one way to write screenplays that sell and get produced.

Donald L. Vasicek

Award-winning, writer/filmmaker, Donald L. Vasicek, dimensionalizes Olympus Films+, LLC’s services. He will bring you 35 years of writing and film making experience. Need to put your project together in a coherent fashion, but are stuck! Your storyline is rocky! What shots are you missing? Does your theme escape you, runs like an Olympic sprinter, away from you? Whatever else needs repair so that you can move to the next level in your film, you will benefit by contacting Mr. Vasicek at dvasicek@earthlink.net or 303-903-2103. Rates, fees negotiable.

PAMELA'S FALCON
PAMELA’S FALCON

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The Naked Writer on Writing Montages in Screenplays

by
Donald L. Vasicek

Montage’s are usually created by directors when
working with a screenwriter on the shooting script.
Writers should shy away from using montages while
writing spec scripts. Adding music to montages only
complicates things for the screenwriter writing a
spec script. Directors and producers make decisions
on montages and music, not screenwriters.

Writing on spec, if that is what you are doing, then, you
might want to rethink writing the montage. Montages
by new screenwriters are usually looked
upon as laziness with respect to the screenwriter.

Montages require a keen sense of a director’s eye.
Many times directors and producers who see montages
in spec scripts see amateurism in the screenwriter.
They do not believe that an aspiring screenwriter
has the capability of understanding the full impact
of montages simply because they aren’t experienced
enough.

If you are writing a shooting script, then, here is
how you should handle your montage.

MONTAGE (Enya’s “Only Time” plays in the background)

A) Brad Pitt and his mother dine.

B) Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep sit on swings.

And so on…

Donald L. Vasicek
The Zen of Writing
http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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Zen & the Art of Screenwriting

By Donald L. Vasicek

What is your definition of zen? Think it might differ a bit from your neighbor’s? Possibly. How do you define art? The same here? What about your definition of screenwriting? Do you feel any differently about defining this term than the other two?

The fine point of defining these words is the same as how each one of us interpret life. Because we are unique, each made up of contrasted bones, muscles, nerves, organs, background and etcetera, we can’t help but have distinct ideas about what these words mean.

“Zen & the Art of Screenwriting” is about how to write screenplays. The reason for this approach to screenwriting is because how to write screenplays is about as elusive as the leopard. If you can find the definition of screenwriting in a dictionary, please let me know what dictionary you found it in. I want to read the definition. I’ve checked seven uppermost dictionaries. There were no definitions available in any of those dictionaries. What does that tell you about screenwriting?

In order to understand screenwriting, the screenwriter needs to understand that each one of us is unique. Therefore, our interpretation of how to write screenplays is just as valid as the snippy producer in Hollywood who thinks he has a copyright on how to write screenplays.

There are certain industry rules to follow when writing a screenplay. Most of them are not inscribed in stone. They aren’t imprinted anywhere because no one knows for certain what works and what doesn’t work when writing screenplays. This is one reason why how to write screenplays has become a multi-million dollar business.

Books, seminars, classes, workshops, film festivals, lectures, audio tapes, video tapes, web sites and etcetera lobby that their approach is the unbending way to write screenplays. It works for some screenwriters. It does not work for others. Do you know why?

Zen and art. According to “Merriam-Webster”, zen, in part, “…emphasizes enlightenment by means of meditation and direct, intuitive insights…” Does this definition tell you anything about how designated you are compared to others? How many other people do you think have the direct, intuitive insights that you have? If I were asked that question about myself, I would say, no one.

And art, again thanks to “Merriam-Webster”, art, in part, is “…the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful or of more than ordinary significance…” Can you tell me what is beautiful? I think a hippopotamus is beautiful. Do you? What do you think is of more than ordinary significance? I believe Panther, our 17 year-old tomcat with shiny, black hair and moss green irises that change to an ellipitical form depending upon how the light strikes them, is of more than ordinary significance? Do you?

The fine point of zen, art and screenwriting is that the ambiguity of these words is deceptive because of their subjectivity. What you perceive zen, art and screenwriting to be might be totally opposite of what I interpret them to be. That does not mean you are right and I am wrong anymore than it means I am right and you are wrong. It is the same activity as watching a movie.

You walk out of the theater blown away by what you just saw. You tell others about it. Many of them, perhaps, some of them, or possibly, a few of them, disagree with you. They think the movie stunk. What it means is that writing screenplays requires the screenwriter to have supreme confidence when they are writing their screenplays.

It is important to keep your mind open, but what you are writing when you write a screenplay, is coming from inside of you. It belongs to you. You own it. You do not give any of it up to anyone else. Let others disagree. Listen to them. Hear what they are saying to you about your screenplays. Then, you decide what to incorporate into your screenplays based on what others have said, and what not to incorporate. You be the final judge. Never allow anyone else to be.

How do we write screenplays with this kind of conviction? The answer is to ask yourself, why do you write screenplays? For fame and fortune? For a deep inner experience? For amusement? For diversion? To see if you can? Because it’s a challenge? Do you know why you write screenplays?

If you have an idea, but are not sure; or if you’re confused; or if you have no idea, then take a moment to look inside of yourself. Those of you who know why you write screenplays might want to read on anyway. You might pick up something that you dropped or need to supplement what you do know. The approach to take to get a solid answer to this question is to understand that the human being is driven to execute because of passion(the emotions as distinguished from reason, thanks again, Merriam-Webster).

By understanding passion, you will be able to write screenplays that everyone will want to read, regardless of your reason for writing screenplays. There are a couple, or for that reason, other gadgets that you can attach to passion that you might want to learn about. “Zen & the Art of Screenwriting” will provide them for you. Check Moondance’s e-zine for my regular column. It’ll begin with passion and move you forward to other mouth-watering sweetmeats about how to write screenplays.

Donald L. Vasicek - Keebler Pass in Colorado