Five quick questions
I have lots of questions, but by all means choose two you’d like to answer.
– Ric
New Zealand
1) What’s the commercial potential of movies without happy endings? I’m tired of every movie having to end in a good way, even if that’s a main character surviving a slasher flick. Does a movie automatically fail if it ends with the world blowing up? Forrest Gump wouldn’t quite be the same movie if Forrest suddenly went mad and killed everyone, but surely not every single movie has to end on a good note.
Movies can certainly end with everyone dead,1 and it’s not at all uncommon to kill off key protagonists (e.g. Romeo and Juliet, Titanic). Even a comedy can end on mixed notes — The Graduate being a good example. But your basic assumption is correct: the commercial potential of most movies is going to be stronger if it ends happily, simply because people will walk out of the theater happy. So you need to decide how important a happy ending is to your story, knowing the extra challenges you face with a downbeat ending.
I’d also challenge you to remember that a happy ending doesn’t necessarily mean everyone skipping off into the sunset. From The Godfather to Aliens, many great movies end on a note of uncertainty. The immediate threat may have passed, but the road ahead is dangerous.
2) What’s the best way to handle an “early life” part of a film, where you need to show the character growing up? How much is too much? How many “stages” are too many? Will it break the movie if my screenplay uses the whole first act to show incidents: at birth, 5 years old, 7 years old, 10 years old, 14 years old (and that’s condensing things, stage-wise) and then further flashbacks later on? And how do I show the character’s “want” or “why” through all of this? Or is it okay if the want or why doesn’t start until later in the film?
Every movie works differently, but trying to include that many stages will almost certainly fail. Here’s why.
In a book, aging a child from five to seven to ten to fourteen costs you nothing. You can skip from age to age, incident to incident, without trouble. Readers don’t have a strong expectation about “when the story is supposed to get started,” so as long as you are holding their interest, you’re okay.
In a movie, aging a child from five to seven to ten to fourteen means casting at least three actors.2 Each time, you’re forcing the audience to identify with a new kid, with a new face, and new quirks. The replacement cost is very high, so it has to be really worthwhile to consider doing it.
More importantly, movie audiences have strong expectations about when the story is supposed to get started, and we know the story won’t really begin until we reach the grown-up version. Any scenes involving the young versions are going to feel like stalling.
Big Fish follows Edward Bloom’s life from the day he was born until the day he dies, but deliberately structures those moments to tell the bigger story of Edward and Will’s reconciliation. That’s the A-plot, and everything else is in service of that. In fantasy flashbacks, we see Edward very briefly as an infant, then jump ahead to him as ten-year old. After that, he’s either adult (Ewan MacGregor) or elderly (Albert Finney).
Get to the grown-up. We need to know much less of a character’s history than you think.
3) What is, in your opinion, the best way to write a synopsis?
A good synopsis doesn’t follow the plot beat-by-beat, but gathers together related story threads to explain What It’s About rather than exactly What Happens. Depending on its purpose, a synopsis can be two sentences or two pages, but I find almost any movie can be well described in a paragraph.
4) How would I show someone “studying really hard all year.” Would that be a montage?
Yes, but it sounds incredibly dull. Please avoid it.
5) Say the character starts singing a song and then all these different scenes start showing. How would I write that, considering each scene coincides with certain lyrics?
The character begins singing, then as you move through other scenes, you include the next part of the song as voice-over.
- Consider The Blair Witch Project, or Cloverfield. If either of these are spoilers, you’re officially behind on popular culture. ↩
- I’m assuming the same child actor is playing 5 and 7, or 7 and 10. ↩
Articles
July 21st, 2008 at 10:01 am
I think the best demonstration of “studying really hard all year” was in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. They jump in the phone booth, and exit seconds later looking different - facial hair, etc. - and say something like “that was a really intense 18-months of music training.”
Obviously, that’s a broad comedy, but the quick cut and tossed off exposition solved the problem.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:05 am
Always try and have a happy ending at the end of your script. If you think there is franchise potential, you can always mix the happy ending, meaning, show that there is going to be hope at the end of the movie…almost letting your audience know that the sequel is near.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:18 am
The movie Miss Congeniality did a great job of showing the protagonist’s childhood in one scene — she was like 9 or 10 years old, and beating up a boy on the playground. Cut to present day FBI agent. That’s all we needed to know. I’ve kept that intro in mind because it worked so well for me as the audience - one scene from childhood that shows the defining characteristic or fatal flaw of the protag… if the story even needs it.
July 21st, 2008 at 10:23 am
d’oh, you spoiled cloverfield!
July 21st, 2008 at 10:51 am
I think there also tends to be a lot of confusion between a “happy ending” and a “resolution”. My students always want their main character to die because to them it means not having a happy ending. I keep trying to get them to realize that they can’t just kill off their main character on a whim; they have to earn it. Give the character a complete arc that has to end in death as a resolution, not some sort of complaint of the Hollywood system.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:05 am
The Dark Knight doesn’t have what I’d call a happy ending, and that’s as Hollywood and big budget as they come. A perfect example of what John referred to as ending on “a dangerous note of uncertainty”.
July 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am
I hate it when an image gets inside my head. If CSI can make lab work look like a rock video why does “studying really hard all year.” have to be dull? I just want to see it done in the style of Rocky with upbeat music, perpiration on the character’s brow, a pencil sharpened till theres nothing left of it, running up a long flight of stairs to the library: it’ll only work for an audience of a certain age and as part of a comedy…
July 21st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I do wish that more films would dare to end on a not-so-upbeat note. Many times the happy ending feels tacked-on at the end, like it doesn’t really belong there. Having said that, I do think it is equally annoying with a tacked-on sad ending. So just write the right ending. Writing isn’t about pandering to - or sticking it to - the audience.
July 21st, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I thought we weren’t suppose to write Transitions in specs? Although I see how it serves in this example.
Question John? Do you use UPPER case or underline emphasis’, or neither?
July 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
“Always try and have a happy ending at the end of your script.”
You could be bold and put it at the beginning of the script, or the middle. What hath Pulp Fiction wrought?
July 21st, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Matt, I’d say no unnecessary transitions. If it’s not overused (and only used when it’s the most effective storytelling tool) it won’t scream amateur.
July 21st, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I was totally thinking the same thing at Batutta. I also agree 100% with Alex.
July 21st, 2008 at 7:37 pm
“Consider The Blair Witch Project, or Cloverfield. If either of these are spoilers, you’re officially behind on popular culture.”
Cloverfield?! I don’t even get to wait for mediocre B-movies now?
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 am
I’m a fan of happy endings generally but the most important thing to me is to have an ending. I hate movies where the credits roll and I’m thinking “What the? That’s it?”. Or, possibly worse, when I get ready to go and there’s another scene. Then another. I’m looking at you, Lord Of the Rings: Return Of The Many Endings. Like a good pop song, it should end when it feels like it should end.
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:40 am
Thanks John and thanks everyone for your excellent comments. John, a couple of points you made have been useful to me and the Mrs. Wiggin / Mr. Garcia example was great.
The screenplay I’ve been planning is a sort of this-is-the-consequence-of-your-actions story and it ends in a (very) bad way. I just imagine someone saying “no no this is no good, you can’t have an ending like that.” I could extend the ending to show the survivors of the catastrophe, new hope etc etc, but I feel that would weaken the impact of the ending. I could also cut it shorter and make it ambiguous, which works well in various movies, but I need a climax.
I’d heard about Cloverfield’s ending and I almost didn’t believe it. I was very surprised, which speaks to my perception of movie endings in general.
Regarding studying hard all year: following a major event in the plot, the character becomes very determined. This activity is sustained and relentless for a long period of time. I don’t want to spend too much screentime on this and I need to speed things up and arrive at the next major series of events.
I’ve probably been lazy in coming up with some of my solutions so far, but this is hard work! phew.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 am
As far as “several stages of childhood goes,” in the 90s there was a rumor that Stanley Kubrick was shooting a movie in secret with the then-child actor Joseph Mazzello, having him come back every few years to do scenes to show him actually growing up during the course of the movie. Were it true, it would have been fascinating to see.
I also hear tell that Richard Linklater is trying to do something similar now.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
The aging process will be fascinating to witness with one actor in “The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button.”
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
Ric
Sounds like what you may have there is a two act story, from your brief sketch. So in fact maybe your main character does learn the consequences of his actions and. in the third act is changed significantly? That could be downbeat but still ‘feel right’.
Just a thought…
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
First off, The Graduate a comedy?
There are other and far less boring ways to show someone studying real hard all winter than a montage. If it is truly important to your story to show it you should try and find ways to show it.
For example:
John sits down by a table in his fathers woodshack. He stares intensly at a closed book. He dons a perfect crew cut. On the floor by the table is an old treestump with an ax logged firmly in it. John breathes deeply, grabs the ax, raises it over his head and then sinks it hard into the wood stump. He then opens the book.
Cut to: John is ferouciosly reading a book. His hair has grown below his ears. The treestump has been hacked almost to sawdust, the ax still stuck in it´s remains.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am
i definitely favor the kind of time cut that Einar, Iceland recommends (details up to you). This reminds me of John’s post on how to cut pages from a too-long script, the big takeaway being that often you don’t need things that you think you need (like that montage). If you had to cut it for length, could you do it and still get your point across? The answer is almost always yes, since the audience doesn’t need to see the time pass (any more than we need to watch a pot boil). We just need to know that it passed.
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:11 pm
LEGALLY BLONDE has an entertaining “studying really hard all year” montage. It can be done.
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Your hero has a goal, if they achieve that goal that is I guess referred to as a “Happy Ending” ie, get the girl, win the race, find the remote. But what if the character’s goal is to blow up New York, killing everyone, including himself, I believe technically, that is a “happy ending” however it may not be a technical term. Though there is another way to go with it and that’s tragedy. Tragedy is not blowing up New York. Yes that is sad, but not sad to the “Hero.” A tragedy is when the character doesn’t achieve his goal OR he does achieve his goal and he realizes it wasn’t what he wanted after all. Maybe you could look at it that way instead of “sunsets and ice cream” versus “everyone dead.” I don’t know if that is helpful at all, but it’s out there if you want to use it.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Looking for a not-so-happy ending? Check out “House of Sand and Fog.” Brilliant movie, but you’ll walk away traumatized.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:23 am
I think my favorite unhappy “happy ending” is the tragic romance in Oldboy.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:33 am
I love the unhappy happy ending in The Insider. Sure he sticks it to big tobacco, but he lost his job, his marriage, etc. But… he did earn the respect of his kids, and his own self-respect.
I guess the key is to have a satisfying ending, not a happy one, though most huge commercial movies do go happy in the traditional sense. Maybe Dark Knight’s tremendous success will mean that “happy” is no longer the mandate. It’ll be interesting to see.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Hey, if A Beautiful Mind can pull off a game theory montage, there might be a chance. Of course, try not for a Rocky-style montage (only the Italian Stallion is allowed that one, but studying all year? Let’s see…I can’t immediately think of a way to make it interesting, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
And unhappy endings? As a self-professed tragedian, I humbly submit that unhappy endings are where it’s at. Donnie Darko, No Country for Old Men, and many others, people - often important people - die at the end. Simple development of a theme. When they gotta die, they gotta die. And as for The Dark Knight, that one’s interesting, too, because it’s not a traditional happy ending, but it’s still terribly inspiring and heroic, isn’t it? Does Batman win, or does he lose?
July 24th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Something many people have pointed out here is that there are various different ways something can be considered a “happy” or “bad” ending. My perspective is probably a little tainted by my longstanding frustration with “the good guys” always “winning” in the end. But that’s just one particular type of story. Regarding this type, I can’t immediately think of one, but there are also movies which play around with “who is the bad guy or good guy?” Those can be good.
Regarding “bad” endings, as some have commented, there are also: tragedies, and stories where the protagonist perishes, and stories with negatively ambiguous endings (which are often simply tools to lead directly into a sequel e.g. Empire Strikes Back and, I believe, Dark Knight). I find that “Protagonist Perishes” endings are also often “good triumphs over evil” stories. Negatively Ambiguous endings intended as sequel lead-ins are really just used to get people desperate for a sequel. As for tragedies, the question is “do tragedies sell?” I think, yes they do, but at the same time we don’t live in Ancient Greece. I am however no expert in film or drama or storytelling, so my perceptions on these things maybe a little (or a lot) askew.
Again, some have said here that even the perspective of what is a negative ending or a positive ending can be looked at from many angles. That has been a good brain exercise for me. I guess in my clumsy way I was thinking more along the lines of: does a commercial movie have to, not only have a resolution, but also leave the viewers feeling good about themselves? Or with a sense of “good triumphs over evil” or “things always work themselves out in the end?” Terminator 2 and Donnie Darko are possibly my two favourite movies. Both have sad (to me) endings but both also have, what I would call, “good triumphs over evil” / “things always work themselves out in the end” endings. People don’t mind so much that somebody dies, because bad people/entities got their due and “ah, the natural order of things has been restored.”
But I’m coming from the perspective of a person who, as a kid, was always rooting for people like Darth Vadar and never once got closure on that. And why does Skynet always have to lose all the time!? Sure, movies that show “The Empire” dominating the “galaxy” for most of the time are great and all; but I just sit there knowing that at some point the namby pamby, goody-too-shoes “Luke Skywalker” character, or at least the “Force” that he represents, is going to win out at the end of the film (or during the painfully inevitable sequel).
Sorry for venting.
A big thankyou for those who pointed out the “Tragedy” type of story. I didn’t initially think of that, despite my own screenplay story actually being a form of tragedy; that is, rather than straight up non-happy ending. But again I pose the question: do tragedies sell? I don’t mean that in a rhetorical way. Not being the enormous film/culture buff some who read these things most likely are, I feel a little underqualified to make a call on that.
As for my own screenplay, just for the record, I don’t think it’s particularly commercial. So it probably may never get made. My first thought was to write a modern day / very near future “Frankenstein’s Monster” story but conceptually it quickly moved away from that and has turned into a “personal opinion vehicle” covering various themes ranging from “the dangers of genetic engineering” to “in real life there are no super-heroes, only self-sacrifice.” It probably sounds interesting right now; but I assure you, my story/writing skills don’t do it justice. I’m doing it more as a “learn how to write dialogue” exercise.
I just realised I write too many quotation marks / inverted commas.
July 24th, 2008 at 7:27 am
@Melvin
Thanks for your great comment. I’ve decided to go with a small montage + additional small dialogue scenes combination. For my particular purpose, I realised that using too large a montage cut out a huge character development opportunity. I’m also using the time-cut as suggested here. So, I am keeping a montage. I believe in “execution over idea” so as long as it’s done right, a montage can be okay. My montage involves heavy metal music and people/books pushed over, so it might hold interest for a second or two.
Good to see a tragedian! Despite what I said in the last post I’m not a tragedy-seeking, nihilistic masochist (lol). I enjoy happy endings (and comedies and romances) as well; but it’s good to see tragedians (what a crazy word that is). Also despite my previous post, I agree, The Dark Knight had a… (okay, how do I say I like the ending without using a synonym of “good”) …ah …yes, I agree with you!
July 24th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Regarding question 1:
Your example of Aliens and Titanic are great in demonstrating how James Cameron is able to end his films with a resolution but not a full stop. There more so seems to be an ellipsis, where life does continue after the credits roll.
This is not to imply that he is always writing films to be sequel-friendly, simply that the worlds he has created (another great example being the Terminator films) are so broad and huge in concept that no film or films can completely depict all the dramas within them. There are so many things happening off screen that are only implied, eg. Skynet in the Terminator films, that we as an audience are given things to ponder after the film is over. ie. THE FILM IS NOT SPELT OUT FOR US.
The best recent example of this is, of course, The Dark Knight. Cynics may say that the ending was just setting up for a sequel (which I am not necessarily denying), but it did more than that: it gave the audience something to talk and even argue about in post-film discussion. The ending was not tacked on, but a logical extension and conlusion to all that had come before it. We feel that Gotham City and Batman lives on.
July 24th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Wow, first John spoils Cloverfield and then commenters spoil the spoiler! Kind of a bummer, but I doubt you watch Cloverfield for the ending (I wouldn’t know, I haven’t seen it yet).
But this raises a question: when is it okay to openly reference a surprising plot point of a movie? I don’t think anybody has a problem with the Blair Witch reference, and I’m sure talking about the Crying Game is finally okay
But Cloverfield still feels a bit too fresh to talk about. I’d say the grace period for popular movies is at least a year.
July 25th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Well Cloverfield is one thing, but just so you now, The Dark Knight hasn’t opened in Europe yet…
July 25th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
@Ric: I think you have a good question. Do tragedies have a place in modern society, or are they best left behind in Ancient Greece? Well, here’s my answer, at least. Tragic endings, that’s something that’s still a bit fuzzy, but tragic beginnings are most definitely well-used in contemporary film. Think Batman. His parents are murdered in front of his eyes, and he blames and berates himself for years before donning the mantle of the bat (and, if you read the comics, it continues to be his main driving force and major regret after many, many years). I myself am working currently on a screenplay that involves quite a tragic tale, so I’ll give you my perspective. In contemporary works, the tragedy is rare but more often than not garners quite a bit of popularity or following. However, we mostly see it in theater and not in movies. I believe that the more emotionally evocative a film is, and the depth of emotions felt by the audience, is one of the major tells of a good or bad movie. Because of its rarity, tragedies can often either surprise or evoke emotions that some films can’t get to. In a script I’m working on, mostly all of the significant characters (minus the protagonist) have tragic stories, and I plan on have the protagonist himself experience a mixed ending (sure, he wins, but at what cost?). I value this idea highly and chose to write the script because it evokes so many emotions of sadness in me, and I think it has something important to say. Contemporary tragedy often foregoes the “fatal flaw,” and leaves the tragic ending up to an unstoppable force, and that’s sort of my story. The original tragedies tried to teach a lesson (be as foolish as Creon, and your whole family will kill themselves, too), and I think that’s still a worthy effort. In my script, one of the characters (not the protagonist), despite being hated by the public, chooses to sacrifice her life for a belief in something larger than herself, even though she knows that no one will appreciate the act or even care what happens…which is all I’m going to say. Definitely a worthy moral, and taught as only tragedies can teach.
August 8th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Wow. I just found your blog totally by accident. I didn’t know you had one. Well, I’ve loved everything you’ve written and your site’s a gold mine. Thanks a lot for being here.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:15 am
“slaked” - just perfect.