John August

QandA

Characters w/ multiple names

Formatting, QandA

I have a character name question. Without giving anything away, I wrote a
screenplay that involves one character that has to use two names during the
duration of the script. You could probably say the same for when Superman or
Batman are Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne. What I was doing was just using the name
that the character is at that time.
My question is – am I right? I figured since I give an explanation a head
of time, that I could easily just call the character by his name or alias,
and there would be no confusion.

–Andy

You’re right in assuming that the most important thing is to avoid confusing
the reader. Every script finds its own way of doing things, so there’s no hard
and fast rule. If I were writing the next BATMAN, I suspect I would call use "Bruce
Wayne" when refering to the awkward billionaire, and "Batman" when
refering to the Caped Crusader. In a movie like this, the two different versions
of the character rarely appear in the same scene, so it would probably be less
confusing.

In the case of a movie like TOOTSIE, I’ve never read the original script,
but I suspect that when Dustin Hoffman’s character is dressed as either a man
or a woman, the script refers to him as Michael. When he’s in drag, his dialogue
headers probably read like, "MICHAEL (as DOROTHY)" to make it clear
which persona he’s playing at the time.

In the case of a movie like FIGHT CLUB (warning, spoilers
follow), since
the reveal that Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are actually the same person comes
so late in the story, you would obviously treat them like two completely separate
people.

Surviving development hell

Producers, QandA

I just signed my first option agreement for one of my spec
scripts and am starting work developing and rewriting the screenplay with the
producer’s development personnel,
which is all very exciting, but also a bit scary, as I’m wary of them damaging
the script. Any tips on how to survive the process or any good
stories from development hell?

–Jay

The best advice I can give you is to keep an open mind as you’re talking with
them, and not to commit to any changes during a meeting. Remember that they
can only offer suggestions about what they’d like to see changed, not how to
actually do it. That’s your job. Any damage done to the script will be your
doing, not theirs.

A lot of times, I’ll encounter a note that seems idiotic or unworkable. But
the more I talk with the note-givers, I begin to understand what they’re really
getting at. Maybe something that I think is obvious simply isn’t clear, or
the problem isn’t with the scene itself, but how much it’s ultimately going
to cost to film.

Try to make every meeting a real conversation, rather than a session of attack-and-defend.
The ability to look at your work objectively and impassively takes a lot of
time to develop, but it’s a skill that will ultimately make your scripts stronger.

Ratio of pages to screen time

QandA, Words on the page

How do you (roughly) calculate the ratio of script length to screen time?
Would you use a different calculation for different genres?

–Rebecca

The very general rule is that a page in the script should equal a minute of screen time, which is one reason the industry has standardized around 12-point Courier for the font. Since most screenplays are around 120 pages, the movie should work out to be 120 minutes, or two hours, assuming every scene in the script makes it into the movie.

Of course, a page full of action would likely take longer than a minute, just as a page of rapid-fire dialogue would be a lot faster. That’s why before a movie goes into production, the script is often “timed” to estimate how long the movie will be, so the director and producers can plan accordingly.

A “script timer” is a professional reader who estimates how long each scene will play, and thus, the length of the overall movie. Generally, the script timer will take into account the director’s vision and style when timing the scenes; the David Lynch version of a scene would tend to run longer than the Michael Bay version.

Many script timers are in fact the script supervisors, who will be set during the entire production helping the director, actors and editors maintain continuity and catch mistakes. From the screenwriter’s perspective, this is one of the most important people on the set, since he or she always has the director’s ear, and will be the person correcting actors who mangle their lines.

Are characters based on people you know?

Go, QandA

As a writer, do you worry about everyone in your life thinking characters
are based on them?

–Dari

Surprisingly, the issue almost never comes up. I guess that means either,
(a) everyone in my life has already accepted that something they say or do
might someday end up on screen, or (b) they’re angry and repressing their rage.

A writer is inevitably going to borrow ideas from real life, both consciously
and unconsciously. With me, it’s dialogue. I’ll hear somebody say something
perfect and immediately jot it down on one of a hundred tiny slips of paper.
(Probably half of the time, I’ve actually misheard what they said, the same
way song lyrics seem much more poetic when you can’t quite make them out.)

But I’m pretty careful to never completely base a character on somebody I
know, especially not a close friend or family member. It’s just not worth the
potential grief.

Of the scripts I’ve written, GO was closest to using actual true people and
events. Tiny (played by Breckin Meyer) was inspired by Anthony Satariano, the
sports editor of my high school paper, who was a white kid talking black way
back in 1988. The food poisoning from shrimp at a Las Vegas buffet happened
to my friend Wende in 1993, while the hotel room fire is a possibly apocryphal
story related to me by my friend Tom
Smith. (No, it didn’t happen to him.)

It’s worth noting that of all these incidents, the only one I asked permission
to use was Tom’s, probably because he’s a writer himself, and might have been
saving it for one of his own projects. He was gracious enough to let me have
it.

Another factor which reduces the "Is-That-Based-On-Me?" tension
is that a lot of the projects I work on already have some form of source material,
be it a book, a TV show or whatnot. For example, my screenplay for BIG FISH
involves a lot of my experience watching my father die, and my frustration
at trying to get to know him. But the fact that it’s ultimately based on Daniel
Wallace’s book makes it easier for my family and everyone else to get some
emotional distance, and differentiate the movie-dad from my actual dad.