John August

QandA

Secondary scene headings

Formatting, QandA

questionmarkI have a very simple question that has to do with secondary scene headings. I know this differs writer to writer, but let’s say you have a character who walks into a closet — how do you label it in the script? Is it:

INT. CLOSET – MOMENTS LATER

INT. HOUSE – CLOSET – MOMENTS LATER

THE CLOSET

What is the best way to go? Thanks in advance.

–Dustin Tash
The Oreogod

Of course, there’s no one best answer that’s appropriate for every situation. In most cases, I would opt for the first format, without the "moments later," which I generally save for a minor time cut. So it would look like:

INT. CLOSET – DAY

This is assuming the character is in the closet long enough for there to really be a scene. That is, a few lines, or at least some dialogue. Anything less, and I might not break out the closet at all, and just let the scene description handle the location:

After searching the room from top to bottom, Jamie steps into the dark closet and begins pulling boxes off the shelves.

When in doubt, use the simplest form that works for the moment.

Third-party storytelling

Adaptation, QandA

I recently graduated from college with a film and video degree. The one thing
I can’t get anyone to answer is on adaptation. I have asked people ranging
from well known screenwriters, feature film producers and so on. They always
dance around my question!

I am writing a screenplay based on a true-life story,
but my information is coming from a non-fiction book that tells the story.
Much like THE PERFECT STORM in the way that it is told by a third party writer
of the facual events. What is the process that I need to go through to get
the
rights,
without
putting me in debt for life?

–Scott Adams

The reason people are dancing around the question is because there are so
many variables in each situation. A blanket answer probably would be false
as often as it is true. I can talk you through a very general scenario that
will give you an idea of the issues involved, but an experienced attorney will
ultimately need to get involved.

The first two questions this person would ask are:

To what degree are you basing the project on the book, versus public domain
material? In the case of THE PERFECT STORM, the movie is very clearly
based on Sebastian Junger’s book, relying on his research, characterization
and storytelling structure. The producers paid Junger money – in this case,
quite a lot of money – for the right to adapt his book into a motion picture.
Even though the people and events depicted are non-fiction, it’s Junger’s unique
telling of the story that makes it literary material. Junger controls the copyright and
all subsidiary rights (such as making a movie).

Other producers might make a movie
about the same maritime tragedy without buying the book rights. But the job
would be a lot more difficult. First, they
would have to document all their research – every interview, every article
– to defend themselves against a possible lawsuit by Junger and THE PERFECT
STORM’S producers. These interviews would be more difficult than you think,
because Junger probably
made contracts with the key people involved
in the story, so that they couldn’t cooperate with other writers. Finally,
the rival producers would need to come up with an original storytelling structure
that doesn’t mirror Junger’s.

It sounds difficult, but it’s not an impossible task. An example is OUTBREAK,
which was produced by Arnold Kopelson for Warner Brothers. He and producer
Lynda Obst were both trying to buy the rights to "Crisis in the Hot Zone" an
article about an ebola scare that would eventually become a best-selling novel.
Obst ended up winning the rights, but undaunted, Kopelson developed a fictionalized
version and got it into production first. The "real" version never
ended up being filmed.

Are the characters in your movie based on real people, even if the names or
some details are different? If so, you face problems of defamation, libel and
invasion of privacy, among other complications. This topic is an entire semester
in college, so I won’t try to summarize the details and defenses. But know
that you’ll have to tread carefully. For instance, Kimberly Pierce’s BOYS DON’T
CRY faced legal action from one of the women portrayed in the movie, because
the film placed her at an event she denies witnessing. And 60 Minutes reporter
Mike Wallace was none too thrilled about his depiction in THE INSIDER.

Don’t take this as saying you can never use real-life people in your story.
Just remember that it’s complicated.

After asking yourself these two questions, answer honestly: Are you adapting
events, or are you adapting a book? If the answer is the latter, you need to
option the rights.

Are you including real-life people in your story? If so, you need a plan for
addressing the potential challenges they may bring.

I hope this helps.

Writing is hard

Psych 101, QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI’ve been busy
writing a script, and I have the whole idea mapped out in my head. But for
some reason, my writing doesn’t seem to flow. I struggle to get from one point
to the next. Is this normal? If I go back through the script
again after I’ve jotted down my rough dialogue, will it flow then? Do you do
a quick rough draft before you get into the real writing?

–Bob

answer iconWell, are you a good writer? I ask because it sounds like this is your first
screenplay, and there’s every chance you’re a terrible writer. It’s my experience
that most people in Los Angeles feel like they could write a good movie. The
reason why most of them aren’t successful screenwriters is that they’re really
aren’t good writers.

It’s easy to see how they get mislead: If you read a script, you’d think any
monkey could do it. Most monkeys can’t.

I’m not picking on you, honestly. I hope you’re a terrific writer who’s just
realizing how incredibly difficult screenwriting can be. It’s great when the
writing flows, but most of the time, it doesn’t. You work your ass off to get
to the end of a sentence, then start another. You end up deleting scenes that
took you four hours to write, then rewriting entire scripts based on problems
you should have spotted before you even started writing.

It’s not grueling, back-breaking labor like building a road, but it is labor.
It’s exhausting. And while Final Draft might make formatting your script easier,
it’s still just as hard to write.

Often, when I approach a scene, I will do a quick rough draft, by which I
mean all of a scene’s crucial dialogue lines scribbled on the back of an envelope.
It’s mostly just to get the shape of the scene, but it is "real" writing
just as much as the endless tweaking that will inevitably be entailed.

Above all this, I would stress: Don’t wait for flow. It might come; it might
not. But it’s your job to keep writing anyway.

Process of writing

QandA, Writing Process

Briefly, could you explain to me your process of writing?
How long does it take you to write a full screenplay?
Do you listen to any music when you write?

–Justin Benton

Not only does every writer have a different process for getting words on the
page, but the process often varies from project to project. Generally, most
of the scripts I write have a long gestation period before a single scene is
written. Since a lot of the movies I work on are studio assignments, there
are inevitably a half-dozen meetings with producers, directors and studio executives
before we "commit" on exactly what I’ll be writing.

I’ve written first drafts of screenplays in as little as three weeks, and
as long as six months. As I’ve gotten more experience as a screenwriter, I’ve
become much better at estimating how long it will take me to write a script,
much like an experienced contractor will have a better idea how long it takes
to build a house. In general, most studio contracts will list 12 weeks for
a first draft, so I’d have to guess most writers could hand in a draft that
fast.

Being easily distracted, I never listen to music as I’m writing, though I’ll
often have music I use to get in the mood for a particular scene or sequence.