John August

QandA

Voice-overs

Formatting, QandA

I have noticed that many films seem to depend on voice-overs,
especially films adapted from novels, I worry about overusing voice over in
my own script writing
because it seems like a kind of compensation when one can’t write the action
of a scene, or translate a character’s thoughts into a compelling visual. What
guidelines would you suggest for writing voice-overs?

–CIM

Voice-overs have a bad reputation for exactly the reasons you cite. Often,
one senses that that writer didn’t do a good job finding visuals and dialogue
to tell the story, and thus fell back on the voice-over as a crutch. And it’s
an especially pervasive problem with movies based on books, because the voice-over
is often the easiest way to translate prose to the screen.

My advice – nothing revolutionary – is to do everything you can to plan out
your story without using any voice-over at all. That means creating scenes that give the important information while moving the story forward, and using
images and moments in place of explanation.

But there are some instances where a voice-over is appropriate. BIG FISH,
which I adapted from a novel by Daniel Wallace, uses voice-over extensively,
because the movie is about unraveling the elaborate stories that a man tells.
Since storytelling is at the center of the movie, it makes sense that characters
will be narrating these tales, both on-camera and off.

What’s important is that voice-over should never replace actual scenes, nor
should it be redundant to what we do see. If a character opens a box and finds
a gun inside, the voice-over shouldn’t say, "When I opened the box, I
found a gun inside." That voice-over adds nothing, except an explanation
for the blind. But if the voice-over had said, "My uncle had many ways
of keeping us in check," then you would have changed the dynamic of the
scene in an interesting way.

Another important factor is which character is doing the voice-over. Whoever
you pick will automatically get elevated to Most Important Character status
unless you deliberately state otherwise (such as THE PRINCESS BRIDE, which
is narrated by a character outside of the world). Just make sure that whoever
gets voice-over power is worth the investment.

Finally, a pet peeve. In my opinion, movies should either use voice-over throughout
or not at all. If a movie starts with a voice-over, then never uses it again,
I get frustrated waiting for it to come back. Similarly, a voice-over that
just kicks in at the end is bewildering, because it seems to break the rules
of the movie I just watched.

Where to find scripts

Education, QandA

How can I get my hands on the screenplays to movies I like (that aren’t mega-blockbusters)?

–Andrea

There are a few good sources online, such as Script-O-Rama,
which can point you to other places to check out. Most of these sites have
scripts you can download for free –
which is technically a violation of copyright, but is largely overlooked. These
sites do lean more towards blockbuster or science-fiction movies, however,
so if you’re looking for OUT OF AFRICA, you may be Out of Luck.

If you happen to be visiting Los Angeles, you can visit the Margaret Herrick
Library on La Cienega. It’s run by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(the Oscar people), and has an amazing screenplay collection. You’ll have to
read the scripts on-premises, however, and the whole place has disquieting
feel to it, like an occult bookstore run by the Swiss.

For award-winning or indie-favorite movies, it’s worth trying Amazon or one
of the other on-line bookstores to see if the script has been published. Often,
you’ll find that even if the book version hasn’t come out in the U.S., it has
in the U.K.

Finally, if you’re considering working in Hollywood, you should know that
all the agencies and most producers have pretty extensive script libraries,
so an added bonus of an internship is the chance to read a bunch of great material.
USC’s film school has a great script library, but you have to be a student
there.

Incidentally, whatever script you do get your hands on, make sure you know
exactly what kind of script you’re reading. Generally, you’ll find three types:
the original spec script, which is what the writer wrote before it was produced;
the final continuity script, which reflects all the changes made during production;
and a transcript, which is simply a write-up of the movie, often made by an
overzealous fan.

Of the three types, the spec script is generally the most useful for a writer
to read, because it best reflects the intention and craft of the original screenwriter.
The final continuity script – which you can recognize because it has scene
numbers in the margins and odd breaks halfway down the page – is often something
of a Frankenstein monster, with hastily written descriptions by the script
supervisor of what the actors actually did in a scene, or lines they improvised.
And a transcript is more or less useless except as a quick reference, or a
typing exercise.

Collaborating with multiple writers

QandA, Writing Process

Just recently
my friends and I have decided to make a short film. We have elected to individually
write several scenes for this short film, then combine them when complete.
Is this advisable, or is there foreseeable problems, such as writing styles,
continuity etc? How hard is it to co-write scripts?

–Mark B

I’ve never written with a partner, so my only experience in co-writing comes
from the two television shows I’ve created, in which I needed to work with
other writers to come up with episodes. In those cases, I was clearly the guy
in charge, so the experience was only collaborative up to the point where we
disagreed. Then, I always won.

Unless you and your friends are remarkably (dare I say pathologically) sensitive
to each other’s talents and feelings, I think you are in for trouble. While
filmmaking is ultimately collaborative, with up to hundreds of people working
on a movie, the writing process is inherently pretty solitary. You’re not just
pushing around words on paper; you’re pushing ideas around in your brain. And
the more brains you try to distribute this conceptual process between, the
more muddled the ideas become.

I’m not saying your short film is doomed. But I really doubt it’s going to
turn out better for this novel approach. I’d recommend you and your friends
talk through all of your ideas at length, and then let one person actually
write the script. Everyone can offer feedback and suggestions, but the best
writer among you should be the keeper of the keyboard.

Action writing

QandA, Words on the page

Say you were writing the script to an action flick–LETHAL
WEAPON, for instance. When you get to the part where Mel Gibson and Gary Busey
are trouncing
each
other at the end of the movie, do you write a blow-by-blow account of the fight
in the stage directions, or do you just write "Gibson and Busey trounce
each other for a while, and Mel wins," and let the director/choreographer
worry about the details?
I’ve always wondered about that concerning the action
scenes in movies, like fights and gun battles and car chases and such.

–Roger

There’s a common misconception that a screenwriter only writes the dialogue,
while the director handles the rest. Being a guy who writes a lot of action
sequences, I can say definitively that’s not the case — at least not in the
21st century.

Supposedly, when the screenplay for GONE WITH THE WIND got to the climactic
fire scene, it stated only this: “Atlanta burns.” Just two words,
but in the movie the sequence took several minutes.

In modern screenplays, at least those that make it into production, the action
written on the page pretty closely matches the action on-screen. A fight sequence
will almost never be written blow-for-blow, but will at the minimum give
a sense of the action, the stakes and the most important moments within the
battle. If you don’t believe me, flip through the script to THE MATRIX, which
you can find in most bookstores. The Wachowski brothers don’t label each punch
and kick, but reading the script, you get a very good idea what the fight sequences
will look like.

The same holds true with almost any action sequence you can think of. In GO,
I spend half a page describing the chase down the alley in Vegas, in which
the Riviera gets stuck sideways. Everyone reading the script — producers,
the director, studio executives — could see exactly how funny the moment would
be, which is how such an expensive and time-consuming stunt stayed in the budget.
Otherwise, it would have been the first thing cut.

The danger with properly-described action sequences is that if they’re not
written very deftly, they can slow down the read immensely. That’s why I spend
at least as much time working on these moments as the dialogue scenes. They’re
much less glamorous, and honestly, more difficult to write. But the ability
to write interesting and economical scene description is what distinguishes
the screenwriter from the playwright.

That, and the weird “gh” in the name. If a playwright writes for
plays, shouldn’t a screenwright write for screens?