Words on the page

The visual effects in CHARLIE’S ANGELS are dazzling. Did you write this into the script, or was it the work of the director? Could you please advise on how to write those slow motion shots?

–Lawrence

The writer’s job is to communicate whatever is seen or heard on screen, and that includes effects. The best way to do this is usually to visualize the scene in your head, and do the best job you can describing it efficiently and compellingly.

Obviously, the director, along with the cinematographer and visual effects supervisor, are going to have the final say about what the effects look like. But until these people come along, the writer is all those jobs, so you need to do what you can.

Regarding slow motion, we’ll start with a lesson in cinematography. To achieve slow-motion, the camera runs at a speed faster than the usual 24 frames per second, often at an even increment like 48 or 96 frames per second. Then, when the film is played back at normal speed (24 fps), the action appears to be slowed down. More than that: it often has a somewhat dreamy, sexy quality that makes car crashes and pretty-girls-getting-out-of-pools extra appealing.

In order to achieve this effect in a screenplay, I add extra vowels and consonants to words. So instead of writing:

The Thug fires four rounds at Maxwell.

I write:

Thheee Thhhuugg ffiirrees fooouurr rrrounds attt Maxxxxwweelllll.

I’m kidding. Please don’t do this.

Instead, at the start of a scene that really, really needs to be slow-motion to make sense, I’ll add the phrase, “in SLOW-MOTION,” to one of the action sentences. So the sentence might read, “In SLOW-MOTION, the Thug fires off four rounds at Maxwell, whose fingers just reach the button in time.”

In the CHARLIE’S ANGELS: FULL THROTTLE, I wrote:

Handing off an UNCONSCIOUS MAN to PARAMEDICS, firefighter Alex pulls off her helmet to set loose a slow-motion cascade of black hair.

That time I didn’t capitalize “slow-motion,” because there were already a lot of words in all-caps. And I’ve been known to write, “in super bad-ass slow-motion” if that’s really the feeling I’m going for.

When you are writing a screenplay, how do you manage
to focus on originality and avoid a multitude of clichés just
slipping into the story some how?

–Christian

In the writer’s ongoing battle against clichés, he finds two basic
enemies: verbal clichés ("as easy as taking candy from a baby"),
and story clichés (the explosive with a count-down LED timer).

Eliminating the first kind is simply a matter of recognizing them and finding
something better to replace them. I work incredibly hard on the narrative description
in my scripts, tweaking it at least as much as the dialogue. With vigilance,
the night never has to be "as black as coal" or "as cold as
a witch’s tit."

The story clichés are harder to deal with, because certain genres carry
them along like parasites. Action movies sometimes have the ticking time bomb,
or mismatched partners, or heroes who somehow avoid being hit when a hundred
bullets are flying their direction.

The key — and this starts in the conception phase of the script — is recognizing
the inherent clichés in a genre, and figuring out how you’re going to
handle them. SCREAM did a masterful job pointing out, subverting, and ultimately
fulfilling teen-slasher clichés.

Sometimes, the best way to avoid story clichés is to look at the reality
behind every character, every setting, every decision made in your story. Is
Carla Ann really "a hooker with a heart of gold?" On closer inspection,
she might be a nervous, self-deprecating dreamer.

Does the police station need a squad room full of desks and detectives milling
about? Maybe your scene could take place in a courtyard, or by the photocopier,
or in the cafeteria.

Clichés are shortcuts. The more you avoid taking them, the more interesting
the places you’ll end up.

Writing for VFX

Avoiding cliches