Hey!
We're back after a nice long weekend, and, sadly, I'm now a year older. Yup, a lot can happen in a weekend. Today we were going to be out filming a silly fake trailer for a superhero film, but there was too much rain. Hopefully we'll have it done before the end of the week and we can post it for your entertainment.
In the meantime, here's the next part (part 5) from the writersroom seminar the other week...
EMOTION
When you're writing a screenplay, it needs to matter at a human level. What I mean by that is that the characters and their individual stories need to be more important than the "concept" behind the film. This obviously links in with what we were saying about character in the last blog, but refers more to the journey that you take your characters through than the characters themselves.
A good way to do this is by showing the vulnerabilities in your characters - the chinks in their armour. A great example of this is the film "Leon", which is one of my favourite movies of all time...
The main character is a cold-blooded assassin, who cares about no-one and lives a life of solitude, but everything changes when he decides to save the life of his next-door neighbour - a young girl. As the film goes on we get more and more glimpses into the true vulnerability of Leon's character, and the emotional journey he goes through. If you've not seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
Essentially, the best scripts/movies (really, the best stories) should generate a physical response as you read/watch them - whether it be laughing out loud at the jokes, getting goosebumps at the revelations, holding back a tear at the sad bits, looking cautiously around the room at the scary bits, involuntary gripping of the armrests during a tense scene, or, best of all, combinations of all of these things and more. You can't get any of this if the audience don't care about the characters, and there's no point aspiring to anything less than this. If this is not your goal, you're wasting your time, and if it is, then check your scripts back afterwards and be sure you're generating the feeling you want your readers to feel.
Peace for now!
L.
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