Martin Sadofski is a playwright and screenwriter. His
first play ‘Outside of Heaven’ premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
After that he spent two years as writer in residence at the National Theatre.
He has had many single dramas broadcast for the BBC
and ITV and worked for Miramax as a script
doctor. Here he offers Go
Viral competition entrants some brilliant script writing tips. He writes:
There isn’t much time
here. So the idea you have has to matter. The viewer has to care and care
quickly. So in short get to the point of your short fast! Some tips to
consider.
1. Keep it simple.
You can’t establish a lot
with complicate setups. In scripts this short it is good to think about adverts
that tell stories. They do this well and don’t hang about. My advice is to go
for one character and stay focussed on them. Can you pitch the idea in a lift
to someone who is going up one floor?
This is the classic Hollywood elevator pitch test. Can you quickly tell
the story in few lines and make the producer in the lift go WOW!
2. Define your hero.
Find something in your hero in which everyone can relate to, something universal. Quickly make them
unique and different. In fact, if they're not, why write them? Give that character an action or have them
make a choice. This is a dilemma and
audiences root for a character who has a dilemma - let the audience know right away who’s story
this is.
3. Start strong and end strong.
Whenever you go to
festivals or you’re surfing online, I bet you know in the first ten seconds if you’re hooked.
First impressions are everything. Do something right off the bat that grabs
your audience's attention. As I said earlier, your hero needs to be defined
quickly. Why not have your hero do something unexpected. It will let your audience
know who he is, and it will grab their attention.
And remember that last
impressions are lasting. Be sure to end with some sort of emotional punch. If
you're doing a comedy, end on a laugh. Whatever your tone, make sure you give
the audience a final impression that will keep them thinking about your short.
4. Once upon a time...
Tell the story to
yourself like your telling a fairy story.
Fairy stories cut to the chase. They stay on story, they don’t describe
anything else but the immediate action.
That’s why “Goldilocks was walking through the woods when she found a
cottage. She went inside and found three bowls of porridge.” Is better than “ It was lovely sunny day, the
birds were whistling and the sky was blue. Along came a small thin girl with
yellow hair and freckles who loved life and.... “ ZZZZZZZ. It’s a screenplay not a novel! Screenplays are about action. Characters in
a screenplay are ONLY defined by the actions they take. SHOW DONT TELL. Is a good mantra to have. Don’t
tell me that Billy loves his mum – show me.
5. What happens next?
The audience only care
about one thing. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Don’t have a character hanging about doing nothing. Make things happen to them – put them in
jeopardy. Excite the audience. And it doesn’t have to be an action film. A
small film about boy meets girl still needs
action, inciting incidents. Setbacks, arguments. Resolution.
6. What does the hero
want? What’s stopping him getting it?
This will drive the
action of the plot. And its good to keep it in mind. It drives your story.
Winnie the Pooh wants the honey. The bees are out to stop him. How does Pooh
fool the bees get the honey? That’s a classic three act structure. A character wants something – Indiana Jones wants to find the ark. So do the Nazis. Its a race. Who will
win? I’m hooked.
7. Desire.
It’s hard to get involved
in a film if the story has no meaning. A
character needs to be tested. The thing that they want should mean the world to
them. If they care about it we will care about it. Charlie wants to find a
golden ticket because more than anything he wants to get inside that chocolate
factory. Great characters will suffer
anything to get their prize.
8. The Hemmingway
principle.
Hemmingway wisely said
“the first draft of anything is shit.”
So rewrite and rewrite again. And each time cut anything that holds up
getting to the next scene.
9. No one is black and
white.
Make your characters
flawed. Make your villain likeable, make your hero a jerk sometimes. In short
make your characters human.
10. Hitchcock
 |
| Pictured: A still from Hitchcock's Rebecca. |
Alfred Hitchcock said:
“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.”
So keep it short. Fascinating and end it with a surprise.
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Excellent tips, Victoria, thanks for sharing. I run a small Boston video production company, and I think one of the most important principles, as you have outlined, is keeping it simple. Too often for video production projects clients want too much and it takes away from their brand and messaging. As they say, "less is more," especially in this day and age.
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