Getting It Wrong

Goldcrest - the British film company which helped produce Chariots of Fire, Local Hero and Gandhi - was involved in movies with 40 Academy Award nominations and 19 Oscar wins in six years . It collapsed because in its final year it depended on the success of three films. There was, of course, more to it than that but if those films had done well the Goldcrest we knew could have carried on.

Absolute Beginners failed miserably at the box office and with most critics. Revolution did just as poorly. The Mission did not do well enough to rescue the company. In each case the fault lay in large part with the script.

Jake Eberts, Goldcrest founder, said:

• of Revolution -  "You could not avoid the fact that the picture had no story and there was no relationship between the two leads."

• of The Mission - "It just wasn't coherent. Even today, after I have seen the film maybe six or eight times in its final form, I still don't feel that it is absolutely clear what is going on."

• of Absolute Beginners - "It was the script's fault - it just wasn't coherent ..."

[Quotations from 'My Indecision Is Final' by Jake Eberts and Terry Ilott (Faber & Faber, 1990)]

Where professionals go wrong, how can we succeed?

Scripting is one area in which amateur and professional work on a level playing field. No amount of budget helps: it is all down to the writer/s. What Hollywood pays for in scriptwriters is facility, the talent to produce a good script quickly. As amateurs we need not be under the same pressure of deadlines. What we do need, however, is the realisation that scripting needs thinking, and thinking is hard, hard work.

The initial idea for a story is often the simplest part. Many groups start production the moment they have that thought pinned down. The result is usually pedestrian at best, often downright awful. Other moviemakers stick with the same basic idea and elaborate everything round it, often going to a great deal of work to create props, dress locations, organise fancy crane shots - one can admire the effort but not the result.

Keep Plotting On

What you need is more than one plot, or rather, more than one layer of plot.

Underlying the production you might have a deeper theme, usually a generalised moral lesson.

These can be stated in cliche terms like "pride comes before a fall", "don't put all your eggs in one basket", "do as you would be done by", "don't put your faith in false prophets" and so on. This is not intended to be obvious to the audience but it can act as a helpful guide to everyone concerned in sorting out the other plot layers and production planning. (e.g. the set designer or lighting director might handle scenes differently for the prideful parts and the fall - though the audience may not pick up on it directly the subtle influence will still play its part in supporting the real story.

The main plot is almost always an extremely simple concept:  hero has a goal in mind, villain frustrates attempts at reaching it on three occasions; each confrontation is bigger than the one before; finally hero succeeds (only just) if it is a comedy or fails if it is a tragedy. That's it.

The goal may be to win the heart of another, to succeed in a business plan, to save a whale ... the villain may be an individual, organisation or sometimes just life ... (Mr. Bean often faces problems caused not by a baddie but just by things going wrong. That said it is almost always better to have a villain that can be personified, it gives the audience something to identify.)

The shrewd will already have spotted that such a plot actually has two levels of challenge: reaching the goal will be tough in any case; adding deliberate interference by a villain makes it harder.

There should then be at least one, sometimes more, levels of plot. The essential one is the human story. Characters need to be as real as possible. A small child's puppet play may get by with a character acting nasty "just 'cos he's mean" but adults need more justification.

Having established the main plot you need to sort out why the people in it act as they do. What makes the goal desirable?  Why should the villain oppose it?  Professional actors often spend weeks working to understand their roles. Film and tv smooth-villain Patrick Malahide is famous for quizzing writers at great length about the background and motivation of the characters he plays. Does it matter whether the actor has an impression of the character's childhood, schooldays, adolescent romances?  Yes. Nothing of those may appear in the dialogue or action but they will inform it. They will add complexity and depth to the characters. They will guide the choice of wardrobe, type of speech, style of living - even their way of walking.

Other plots may be visual: as the hero gets nearer his goal so the camera may tend to look up at him rather than down. When things go well the action may take place against positive colours - light pastels, cheery greens and red; when badly against blacks and browns. They may be aural: when the hero starts his or her voice may be drowned in background sounds; as success is achieved it stands out more until the end when it is almost the only audible element. Musical: changing from major to minor to match development of the main plot. Editing plots reflect in pace of cutting and changes of angle the stages of the main plot.

And so on.

Who Creates The Script?

The script is, therefore, a matter of vital concern to everyone involved in a production. They should all contribute to it. Much of what is argued about may never appear in the finished movie but the sense of that depth will be evident.

Several brainstorming sessions are usually necessary at different stages of scripting. In these everyone concerned throws out ideas without worrying about how practical or sensible they may be. It is a matter of capturing thoughts and possibilities. After each such session a separate analytical meeting needs to go through sorting out the wheat from the chaff.

• The first stage may be discovering that initial idea.
• The next will be fleshing it out with a main plot.
• Later ones will elaborate with other plot layers.

It helps a lot to have both sexes working on scripts. Men and women usually bring different types of observation to an idea. Use that.

Involve the actors once the initial idea is agreed. If they concentrate on bringing the characters to life they will help discussions enormously ... but do not let an actor's view dominate all others. Each performer has to focus on his or her own part in a selfish manner, it takes an outsider to balance their views.

Talk ... and ... talk ... and ... talk - the more you do this as a group the richer the result will be. When the dialogue is actually written say it out loud, listen to it. Is it appropriate for the type of characters?  Does it sound natural from their lips?  If not: change it.

Condense It

The final script conference or two should concentrate on concentration!  Be ruthless in cutting out padding. Seek ways to make each second of screen time convey more than one message. (An actor saying into a phone "Yes, we must handle it peacefully..." while checking the magazine of his gun, a lover checking a watch during an embrace ... )

It Takes Time

Sure it does. But that time can be valuable since it lets ideas develop. Location scouts can seek appropriate settings and sometimes the places they find will feed back new ideas into the script. Camera people can consider angles, shot details and set-ups well in advance and prepare for anticipated problems, check the light at different times of day etc. Researchers can find out what was historically accurate in the period, what today's teenage slang for "good" is, what music would be likely to attract each character and so on.

Nothing is ever straightforward on a shoot but a well-scripted movie will be quicker and simpler than any other. Everyone will know what is to be done and there will be far less need for experimenting on the day.

So that's it: right?  Write!

- Dave Watterson

Page updated on 21 March 2008

Authors' views are not necessarily those of The Institute of Amateur Cinematographers

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