Writing A Great Script Fast In A Nutshell

Online Workbook: Part 2. .. .. ... ... .. .... ..Workbook Part 1

Step 11: Theme

Choose a one word theme for your story then explain how you are going to make it original and specific, such as desire leads to suffering.

Themes from Feature Films to study and get ideas:
• Alien: Fear of the unknown.
• Alien 2: The strength of motherhood.
• American Beauty: Desire leads to suffering.
• Antz: Think for yourself
• Apocalypse Now: There is a fine line between insanity and sanity.
• Bad Lieutenant: Redemption of a lost corrupt man.
• Brazil: Consequences of individuality in a totalitarian dictatorship.
• Boogie Nights: Self-delusion.
• Buckaroo Bonzai: Superhero with a pure heart can see evil.
• Casablanca: Loss of love for some greater cause.
• Citizen Kane: Exploration of personality; who was Kane?
• Clockwork Orange: Violence is a cost of individuality and non-individuals have a loss of soul.
• Dangerous Liaisons: Courtship as combat.
• Dr. Strangelove: Exploration of systems and their crushing of individuals.
• Evil Dead 2: Triumph of hero.
• Fargo: Treasure the little things in life.
• Fatal Attraction: Cost of deception.
• The Graduate: Alienation of 60’s youth.
• Magnolia: Forgiveness in Los Angeles.
• Memento: How humans construct and deconstruct reality.
• Princess Mononoke (2D): Everything is alive and connected in our environment.
• Pulp Fiction: Seeking out redemption in underworld with emphasis on loyalty.
• Requiem For a Dream: Addiction to dreams.
• Run Lola Run: Exploration of how the power of love can change fate.
• Shrek (3D): Seeing inner beauty. When you can love someone else you can love yourself.
• Star Wars: A hero coming of age taking on lost father’s path.
• Terminator: Man being destroyed by their own machines.
• The Bad And The Beautiful: Creativity and corruption.
• The Big Chill: Warmth of friendship against cold world.
• The Blair Witch: Arrogance of youth lacking respect for themselves, surroundings, and subject.
• The Celebration (DV): Dark secrets destroy families.
• The Cruise (DV): The beauty of Manhattan.
• Lord Of The Rings (1): Even the smallest person can change the world. Pure heart needed to wield great power.
• The Matrix: Rise of superman against the system of the future.
• The Piano: The need for creative expression.
• The Remains Of The Day: Individual vs. place within class society. Class society destroying individual.
• The Usual Suspects: Construction and reconstruction of memory and identity.
• There’s Something About Mary: Love is more important than beauty. Struggles with perfection.
• Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead: Honor among thieves.
• Trainspotting: Conflict between life and death urges.
• Toy Story (3D): Being the most favorite toy.
• Waking Life (DV): Exploration of lucid dreaming state. What is real verses what is illusion.
• Wallstreet: Greed leads to corruption.
• Wizard of OZ: The importance of home and family
• You Can Count On Me: Loves evokes love

One Word Theme for your story:

How is your theme original and specific?

List 3 ways to show story events being controlled by the theme in your story:

1)

2)

3)

Step 12: Character Traits
A character trait is anything that determines the way a character sees the world and how the character thinks, speaks, and acts.

Pick one best trait, one worst trait and five others for each of the main characters in your story idea using the spaces below:

Protagonist:

Antagonist:

Mentor:

Sidekick:

Love Interest:

Other Characters:

Step 13: Plot Points

Write 1-3 sentences for what happens at each of the 9 basic plot points for your story idea:

1) Hook: Start in the middle of a high intensity mess. How could you show your main characters doing what they do best or have them make an exciting visual entrance into your film world? What twists, shocks or surprises could you add to your opening hook (twist ideas: accident kills someone, a shocking truth revealed, key equipment or transportation breaks down, sudden change of plans announced)?

2) Setup: How will you introduce us to your characters, film world, and story? How will you show your character in his or her normal life? The audience needs a chance to get to know your main characters, along with the limits and possibilities of the film world.

3) Inciting incident: What event happens that forces your character to act by choosing a goal and committing to making it happen?

4) Journey Into Unknown: Protagonist sets off to accomplish plot goal leaving what is familiar behind.

5) Investigation: Protagonist searches for goal object or informationencountering lots of Obstacles/conflicts. What are some obstacles or conflicts your characters might face while attempting to accomplish their plot goal in your story idea?

6) Twist: A new plot goal usually emerges at this point because the first goal is accomplished or an unexpected event occurs which changes the focus of the main plot goal. Accident kills someone, a shocking truth revealed, key equipment or transportation breaks down, sudden change of plans announced.

7) Final confrontation: This is a confrontation between two characters, groups or a situation that has been building up during the story Protagonist/antagonist conflicts related to plot goal.

8) Climax: Highest point of intensity and audience interest where the plot reaches a crescendo. What is the big climatic event at the end where we see whether the characters succeed or fail in accomplishing their goals?

9) Resolution: Ties up the loose ends in the story such as who lives, who dies, who gets the girl, and who lives happily ever after.

Step 14: Conflict & Obstacles

Choose 1-3 conflicts or obstacles your characters face at each of the 9 basic plot points:

4 Basic Types Of Conflict:

1) Inner - different beliefs, desires, voices in the head or goals that are in opposition. What types of inner conflict can you give your main characters? Character flaws coming to the surface, pride, fears or jealousy.

2) Personal - How well do your main characters deal with other people? Show character in conflict with relationships, family, friends or pets. Any ideas?

3) Social - Conflicts with school, work, church, law, politics, businesses, justice or organizations. What kind of social conflicts could your main character encounter while trying to accomplish their plot goals?

4) Environmental - Conflicts with urban city environments (gangs, cars, crowds) nature, diseases, disasters, mystical forces, wars, jungle, security devices or difficult to get through locations.

5) Combinations of the above conflict ideas.

Add 1-3 conflicts or obstacles to each of your 9 Basic Plot Points:

1) Hook:

2) Setup:

3) Inciting incident:

4) Journey Into Unknown:

5) Investigation:

6) Twist:

10) Final confrontation.

11) Climax.

12) Resolution.

Step 15: Adding Plot Twists

Think of one big twist that happens in the middle of your story to shift the plot goals and any little twists you can add to each scene. Use the brainstorming twist list below to choose some twist ideas for your story.

One Big Twist that shifts plot goals in middle:

Other Possible Plot Point Twists:

Twist Brainstorming Ideas:
1. Accident kills someone.
2. Lies multiply fast.
3. Code is finally broken
4. Being attacked from several directions at once.
5. Choice between obtaining goal and love.
6. Backup never shows up.
7. Character has sudden epiphany and changes behavior
8. Shocking truth revealed.
9. Secrets revealed or hidden.
10. Character loses the ability to move, see or walk
11. Incorrect information revealed
12. Misunderstanding revealed
13. Character switches loyalty.
14. Lots of little goals need to be done first.
15. Unforeseen trap.
16. Characters react in strange ways.
17. Dead guy comes back to life.
18. Unforeseen love triangle exposed.
19. Clues destroyed.
20. Key witness killed or disappears.
21. Innocent people get in the way
22. Communication system goes haywire.
23. Plans are stolen by the enemy.
24. Character gets caught.
25. Cover is blown
26. Traitor revealed
27. Unexpected suspicious opportunity
28. Key equipment breaks down.
29. Worse situation gets even worse during escape route.
30. Progress towards goal is an illusion.
31. New information is revealed that changes current situation completely.
32. Sudden change of plans.
33. Natural obstacles or unforeseen disasters.
34. Unexpected event occurs.
35. No more food, money, air, bullets or gas.
36. Shot from unknown place.
37. Ticking clock time deadline pressure such as bomb about to explode.
38. Hidden fear or weakness revealed.
39. Past comes back to bite character.
40. Weapon now broken or out of use.

How many different types of twists can you add to each of your plot points?

Step 16: Setups & Payoffs

Once you start thinking about plot points, you will want to weave in setups and payoffs to pull your story together.

Setup/Payoff: Any information, phrase, event or object introduced early in the story, that may seem unimportant at the time, which turns into a key payoff element later.

Setups need to be carefully presented in way that audience does not suspect they are being given key story information. Audiences should flash back to the earlier setups during payoff moments and put the information together in a new way.

Look at your climax plot point and see what setup info or thing you can include early in the story to shift the outcome in a surprising way:

Plot Goal succeeds or fails at climax because _________

Any other ideas for using setups and payoffs in your story?

Step 17: Using Symbols & Metaphors

What types of symbols or metaphors can you add to your story to show plot, character and theme?

Metaphor = Action/Sound. Visual or auditory representation of a separate action, experience, or idea. A character blows out (action) a candle in a bedroom to show death of a loved one.

Symbol = Object/Sound. Visual or auditory representation of another object. The candle (object) is in the shape of a ballerina to show grace and beauty.

List any Symbols and/or Metaphors ideas for your story in the following areas:

Objects/props. Household items, flags, T-shirts, games art in room, statues, furniture style, shape of windows, magazines, pictures, weapons, wall hangings, books, instruments, pets, cars, people, houses.

Music/sounds. Background sounds, songs atmospheric music bed, music in scenes, street noises, weather sounds, sirens, people crying/laughing/screaming in the next room, weird unexplainable sounds, heaters, equipment, natural sounds, animals, event sounds.

Color. The color of everything in the frame may mean something.

Words. Heard in dialogue or appearing on sets or otherwise onscreen.

Character types. People who represent the theme or plot to the extreme (positive or negative, even an extreme mix of the two).

Lighting. Colored lights, light sources, brightness, lighting subjects specific to metaphor. Good characters may be in bright light, whereas evil characters may be darkly lit. Quality of light (time of day as a metaphor). Glows around certain characters, face-lighting strategies to evoke emotion, source of light (sun, spaceship, flaming building) as metaphor, spinning ambulance lighting in room to represent emergency situation.

Staging. Placement of characters and metaphoric objects inside the frame to represent relationships. Where are your characters in relationship to each other metaphorically? You could have three characters who form a love triangle standing around a fire to represent a secret affair about to be uncovered. What metaphoric items surround the characters? Are they talking while walking through a field of sunflowers or in between cactuses? What metaphoric objects could you place between characters to show relationship or emotional state during a scene? Two characters on opposite sides of the frame with knives hanging on the wall between them may represent conflicting emotions.

Fables. How could you interject little stories into scenes to show plot, theme or character? You might want to have just pictures of parable characters or allude to them visually through stuffed animals, statues, paintings, cartoons, or drawings on the set. Try to think of new ways to incorporate parables visually into your films. Perhaps you could make your own little cartoon fable to play on a TV in the background during a scene. You might make up your own original Aesop-type fable, which the characters could discuss, see in a play or on TV, read in book, hear about in dialogue, or be relayed by a magical object. Create a fable or use an existing one.

Symbolic Settings: Location as character

What does the setting say about the mood of each scene? A conversation in a junkyard has a different context than one at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Think about how all of these places below feel different symbolically when you think about them:

National monuments, natural settings (swamps, waterfalls, caves, rivers, ocean, desert), cities with different personalities, small-town local flavor, visual themes, types of businesses, geographical themes, amusements parks, clubs, bars, graveyards, temples, stores, abstract interpretations of the Internet, art galleries, circus tents, fantasy places.

Pick one symbolic setting for each of your 9 basic plot points. Describe the mood, visual style or color of each symbolic location:

1) Hook:

2) Setup:

3) Inciting incident:

4) Journey Into Unknown:

5) Investigation:

6) Twist:

7) Final Confrontation:

8) Climax:

9) Resolution:

(Optional) Pick one Main Story Symbol that changes throughout your story like the purple star thistle flower in Braveheart used to symbolize the theme of freedom:

List Changing Symbol States and what they represent:

Step 18: Creating Suspense

How many suspense and ticking clock ideas can you add to your film idea?

Write down any suspense ideas with plot point numbers on the brainstorming list below:

Suspense Brainstorming Ideas
• Show antagonist in hot pursuit of protagonist without protagonist being aware of the danger then cut back and forth between them in the story

• Place protagonist in situations where they are clearly going to lose by overwhelming odds such as being outnumbered or out gunned. Then have them succeed in surprising way after failing several times to get out of situation by doing something surprising or using a hidden thing.

• Show antagonist doing something really scary or heartless to someone else first to let us know how deadly, evil, dangerous or powerful they are in comparison to the protagonist then show them going after or towards protagonist.

• Add a ticking clock time pressure to the main plot goal and a little ticking clock to each scene if possible – bomb about to go off, meeting, deadline, race, running out of something important.

• Create tension by constructing characters who are opposites forced to be together then show them disagreeing and having strained relationships.

• Establish something as important to one character then have another character destroy important thing by mistake or on purpose • Show antagonist planning to kill loved ones, hanging out around family pretending to be someone else as a warning or getting ready to kill something dear to protagonist

• Show character trying to hide a secret that keeps being about to be revealed

• Clearly establish what character will lose if they get caught doing something they are not suppose to be doing (like having an affair (lose rich spouse), murdering someone (lose everything and go to jail) who is blackmailing them or stealing/gambling to cover debts (financial ruin/ shame/ loss of family) then show them almost getting caught over and over again.

• Show main character being squeezed emotionally to come up with money or results forcing character to do things they would not normally do.

• Show character who seems good at first suddenly do something horrific with little emotion or thought - like killing someone casually - audience realizes they do this all the time - very chilling.

• Show smart police or detectives closing in on solving character’s crimes.

• Show protagonist on journey to deliver something or find something with antagonist in hot pursuit, after same thing or opposite goal.

• Use universal relationship conflicts between people - new rich mother in law does not like son’s poor fiancée and tries to break up their relationship.

• Show protagonist trapped in evil or dangerous place that seemed normal at first but changes suddenly.

• Show secret antagonistic character going from nice/ friendly/ flirtatious, to creepy and threatening.

• Establish very clear high stakes outcomes for both protagonist and antagonist plot goals (loved one lives if protagonist helps antagonist / hotel where protagonist works is blown up with VIP inside by antagonist).

• Show cutaway shots of potential victims walking into trap or dangerous place that is about to blow up because of other plan in the works.

• Show protagonist trying to outsmart antagonist and getting caught (first show them almost getting caught a few times) - Sets off silent alarm, uses secret phone to call for help, slips a message to someone, digging an escape tunnel, hiding a potential weapon).

• Use an escalation of violence with antagonist - first nice then hits protagonist hard then threatens with a knife.

Create 1-3 suspense ideas for each plot point in your story. Add a ticking clock time pressure to the main plot goal and some plot points if possible.

Ticking clock time pressure for main plot goal:

1) Hook:

2) Setup:

3) Inciting incident:

4) Journey Into Unknown:

5) Investigation:

6) Twist:

7) Final Confrontation:

8) Climax:

9) Resolution:

Step 19: Adding Humor

How many funny moments or gags can you add to your film idea?

Write down any funny moments next to the humor brainstorming ideas below:

• Dress character in funny outfit with silly hairstyle then have him or her walk really funny or in an exaggerated way – draw a sketch if you can:

• Show character using normal thing in funny way - a microwave reinvented as a time machine, a toaster that has been modified to be a satellite.

• Create one character who is just so funny in some way every time this character does or says anything we laugh, - speaks with funny accent, really forgetful or emotionally over reacts in funny.

• Have character use funny mode of transportation - old beat up car with funny bumper stickers, art car, hotdog shop commercial car, flames on tiny motorcycle that is not working too well, old limping beat up ugly horse that bolts and flips out, rocket made out garage parts, straddling a rocket in mid air - anything that looks ridiculous, far fetched, embarrassing or impossible to do.

• Have character do some gross, rude, embarrassing or loud scene activity while dealing with others - eating sunflower seeds and spitting the seeds out around the room loudly during important meeting.

• Have character do something obviously stupid - crawls into empty cage to look for lost animal - cage is obviously empty.

• Give character funny original occupation or combination occupation - pet detective, kid FBI agent, boy genius inventor, superhero office worker.

• Give character funny flaw - Dori in Finding Nemo has short term memory problems, a bumbling detective.

Step 20: Final Story Idea

Congratulations you are almost done with completing your story idea!

Add all of the new ideas you just came up with from conflicts, twists, setups, symbols, suspense and humor to your basic plot points.

Then rewrite the 1-3 sentence scene description for what happens at each plot point from Step 13.

1) Hook:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

2) Setup:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

3) Inciting incident:Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

4) Journey Into Unknown:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

5) Investigation:Conflicts/Obstacles:
Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

6) Twist:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

7) Final Confrontation:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

8) Climax:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

9) Resolution:
Conflicts/Obstacles:

Scene/Plot Twist:

Setups/Payoffs:

Symbolic Objects:

Metaphorical Activities:

Suspense:

Ticking Clocks:

Humor Ideas:

New 1-3 sentence description of what happens at this plot point using the new information from above:

Now take all your final sentences and put them together to form your new story idea. Thank you for trying out this step-by-step storytelling process!

Please visit http://www.MyFlik.com for more information and videos about how to create great stories for low budget digital films and animations fast!

© 2008-2012 Sherri Sheridan All Rights Reserved

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