you put one department on the third floor, and another, which now seems so intimately related to it, on the ninth.
But if you’ re clear about your theme, the relationship of the characters to each other becomes obvious. The story then flows in a way that is logical and consistent, without getting waylaid in detours and cul-de-sacs.
But let’ s assume you’ ve got the arc of your story roughly mapped out. Should you write a treatment? A treatment is a presentation document, something you may need to produce in order to get funding. It has to express the mood of the piece, the genre, and sense of style, and a giddy excitement that’ s bound to secure a commission-without revealing too much about how it all turns out. If you write a treatment, keep it down to five or six pages. If you write more, you’ re likely to get into a level of detail which only gives others an excuse for picking it apart.
But a treatment does little for the writer and the process of beginning the screenplay. For this, a step outline usually works best. A step outline teaches the discipline of storytelling in its purest form. It’ s the skeleton of the story, with all its twists and turns. By the time you’ ve finished it, you ought to be able to pitch it to your friends and keep them hooked. If you see their eyes glazing over, then you know you’ ve still got some work.
A step outline is told in the present tense in proper sentences and maps out, beat by beat, the story of your film. Be sure to write in the language of action and reaction, eliminating everything that is not a step or move in the narrative. Separate out every scene by paragraph, as this keeps you away from the temptation of writing prose, which flows in unbroken narrative. Screenwriting – cinema itself – is all about the rhythm of the cuts, the juxtaposing of scenes and images, the changes and leaps in tempo. Separating out each scene also gives you a good indication of the ultimate length of your screenplay.
Do not write the inner thoughts or psychology of your characters( although you may have done this as part of your background research earlier). Do not interpret. Write only what they do, moment by moment. Make sure that each scene has its own dramatic arc, and catapults you into the next, like a line of dominos, one toppling into the other.
Do not, no matter how much you may be tempted,
write any dialogue. This ensures your story is driven by the actions, not the words of the characters, and thus is truly cinematic. Billy Wilder rewrote the screenplays of his films until he’ d eliminated every piece of dialogue that could possibly be replaced by action. Hitchcock wrote his screenplays, storyboarding every single shot.“ When the film is completely finished in my mind, then I write the dialogue.”
Holding back on the dialogue, will ensure that when you go to the next step – writing the screenplay – you still have plenty of‘ juice’. Step outlines may be hard work – but they make writing the screenplay a piece of cake. With the structure in place, adding detail and color is like laying on the frosting. Dialogue – bright, sharp, full of juice – is the cherry on the cake.
Easy Rider( 1969)
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