| [BACK]
I'm having trouble with a script I'm writing.
I go through this with everything I write. I have a great idea (or so I think), make some notes, start writing, do some character development, write more - I crank out about 20-40 pages, then decide that this is the biggest piece of crap anyone ever wasted their time on. The problem? No standout scenes.
Think about the best movies you've ever seen. Great scenes - that's what you remember. Bill Murray chasing a gopher with explosives in Caddyshack; the popping shower curtain rings in Psycho, followed by a trail of blood going down the drain; Arnold slamming the T1000 face-first into a wall... and the T1000 turns himself INSIDE-OUT; John Cusack holding the boombox outside Ione Skye's window in Say Anything; Jack Nicholson introducing Helen Hunt and Greg Kinear in As Good As It Gets ("Carol the waitress - Simon the fag); Dwight Yoakum, drunk and crazy, screaming at everybody to get out and being as insulting as possible; the end of The Usual Suspects where we find out that Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) isn't who we thought he was.
It's not just about great endings. Yes, fantastic finishes are what leaves exiting audience members with the best tales to tell their friends. "Go see this movie - it was awesome." Finish on a high note. Just as good are great scenes. They get people talking, too.
I remember when I was in high school, and everyone was talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark. Fantastic finish... poignant prologue... but we all know the scene everyone recalls first. It's when a battle-weary Indy is waylaid by a scimitar-brandishing warrior in the middle of the marketplace. The man shows off his sword-swinging skills as a little preview of how easily he is going to carve up Dr. Jones. Indy, already exhausted, just pulls out his gun and shoots the man.
Great scenes are key for turning points. It's one thing to say someone lived or died, won or lost... it's another thing to show it. It's an amazing thing to show it in a spectacular fashion.
Great lines are crucial, too. They're what stands the test of time, because they live on through the lips of movie lovers. "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." I'm not stupid like everyone says! I'm smart! I can do things." "You can't handle the truth!" "Helluva day." "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker." "Go ahead - make my day." "This town needs an enema!" "I'll be back." In the movie Soul Man, C. Thomas Howell, having been told by his wealthy father that the free ride is over, is on the phone to a scholarship committee trying to round up some college money. He says "Thank you" and hangs up the phone. Sitting by the huge pool, his friend on the other lounge chair asks "Well?" "She said they have scholarships for people whose parents are poor - not for people whose parents are assholes."
When it comes to great scenes, drama reigns supreme. Remember how The Sixth Sense ends? No, you don't. You think it ends with Bruce Willis realizing that his character is actually dead. There's actually a second ending within the film, and it's one of the greatest scenes in movie history - it just happens to be dwarfed by the most memorable scene in movie history. This scene had Haley Joel Osment and Toni Collette sitting in the car in stopped traffic. Throughout the entire movie, mom has been on the edge of a nervous breakdown because she wants so badly to help her troubled son, but he just won't open up to her.
"Mom - I'm ready to communicate with you."
"Communicate?"
"Tell you my secrets."
The look on her face is one of ecstatic relief. Finally, after all the heartache and frustration, her son was willing to let her help. Finally, this mountainous problem could be resolved and put behind them.
"I see dead people."
Another classic line. Actually, he doesn't say that exact line in this scene, but it is the message he communicates. To Mom, it's devastating. All the hope instantly vanishes from her face, and is just as quickly replaced by an anguish worse than she's ever known. It was all a tease, and there is no relief in sight. It makes the despair so much worse.
Cole (HJO) goes on as Mom breaks down. He tells her how the dead people want him to do stuff for them - they actually seek him out for help.
Mom's despair gets worse. She is completely in tears.
"Grandma says "Hi." She comes to visit sometimes."
Now Mom's face tells a story of a sad past. Cole recalls Grandma's rendition of a bad childhood memory, which turns out to be not so bad after all. Mom is overwhelmed.
"She said, you came to her where they buried her. Asked her a question... She said the answer is: Every day. What did you ask?"
Mom's tears have turned to tears of joy and relief. Her response is the question to Grandma's answer: "Do I make you proud?"
On a more personal note, I've had some encounters lately with people who couldn't possibly make anyone proud. There's selfishness, hypocrisy, and all sorts of other crappy things they bring into the world. I don't understand how they could do some of the things they do... and do in the name of things like family or religion or self preservation. They do things that they would IN NO WAY tolerate being done to them.
The next time you face a crossroads... a crisis... a doubt... look yourself in the mirror and ask the magic question. You may not hear "Every day", but at the very least you should get some sort of positive response. If you don't, it's time to make some changes.
|
