| [BACK]
In our day to day lives there is very little drama. We wake up, go about out business, talk to the people in our lives be they family, co-workers and friends. We go home, perhaps participate in one of our interests (exercise, a sport, socializing in a bar, meeting a friend, etc), we eat dinner, do whatever we do while at home (hopefully, as screenwriters, we're writing), then there's bedtime.
Next day. Pretty much the same unless...guess wha? Something happens. Something good (you get a promotion). Or something bad. (you get hit by a car).
Think of all the "things", good or bad, that have happened to you unexpectedly in the last few years. Think of how they effected your life, even if only causing temporary discomfort.
Those good or bad things are most likely few and far between. Point is, in most people's lives, not much happens that's dramatic. Spefically, not much happens that's worthy of being dramatized in a full-length screenplay.
Plot is a story formed of interwoven events in which characters consciously or unconsciously reveal themselves. If you're ever stuck in an elevator for more than a few seconds, you will see high drama and magnificent character revelation simply in the ways that the people stuck with you behave.
Someone will panic. Someone will be calm and collected. Someone will do nothing. Someone will not be considerate of the feelings of others. And what adds to the "drama" are the ages, sexes and types. If you have three people stuck and all three are control freaks it has the potential to be interesting.
If two of the five people stuck hate each other it'll be interesting. If a guy and a girl living in the same building who've had distant crushes on each other are the ones stuck, it can be charming.
Drama is all around us. The hard part is finding it.
|
