Okay, so you've got this great idea. You think, if only someone would make a movie out of it!
Then it hits you.. Hey, why don't I write it myself?! Well, why not? Go for it! But before you
jump into the deep end...
PLAN YOUR STORY!
Many novice Screenwriters make the mistake of leaping head first into a full screenplay
without taking the crucial first step of outlining their story - otherwise known in the biz as
"step-outlining".
A step outline is essentially a step by step breakdown of your story. By planning your story
structure in advance you will save yourself a whole lot of time in the "rewriting" stage of your
project because no matter how good you are at screenwriting, all writers have to learn to love
rewriting!
Movie Outline offers a simple way for Screenwriters to outline their story while
simultaneously referencing successful movies of all genres.
The 12 movie breakdowns (outlines and analyses) included are:
Die Hard
True Romance
There's Something About Mary
When Harry Met Sally
Scream
Good Will Hunting
Dead Poets Society
Ghost
Pretty Woman
Seven
The Terminator
Spider-Man
.. and there are many more movie outlines to come!
Step or Scene?
Movie Outline uses "Steps" instead of "Scenes" which may confuse some screenwriters who
are used to using scenes in relation to film timing and screenplay layout, but the difference is actually
quite simple to understand.
A "Step" in Movie Outline really means an "Event" in the progression of your story, and this
means that each step can consist of more than one "Scene". A Montage sequence is one good example or:
Joe leaves his apartment, gets in his car, drives to the bank.
Although in a screenplay this totals three scenes, in a step-outline it is only one step since the
nature of creating a step-outline dictates that you focus on the main story event and do not get into
too much detail. Unless something big happens to Joe while he is getting into his car, the
scene can be described within the overall event. What then happens when Joe enters the bank
is another step.. and so on.
Another example could be a car chase. In a screenplay, each location that the cars involved in the chase
pass through is technically a scene, but since we're dealing with the same story event, the entire chase and collection of scenes is referred to as a step.
Or supposed your screenplay has your Hero bravely dashing into a burning building to save a child while other fire-fighters
frantically do their best to put out the blaze. Technically, each room your Hero searches in constitutes
a scene, and every time we cut back to the other fire-fighters, they are separate scenes too, but when planning
your story, it is much easier to think of this as one single event and as such, a single step.
Outlining vs. Rewriting
The thing is, I never used to outline my movies before I wrote them. I
just sat down with a pad and a pen and jumped right into it. To be fair,
it was a liberating experience. A "stream of consciousness" as they call
it in literary circles. What pops into your mind, suddenly appears on the
paper. The flow takes you away with it.. but beware, before you know it
you are ten pages into your feature script and you have no idea of where
you are going or indeed, where you came from.
Like I said, I never used to think this was a problem, until I was faced with
the dreaded experience of having to rewrite absolutely everything I
wrote another one hundred and fifty times. And this wasn't for development
execs or producers. It was for myself. I was and still am my own worst and
best critic. I know when something I have written works and when it doesn't.
Being a director too, I have always thought visually and approached
each screenwriting project as if I was going to put it on the big screen
myself without anybody's help. This may be unrealistic, but it enabled me
to view my work from a different perspective. An objective one. I learnt
the basics of pace and cutting out of a scene early and into one as late as
possible. I now look at all of my stories as pictures. I see them as
paintings rather than words. And I see the entire scene-to-scene progression of my
screenplays as maneuverable blueprints rather than an adhesive concoction of prose
and dialogue stuck together and to the page.
Confused? I'll try to explain further.
When you write a film script either straight onto a pad or punch it directly into
your computer, the worst
thing you can do is imagine that these words are chiselled in stone. That the
scenes in the order you have created them are rigid and will remain where you
put them for all eternity. You have to see the script as a reflection of your
original idea that can now be moulded and shaped into the story it was always meant to be.
The problem is, when you don't plan out your screenplay first, this is much
harder to do. That's why I started outlining scripts before writing them. Well,
that's actually a lie. I started outlining them because producers and development
execs wanted to see the ideas for my pitches and I couldn't just hand them a bunch of
scribbled notes. These outlines then developed into longer treatments and before I
knew it I was already in the habit of "step-outlining" first and writing screenplays
second. It was a bizarre, subconscious transition, but I'm extremely glad that it happened.
Since planning out my screen stories step by step (or from major event to
major event) I have been able to focus my cinematic ideas and nail down the real
central structure of my screenplays and their principle character arcs before
committing myself to the script itself.
It does take a little commitment, especially if you are eager to start writing
dialogue and getting to know the characters populating your new world up close and
personal, but if you try to curb your enthusiasm for just a few days and hammer out
the central event driven plot beforehand you will most certainly save yourself a whole
load of time and screenwriting headaches in the end.
