Coverage – the script itself
Producers receive massive amounts of material both in screenplay and book formats. In order to meet this demand, they often have submitted material covered by a reader. Readers will review the material and prepare a three or four page report called coverage. Their coverage usually summarizes the plot, characters, estimated budget and offers an opinion as to whether or not the script is a good fit for their company. In this scenario, you are submitting your material to a second person, perhaps one you haven’t even met, who will determine if your project will go on to the next level. Here more than ever, it is important to open your story at the end and create a sense of tension that will make the reader want to find out what happens.
You are probably thinking, what about the story. Isn’t a good story the most important thing to consider? We all have been taught the linear story from kindergarten forward. The classic fairy tale stories that begin with “once upon a time…” So we have all become accustomed to the narrative going from “A” to “B” to “C.” However, having someone tell a child a fairy tale with all the appropriate plot structure is quite different than trying to tell you story to a reader. You don’t have the time, to tell the whole story with a little bit of exposition shared along the way and then it all ends with the traditional climax and resolution. You have got to get them up front or risk losing them forever.
Perhaps technology has made us all somewhat impatient – when we want to know something we just look it up on the Internet. We speak a command into our hand held device and the answer is delivered to us within seconds. When it doesn’t come to us right away, we just move on to something else. Most of the time, we are concerned with the end result, not the process of how we got there. And isn’t that often what good writing is, it is a process of discovery through the use of language. You write a great story with wonderful characters and you want people to read it. Yes?
(Audience nods in agreement)
However, because it is presented in this sort of heightened artificial state, those elements that are normally considered part of great writing are put in the back seat. I often wonder, if any of Shakespeare’s plays receiving coverage today would ever be fully read or moved on to production? I can see it now, Romeo and Juliet “nice dialogue but needs to get to the point more quickly. Plot too complicated – recommend cutting the Friar and apothecary and combine them with other characters.””
(Audience laughter)
Something like that…
19
EVERYONE IS CONCERNED WITH THE END RESULT NOT THE PROCESS
Start Your Story at the End
EVERYONE IS CONCERNED with end result and not the process of how we get there. You are sitting here and thinking, I want to show my characters – how they go through a process of self-discovery and finally at the end… they discover the true meaning to life. It’ is very exhilarating! The problem is, while it may be a wonderful story and the characters may be compelling to read as they go through their journey of self-discovery, no one will ever know. Why? Because they won’t read it and so it will not be made. So, do we all turn into mindless automatons and write artificial senseless dribble so they will read it? You’re thinking… isn’t that most television?
(Audience laughter)
No, we stay true to our stories and our characters but we just present them within this heightened form a bit differently. We could take Gone With the Wind (1939) and write a pitch for it so that it would get read. Incidentally, Gone with the Wind would be an extremely difficult pitch today. Why? It is a larger than life, epic that is a period picture that would have to be done with mega stars so that it could generate the box office to pay for itself. I can see the producer’s coverage now-- “very expensive, we would have to burn Atlanta, and have several large battle scenes –recommend changing to current period making it a modern thriller, alien invaders on the city of Washington and Brad Pitt to play Rhett Butler.”
(Audience laughter)
All right? One other thing I will mention is run time. When you write your books, you may take as many pages as you like to develop your characters and story. You will have to make choices in film. Think about your expectation when watching a movie in a theatre. How long do you anticipate that you will be sitting in the dark watching the film?
(Audience member: “Two hours?”)
Right. So that translates to about one hundred and twenty script pages. So, you have got to tell your story in that amount of space. One element of style they will also look at when you send a script (if it is in the proper format) is how many pages it is at the end? They will often look at the end of your script before they begin reading to see how long is its. If it’s 200 pages, they will not give it serious consideration.
So, now… let’s talk about you. What do you do? You heighten what you have and start your story at the end. Just take the most compelling moment of you narrative, you can place it right up front and then show it to them… and when they want to know more, you give it to them, just a little bit at a time. It’s okay to go slower then, like you are dropping breadcrumbs, because by then they will already be hooked. I think that sometimes we shouldn’t study writing narratives and character to create movies. We should study how they make movie trailers.
You know what I’m referring to? A movie trailer is that one to three minute advertisement for an upcoming feature film? The idea behind them is of course is that they want you to see the trailer and compel you to come back and see the film. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. I want you to think about the ones that worked – the ones that mastered the art of the tease. Take a look at the trailers for:
Dark Knight (2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXeTwQWrcwY
Jaws (1975) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1fu_sA7XhE
Pearl Harbor (2001) that leads with a less than two-minute pitch on the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. I remember seeing it in a movie theatre and thinking I definitely have to check that movie out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og6oaOJFenE
This is how we have to present our pitches and scripts – like they were trailers. If you are pitching, give them two of the most compelling minutes of story and character you have. At the end of it all, there can only be one answer. They will have to read the script to find out. If you are getting coverage on the script, give them most compelling front ten pages of story and character you have. Make your pitch or script your own trailer.
So, start your story at the end means taking that pivotal moment – the most important moment – the irrevocable moment of your story and begin with it. Think of the very successful motion picture Titanic (1998). It begins from the point of view of a survivor as the ship leaves South Hampton docks on a maiden voyage from which it will never return. This is an irrevocable moment, that sends the ship and all its passengers on a path from which many will never return. That’s where you start your story. We don’t need to see all of the narrative and character development that went before. Why? We get whatever we need of that as we go along. What about the survivor – how did she make it? You have to read the full script and find out. You hook them right there in the first ten pages or ten minutes of your film. That’s your trailer. You also must create a sense of suspense. A reader might think, “this is the story of the ocean liner Titanic – I know what happened, it hit an iceberg and sank.” And your screenplay might say, “maybe not this time, maybe not in this story” – you’ll have to read further to find out. How many of you are familiar with the film King Kong (1933, 2005)? I don’t know about you, but I always feel bad when a King Kong gets shot down and falls off the Empire State Building. I hope I’m not giving away the ending here for some of you?
(Audience laughter – Catalano looks at one man in the front row)
You were going to go home and rent King Kong tonight… weren’t you?
(Audience member: “Yes… I wanted to find out what happens at the end.”)
(Audience laughter)
I’m so sorry.
(Audience laughter)
But really, wouldn’t it be nice to be surprised? Or at least taken to a place where you think that it just might be different this time. Just might. There is no rule that says these stories all have to end the way they end. So, when you start your reader at that pivotal moment, make them think that maybe this time, it’s not going to go the way these stories always go? Maybe this one is different? I better read further because I need to know.
It’s that same thing that happens when you’re driving on the freeway – in Los Angeles it’s the 405 Freeway and there is a traffic accident. You are sitting in backed up traffic even though the accident is on the other side of the freeway because all of the drivers in front of you have to slow down to take a look. Why? They all want to know. What do they want to know? Whatever it is… they want to see what happened as best as they can and get a sense of how it will all turn out. Once they pass the scene, there off on their way again full speed ahead. But they have to slow down to take a look. They all want to see that pivotal moment.
Your job as a writer is to give it to your reader in an interesting way. They don’t need every single detail… just the essence. Now I’m going to as you all a question.
Ready?
20
VISUALIZE YOUR BOOK AS A MOVIE TRAILER
Start Your Story at the End
HOW MANY OF you have ever asked a relative or a friend “How was your day?” Now if we look at that question for its face value you are asking them how their day was. But what you are really asking is for the high points or pivotal moments in their day. The important events that shaped the way they are “now” when you are speaking to them. They can answer you with a list of minute details beginning when they woke up brushed their teethe, went to the bathroom etc. or they can highlight the one or two things that happened that brought them to where they are at that moment. Which would you prefer?
(Audience – the highlights)
Exactly. Just a few of the bullet points of what you think is important and then I will make my own judgment of what I will want to explore further. The truth be know, not all facts are of equal importance at a given moment in time. So, your stories are in many ways the same thing. Just start them out with the most important aspects of your characters and story – then you can fill them in on what is needed as you go along. Writing is not like a court of law where you have to state all the facts of a particular story or person for a jury. Use just the elements of plot and character you need to create the desire of the reader or viewer to go further.
I’m thinking as I speak of the opening of the film Jurassic Park (1993). It opens with the cage of the Velociraptor being brought into frame. You hear the caged dinosaur within the cage as the camera pushes in closer and closer. That’s all you need to know. This film is about dinosaurs – they’re back and this one is a dinosaur you want to stay away from. But the book of the same title starts off quite differently. It opens with a couple and their child on the beach in Costa Rica – this was actually the opening for Jurassic Park II (2001). The original film takes us right to where we need to be and pulls us in. We want to know what is in the cage and what will happen next?
Incidentally, I read an interview of Steven Spielberg about the making of the film Jurassic Park. As he tells the story, he was on the Universal lot and ran into Michael Critchton (the author of the Jurassic Park novel) who was working on the book. When he asked what he was working on, Crichton just said this: “Dinosaurs… they come back.”
(Audience reaction)
That was it. Spielberg responded with something like “I’m in.” Dinosaurs they come back or something like that and the rest as we say it is history. But the reason I mention this film’s opening and pitch is because they are both examples of how to start your story at the end. You may argue that the opening cage scene was not really the ending. But I will say that it really was. Once the Velociraptor was introduced, it was a point of no return. All of the other plot points during the film about how the dinosaur DNA was captured to create new dinosaurs and the structure of the park are all expositional points that support the main idea… that dinosaurs come back. We watch the film or read the script and all of those vital points are provided along the way. But only those points which feed into the main premise of the story. This is a very different telling of event from when someone is asked how their day was and then rattles off every detail of every moment equally. We learn all the facts but really only the facts that matter within the framework of the story you have created.
So, by starting your story at the end, you become the editor of those plot points that you will share with your reader or audience. You can choose them specifically to support and then deliver your main premise. Starting at the end also helps to create dramatic tension. Why? You are bringing your audience in at a pivotal moment that connects with your audience with maximum impact. You hook your audience at the end and then make them a promise to show them how it wall all turn out if they take the journey with you.
That takes us back to creating a trailer. What is a trailer? It’s a promise isn’t it? It’s a promise that says to an audience… if you come to see this movie, it will be a hilarious comedy, or a non-stop thriller, or a tragic love story. Those are promises. If I say to you “dinosaurs… they come back…” That is a promise. I am saying is that you will see dinosaurs… and not the kind you see in a museum that are all skeletons and still. These dinosaurs are alive… right now. It doesn’t matter how they got here… that you will explain later. Right now, this is the promise. Are you on board?
Hopefully, the answer is yes. Once you put something down on paper, after you hone it down, edit it and make it perfect, you are giving what you created to another person. What happens then? You “hope” that they will like what you created. Hope is such a passive word… you “hope” that they will like it. I’d rather you create it from the point of view that you are making (through your writing) a promise to them that they can’t refuse so that you can “expect” that they will like it. You have created a scenario that is inevitable. It is true that you can’t control many of the elements that surround a submission, but you must expect that they will take your work on its face value and appreciate it. Now, it may not fit what they are looking for, but they will like what you create and you can live to fight another day.
Now whether they want to take your pitch or submission to the next step or not becomes only part of the process. If you are pitching, make your idea into one that is inevitable… dinosaurs they come back. Inevitable, because your listener will want to know how that can be… and if they want to know how, you’ve got them. If you are submitting your script, pull them in early on… within the first ten pages. Once you get them to page ten, they have reached the point of no return. They can’t put the script down; they have to see it through to find out what happens in the end. Once you have them committed to your story and characters, you can find moments to slow down and give your project detail and texture. The hardest part in all of this is to get them on board and committed. That commitment takes place right up front. That is why I am saying start at the end. Start at your most pivotal moment.
If you are not sure how to accomplish this, put yourself in a darkened movie theatre watching a trailer of your book or screenplay. How would your create that, where would you start and what elements would you show an audience in two minutes or less that could pull them into your story?
Okay, let’s stop for a moment here. I want all of you to take out a piece of paper. If you don’t have one, there are blank papers right up here on the table. I want you to write down a two-minute trailer for your book or screenplay. Remember, I want you to think about your characters and story and in two minutes (about 300 words), break down at least seven bullet points of what an audience might see and here. Take your time… I will be grading these…
(Audience laughter)
Only kidding… You’ve got ten minutes… I’m su
ch a slave driver aren’t I?
(Ten minutes later)
Okay, do we all have something written down? If it’s not complete, that’s okay. We won’t have time to read them all, but I wanted you to have the experience of taking your characters and story and trying to frame it in this manner.
(Audience member: “It’s not easy.”)
No it’s not. This process sort of forces you to take a larger idea and compress it into a very small amount of time without losing the value of your creative idea. We should know a little something about your main characters then put them within a pivotal moment in your story. I just saw a hand go up? Yes.
(Audience member: Can I try mine?)
I thought you’d never ask.
(Audience laughter)
(Audience member stands up at his chair and reads.)
Trailer examples have not been included at the request of seminar participants. However, I am including a link for HOW TO MAKE A BOOK TRAILER by Joanna Penn - http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2011/01/07/how-to-create-a-book-trailer/
Great job… on such short notice. This is an example of what we should all do for our projects. In a way, it forces you to think like a marketing person – you will have to answer questions like what kind of audience is my project best suited for? What is their age? Gender? Once you start to come up with those answers and you create a promise around what you have created, it is important to stay true to that premise.
Have any of you seen the new film called The Reader (2008)? Now the film itself is a good film, but I do have a little bit of a problem with the way it was presented in the trailers. It was marketed as a sort of Nazi film (a film about Nazi’s) but it was actually something quite different. In the first three minutes of the film, the child becomes ill (I don’t want to tell you the whole plot) – but what I will tell you is that the two major characters of the film are thrust together in a very compelling way that you want to find out what happens to them at the end.
Book to Screen Page 9
