Book to Screen

by Frank Catalano

  Today, Production and distribution are a separate process from exhibition. During the golden age of cinema, the five major studios (Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Universal and Paramount) owned all three - production, distribution and exhibition. This was called the Studio System and everyone who worked on a movie during the 1930’s through the early 1950’s worked as a contracted employee. That meant that the studio owned 100% of whatever they produced and kept all of the profits. They even owned the physical brick and motor theatres that their films were shown in. So, what was produced and shown was totally in the hands of the studio bosses in Los Angeles and corporate heads in New York City.

  In 1948, that all changed when the Supreme Court ruled that this practice of 100% ownership was a monopoly and after that the studio system was dead. The five major studios were forced to sell off the exhibition part of the business. They retained production and distribution but had to sell off all of their theatres. Today, when movies are produced, they are not guaranteed an endless run at a company owned movie theatre. If they don’t attract and audience, they are pulled from the theatre and replaced with another film.

  What does all this have to do with taking you novel and creating a screenplay? Motion picture exhibitors (owners of multiplexes) don’t like movies that are too long. Why?

  They want to be able to get as many showings in a given exhibition space as possible. So if there is a question of tradition that a screenplay has to be approximately 120 pages, there is also the practical matter that modern films cannot be too long. This is a general statement and you can probably site lots of successful exceptions such as Saving Private Ryan (1998 – 170 minutes), Lord of the Rings (2001 – 178 minutes) King Kong (2005 – 187 minutes, Pearl Harbor (2001 – 183 minutes) and Gone Girl (2014 – 149 minutes -- but the vast majority of features run approximately 120 minutes. I read a recent article in Business Insider that actually is trending movie run times as getting longer – from a 2010 average of 113 minutes to an average run time of 130 minutes. However, what’s driving this data are the larger than life studio owned blockbuster films like Transformers – Age of Extinction (165 minutes), The Amazing Spiderman II (142 minutes) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (130 minutes). Your screenplay will not enter the production process as a studio owned project. It will come in as a spec script with perhaps a star or director attached. It you want it to have a chance; it is best to keep it within the two hour 120 page format.

  By the way, if you are adapting your book into a teleplay to be released as a movie for network television – the usual run time is 120 minutes including commercial breaks. The actual runtime without the commercials is approximately 88 minutes. So what you include in your teleplay has to fit within that specific runtime.

  So now you have got to look at your novel and make decisions about how to create the same quality of story and character within the shorter format. You may have multiple story lines, sub plots and a wide variety of characters. How do you fit this all into such a specific and limited timeframe?

  It is these varied elements of character and story that make your novel complex and interesting. It is the very reason that people want to read it. So now you take what you have done and squeeze into a much smaller creative box or you can select specific elements out of the whole. In either case, you will have to make choices about what you are going to use and what you are going to omit. The truth is that many excellent multifaceted novels can actually make more than one movie. I am not talking about spinning off a concept. I am talking about the actual novel being the source for more than one movie. I’m thinking of Michael Crichton’s novels Jurassic Park (1990) and The Lost World (1995) were the source material for Jurassic Park (1993), The Lost World – Jurassic Park (1997), Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World (2015). The original novels were two encompassing for just one film, so the material as an idea of origination or actual story and character was developed into three motion pictures.

  So you have to think about what elements of your work you will want to incorporate into the screenplay version. You will want to select those elements of your character and story that will be best suited to translate into the visual medium of film. But remember, you can’t take it all with you. You will have to fight the urge of trying to squeeze it all in. Of course, there may be someone who sees the film and says, “I read the book and the book is much better than the film.”

  (Audience laughter)

  The book is better? Well maybe it is… and maybe it isn’t. The truth is that the book and the movie are two very different things. Your challenge is to keep as much of the intricacy and texture of your book within the new visual medium of film. Think as if you were a painter like Michelangelo and you had to paint the Sistine Chapel with only four colors of paint.

  (Audience laughter)

  You would have to think about which four colors you would retain to convey your original idea. Yes?

  (Audience members nod in agreement)

  48

  DESCRIPTION ACTION DIALOGUE

  NOW IN A screenplay, as we have talked about in some of my seminars this weekend, you have three elements of expression – Description, Action and Dialogue. Let me quickly review this:

  Description:

  This where you briefly describe the setting or character in a screenplay by giving the reader just enough information to get an idea of what is going on. What it is not is a long description that you might include in a novel. Where then does the detail come into play? Once the screenplay goes into the production phase, actors, directors and designers will fill in the blanks that your description simply indicates.

  Action:

  Briefly tells the reader what physically is happening with the characters and setting. Be specific enough that a person reading the script will know what’s going on but not so detailed as to be clinical. “He lifted up his left arm slowly and easily touched his nose with his index finger and thumb.” Just keep it simple “He effortlessly touched his nose with his left hand.”

  Dialogue:

  On it’s face value it is what your characters say. However, how they say it and what they don’t say is also revealing.

  Think of your screenplay as a blueprint for a more expanded action whereas your novel might elaborate on these elements in much fuller detail. In your books you may have used metaphors to create vivid descriptions of characters and setting. In a screenplay, you just lay it out briefly but creatively. You know you’re doing it right when you can take two pages of description, action and dialogue from your book and fit it into three lines in your screenplay.

  I want you know that you can’t just copy and paste large swaths of text from your novel and paste them into your screenplay. It is a totally different mode of expression. If you think of your book, you visualize large blocks of text. If you visualize your screenplay, visualize large blocks of white space. With all of this said, you just can’t cut the guts out of your book – you have to keep the spirit of it – but you just have to do it in a much smaller space and setting. You have to constantly strive to find the economy of words. You also have to let go. What do I mean by let go? Many screenwriters want to squeeze in every bit of detail because they visualize a particular character or scene in a certain way. I think you have to make choices that reflect the spirit of your novel but then let go. Leave space for the director, the actors and designers to add their talents to your work. Make your screenplay a truly collaborative work.

  Earlier this week, we did an exercise where I asked the all of the novelists in the room to take a page of their book and boil it down to just three lines of text for a screenplay. There was a lot of groaning to be sure.

  (Audience laughter)

  But in the end, most of them got pretty close. If you try hard enough you can find the right words that are not pedestrian that can capture the essence and the poetry that you have discovered in your fictional work. You achieve the terseness of the screenwriting form without losing the underlying soul
of your work. It’s like walking on a tightrope.

  Now let’s talk about dialogue.

  49

  WHAT DOES DIALOGUE DO?

  Writing Great Dialogue

  WHAT DOES DIALOGUE do?

  (Audience members raise their hands)

  Yes?

  (Audience members call out)

  It dramatizes the character.

  It communicates ideas to the audience and other characters.

  It can show us how the character expresses their inner hopes and dreams.

  It can tell us something about the character… meaning dialect, educational level, attitude or emotional state.

  We can also learn about “back story” through expositional dialogue.

  Any others?

  Move the story forward.

  Create dramatic tension.

  Great. All very good. But I have a question for all of you. Can “action” do any of the same things that you have indicated?

  Yes, action can do all of these things as well.

  So one of the first things I will say about writing great dialogue is you don’t always have to speak. Remember film is visual. If you can show it without saying it that is something I would like you to consider. Why? Because we want the dialogue we do write, to be dynamic and forceful. We want to use our words sparingly to achieve the greatest impact.

  Let’s do a short example.

  (Catalano approaches an audience member)

  Ask me how I am? Okay?

  (Audience member: “Okay… how are you?”)

  (Catalano folds his arms tightly and frowns)

  I’m fine.

  (Audience laughter)

  What do you think? Am I really fine?

  (Audience member: “No.”)

  How do you know that?

  (Audience member: “By your action. You frowned and had your arms folded tightly.)

  Okay, so my action said something about my character without having the character actually speak it?

  (Audience member: “Right.”)

  So, here it is. Your first consideration in Writing Great Dialogue is to speak only when you actually have to. If you can accomplish what you want to do with action, then do it. Look at your characters in your book and try to determine if they can communicate to an audience through action instead of dialogue. You ever hear that adage – “Don’t tell me… show me?” You want to enable the reader of your screenplay to experience your story through actions, thoughts, senses, and feelings rather than through your written exposition and description. So you see, we are talking about dialogue or at least functionally to achieve what dialogue can do within a story.

  Let’s think about what you can do with a simple action.

  There is a long section of description of a husband who comes home every night from work, kicks off his shoes and takes off his socks and leaves them scattered on the floor. This action is followed by a one page monologue by his wife who details to the reader that he does this every night and that they will remain there on the floor unless she picks them up and how now (at this moment) she is not going to take it any more. It ends on this night. She will never pick up his socks again.

  So, how can we replace the entire monologue with one line of action?

  The husband walks into the house, takes his shoes and socks off and leaves them scattered on the floor. His wife, sighs deeply, picks them up (he smiles) then throws them into the garbage pale, picks up a suitcase and walks out the front door.

  This short sequence of action conveys the same information to the audience without the long monologue. It says something about the two characters as well as communicates a situation to an audience. Not everything needs to be spoken.

  Do you remember those old movies in the thirties… with their terse dialogue?

  (Catalano with English dialect)

  Tea?

  Yes.

  Sugar?

  Thank you.

  Delightful.

  Hot?

  Yes, very…

  They would create scenes with a minimum of dialogue and just using the physicality and action to create the characters and situation.

  Language in the traditional sense that we might think of when writing literature will have to be transposed into the visual medium of film. Film is visual. If you can tell (show) your story visually rather than tell it – that is the better choice. Screenplays show us… novels tell us… and as we have spoken about this weekend… our world is visual. Television and the Internet have made us a visual society – so anytime you can visualize an intellectual idea or an emotion – do it.

  Now what about dialogue itself?

  Dialogue is the talking.

  It can also be talking accompanied by action. We saw this in our small example of this nice person asking me if I was fine. We had a short dialogue accompanied by a specific physical action.

  And that physical action – changed the meaning of the scene entirely.

  The actual words were

  How are you?

  I am fine.

  On its face value, I am fine. But when the folded arms and frown were added to my response, it revealed that I was actually the opposite of fine. Let’s do it again.

  Ask me how I am.

  (Audience member: “How are you?”)

  (Catalano frowns and folds his arms)

  I am fine.

  So we can see that my actions change the meaning. So you can combine action with dialogue and have it influence its meaning.

  Now the dialogue.

  How can you use dialogue to further all of your characters development within the story? What you write about them when you first introduce them. That might include their age range, physical stature and a unique characteristic about them or the way they interact in their universe. Now remember, you won’t be able to write long paragraphs about your character in your screenplay – so we have to learn about them in three ways.

  What do your characters say about themselves? Is what they say the truth or are they lying?

  What do other characters say about your characters? Is it the truth or are they lying?

  What do your characters say to other characters in your story that reveals who they are and what their motivation is within their universe?

  So, how can we accomplish this? I want you to think about what I will call the three P’s

  Professional: What a characters does for a living.

  Personal: What are your characters relationships universe? in the

  Private: Something secret that only your character about themselves. knows

  Now think about this at our conference this weekend. When you meet people for the first time, you see their nametags and all that but at some point in the conversation don’t you finally ask them what they do?

  (Catalano in deep voice)

  Hello I’m Mr. Smith. Hello Mr. Smith, I’m Mr. Jones… what do you do?

  (Audience laughter)

  Thank you… I bet you didn’t know I did all these character voices.

  (Audience laughter)

  So in this brief introduction we learn what they do or in the case of this conference, everyone wants to know what genre you are in.

  Right?

  (Audience laughter?)

  You could also add action to the scene by having one of the characters be a close talker – you know those types of people who invade your personal space.

  (Audience laughter)

  (Catalano in a deep voice again)

  Hello I’m Mr. Smith. Hello Mr. Smith, I’m Mr. Jones… what do you do?

  Smith moves in too close and replies – “I write erotic thrillers.”

  Jones steps back: “I see…”

  (Audience laughter)

  This helps frame your character in a professional way. Doctor, lawyer or police officer, everyone wants to know what we do. They also want to know (I don’t know why), what our personal situation is.

  They want to know if we are married or attached in any
way, widowed, divorced, engaged, single, gay, straight… you don’t have to come right out and say it.

  Hello, I’m Mr. Smith, I’m a gay widower who has recently broken up with his fiancé and is now single.

  (Audience laughter)

  No but use dialogue to reveal little things about your character’s personal situation. Their personal situation will often influence how they react to the universe they live in. The last one I mentioned today is private.

  We all have secrets that no one else knows about ourselves. So if it’s a secret we don’t talk about it right? No, your characters secrets can be revealed (if even a glimpse of them) through what they say or don’t say. Your character could be exalted as a hero but secretly be a coward who is afraid of his or her own shadow. You can use dialogue to create the tension between these two qualities. I am thinking about a novel I read a long time ago called The Red Badge of Courage that is a war novel by American author Stephen Crane (1871–1900). The main character is a coward that is tormented because he fled the battlefield – but then is thought of as a hero when his regiment once again faces the enemy; the soldier acts as standard-bearer and hero. This secret was one that no one else knew but the soldier – but it influenced his actions within the story of the book.

  So ask yourself, do your main characters hold any secrets or private moments within their universe? Aristotle in his Poetics discusses the concept of hamartia or fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine. Your character’s private element as revealed by his dialogue can lead to his/her tragic downfall. Think of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth when he says:

  “I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent,

  but only Vaulting ambition,

  which o’erleaps itself,

  And falls on th’other. . . .”

  His private demon is his ambition. And it is his ambition that pushes Macbeth to murder the king and eventually bring him to his own downfall.