Script Enabler

Dinner tonight:  Beef stew.  Beef, carrots, potatoes, onions and tomatoes.

… and I’m getting quite good at it.

I’ve been cooking for myself, partly to save money and partly based on the belief that if I cook it myself, it must be healthy.

Steak and eggs for breakfast is now healthy.

Two boneless NY strip steaks cooked medium rare on a toasted baguette.  Two large eggs cooked over easy.  Heirloom tomato slices with olive oil and bleu cheese.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the telephone and how it affects storytelling.  There was a musical from the 1920s (I can’t recall the title), but the opening scene was of the maid answering the telephone and the dialogue went something like this:

At the time, this was probably thought of as a clever way to get across exposition.

In later films, the operator became a cliched source of conflict.

For me, Sorry Wrong Number became the gold standard on how to weave the telephone into the plot.  Bedridden Leona calls her husband but the wires get crossed and she overhears a murder plot.  While it was easy to get someone on the phone, it wasn’t easy getting their full attention.  Multitasking was probably born at this moment.  Ultimately, her murder hinges on the timing of a phone call.

The telephone serves a societal purpose in that it allows people to communicate over long distances in real time. Instant, on demand communication.  It changed storytelling because characters didn’t have to travel to retrieve information.

Once upon a time, if you moved five hundred miles away from your family, the day you left was probably the last day you’d ever see or speak with them forever.

I was watching some 1970s TV rerun with my young nieces (channel surfing actually) and there was a scene showing a hiker stranded in the woods.  He was injured with a sprained ankle and was trying valiantly to start a fire.  My niece asked me why he didn’t just call someone on his cell phone.  I remarked that cell phones didn’t exist back then and then I realized, my nieces have never known a world without cell phones.

But what I came to realize is that technology speaks about the society that created it.

Our modern cell phones are far more advanced than Captain Kirk’s communicator.  What writers imagined for Kirk’s needs was far surpassed by our own needs.  No one questions the existence of a cell phone in our society but it is probably worth a moment or two to consider what the existence of the cell phone says about us.

A cell phone today isn’t merely a cell phone.  It’s a web browser, email reader, camera, video player, music player, GPS locator, calendar, to do list and video game player.

The fact that a device like the iPhone is a runaway bestseller clearly proves that it fulfills some deep societal need.  All its functions once existed as separate devices: You took photos with a camera, you logged onto your computer to check email, you played games on your Nintendo, you bought maps at the gas station, or you had a Day Runner or Filofax.

Sure the device is cool but what drives us to ‘want,’ ‘need,’ and eventually, ‘can’t live without’ such an all in one device?

Let’s go down memory lane, shall we?

• Remember the first time you tried to dial a number while driving 60 mph?
• Remember the first time you checked your email while waiting in line at McDonalds?
• Remember the first time you called someone on their cell phone even though you knew they were somewhere in the same building but you didn’t feel like getting up and tracking them down?
• Remember the first time you texted at stop light?
• Remember your first custom ring tone?
• Remember the first time you set your phone to vibrate?
• Remember the first time you hung up on someone and later blamed the connection?
• Remember the first excuse you made for not answering your cell phone?
• Remember trying to decide between a cell phone and a pager?
• Remember your first voice mail password?
• Remember your first answering machine?  How about the first time you called home and picked up your messages?
• Remember answering services?
• Remember digging through your ashtray looking for loose change to make a payphone call?
• Remember your first cordless phone?
• Remember your first cordless phone conversation in the bathroom?
• Remember the first time you had two phones on the same line?
• Remember the first time you were waiting for a call but your sister wouldn’t stop yapping?
• Remember the first time you used call waiting?
• Remember your first touch tone phone?

That’s as far back as I’m comfortable going.  The reason for this trip down memory lane is to reexamine those things we now take for granted.

Remember this joke: Why was Harry upset about his new car phone? He could only go half a block before the cord broke.

Remember Billy Crystal’s entrance on horseback at the Oscars?  We laughed as the horse was escorted away and Billy chirped his car lock remote.  It was one of the first times we had the vocabulary to appreciate that joke.

The proliferation of the iPhone introduces a great many possibilities but also suggests the depiction of a new relationship with technology that we recognize from our experience.  In this case, the iPhone satisfies our need for instant gratification.  All information, all entertainment, all the time.

The creation of this relationship is essential.  Without it, exposition about the device replaces your story.

My blog was hacked.

I had to shut it down temporarily because all my advice and observations about screenwriting were superceded by an online gambling site.

In the meantime, I thought I’d take advantage of the refit to update the software to the newest version of WordPress.  Probably doesn’t look very much different to you but the Dashboard interface is a thing of beauty.

Unfortunately, the screenwriter Wiki had to be killed in the process.  When I have a little more time, I’ll try to resurrect her but she’s kaput for now.  My apologies to the three or four regular visitors she had.

So rejoice!  The cleansing of the blog does mean that I intend to keep writing updates as the mood strikes me.

Good writing.

Isaac

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No, I haven’t sold a script yet but I came across an interesting problem I’m having with my current script (and looking back, I didn’t fare much better on previous scripts).

I’m talking about what characters say just before they have sex.  When does banter turn into a proposition?  How do I make it sound realistic and not just a rush to get two people together to satisfy a plot point?

Here are a couple snippets from popular movies of dialogue spoken just before the two characters consummate their relationship.  Names have been removed to make the guessing more interesting.

Scene 1.

Scene 2.

Scene 3.

Scene 4.

Scene 5.

Scene 6.

Scene 7.

My favorite writer opined through one of his characters, “Everything in this world comes to an end eventually.”  In modern cinema, it has come to mean that no matter how dire your situation may be, something will give.  Conversely, it also means that nothing good will last forever.

It’s not surprising to note that we crave this in our own lives.  Who wouldn’t want the comfort of long term stability and security?  It allows us to plan from a solid base.

However, in the history of mankind, no period of one hundred years ended the same way it began.  New knowledge, new technology, new world orders contribute to the ongoing chaos of civilization. My grandmother was born in rural China with no plumbing or electricity.  During her lifetime she saw the proliferation of the airplane, radio, television and the atomic bomb.  When she watched the first moon landing, she thought it was a long, boring science fiction movie.

Think about the microcosm of your own life:  How many times have you figured out your monthly budget only to face rising gasoline prices?  Or you think your relationship is going smoothly, even the day before she leaves you? Or you’ve just booked your first vacation in five years only to discover your boss has restrategized his action plans and they don’t include you?

There are always forces that conspire to throw your life out of balance: some are external, some are self-inflicted. Suddenly, you are now consumed with restoring the status quo.  You ride your bicycle to the store, you initiate an overwrought romantic gesture or you make your appeal to upper management.

And once you get used to your new life (let’s face it, gas prices aren’t coming down, your girlfriend isn’t coming back and your department has been outsourced to India), something new will throw it out of whack.

Everything is always changing, nothing ever stays the same.

So should it be with your protagonist.  Any victory should be short lived.  Disappointment should be a constant companion. Compel your protagonist to take action.

This action typically takes one of two forms:

1. Reactive: where your protagonist responds only to what is being thrown at him.
2. Proactive: he has figured out the larger scheme and is going after the problem source once and for all.

Are you singularly consumed with juggling your life’s responsibilities, hoping not to let anything slip through?  Are you actively employing long term solutions to your immediate problems?  Whichever life you lead is probably the prism through which you see your protagonist.

Short terms solutions are exactly that: short term, until the next problem comes along.  Once you get married will all your relationship issues resolve? Once you sell your first script, will your career be smooth sailing?

The heroic protagonists figure out the grand scheme.  The tragic ones don’t.