Romantic Screenplays 101 (3 page)

It doesn’t matter that this structure is predictable! That is the required expectation of the genre or category. If this structure is violated in a supposed romantic screenplay, it is reduced to being merely a love or lust story like SOMERSBY or THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY. A successful chick-flick romance ends with the couple living together into the happily ever after. Knowing that will be the ending means the audience wants to know how the characters overcome the misunderstanding and separation to get to that commitment.

Some people have a difficult time grasping what separation means in the couple’s experience. Separation has to be an element that threatens the relationship. It is a torn-asunder wrenching that discomfits the audience and hurts the two parties . . . even if only for a moment. That threat creates the angst however it is played. Think of SOMEWHERE IN TIME, OUT OF AFRICA, AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER and on and on. The audience has to care as much as the two lovers. What moment creates the greatest angst of never seeing one another again for your two people? Answer that and you have your moment of separation.

3. Consistent expression of emotional impact and angst
. . . This element of romance in screenplays takes quite a bit of work because the screenwriter cannot describe every nuance. That interpretation is the realm of the actor and the director. So, you must carefully write dialogue that demonstrates the emotions and angst of the characters without being melodramatic or maudlin.

Every speech must be absolutely essential to moving the story forward, yet not explain everything. Explaining is called on-the-nose. It is a blatant
telling
rather than showing. If story progression can be accomplished by the narrative’s action, that will create the preferable “movie, not a talkie.” Is that contradictory to the importance of dialogue? No. Your economy of dialogue in each and every speech must use words that depict character mindset and purpose with word choices and phrasing unique to this character’s history, education, training. Angry speeches are not verbose or detailed whereas seductive speeches are slow and sensually suggestive. Males tend to speak succinctly, whereas females explain the setup to get to their point (unless they are trying to be secretive and manipulative). Fear produces tentative questions or statements. Demands are abrupt and confrontational. Education may have sublimated regional or cultural class idioms (like favored obscenities), but intense anxiety can pop them out of a character’s mouth.

Actors (and their agents) will highlight just one character’s dialogue throughout a script. That practice has a two-fold purpose: 1) So they can practice the speeches and see if they connect with the part and 2) to evaluate how many scenes or how much of the story they appear in (which will translate to the amount they expect to be paid for the part). As a screenwriter, you need to be aware of this and do the same thing for each character. This is also the easy way to analyze the consistency of the speech patterns, word choices and evolution of the emotional character you created.

4. Balance of time/pages between male and female leads
. . . Every page of a standard formatted script equals one minute of screen time. As just stated, actors highlight their speeches to calculate how much screen time they will get. At this time in the 21
_^st
century it is expected that the male and the female leads will get a fairly equal amount of screen time in any romantic film. You need to evaluate the logical back-and-forth scenes between what is happening in the separate lives of the two main characters. You will not maintain audience interest if you abandon one too long. You want to hold the interest and concerned anxiety of the audience in their vicarious experience with the characters.

5. ALL subplots/minor characters/environment must impact the relationship
. . . In a character-driven screenplay about a relationship it should be relatively simple to exclude the inconsequential and include the relative. Yes, the male lead may have a large family of dictatorial females but if that family dynamic is not going to create a scene in this story, forget it. Yes, the female may have suffered one job loss after another and is financially strapped, but it is not necessary to specifically mention that unless it impacts the relationship. Is the season of the year or the specific locale of the story relevant to the relationship? Think about SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. In THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, the flow of the academic year at the university impacted roles and activities. Sometimes writers get so caught up in the profiles or extensive histories they created for their characters that they forget to be
exclusive
. The economy of a screenplay demands that you ignore and exclude. Yes, you have to establish logical motivation but concentrate only on those people, those elements that will impact the relationship!

6. Feature film and TV movies require LOVE scenes, not SEX scenes
. . . First, the level of titillation in skin-to-skin scenes is dictated by your anticipated market. Secondly, you can summarize and leave the ultimate choreography to the director and the actors. The one thing you have to do is set-up, set-up, set-up. People do not randomly throw themselves at one another in current storytelling, unless the film is intended for the erotic, X-rated adult film industry. That industry appeals to males more interested in the action and not the emotions of the characters.

In a romantic film, physical commitment is an evolutionary consequence of visual communication. The couple has to maintain eye contact and read the invitation and acceptance. The primping and posturing can be subtle or blatant. The gradual invasion of personal space has to be allowed. And so on. Screenwriters can choreograph this build up to contact. They can even spread out the signaling through several scenes to add to the character (and audience) tension and anticipation. The caring, not the lust, between the partners is the primary consideration. And the consequence of the mating is the commitment, whether immediate or in the end. Thus the sex scene is translated into a love scene. A contrast example of this happened in the two separate hotel rooms in FRENCH KISS. Culmination of the sex act was not possible because neither of the couples truly cared about their partner. Their love and commitment was invested elsewhere. When they recognized that missing element, the sexual activity halted.

WRITING TO THE STUDIO READER OR THE AUDIENCE?

Writing Spec Scripts (again those written on speculation that have not been contracted but are going to be pitched to people who can get them produced) means you are initially writing to prove yourself to these buyers. You have to get by a studio/agency reader before it will ever make it to an agent-producer-director-actor-or-paying audience.  Like novel writing, you have to write to entertain that reader . . . but you have to write to the format, the medium and the budget that the highly respected reader understands and is looking for.

Format
= Standard Screenplay Format

Medium
= Feature film of 90-120 pages or TV exactly 108 pages written in segments of 7-8 minute breaks (for commercials even if written as a cable movie since they think re-distribution in the future).

Budget
= Low (limited cast, limited & easily accessible locations, few to no special effects or stunts), Medium (requiring 1-2 investors usually for location, costuming, props, minimal special effects), High (requiring 3-10 investors including a major studio with multiple locations & complex special effects as well as high-end/A-List actors)

And, yes, you can be asked to place your movie in these categories. On a typical reader’s evaluation form they have boxes to check covering these considerations. If that reader is not entertained and intrigued you will get a Pass-Pass, meaning pass on the script and pass on the writer. Donna Michelle Anderson’s
The 1-3-5 Story Structure
mentioned in the Foreword carefully explains exactly what a studio reader looks for.

So, how much should all these concepts impact your writing? First and foremost, just like with a novel, get the screenplay written then revise with these concepts in mind. You market to those studios or agencies known for your type of story with the understanding that all screenwriting is a crap shoot! You improve your chances of connecting with someone somewhere if you create the very best one you can. 

 Writing screenplays must be a joy, not torture. Why? When the writer is enthralled with the effort, the writing, the plot and the characters will be rendered with an innate power. Forcing a story the writer does not enjoy will create an undertone of impatience and disbelief. Some people find it very easy to write screenplays because they write visually to begin with. Others struggle. That kind of resistance will be reflected in the power of the script, the nuance of the writer’s excitement and energy. The enjoyment of the writing is a contagious abstraction that subtly flows into the screenplay or novel. The structure, the format, the entire process must translate to and stimulate the reader, especially in screenwriting! If you don’t entrance that reader, that script will never make it into production.

So do you write to deliberately entice and entertain the industry reader? Of course! Write to entertain whoever is reading it. That screenplay is only a blueprint that must be so good that it excites the imagination of many other film disciplines . . . after the reader gives it a Recommend-Recommend, so it will be passed on for further evaluation. One reader of a screenplay does not a sale make!

ROMANTIC SCREENPLAYS Chapter 1 Exercises

Note:
If you are thinking of adapting your romance novel to the screen, you can begin honing in on essential elements with these exercises.

Exercise 1a:
Answer these questions . . .

1) What is the female’s Tangible Objective in your story? What concrete, realistic thing does she want that is driving her at the outset of the story?

Note:
The word “tangible” means something that can be evaluated via the senses. Not abstract, not a value or concept, but REAL. “Purpose for being alive” is a concept though it could be measured in tangibles. Think about it. Think about your character. What
thing
would make her
feel
alive, the verifiable
proven
thing that could be experienced and described through the five senses?

2) What is the male’s Tangible Objective?

3) List minimum of five ways these two objectives could create conflict between the two.

Exercise 1b:
List ten (minimum) obstacles these two people could encounter in the evolution of their relationship, then pick the one antagonistic element that is as strong as if not stronger than either or both of the main characters.

Exercise 1c:
List the female lead’s influential friends and subplots or various life agendas that could be going on throughout this story. (We will use these in Chapter 4). Now, do the same for the male lead.

Chapter 2

A Romantic Log Line

Using the logic of starting simple, you must look to your log line first. This is the sentence that focuses your attention and introduces others to your story. That one sentence of 25 words or less tells the story that is essential to both the mental and the written process. Why?

 Saying the story in one sentence focuses the writer on the bare bones framework of this story, thus automatically eliminating other concepts. The log line identifies the main character, the story’s driving force and the main obstacle (or antagonist) to be overcome. It depicts the uniqueness of this story. Cut and dried, to the point, the log line is simply “What” the story is about. However, it cannot be a boring sentence. You want nouns, qualifiers and action verbs that deliver layers of potential action, a cascade of thought-associated images. It must explode with powerful innuendo that will suck the reader/audience in and make them want to know exactly what goes on in the detailed story, what happens to the characters, how they live the adventure.

 Essentially, a log line delivers the outline of the story’s essence.  When someone asks you “What is your book (screenplay) about?” this is the succinct sentence you tell them.  The majority of the people who will ask you are merely being polite, so here’s a key point: If the listener is intrigued or curious, they will ask you for more information. If not, either your story holds no appeal to that individual or he/she isn’t really interested anyway.

 Let’s assume your single sentence told of a story that does not appeal to this person. Is it the story itself or the person’s tastes? If it is the story itself then you need to rethink your sentence.

 Always ask yourself how your story is different from others in the same category. You can practice by writing a log line for five or more stories of one type such as military romantic suspense or Regency marriage of convenience or Scottish bridal kidnapping or serial murderer defying police or rich man-poor girl rescues or . . . You get the idea. Pick several books or movies of the same type and write a log line for each. Don’t dwell on the words you choose. Write the log lines quickly. How similar are they? Why? Because they deal with similar or stereotypical characterizations or plot lines?

 Now, think about your story. You have to make 
your
story different, fresh, enthralling. If you don’t feel that way about your story, how will you get someone else to want to read it? Your difference will begin with a powerful log line.

Step One: Identify Character Role