Romantic Screenplays 101 (4 page)

Names of characters do not create images in the reader’s mind, but roles do. Think of a name as the identity of the character to the rest of the world, but the underlying power of the character is what he or she is doing in the world. Names can be changed, but that innate power demanded by various roles will not change.

All of us have many roles in our lives: Child, Sibling, Spouse, Parent, Friend, Employee, Professional Engineer, Home Owner, Church Member, Writer, Poet, Screenwriter, Dancer, Gym Member, Horse Owner, on and on with each of us obviously making different lists. Each of those roles has its own agenda or tasks, concerns, business/activities that are important only to that role. In reality, each role is its own life. Of course, some bleed over into other roles, influencing actions and choices–like becoming a parent influences spousal expectations or a boss’s demands of overtime makes the bowling team mad or paying for a hospital bill means not repainting the house this year which could in turn send the neighbor into an angry outburst—but our daily lives are moments lived in each of these roles. A story grows out of the drama of those moments.

What is the dominant role in your main character’s life that is in the camera’s eye for the majority of the story? What is the role central to this story with all other roles subordinate or influenced by the demands of that role? Is it a working mom, a deployed marine, an accountant?

Step Two: Dominant Personality Factor

The underlying, driving force of a personality is what allows each of us to tackle the big challenges of our lives. And sometimes only our internalized self is aware of that power lurking within. Only when we are forced will that deep characteristic evolve to its fullest. That is what You-the-Writer need to yank out of a character and put to work to meet the life-changing challenge in your story. That is the characteristic you will plug into your log line.

Like multiple life-roles, each of us has an array of personality traits, sometimes relevant only to particular roles, some hidden deep in the essence of our mental lives and others shown every day by our actions, choices, words. All of those traits are essential to who we are as individuals. They categorize our personality type to psychologists. Storytellers evolve into amateur psychologists as we analyze and depict our make-believe characters. You-the-Writer must carefully consider your character profile and select the dominant characteristic that will energize the main character throughout your story.

Pick that one personality factor that will be vital to the character enduring and succeeding, even if the trait is a perpetual problem to be overcome. Create a log line using that qualifying trait tacked onto the life role. The combination should evoke images and possibilities for story complications. 

“A callous Southern playboy.....”

“A haunted, introverted librarian....”

“A brilliant but ignored daughter...”

“A frigid female heart surgeon...”

“A ridiculously happy family man...”

Still not sure of how to describe your main character? Make a list of five positive and five negative personality characteristics
you
have. Now, pick one that your family will agree on and another that your close friends will agree on. How many of your mere acquaintances are aware of both of these? Which “face” do you show the real world? What secret personality trait do you harbor, waiting for the right moment, the right opportunity to use? Consider the power within your main character that will be called up throughout the story.

Avoid using more than one trait in your log line. One is enough. Choose the one that will visually communicate the power that will drive the story.

Step Three: Identify Motivating Circumstance/Adventure

What is the situation or New Life the character is thrown into? In the Hero’s Journey construct this is something not normally sought. It is a change that demands more effort, a challenge to who this person is.

In category or genre fiction a writer is tempted to insert the situation common to the genre or sub genre. Resist the urge. Instead, identify what makes your story circumstance
unique
from every other romance or fantasy or mystery. This directive implies that you have read a lot in your genre and know common storylines.

Yes, it is essential to create a log line in the spirit of your genre. In the same vein, be absolutely, 100% certain yours is unique to your story and not a cookie cutter that could be applied to any other Regency, any other paranormal, any other Navy SEAL romantic suspense . . .

Step Four: Identify the Opposition to be Overcome

Here is the point you introduce the truly unexpected twist or irony contrasting with the personality trait and role. Of course, it must be logical to the circumstance and genre. Primarily it has to be wildly evocative. You-the-Writer must propose a story with any number of possibilities that can be guessed or not. They must so enthrall or intrigue the reader that more detail is demanded. You want the reader/listener to ask for the synopsis or entire manuscript.

Look over these examples of one character’s story possibilities in many genres:

Romance     

“A callous Southern playboy cannot inherit until he convinces the new female pastor that he’s worthy.”

Mystery

“A callous Southern playboy uses his prison time to network favors and find who ruined his family.”

Fantasy

“A callous Southern playboy defies a curse and is whisked into a swampland world where he is the servant.”

Western

“A callous Southern playboy wins a whorehouse filled with underage orphans and an outraged madam.”

Look at the concluding phrases of these log lines to identify one more element: Irony. What gives a twist, a punch that is in contrast to the beginning of the sentence, whether it reflects on the character or on the circumstance. Frequently that irony will create the uniqueness of the story that sticks in the editor or agent’s mind.  

Log lines are not meant to be simple; they are meant to be powerful. Think of the imagery of poetry: Every word should be evocative, creating a cascade of thought-associated images. Remember, this must be an intriguing, defining sentence about both character and story. It is the hook that will demand your story be read. A log line is your introductory sales pitch. It is the line you use in your query or cover letters.

LOG LINE POINTS

Read your sentence aloud in one breath. If you have to take a breath or hesitate, it’s too long. That’s why the 25 word limit. Agents/editors/producers—the overly busy people of film—have the attention span of a gnat. Keep the sentence tight and pertinent. Do not try to cram it with an overwhelming amount of information. You want their imagination set on fire with a flow of images and possibilities, not flooded with so much they feel like they are drowning. Focus on primary traits, primary trials, primary goals. Not all traits, trials, goals. “Primary” means the most important to the entire story.

 Watch out for passives. Any “is” verbs or use of vague, genre-specific wording like “gets saddled” which is 1) passive, 2) cliché and 3) a “western” connotation. It’s not meant to be any of those but when writing a log line for a unique genre, do not mix your metaphors.

ROMANTIC SCREENPLAYS Chapter 2 Exercises.

Exercise 2a.
List the internal and external/role characteristics of your main character. Carefully choose your qualifiers for edginess, qualities that can either be positive or negative.

Exercise 2b.
  What is the character’s main goal that makes him or her continue to strive?

Exercise 2c.
List all the possible obstacles to achieving that goal.

Exercise 2d.
Now formulate your Log Line....in 25 words or less.

Key Points:

1) Pick your role noun, identify your most tantalizing and pertinent qualifiers , then put that noun in action with the most vivid verb you can come up with. Power words with lots of levels that demand to be explained. Can you make a list of more action-packed verbs that imply the action of the story?

2) Look at your qualifying clauses and your verbs. Does the agent/producer get lost between the subject (the main character noun) and the verb?

Exercise 2e.
Explain to yourself how your story is different from all the others in that sub-genre category.

Exercise 2f.
Is the potential for a romance inherent in the log line? If it is not lurking or blatant, then rewrite until it is!

Exercise 2g.
Pick apart these four romantic log lines for the four elements and look for the implied romance. Do you see the romance as a main plot or a subplot?

Temperance:
In 1875 West Texas, an enigmatic saloon owner and a strong-willed young woman are accused of murdering her father, a New York banker-turned-fire-breathing-temperance leader.

Chaco:
A virile Hispanic nurse and a cynical California female doctor encounter tri-cultural trials as they struggle to build a medical clinic in the rural canyon country of northwestern New Mexico.

Shooting:
A world-renowned fashion model defies her grasping agent and takes on the responsibility for the cop disabled by her stalker’s bullet.

The Gift Exchange:
A sharp but family-challenged computer whiz is hired by an enigmatic stock broker / SCA enthusiast to help him find who is manipulating accounts in the brokerage.

Chapter 3

Three Approaches to

Romantic Screenplays

“TWELVE STEPS OF INTIMACY”

Before beginning the examination of different approaches to cinematic romance, let’s examine an overview of best-selling romance author Linda Howard’s
“Twelve Steps of Intimacy” wherein she explains how to demonstrate the physical progression of the sex drive from recognition to the act itself. Here’s the outline:

1. Eye to Body

2. Eye to Eye

3. Voice to Voice

4. Hand to Hand

5. Arm to Shoulder

6. Arm to Waist

7. Mouth to Mouth

8. Hand to Head

9. Hand to Body

10. Mouth to Breast

11. Hand to Genitals

12. Genitals to Genitals

The logic of this progression moves through
trust, acceptance
and
permission
. The more one trusts, the more access to the body will be wanted and allowed. On a primal level, each step makes the person more vulnerable to a lethal attack. Think about that as you again look down the list. Each move actually invades another’s space more. Each exposes the body to attack or allows total control of a body part that could have been protected or defended previously. Hand holding keeps one from running and each subsequent movement pulls the body closer. Mouth and head are where breath moves in and out and where one exposes the fragile spine and vital blood vessels. Each step allowed gives freer access to vulnerable body parts and surrenders control by responding, becoming more stimulated and willing.

Medical science has told us the pheromones should be signaling the attraction and desire, but those libido-freeing elements are not visible on the screen. As a cinematic storyteller, you have to show your characters losing self-control and becoming more vulnerable, more trusting, whether hurriedly or in progressively more sensual signaling throughout the entire script. Romance moves through these 12 Steps. Rape goes from Step 1 abruptly to anything beyond Step 9 because it is meant to be a violent violation, domination, a destruction of trust.

Another key point is that Steps 1 through 9 are acceptable as public displays of affection in our modern age, whereas in ancient through the Victorian era only Steps 1 through 4 were tolerated, though in some cultures such as Chinese nobility and strict Islamic practices not even eye contact was allowed. Most of society expects greater intimacy to be moved to private quarters because it is meant to be actions between just these two people. Think about the naughtiness or voyeurism of the adult porn industry in relation to these 12 Steps, titillation and trust vs. professional promiscuity.

Now, with the above choreography in mind, we will move into some concepts of building the cinematic romance.

IDENTITY AND ESSENCE

Michael Hauge is a story consultant in the film industry. He evaluates scripts for actors, agents, producers and directors, studio executives, TV networks and even evolving script writers. Based on his experience, he has developed some concepts helpful to romance. (His seminar is available on a DVD on his website
www.ScreenplayMastery.com
).

He talks of two facets of personality:
Outer Identity
and
Inner Essence
. Most humans operate by showing the external world that Outer Identity with skills, knowledge, habitual coping mechanisms, speech patterns, body language. It is who the world thinks that person is, the role assumed by that person. But, deep in the psyche throbs the Inner Essence, that soul that harbors aspirations, deep desires for what that person really wants to do and be in this life. Only a select few are allowed to see that Inner Essence. The Soul Mate, the sexual match meant to cherish and appreciate/accept both good and bad, sees beyond the Outer Identity to that Inner Essence.