Tips and Techniques on screenwriting comedy part 2

THE VISUAL PARADOX

The first global film star was Charlie Chaplin. He was asked to make films while still a vaudeville comedian, and he turned it down. He was working on his character the little tramp. Two years later he came back and had it perfected. He described the little tramp as follows: “Shoes too big, hat too small, pants too baggy, jacket too tight, you can’t tell if he is a rich man on his way down, or a poor man on his way up”. That is a visual paradox. It creates an unconscious question in your mind, and you want to answer that question. Paul Newman is a very good-looking actor. In a movie, he goes to a kitchen, picks up the old coffee grounds in the garbage can, and uses them to make some coffee. Here’s your visual paradox. This very successful looking person is seemingly down and out, and we want to know, what is his problem? It is not one thought “Good looking guy”, it is two thoughts. Woody Allen creates a character who should never end up with beautiful women, but somehow he does end up having relationships with them. You want to find out why. If you could create a visual paradox, you will have a much more interesting character.

PUNCTUATION

At the beginning, I want to slow down the reader’s eyes just a little bit. The reader is accustomed to seeing very rapid cutting in the movies, on television. But I do want the eyes to take in what’s on the page, to take in the jokes, but if his eyes are going too fast, they won’t take in anything. He hates to read, he wants to go through this as quickly as possible. So I am going to slow down his reading by using appropriate punctuation. Comas, periods, dashes, “ …”, I create breathing spaces. Even in dialogue, I will use “…”. I never write “pause”, because it takes energy to the eyes to read it. For short pauses, I’ll use “space, dash, space” ( - ), a longer pause may be “space, hyphen, hyphen, space” ( -- ), but most of the times I use “…” which is a full pause. Particularly for dialogue, you want to deliver with pauses. We don’t talk fluently and smoothly all the time. And two-third into the movie, the story stops being about a lot of things, and starts to narrow down about one thing. The movie moves very quickly to the last third. I’ll start dropping the punctuation, and shortening sentences, because I want the eyes to move more quickly, which leads to a faster heartbeat, to more excitement. So I’ll write two-word sentences, even one-word sentences. Example, a good one-word sentence is “Blood.” You don’t need anything else, such as descriptions. You put the location, that’s it, in order to move forward. Remember, a hundred pages have gone by, his eyes are more tired, you give him new things to keep his eyes energized, such as jokes, sexuality, physicality, “Wham!”. Intellectual conflict does not energize the eye. I am talking about writing in order to make a good living. I am not trying to wash away your deep thoughts. I am just talking about this: you want to get the check, use those techniques that I have developed over twenty five years, knowing who the reader is.

THE BATHROOM SYNDROME

I want the reader to actually want to turn pages not only for the first twenty pages, but for the entire screenplay. Even after I know they are interested in the story. I want the reader to finish the entire screenplay before having to get up to go to the bathroom. A guy over forty, who doesn’t like reading, chances are he is going to want to give his eyes a break, go to the bathroom half way through. But if I can make those eyes move nice and smooth towards the end, pages turning very quickly, you will find him read it with one sitting, and then he will go to the bathroom. If he goes to the bathroom, whatever emotional or action momentum built up is going to be hurt. He will have other thoughts, read a magazine, maybe get a snack; his mind will be cluttered with other things than your characters and their problems. But if you can have him read in one sitting, the momentum will build up, he will have a big laugh, get excited, then he goes “Wow! I think I like that!”. He will go to the bathroom and ask himself if he really liked it…

If he does, he now has to decide if he is going to commit fifty million dollars to making it, another fifty to advertise it… But, he will show it to other people, maybe senior members of his team. That is why I am using these techniques. As a writer, you are creating a relationship with the reader. It is a seduction, even though the writer should stay invisible.

A GOOD STORY

What is a good story? In a nutshell, if it happens to me, it is a good story (laughter)… In the sense that if I am personally emotionally involved with the story, the better the writing will be. I am talking about habits to take on the page, to give the reader’s eyes a positive experience. For the past 15 years, my approach was to ask myself : “How am I going to write this movie? What is the reason that keeps me going back to the table everyday? What am I trying to achieve for myself, not money wise, but as a writer?”. And once I think I got that, things go pretty smoothly. There is no formula. It is different each and every time.

By: Alex Vachon