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Lecture 5: What’s the Point?

Lecture 5: What’s the Point?. Professor Christopher Bradley. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Screenplay by Ted Tally. Previous Lesson. First Act-- The beginning Midpoint-- The Preliminary Solution Climax-- The True Solution. The Towering Inferno (1974) Screenplay by

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Lecture 5: What’s the Point?

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  1. Lecture 5:What’s the Point? Professor Christopher Bradley The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Screenplay by Ted Tally

  2. Previous Lesson • First Act-- The beginning • Midpoint-- The Preliminary Solution • Climax-- The True Solution The Towering Inferno (1974) Screenplay by Sterling Sillaphant

  3. In this Lesson Designing a Scene PURPOSE Turning Points Transitions The Turning Point (1977) Screenplay by Arthur Laurents

  4. In this Lesson (Continued) Exposition Show, Don’t Tell! Conflict Assignments Return of The Pink Panther (1975) Screenplay by Frank Waldman and Blake Edwards

  5. Designing a Scene How to Murder Your Wife (1965) Screenplay by George Axelrod Lesson 5: Part I

  6. Designing a Scene - 1 Write freely the first time through. (That’s what a rough draft is for!) When you have a few scenes (such as, say, your first ten pages) take a look at what you have. 6

  7. Designing a Scene - 2 • Every scene is a story unto itself, with a beginning, middle and end. • Your protagonist should be better off or worse off at the end of each scene • Four Aspects of Turning Points • Emotional Transitions – Take the audience through the experience that causes the emotion

  8. Designing a Scene - 3 • You already know your protagonist’s goal. The PURPOSE of every scene is to bring your protagonist closer, or knock him back further from his or her goal. • Everyone in the scene has a goal, and everyone in the scene should be in conflict, though not all conflict is on the surface.

  9. Choose Me - 1 • Pause the lecture and watch the clip from Choose Me.

  10. Choose Me - 2 Finding the love in the scene Are the characters closer to their goals or further away at the end of the scene? 10

  11. Choose Me - 3 • PURPOSE • What does each character want in the scene? (Scene Objective) • How does that work in with what they want in the whole story? (Story Objective)

  12. Choose Me - 4 • Turning Point • What is the climax of the scene? • How does this represent a Turning Point for the characters? • What does each character hope for or expect? • What did each actually get? • How do they contrast? (McKee’s “gap”) 12

  13. Choose Me - 5 • Surprise: What was unexpected in the scene? • Increased curiosity: What new questions were raised? • Insight: What did you learn about the characters? • New direction: How did the story change?

  14. Exposition A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Screenplay by Tennessee Williams Lesson 5: Part II

  15. Exposition - 1 • Exposition Serves 2 Purposes: • Deepen Conflict • Provide Information • Expositional dialog that doesn’t deepen the conflict is boring! • Expositional dialog (or voiceover) that tells you what’s happening or what just happened belongs in a novel, not a film!

  16. Exposition - 2 • Show, Don’t Tell • Take the audience through an emotional experience, don’t tell them about it. • Tell your audience what the characters have to lose.

  17. Silence of the Lambs - 1 • Pause the lecture and watch the clip from The Silence of the Lambs.

  18. Silence of the Lambs - 2 • Rather than simply telling you information about them both, the conflict necessitates the revelations. • How does this scene deepen the conflict between Lechter and Clarice? • What information do we gain about Lechter? About Clarice?

  19. Silence of the Lambs - 3 • Emotional Violence — How does Lechter injure Clarice with just words? How does she fight back? • How is Lechter’s violence different from the other inmates? What does that say about him? • What does each have to lose? • Why does Lechter help her in the end? What does that say about him?

  20. Silence of the Lambs - 4 • Turning Points happen on: • – Action • – Revelation • Backstory • – Why not use flashback here? • – Voiceover Narration

  21. Silence of the Lambs - 5 • Scene Design • Goals of Each? • The love in the scene (as sick as that might seem here…) • What has each gained or lost?

  22. Silence of the Lambs - 6 • Surprise: What was unexpected in the scene? • Increased curiosity: What new questions were raised? • Insight: What did you learn about the characters? • New direction: How did the story change?

  23. Assignments Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) Screenplay by R.C. Sherriff and Claudine West and Eric Maschwitz Lesson 5: Part III

  24. Reading • Read Chapter 10 in Story, “Scene Design” • Read Chapter 15 in Story, “Character” • Do the Reading Review to be sure you’re clear on what you’ve read

  25. E-Board Post - Part 1 Scene Design Choose a scene from your screenplay (one you have actually written or one you are planning) and state: What that characters want and expect What they actually get Contrast these 25

  26. E-Board Post - Part 2 Exposition For the same scene, state: What the conflict is between your characters What the audience will learn about your characters through that conflict 26

  27. End of Lecture 5 Next Lecture: Subtext or Bust! Double Indemnity (1944) Screenplay by Billy Wilder

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