#6 Image First, Label Second
Edition #6 of the Lighthouse miniLetter!
You'll always get:
Three examples of great screenwriting
Two quotes about storytelling
One thing to think about
Plus some fun links at the bottom.
Three examples of great screenwriting
All Is Lost
Written by JC Chandor
Look at how many non-visual acting choices are here.
“Suddenly realizes,” “he’s not quite sure,” “decides.”
And yet, are any of us confused at what we’re watching in this moment?
Wednesday (Pilot)
Written by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar
Cool use of CAPS followed by “—” as functional mini-slugs without adding more lines. Also, Wednesday’s reaction could, in theory, end at “detachment” but Gough & Millar use every inch of the real estate that’s afforded when “detachment” returns to a new line.
Everly (Pilot)
Written by James Alexander
A lot to like here, like good mixed use of CAPS and bolds, but really what I want to highlight is what I’m gonna call “soft setting.”
BIRD’S EYE VIEW soft sets the vulture.
SOMEWHERE soft sets the later something.
Even the vulture itself, a scavenger, soft sets the idea of A BODY.
There’s a unity to this passage. Lovely work.
Two quotes about screenwriting
“There’s a rule of writing: if everything is funny, nothing is funny; if everything is sad, nothing is sad. You want that contrast.”
“Take notes. Everything is copy.”
One thing to think about
Image first, label second.
A BLEEBLAT is rolling right toward her! Terrifyingly cute and terrifyingly deadly, it’s an amorphous blob, completely covered in fur.
Stories require educating the audience.
Sometimes it’s something simple, like telling them a character’s name, and other times it’s something complex, like explaining a completely new creature in a fantasy story (such as a bleeblat).
To keep the “screen” part of screenwriting alive, it can be useful to describe the image first, then label it.
Otherwise you’re asking the audience to hold an unknown image in their head.
Rolling towards her is an amorphous blob, completely covered in fur. This is a BLEEBLAT. Terrifyingly cute, terrifying deadly.
It works for more than invented creatures too.
Whistle dangling around a thick neck. Mirrored sunglasses. Pursest of pursed lips you’ve ever seen. MR. WALSH, the Gym Teacher, surveys the playground…his kingdom.
When introducing anything, it’s always worth looking at:
Image first, label second.
Have a great draft,
David Wappel