“A good story well told”

A guest post from screenwriter, TV writer, and novelist Tom Benedek (Cocoon), my longtime friend and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class:

A good story well told. I like those. And I don’t mind an extremely complicated saga with some evocative resolution and a few unanswered questions.

This week, I watched an old French film by Eric Rohmer, Chaloe in the Afternoon. It asks a very direct and simple moral question to its protagonist and just lets him agonize over it for the duration. Then he makes a choice. It is a beautiful film. Its story could be a subplot in another kind of film. The thorough approach it takes is remarkable and nuanced.

I watched “Vinyl”, the Martin Scorsese HBO pilot. It’s two hours. And could almost stand alone as a mad dash of a Scorsese picture. It opened many plotlines, resolved little, opened out into the surreal for a while — more like Mean Streets in many ways than the DiCaprio movies of late. Short and intense, highly pleasing music cues (if you like old rock, R & B) are wall to wall. Very time broken script. The opposite of Rohmer film BUT it did offer a moral dilemma or two for the protagonist. With no resolution yet. This is TV. It could take years.

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Does Donald Trump have something in common with the screenplays for The Martian and The Big Short? They remove the filter of showing and just tell it to the camera, skipping details of actions, explaining things and then moving on through story.

The Big Short and The Martian are much more well-meaning, of course, than Trump. With identifiable moral centers. The scripts use asides to the audience all the time. Just like Donald. He never sticks to the script politicians use. He breaks the fourth wall by saying what jumps into his mind. He speaks directly to his audience in emotional terms. People are conditioned to accept that in these times. The internet, social media has broken certain barriers. Direct communication has become more direct. Movies, TV are influenced. A purposeful, classically wrought screenplay will never lose its power. The stylistic influences of the times have its influence, as well.

We get that extra day in our February this year. Great day to start working on your next script — get the idea into tight outline form, with zero to 30 characters speaking directly to the camera. Your choice.

Tom is teaching the next session of our popular and successful Prep: From Concept to Outline online workshop. Check it out here and learn how to craft a “good story well told”.