Is my script big enough to be a movie, Part 6: Visual Style
Following up on my most recent post, here is another aspect to consider about how big your script is:
DOES MY SCRIPT HAVE A BIG ENOUGH VISUAL STYLE?
At their core, movies are a visual medium. Until The Jazz Singer debuted in 1927, movies existed quite well for three decades without sound. Remember what they were first called: motion pictures. And, of course, one of the first mantras of screenwriting is “Show it, don’t say it.”
So at all times and in every scene, a screenwriter needs to be actively aware of their story’s visual potential. Some basic things you can do in this regard:
* Put the scene into motion. If you have a scene which has a lot of exposition, put the scene into motion: A careening car ride, pedestrians slaloming through foot traffic, two golf carts chasing each other, and so on. Almost anything is better than two talking heads.
* Inject a loose cannon. A nosy hot dog vendor intrudes on a couple’s argument. Thunder and lightning chase a mother and daughter across the beach and into a cave. In the midst of making love on a remote hillside, a couple is interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Goodyear blimp overhead. The visual can also be surprising.
* Use dreams, nightmares, memories, and imaginings. A screenwriter has the right to enter ‘into’ a character’s mind and convey those visuals on the page. Much better to see than hear the character describe through dialogue.
* Don’t forget contrast. Follow a day scene with a night scene. A dry scene with a rainy scene. A slow scene with a fast scene. An interior scene with an exterior scene. Contrast emphasizes visuality.
* Visual to visual transitions. In Tokyo, a character hangs up a phone / in Midland, Texas, another character clicks on his cellphone. In 1947, a boy throws a baseball / in 2009, an old man catches it. An Italian family dances away, crushing wine grapes / a glass of wine sipped with relish by another character. These type of transitions can enhance a script’s visuality and also create seamless segues from one scene to the next.
I call it imagematic writing. Don’t concern yourself with looking up ‘imagematic’. I made it up. To me it means that every word a screenwriter uses in a script should work to conjure images in the mind of the reader. In scene description, use graphic descriptors (e.g., wind-swept, slump-shouldered, bovine), strong verbs (e.g., skitter, vault, careen) — hell, you can even make up words as long as they engender images (e.g., barrel-asses his way, skip-trips across the floor, shadow-slinks into the night).
Then there’s that word style. Style consists of many elements but certainly how a writer approaches the visual dimension of a script contributes to it — and the more visual your script, the ‘bigger’ it can be.
Next: Does my script have a big enough beginning?
[Originally posted February 14, 2009]