Reader Question: What about “set pieces” and how to use them in a script?

From Tommy Lee:

I was wondering if you could give any insight into writing set pieces and working them into your script, it’s something I haven’t come across in the books I’ve read. Do you think of set pieces and structure your movie around them? Thanks!

Tommy, I did a Google search of GITS and found these previous posts on set pieces:

Set Pieces [2 July 2008]

Is my script big enough to be a movie, Part 3: Set Pieces [2 February 2009]

The Business of Screenwriting: Trailer Moments, Set Pieces and Bits Of Business (BOBs) [20 October 2011]

In brief, set pieces are enormously important for a writer crafting a story as often it is those scenes, sets of scenes or sequences which function as the cinematic center of the story, the events which the reader will most likely carry with them, the moments moviegoers will talk about excitedly when they hit the theater lobby.

They can range from this:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=wSr4u

To this:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=uENU

To this:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=zWVe5

To this:

http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=ZYJG

More often than not, they are tied to major Plotline points, so there is a natural confluence between what transpires in the External World [the events that happen] and what is at work in the Internal World [the emotional meaning of the events].

I know from having written dozens of comedies, set pieces are not only absolutely essential, they are a god-send. Once you find a set piece, then you can milk it for all its worth, like this:

So yes, set pieces are a big deal. Tommy, I suggest you read the three posts I linked to above for more thoughts re them. Then check back in comments. I’m pretty sure GITS readers will have lots to say about set pieces.

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