Lecture 7: Location, Location, Location

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Lecture 7Location, Location, Location
Citizen Kane (1944) Screenplay by Herman J.
Mankiewicz and Orson Welles

• Professor Christopher Bradley

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Previous Lesson

• Dialog
• Text
• Subtext
• Image Systems
• Titles
• Proper Screenplay Formatting

Double Indemnity (1944) Screenplay by Billy Wilder
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This Lesson

• Avoiding Clichés
• Research
• Biographical and psychological
• Physical and Political
• Historical

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This Lesson (continued)

• Imagination
• The big What if?
• 4 Dimensions of Setting
• Period
• Duration
• Location
• Level of Conflict
• Assignments

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Avoiding Clichés
Hot Fuzz (2007) Screenplay by Edgar Wright and
Simon Pegg
Lesson 7 Part I
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Avoiding Clichés (1)

• 1 Way to Avoid Storytelling Clichés
• TAKE YOUR STORY FROM LIFE, NOT OTHER MOVIES!
• Read
• Biographies, Websites
• Watch
• Documentaries, Youtube

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Avoiding Clichés (2)

• Spy!
• - Find places where characters like your
  protagonist hang out and watch them behaving
  naturally. The mall, truck stops, backstage,
  classes, protests.
• Interview
• - Formally or informally. (Might
  just look like a conversation.)

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Avoiding Clichés (3)

• Writing a police drama?
• - Read first person, true-life stories about
  police officers.
• - Watch documentaries (Not CSI!)
• - What coffee shops do cops hang out in?
• - Can you eavesdrop?

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Avoiding Clichés (4)

• Writing about cancer?
• Look on Youtube for first-person accounts. (Not
  to steal someones personal story, but to get an
  authentic overall feel for what its like.
• Hang out in the waiting room of a public health
  clinic for an afternoon.
• Writing about poverty?
• Hang out at the unemployment office for a few
  hours.
• What kinds of people are there?

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Research
Armageddon (1998) Screenplay by Jonathan
Hensleigh and J.J. Abrams
Lesson 7 Part II
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Research (1)

• The more certain, the more specific you are about
  who your character is, where they came from,
  where they live, the more your story will sear
  itself into your readers/audiences minds!

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Research (2)

• Biographical
• Really know your characters history. Born
  where? Parents still together?
• Psychological
• Much longer journal entries than what we did
  here as an exercise. Deaths of pets? Friends?
  What damage do they have?
• Physical
• Limitations? Smoker? Diseases? Athlete?

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Research (3)

• Political
• What political party does your character vote
  for? Do they approve of the death penalty? If
  your character isnt political, know why they
  arent!
• Historical
• Your character lives in Oklahoma? How does this
  inform family history? Chicago? Was their
  grandfather a gangster? Fighting the gangsters?
  Killed by gangsters? Bankrupted by payoffs?

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Imagination
Jurassic Park (1998) Screenplay by Jonathan
Hensleigh and J.J. Abrams
Lesson 7 Part III
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Imagination and What if?

• The Big WHAT IF?
• Start with something true, then ask yourself,
  What if?

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Examples of What if?

• Say your great-grandfather developed dementia.
  What if he were faking it to avoid prosecution
  for murder?
• Say you accidentally cut your arm open in real
  life. What if you saw circuitry in there
  instead of muscles and blood?
• Say your older brother always insisted that you
  were adopted. What if you had an aunt who
  mysteriously disappeared a month after you were
  born?

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More Examples of What if?

• Say the love of your life bolted just before your
  wedding. What if he turned up with terminal
  cancer and begged to see you a year after youd
  married someone else?
• Say money was disappearing from the cash register
  at work. What if you were framed for the
  theft?
• Say you ran over a squirrel on a country road.
  You checked to see if the squirrel was dead. It
  was. What if it were a homeless woman? And
  youd just robbed a liquor store?

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Process of What if?

• Not every idea will work, but this is how you
  brainstorm.
• You dont just do this when your originally
  conceiving the story You can do this
  throughout.
• Dont judge ideas until youve written down a
  number of possibilities.

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Memory

• Use your own experience, then extrapolate from
  it.
• Use first-hand stories that have happened to
  people you know and extrapolate from them.
• Use journals, documentaries and first person
  accounts.

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Dimensions of Setting
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) Screenplay by Nunnally
Johnson, Based on the novel by John Steinbeck
Lesson 7 Part IV
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Setting

• 4 Dimensions of Setting
• Period
• Duration
• Location
• Level of Conflict

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Setting (2)

• Period
• Not just the years in which the action happens,
  the overall zeitgeist of the time, the general
  intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an
  era. The world of the story.
• Duration
• The length of time the story covers. One morning
  at a gradeschool? Six weeks with the kidnappers?
  Eighty years in the life of a historical figure?
  

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Setting (3)

• Location
• The physical place where the action happens.
  Think of it almost like another character. Is it
  post-Katrina New Orleans? The palace of King
  Louis XIV? Scottsdale?
• Avoid scenes in coffee shops! What location
  would make the main conflict more intense? Shes
  trapped in a trophy-wife marriage? How about the
  zoo? Hes wracked with guilt? What if he
  unconsciously tries to wash himself clean at a
  water park?

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Setting (4)

• Level of Conflict
• Conflict is part of the setting, too!
• Remember, it doesnt have to be nuclear bombs
  annihilating the world. When Auntie Em and Uncle
  Henry refuse to come to Dorothys aid and allow
  Miss Gulch to take Toto to be put to sleep, its
  devastating.
• The conflict in the greater world is not
  necessarily the same as the conflict in your
  story. It depends on where you are.

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Clip 1

• Pause the lecture and watch the clip from
  Jurassic Park.

Jurassic Park (1993) Screenplay by Michael
Crichton and David Koepp
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Jurassic Park - 1

• Period- the world of the story
• The story takes place in the near future, at
  least the near future of 1993. How does this add
  to the tension?
• A note on consistency You can create any world,
  but once youve set the rules, play by them!

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Jurassic Park - 2

• Duration
• The investors representative is just there for
  the weekend. This will not be a 70 year epic.

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Jurassic Park - 3

• Location
• Opening scene- What does it say visually?
• Huge gates, electrified fences, yet a man still
  gets injured. What is the writer doing here?
• Level of Conflict
• The characters are being affable enough. Yet the
  tension is high. How are they in conflict?

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Jurassic Park - 4

• A Note on Exposition
• This scene is a useful example of well-done
  exposition. The first thing it does in conflict.
• Remember, exposition first exists to deepen
  conflict, and only second to give information.

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Jurassic Park - 5

• Remember, when creating your story, use
• Research of fact
• Research of imagination
• Research of memory (Your own, others)

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Clip 2

• Pause the lecture and watch the clip from
  Citizen Kane.

Citizen Kane (1941) Screenplay by Herman J.
Mankiewicz and Orson Welles
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Citizen Kane - 1

• Period- the world of the story
• The story during a period of incredible change
  and upheaval in America and in the world (the
  1870s to the 1940s). Two world wars, incredible
  technological advances). How does this add to
  the story?

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Citizen Kane - 2

• Duration
• The story takes place over 70 years. How does
  its epic nature serve the story? Would it have
  been as effective to cover 3 years of Charles
  Foster Kanes life?

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Citizen Kane - 3

• Location
• Scenes take place all over the world. How does
  this serve the story?

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Citizen Kane - 4

• Conflict
• While Citizen Kane is a sweeping epic, most of
  the conflict is keenly observed conflict between
  individuals. He and his wife, his employees, his
  girlfriend, the crooked politician featured in
  this scene.

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Citizen Kane - 5

• Remember, when creating your story, use
• Research of fact
• Research of imagination
• Research of memory (Your own, others)

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Assignments
Jurassic Park (1993) Screenplay by Herman J.
Mankiewicz and Orson Welles
Lesson 6 Part V
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Reading

• Read Chapter 3 in Story, Structure and
  Setting.
• Do the Reading Review to be sure youre clear on
  what youve read!

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E-Board Post

• Describe your storys setting with 4 aspects
• The Period (The world of your story)
• The Duration (How much time it covers)
• The Location (Where does the action happen?)
• The Level of Conflict (Worldwide? Microscopic?
  Interpersonal? Governmental? More than one of
  these?)

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End of Lecture 7
Harold and Maude (1971) Screenplay by Colin
Higgins

• Next Lecture The Controlling Idea