play is a craft that needs constant training.
"Story" Author: Robert McKee
Hollywood ever-popular phrase: screenwriter film and television industry is the most important, but not let them know. This is not only an affirmation of this profession, but also explains the status quo of this profession-screenwriters are important but always not noticed. There are many career barriers in the film and television industry, and screenwriting is one of them. As long as you can write, as long as you have a good idea, you want to try it. But screenwriting is a craft, with many rules and rules. Unlike a novel, you can believe it. Even if it is a novel, although I don't understand it, I think it should be based on a certain structure.
wrote about writing French writer Molière once said: Writing is like prostitution. At first it was written for love; then it was written for a few friends; and finally it was written for money. The study of screenwriting is now basically through these two methods: one is to go to a screenwriting class; the other is to learn by myself by reading a screenwriting book. No matter which way you study, the teacher and the textbook will tell you the same thing: write your own inner story. Many playwrights also adhere to this principle to create at first, but they often go through the process of Molière's theory. Perhaps it took more than two months or even longer to write a script that I am satisfied with based on the principles taught by the teacher or learned from the book. The storyline and themes in it are all I want to express and arrange. Then, he showed it to the producer. The producer said that these scenes were too expensive to make, and they had to be deleted or changed. Some of the plots were too boring, adding some love and commercial elements; showing it to the director, the director said, this The plot is a bit silly, it doesn’t look good on filming, so let’s change it to something else; take an actor to see, the actor said, the passage is too long, and it’s uncomfortable, can you cut a part...
Nose gray began to immerse himself in revisions, and after five or six draft revisions, everyone was finally satisfied. Then, it was submitted to the radio and television for review, and the boss said: Your story has a problem with the theme and does not conform to the values of the current society...
Finally, the screenwriter can only change it in order to pass the review. This situation is not uncommon. Why does
say this? This goes back to the sentence at the beginning: Screenwriting is a craft! In addition to some inherent laws and rules in this craft, there are also constraints from the external environment. If you want to write a good story under the current social system, you must constantly explore these "hidden rules." Hone! Of course, you must never forget: write your own inner story.
Sid Field’s three plays
Each person’s writing process and writing habits are different, and the same person’s way of writing different stories will also be very different. Sometimes it comes from a sudden idea, sometimes it comes from an experience, an emotion, but more often it comes from the request of others. Recently, I am writing a story about employers and drivers. In the process of writing, when I finished the first draft, I always felt that something was not right. It seemed that something was missing, but I didn't know what went wrong. Therefore, I analyzed a little bit and analyzed the theme, structure, characters, and dialogue. The final conclusion is: the theme is very clear and the structure is based on the standard traditional structure. Although the characters are lacking, they always feel that they are not fundamental. The problem is that the dialogue is short and concise, the conflict construction is strong, the scene paragraphs have a beginning and an end...but I feel that something is wrong...and just at that time I wanted to write an article about the drama of the movie "The Matrix", repeatedly Watch this movie.
"The Matrix" Screenwriter: Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
"The Matrix" (here only refers to the first part) is about a young cyber hacker who lives in the matrix Austria discovered that the seemingly normal real world actually seemed to be controlled by some force, and Neo investigated the matter on the Internet. And Murphys, the captain of the human resistance organization who lives in reality, has been looking for the legendary savior in the matrix. In this way, under the guidance of the human resistance organization member Trinity, the two met, and Neo was also in Murphy. Under the guidance of Si, he returned to the real reality and escaped from the matrix.
Neo realized that he had been living in a virtual world. The real history is that in 20XX, humans invented AI (artificial intelligence), then robots rebelled and war broke out with humans, and humans retreated steadily. in the case of,The entire sky is covered with dark clouds to cut off the energy (solar energy) of the robots. Who knows that the robots have developed a new energy-bioenergy, which is to use genetic engineering to artificially create humans, and then connect them to the matrix and let them Survive in the virtual world to get the energy needed for the robot to run.
In the process of watching this film repeatedly, I gradually discovered the missing part of my story-the pattern, an open and huge pattern. This story is based on the conflict between humans and artificial intelligence, and explores the relationship between humans and AI, as well as the relationship between human external behavior and internal consciousness, with profound ideas. Among them, there are not only the development history of the human group and the unified behavior in the development process, but also the uniqueness of human beings as an independent individual. When Neo came to the real world in the story, Morpheus told him the truth of reality: in order to destroy the robots they created, humans dyed the sky black. As a result, not only did the robots not be destroyed, but the humans themselves became The slave of the robot. Later, when Murphys was arrested, the robot agent Smith told him the truth about humans in the eyes of robots-you are like viruses, and you never wanted to achieve a balance with the natural world. The background of this story contains the history of human development. What a great pattern! The uniqueness of man as an independent individual is reflected in the protagonist Neo. His process of becoming a savior from a slave enslaved by the matrix under the guidance of reality and teammates is the best embodiment of individual uniqueness, just like in the movie. Neo went to see the Prophet. The sign that the Prophet pointed out to him read "Know Yourself". This is something that people as individuals and groups should be aware of. Each story of
has its social background. digs into the social background and character background of its own story, and thinks and digs it deeply, which is a good way to extend the pattern of the story. Of course, this kind of extension and excavation must be built within the framework of the story, cannot exist independently, and must strictly follow the logical relationship between the whole and the part. The pattern is closely related to the theme, it is a manifestation of the theme. Both Field and McKee once said: A story must have depth or breadth, the two must be one, or both. This is the best comment on the pattern.
"The Matrix" is a movie under the traditional three-act play structure. When initially corresponding to the structure, the vast majority of people may regard Neo’s successful arrival in the real world in the 35th minute as plot point I. At first I thought so, but later I found it was wrong. Its real plot point Ι should be that Neo chose the red pill when he chose between the red pill and the blue. This decision led to a series of stories that followed. The audience in the entire first act almost spent one question after another, and we were in a pile of mysteries just like the protagonist. When the story led to a story point, before it was resolved, there was a second and a third... but so many doubts did not make the audience feel lost. Why? Because in the process of constructing the story, the author let the audience know what the audience needs to know at this stage, and the other parts only need to be mentioned a little bit to make the audience aware. In the first act of The Matrix, we only need to know two things to not get lost. First, who is the protagonist? Who should we talk to and identify with? The writer gave a show in the 7th minute after the opening chase paragraph-Neo, and we also know that Neo is a person called the "savior", although he does not know it yet, this is even more important. Aroused the audience's attention and concern for him. Second, what is he going to do? That is dramatic purpose. The understanding of these two things keeps us from getting lost in the many chaotic plots. Then, in the whole second act, the playwright showed the doubts that had been constructed before, paying attention to display, not explanation! This will be mentioned in another movie later. When the film progressed to 1 hour and 35 minutes at the end of the second act, we had a complete understanding of the world constructed at the beginning of the film, the protagonists and their circumstances. Neo's second crucial decision brings the film to the third act. When the film ends, we have no lack of what the whole film tells, and there is no sense of dissatisfaction. This is a point to pay special attention to when writing a script that is out of reality, or even close to reality- should let the audience know all the truth at the end of the film !
The 2016 movie "Warcraft" is an opposite example.
"Warcraft" Screenwriter: Charles LevySpecial, Duncan Jones, Chris Mason
"Warcraft" is a personally loyal movie, mainly derived from the game "World of Warcraft", in college, I also read "Warcraft Trilogy" because of this game. . At that time, I was amazed at the outstanding world that I could create. But when it is made into a movie, there are many flaws in the script, and the background display is one of them. As a person who has played the game for four years and read the "Warcraft Trilogy", I didn't understand it when I first watched it. The characters, events, and tribal relationships mentioned in the play are not clear or even explained. The audience does not recognize that world, just as terrible as they do not recognize the characters. It will leave the audience in a state of ignorance and dissociation.
mentioned earlier to show the story world rather than explain it. Take Ang Lee's recent film "Gemini Killer" as an example.
"Gemini Killers" screenwriter: David Benioff, Billy Ray, Darren Lemke
"Gemini Killers" is about the US Defense Intelligence Agency agent Henry, who was met by a mysterious when he was about to retire The killer's pursuit, in the fierce contest between the two, he discovered that the killer turned out to be more than 20 years younger himself. When I first played this movie, I was watching the Korean version of the subtitles translated into clouds and mists, and the plot seemed a bit clichéd, so the impression was very bad. Later, I thought it might be because of the subtitles. A few days later, a corrected version was released. After re-editing, although the story went well, I always felt that something was missing. After three swipes, I realized the problem. The film is a story about an agent being chased and killed, but we know very little about the background of the protagonist, and only some of the understanding is also passed on through language, which causes our lack of understanding of the characters . The ability of pictures to convey information and emotions in movies is always better than language.
It is not enough to have a good theme, structure and background. All stories are about characters and their relationships. The success of character creation in "The Matrix" is that everyone's appearance is with strong purpose and direction. Of course, this is also due to the huge background of the story. In the process of shaping the relationship between characters, you may encounter such a theory: all the characters that appear must be around the protagonist, and those who are not directly related to the protagonist should be deleted. I don't quite agree with this view. The story world we create is not a world with only the protagonist. Only the characters related to the protagonist are created, which violates the logic of the normal world and will make the story lose the connection with the real world and weaken the character dimension of the whole story.
seems to have written too much this time, I am afraid that few people will see it here, I will make a long story short. Finally, briefly talk about the action paragraphs in the story. There are four action paragraphs in the whole movie. First, Trinity’s escape passage in the opening scene; Second, the fight between Neo and Murphys in the middle of the second act; Third, Murphys was arrested at the end of the second act; Fourth, the entire rescue in the third act paragraph. The role of action paragraphs is often overlooked in Chinese movies. Domestic movies usually take action paragraphs as a commercial element, purely visual stimulation. This is true of "Wolf Warriors 2". Two hours of film, one hour of playing.
"Wolf Warrior 2" screenwriter: Wu Jing, Liu Yi, Dong Qun
This beating is a pure hormonal stimulus, while ignoring the action passage as part of the film to promote the development of the story and Show the character's function , but only confine it to the end of the paragraph, the final result. For example, a chasing action paragraph, most of these paragraphs are only concentrated at the end, was the person being chased chased or escaped? That's it. And the really good chasing paragraphs constantly show the characters or promote the story in the chasing process. Take the first action paragraph of "The Matrix" as an example. Trinity was hunted down by agents and finally managed to escape. In the process of hunting down, the playwright planted a foreshadowing, that is, when a group of people ran on the roof, the difference between ordinary police and agents, Trinity, implied that one is a person controlled by the matrix, the other is People out of control. And when Trinity jumped in from the window of a building, and then took out a gun and pointed it at the window, waiting for the agent to come in, the agent did not come in, she said to herself "Get up, Trinity, get up quickly", this is also It shows that Trinity is not a person in this world. In this passage, the writer does more than just show the ending: Was Trinity caught or escaped? But in the process of chasing, they laid the story foreshadowing.
also the second action segmentThe same goes for falling. In order to adapt Neo to the environment, he was implanted in martial arts. Then, he and Morpheus had a competition, and the purpose of this competition was not to win or lose, but to guide him to guide Niu. Austrian liberation consciousness. Although the result of this passage is that Neo was not completely liberated, it paved the way for the changes in the characters behind. The content listed above is only a part of the film. The condensed and profound dialogue in the story is also a major factor in the success of the film. And the shaping of the main characters and the shaping of the relationship between the characters. For example, the relationship between Neo and Trinity. Trinity only said her love for Neo at the end of the film, and the relationship between the two was established. When Morpheus took Neo to see the Prophet, the Prophet once told Neo that “being a savior is like being in love”. It was also at the end of the film that Neo changed from Neo to the real savior. The relationship and plot of the two have reached unity. What a clever arrangement.
A good script requires the screenwriter to think and ponder day after day, and make the most appropriate arrangements for the plot and characters. This arrangement is often not noticed, but don’t care about these, because when someone wants to care about these details When you don’t have one, it will be very troublesome!
