Save the Cat! (17 page)

Believe it or not, an emotional change like this must occur in
ever
y scene. And if you don't have it, you don't know what the scene is about. Until you figure out the emotional change for each of the 40 cards using this simple +/- code, don't start. And if you can't figure it out, throw the card away. Odds are it's wrong. And while many, like Robert McKee, believe these +'s and —'s must be strung together +-/-+/+-/-+/+- to butt up against each other in an undulating wave of emotional highs and lows, I think that's taking it a little far. It's enough to know something has to change in each scene and to show it.

The other symbol, ><, denotes conflict. To understand what the conflict is, I always like to think of a scene like this: As the lights come up, two people walk into a room from opposite doors, meet in the middle, and begin to struggle past each other to reach the door on the other side. They each enter the scene with a goal and standing in their way is an obstacle.
That
'
s
conflict. And whether it's physical or verbal or simply a guy who really needs to pee and must get to a bathroom soon or else!, that conflict must be foremost on your mind when you conceive each scene. The basic set-ups of Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Society that you learned in high-school English class can all be applied here.

When each scene opens, you must know what the main conflict of that scene is and who is bucking against whom. Each person, or entity, has an agenda. What is it? And ho-, does it collide with the person or entity he or she must get past? The symbol >< on the bottom of each card must be filled in with who each of the players is in each scene of conflict, what the issue is, and who wins by the end. If it's more than one person or issue, you've got a muddy conflict. And your scene is probably muddy, too. Only one conflict per scene, please. One is plenty. And whether it's a large issue or a small one, something physical or something psychological, it must be there. Every scene. Every time. If you can't find a conflict, figure out a way to create one.

The reason having conflict is so important and must be in every scene is, once again, very primal. (There's that word again.) And thinking primally, by having conflict in every scene, guarantees that you will keep the audience's attention. Why? Well, we like to see people in conflict. Conflict gets our attention. Why is wrestling the longest running drama on TV? It's about as basic an entertainment as you can get: DEATH! Two people trying to
kill
each other. Why do most movies have a romance? Again, the conflict is eternally primal and fascinating: SEX! Two people trying to
bed
each other. At its core, every scene in your movie must be as basic as this in order to get and keep the viewer's attention. If you don't have the players in the > vs. < match-up your scene represents, you don't have the scene yet. So...

Find the conflict... or reassess... or dump it.

And if you do, don't cry, it's only a card.

READY TO LET IT
FLY...

By the time you're done, you should have nine cards in row #1, nine in row #2, nine in row #3 and nine in row #4 — wait! That's only 36 cards. Well, I'm giving you four extra for those scenes I know you can't live without. Stick these wherever you like — we don't have to be
that
precise. But 40 is all that you get... or need.

You do not get points for having the most perfectly laid out Board. And as much fun as it is to play with these cards, and fantasize about the ebb and flow of your story, there is a point where you must ask yourself, "Am I in the Board-building business or am I a screenwriter?" If your Board is too perfect, or if you spend too much time trying to make it so, then you have left the world of preparation and entered the Procrastination Zone. Well, don't. In fact, I always like to start writing when I'm coming up on the end of

finishing The Board, just before it gets too perfect. Like a Jell-O
mold that's not quite set, you wanna start
before
it hardens. By then I'm obsessed with pushpins and index cards and I know it's time — to stop.

To me, always, speed is the key. I want to figure this all out so I can get to the writing. And once I have my 40 beats laid out and my +/- and >< done on each card, I know I've done as much as humanly possible to prepare. And now I'm ready to put away my pushpins and cards and pens... and start typing. (Suddenly typing will feel GREAT!)

The work on The Board is important. But it's a trick I play on myself, an exercise in storing moments, rhythms, scenes, and scene sequences in my brain. It allows me to play with these elements without commitment to any of them. I must always be willing to throw it all away as I begin the writing process. How many times have I gotten in there and started writing and dumped every preconceived notion of what I had? How many times have I fallen in love with a minor character that has risen to become one of the leads who wasn't even mentioned in the outline of my Board? Well,
lots
is the answer. That's what happens. What The Board will do for you is prepare the battlefield, allow you to test your theories, grind in certain notions, and minimize others.

FINAL WORDS ON THE SUBJECT

Truth is when you write FADE IN: The Board means nothing. But I hope the things I've tried to get across to you will still be burning in your brain and will stick with you. These are: the necessity of hitting your act break on page 25, hitting the midpoint and All Is Lost
hard,
and the need to have conflict in
ever
y scene. Even if these things are all that you remember as you get lost in your story, you'll be in great shape. These islands in a sea of uncertainty are important to keep in sight as you begin to write.

And it's all designed to get you to THE END.

The blessing of having this handy guide up on the wall of your work room is: If you do get lost, if you can't figure out what happens next, you can always go back to The Board and get back on track.
The worst thing that can happen in screenwriting is to not finish.
Half-written screenplays
never
sell, that's for sure. And working out The Board in advance is your best guarantee that this won't happen.

CHECKING IN WITH MY SECRET WEAPON

Of course when I'm really stuck, I call Mike Cheda.

"Miiiike," I whine. "I don't know what happens in Bad Guys Close In, can you take a look?" I then e-mail my notes to Mike and go have an expensive lunch up at The Eurotrash Cafe on Sunset Plaza, confident that SOMEONE is working on my project — even if it's not me. Mike is the one person I know in Hollywood who actually reads the material you send him and knows how to fix it! He will even give you detailed notes. And he's a real smart aleck too —which I like (it keeps me on my toes). But you know you're in trouble when you come back from your expensive lunch, having flirted with the Euro-Hostess and feeling
very
good, and you call Mike and the first thing out of his mouth is: "You're kidding, right?"

If you too want to reach Mike Cheda for screenwriting advice, you can do so on the Internet at
www.mikecheda.com,
where for a fee of $500 Mike will read and analyze your screenplay. I think this is the bargain of the century and I am always telling him to up his price. He should be charging $5,000 per script if you ask me. A story about Mike in
Creative Screenwriting
Magazine referred to him as "The Dr. Phil of screenwriting." Another understatement. To me, he'll always be the guy who taught me everything I know.

For free.

SUMMARY

So now you know everything about your movie that you need to start writing your screenplay. If you have held off long enough on your movie idea to do the steps I have suggested, you're ready to write FADE IN: and begin.

Are you excited?

You should be. But let's just make sure you're set by going over the "Get Ready for Your Deep-Sea Dive" Checklist:

1. You have come up with a great idea. And I mean it's killer! You

have a killer title, a KILLER logline, and you've tested it on friends and strangers, and every one of them can't wait to see your movie!

2. You have done your homework on genre. You've figured out what your movie is most like and screened every relevant Hollywood film in the past 20 years. You know what the filmmakers did right, what they did wrong, and more importantly how your movie will be a step forward and be the same thing... only different. And you are convinced you've got something new!!

3. You have figured out the perfect hero to take this journey. This is the character that offers the most conflict in that situation, has the longest way to go emotionally, and is the most demographically pleasing! And you've given your hero a primal goal and a real tad guy who wants to stop him from achieving it!!!

4. Finally you have beat out your movie using the BS2 and have put up all those great scenes on The Board, tried many ideas, themes, and storylines, and have whittled it all down to 40 actual scenes with each scene indicating its emotional change from beginning to end (+/-) and what the conflict is in each (><)!!!!

Man, are you ready!! What's stopping you?

While you go off and start writing your screenplay, we'll be waiting for you and rooting you on. We'll be the guy up on the dock that feeds the oxygen tube down to you, the deep-sea diver, as you descend into the depths of your subconscious mind. Make sure that in your life you too have similar support from friends and loved ones. Because as you drop into the depths of your story, trying to capture the thoughts and the feelings you need to accomplish your mission, you have to trust that those up in the real world are supporting you and are watching your back. It's weird down there! You'll see all manner of wondrous and strange things, be amazed by what you're capable of handling, and surprised by how great an experience it can be. But it's also dangerous; doubt and anxiety will plague you, and, like the bends, it will cause you to see fearful things that aren't even there. In order to get through to THE END you've got to have someone back on land that you trust, that's supporting and nurturing your effort.

Whether you have that situation in your life or not,
we'll
be up on the dock waiting for you. And wishing you well. We who write screenplays want to see you win, and win
big
time, and we know exactly what you're going through down there and want you not to worry. So as you descend into the murk, as ready as you'll ever be, we wish you good hunting. And while we wait for you to come up, we'll kill a little time and talk about some fun things in screenwriting.

Good luck, and Godspeed, Screenwriter.

EXERCISES

1. Fake the beat sheet from one of the movies you have screened from your genre and write the beats on index cards. Put the cards up on The Board, or if you have not gone to Staples yet, try the portable version.

2. Find several scenes from your favorite movies and break them down according to their +/- values. How does the scene start emotionally? How does it end emotionally? Are these opposite emotional beats?

3. Now take the same scenes and test them for >< conflict. Who or what are the opposing forces on each side of the conflict? Who wins? Do your favorite scenes in these movies have the most conflict? Is bigger conflict better?

The real inspiration for this book started with one simple desire: I had a whole bunch of snappy rules for screenwriting and I wanted to get credit for coining them.

There! I said it.

These are little ironclad laws that my screenwriting buddies and I have collected over the years. And I love 'em! It's because, to me, screenwriting is a science as much as an art. It's quantifiable. The rules that govern it are constants, and in some cases eternal (see Joseph Campbell).

Like any study of the craft of storytelling, these truths become apparent as you watch movie after movie. And when one of these immutable laws is suddenly clear to you, the urge to yell "Eureka!" is overwhelming. You want to plant your flag on it and claim it as your own.

Of course it's not. These laws can't be "discovered." They're truths that existed way before you or I came along. Yet every time another one pops into my lexicon, I am
thrilled.