Hi, my name is Emily Blake and I write unfilmables.
You know those little moments in your script when you put down information that can't be seen on screen? Yeah I do that. And I'm not going to stop any time soon.
It's not something I could have done when I first started writing. In the beginning I was just learning format and story structure and all those clever little ways to make something come alive on the page. But as the years have gone by my writing has gotten more and more stylistic.
I'll give you an example:
Transvestite Zombie appears in the smashed doorway at the front of the store. Her tattered dress flows behind her as she stumbles in barefoot, no doubt having lost her fantastic spikey heels.
Or this one:
They all line up and shoot together like any good family should.
Those are obviously not something you'll see on screen. All the books say not to do it, ever. And for the most part, they're right. You shouldn't play around with unfilmables until you have a clear sense of your own style. But I like 'em and I don't feel right unless I flirt with them a little. I don't care if that's not what McKee says.
But I can't help it. This is my style. The unfilmables are part of the tone of a story. I toss them in here and there to give the script some personality and a sense of the playfulness I feel when I'm writing. And no, you can't film it, but that doesn't mean I should bore my reader. If they laugh at the idea that my Transvestite lost her fabulous shoes then they'll keep reading. And the family line is intentional. This is a world where the ability to shoot things is a value you pass on to your children.
Tone. Just because it's a screenplay doesn't mean it can't have tone.
It's taken me a while to really settle into mine and find the right balance of those unfilmable lines. They're not on every page, just a few here and there to keep the voice clear. I like a screenplay that sounds like it's mine.
Agreed. As long as they're well written, and not on every damn page, they liven up a script. I know I use them. So does...Shane Black. This is from The Last Boy Scout.
ReplyDeleteINT. DINGY DRESSING ROOM-NIGHT
Cory and Jimmy are engaged in a very hot sex scene.
This is not a love scene; this is a sex scene.
Sigh. I’m not even going to attempt to write this
quote-unquote “steamy” scene here. , for several good reasons:
A) The things that I find steamy are none of your damn business, Jack, in addition to which –
B) The two actors involved will no doubt have wonderful, highly athletic ideas which manage to elude most fat assed-writers anyhow, and finally –
C) My mother reads this shit. So there.
(P.S.: I think we lost her back at the Jacuzzi blowjob scene.)
Now, you really need to have a strong voice and some cajones to get away with that. Of course, when he wrote that he was already a big time writer in Hollywood.
I love him so much.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love this bit from William Goldman:
ReplyDeleteButch moves through the gang toward Logan. He is unarmed and a knife is offered to him by one of the gang.
Butch
Not yet.
(Moving up to Logan now)
Not til Harvey and me get the rules straight.
Logan
Rules? In a knife fight? No rules!
(As he finishes speaking Butch delivers the most aesthetically exquisite kick in the balls in the history of modern American cinema.)
***
Stay true to your voice.
As someone who is usually critical of this type of stuff, I think your two examples are fine.
ReplyDeleteMcKee's a punk.
ReplyDeletehmm... though I think a tranvestite zombie would be funnier limping in only one spiked high heel. ;P
ReplyDeleteThey're fine if they're genuinely funny and work and make the whole experience a pleasure to read. Sadly, 90% are annoying, cloying and break your concentration. It is like constantly being elbowed while you read and saying "funny, huh?" Just have confidence to tell the damn story without begging for laughs. But yours are fine, as long as they don't appear in every single block of text.
ReplyDelete