Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): But if you're
trying to get something that's memorable because it meant something you've got to
earn it you got to give us those breadcrumbs,
you’ve got to set up that other stuff so we can know why this moment matters.
Film Courage: What is a scene and how does scene advance a story?
Shannan: We're going to look at each scene like many movies, each of them has a goal,
each scene connected to the next scene is what's going to get your character
to reach their larger goal and so if you're going through your screenplay
and you realize you've got a scene with no purpose, then that's where you can cut right
so going back to revising or rewriting or second drafts etcetera. If you have a scene that has
no purpose and is not pushing the story forward because it's not reaching a mini goal that's going
to get us to the larger goal then that that's a place where you can cut how does a scene build
tension and conflict yeah so going back to that goal right it needs to have the goal of doing that
but if what they're trying to accomplish then how you can complicate it in this particular scene
and that complication can be the thing that builds the tension so you can do that in many different
kinds of ways but like let's say for example going back to the girl and her mother and the
girl is upset with her mother so we already know that there's tension there because we already know
that they're upset so how are you going to show me in this scene where it's going to take us through
the rest of it because it's not about the scene existing on its own so we've built the tension
by showing that they're upset with each other maybe they're in the middle in the middle of an
argument maybe she does get to curse her out maybe she only just runs out and slams the door right
so maybe the goal of that scene was to establish that they don't have a good relationship but then
this scene can't stand on its own so how does this information now transfer into into the rest of the
film how does it affect the next scene which then affects the next scene and the next scene so that
we can get to wherever it is we're trying to get them to go and let's say if our overall goal is
to get them to have dealt with their with their problems obviously they won't disappear as 2023
so it won't be magical and all of a sudden we love each other whatever but they will have gotten to a
place of understanding then now we're trying to figure out how that tension gets us there
another way that you can build tension is if the audience knows something that the characters don't
know so maybe we know what's up what's what's the issue for the young ladies that she just
found out that her mom is dating someone again so she feels like you always choose men over me
but she doesn't have the vocabulary for that so instead she's cussing at her and running out of
the room and slamming the door the tension is not only built from the fact that they're in conflict
but it's also because we know why she's mad and mom doesn't know why she's mad so they're all
different kinds of ways to build that tension but even on top of building the tension you want to
ask yourself where it's going to go we need the tension because it's going to be a trajectory for
whatever is coming next in the screenplay process of visualizing a scene and then writing it in a
way that's engaging and cinematic yeah so I would look at building your scenes like you build the
entire screenplay so it's going to start in your outline and it's going to start with knowing what
it takes to get your character to reach their goal or solve their problem right so if I know
that it's going to take therapy more fights or whatever for our daughter and mother to get to
a place of understanding each other then now I have to plot out those scenes that get us there
and so if you're a visual person then you might ask yourself well what kind of therapy setting
is best for these two characters they're already explosive when we meet them they're explosive so
the way that I build this therapy center or this therapist office or this grandmother or whoever
it is that they're going to end up going to to talk to that may be a place where I get to add
something different to the world that's a little bit more engaging and can break up the monotony
of these two people yelling at each other right because if we've been seeing them do that up until
now then we're going to have to shake things up a little bit and so asking yourself what the world
of that therapy office looks like I'm not a person who who needs to who needs to visualize it in the
way of needing a mood board for it right but some people are that way so what does the couch
look like what does the desk look like are they in there together do they go separately what kind of
therapists do they need right do they need someone who's direct do they need someone who's more soft
do they need blah blah blah and the more about all three of those characters because they're
probably going to spend a lot of time together since we've decided that therapy is going to be
the thing that gets them to their breaking point then we need to figure out how these people are
going to interact with each other because a lot of our engagement is going to come from that so
really understanding and even going back to if they're going to be in therapy for half of the
film then that can get monotonous too so you have to ask yourself what goals are they reaching in
these therapy scenes what gets them to a place where we can pull out of it because maybe it's
not working anymore maybe one of them is giving up or maybe they think they've made it to an impasse
and they don't want to go to therapy anymore what ever it is figuring out how you're going to break
up that monotony but you can only do that if where you need them to go and if you really understand
each of the characters because they're going to make moves based on who they already are so all
of that builds the scene right so you can't take the scene in my opinion as an individual thing as
if it doesn't exist with everything else you got to figure out how it affects everything else and
that being engaging part is going to be in your dialogue in your action and how they work through
things and how they don't work through things and how they interact with each other and that's
the stuff that's going to make it interesting or like we said before if that these two these two
are always on ten and then they end up getting a therapist who lives on two then that's going to
give you it's going to already give you something cool and different to deal with in those scenes
or they have a therapist that eventually sides with the other and now the other one storms out
of the office and slams the door now they hate the the other and the therapist and the therapist
right and so now it's changed the story a little bit because if I also hate the therapist and I
hate the person who is supposed to do the work and help me to get through this and so now we
got to figure out where the story is going to go from that and does that mean that the therapist
is going to have to win the trust back does that mean they're going to go not go to therapy anymore
try to get a new therapist what is it going to do so all of it's going to affect the the next thing
what can a writer do to make scenes more memorable make scenes more memorable hmm
that's that's the hard part I think sometimes I watch movies and I don't come out of it
remembering anything right but I think good dialogue will do that good tension will do
that good special moments we'll do that like the the movie of course that I can't think of the name
of but the the one about the Cowboys on Netflix like that moment when that little boy finally
got the courage because we could tell that he felt well the the premise is he doesn't know his father
I grew up in a different city with his mom and his dad had been in jail for most of his life
and maybe he'd been out for however long but again they didn't live in the same area so they
didn't have a relationship well he's an older boy now he's a teenager mom thinks you need to
go be with your dad but here's a guy I don't know here's a guy who I think didn't choose me didn't
want me here's a guy who has a relationship with all of these other Cowboys but doesn't have one
with me and we can see that throughout scene by scene scene by saying so when he finally gets
the courage to say why don't you love me we've already started in a memorable scene but that
had to be earned if he would have said that on day one it's not memorable what I mean like I needed
all of the conflict all the complications all of the tension before that scene in order for me to
get to a place where it's memorable or let's take something that people know really well and let's
take Dirty Dancing right that dance lift is not memorable just because it's a dance lift right so
if you look at a movie like you got served they're dancing all through the thing like who's paying
attention to one dance move versus the other but in Dirty Dancing this lift matters because
we see how hard they worked on it we know they're not supposed to be working together in the first
place because she's from a different a different she's more affluent I guess you can say than he
would be considering and they're probably the dad wouldn't accept him and things like this things
like that and it's dirty dancing so she shouldn't be doing this anyway she couldn't dance in the
first place right so she had to learn just how to do the dances period let alone be really good at
it right so we have all of that information so when we get to the end and he turns to her and
he's like you can do it it's already a memorable scene right because we had to earn getting there
so maybe the answer is you got to earn a memorable scene they're not going to be memorable just on
their own you can do something great you can do something and funny if you if you think about a
comedy like Coming To America there's all kind of memorable scenes because they're funny right
whether they're earned or not right but they're funny but if you're trying to get
something that's memorable because it meant something you've got to earn it you got to
give us those breadcrumbs you got to set up that other stuff so we can know why this moment matters