Joston Ramon Theney, Screenwriter, Author, Director, Producer: We went just thinking about it
if you go back and you think what do I remember from the film I remember?
Film Courage: How often have you read a screenplay where
nothing happens in the first 10 minutes no scares nothing all too often all too often um
i think that because the software now can format things for you and everybody
learns about final draft or or movie magic or whatever they learn about these these different
programs it's easy to make your screenplay look professional it's only when you
start to read it do you do you understand the level of craft that they're at right now right and
in certain levels of craft there's always that oh we're building to something great we're building
to something great and that's at a certain level right and they may be really really good
at crafting a story and dialogue and things may seem okay but if nothing is happening and nothing
is happening by page 10 nothing is happening by page 15 but page 20 when is something gonna happen
I do I do read a lot of scripts where I wonder that or I wonder what is the point
what is the point what are you trying to say even if you have nothing to say what is the point of
the film who's your hero what is this person going through how does going through this change them
how does going through this and them changing help them deal with the true protect antagonist
all those things all those questions they aren't answered because they aren't at that level yet
you know so you're gonna get a mismatch but for the most part I would say out of
if I read
10 screenplays
something happens by page 10
in one of them depending upon which week it is not every time does something happen
not all the time does it sometimes it might be one out of 20 screenplays
what if someone says well I want to take my time with the suspense I mean if you look back at The
Stepford Wives and I realize that's not really horror it's more thriller it was a long intro to
them coming to this new neighborhood and seeing these wives and and she's kind of confused about
what's going on I mean it took its time yeah but the thing about it is it establishes its
tone very quickly and I feel that's another thing that's missing because so many people
haven't found their voice how they tell a story right because your story may change depending upon
whatever genre you've decided to write today whatever got into you love story that I wanted
that I'm writing right now moon in the stars it's it's a it's people hear me say it's a love story
and you think oh romantic drama and I'm actually no it's a sci-fi is sci-fi these people are
interstellar travelers interdimensional travelers time travelers and they can do this and they can
do that and but then where's the love portion well the love portions here and it's but it's a
completely different thing than ever written once in one is a very completely different story than
ever written I think that people classify that one as a suspense drama or drama thriller or something
that so and that's very different than the horror that directed and even within the horror directed
many different types of horror so no matter what the genre is that you're writing in you have to
at some point have developed your voice and how how how a person recognizes that it's your film
right and then once you start to develop your voice I think it'll help you drastically with
maintaining tone of a film because your voice is your voice and it's how you tell the story
and as long as you understand the tone of your own film you can keep that modulated
all the way through and you can set that at the very beginning then once you set that tone this
is where this story takes place in this type of world you start that from page one
you start it from page one so yes nothing may happen in terms of someone getting murdered
or whatever you may not get the horror in the because it may not be a horror maybe it's just
a movie that's meant to make you squirm and make you uncomfortable maybe that's what it is or maybe
the story is speaking to with once and one it was about a guy who didn't even know himself anymore
so if he doesn't know himself he doesn't even recognize himself in certain situations and if you
tell him he's done something wrong he's relying on your truth to tell him he's done something wrong
because he doesn't even know right and wrong of himself anymore and I showed that from page one
if you can't even recognize who you are and what you do in the situation when someone
tells you to make it better how can you he's how do I how do I do it and the person has to
tell him I think that's something you can figure out and he's I don't think he can he really can't
it sets the tone for the film nobody died nobody was hunted down in the first 10 pages
I just set the tone for for what the story is and I think that that's once you it takes a while
before you get to that level of understanding of of what you're doing and then I think
now you've gotten to a point where technically you're proficient but you still have so much more
so many more levels to climb do you think it's better that someone rushes into
a more of a horrific scene or takes their time which which is more detrimental to a horror script
too long to get into the action or too fast I mean again I i think it depends on the the point of
the story I think that scream which is one of my faves from the 90s it in the first film it kind of
meanders right at first in the first minute or two she picks up the phone she's talking to the guy
and making popcorn everything seems fine it seems very casual it's not until the first kind of slip
up that she doesn't hear that we heard is the audience that we realize wait a minute
and then you start to you start to sit forward right the story is about a guy who calls you on
the phone he stabs you to death we didn't see that until it came in probably around the five-minute
mark is when we started to be concerned right so in that first five minutes it's are we just
following this lady and if you notice that movie is really for the longest time it's a single shot
it's a single shot she picks up the phone and they pull away from the phone
they're following her around into the kitchen it's a single shot for a lot of it
and even when they abandon it they pick it up on another another wonder and they're
walking around and it's masterfully done but it's all about the pacing and the tone
and it slowly becomes more menacing and once it becomes menacing it never lets up
and so again less about dialogue and more about camera movement camera movement and just really
understanding tone I think lighting plays an incredible cinematography in general plays
an incredible role in creating tone your cinematography your editing post-production
sound musical cues sound effect all that stuff plays a huge role in it but when you're reading
it on the page when you're on the page it has something has to set the tone for me to understand
why I should care and a lot of the times I ask why should I care very early I'll ask that on page
sometimes too I'll ask why should I care now something may not happen until page three or
page four but I'll be asking myself why do I care when I watch movies at home I'll turn them on
i'll watch for a little bit but then I'll turn it because there's so much content that's available
right now why would I waste time I treat a movie that I'm watching just I would a
script that I'm reading I start watching and if it's not catching my attention I have to abandon
I have to abandon it I think it was harder before because there was so little you couldn't check a
phone you couldn't have one window open and be over here you had to you were just all right
I'll let it play and sometimes that worked with advantage because then it grew on you but now
you have to catch people that's what I was asking if you knew the analytics of when
people dropped out or if people rewound a scene or something
yeah I don't have it in terms of analytics from from amazon I don't have it when someone
maybe rewinds it or something I don't have that but I do know I can tell
the progression people are dropping out dropping out dropping out dropping out oh it stabilized
and then people watched it all the way through here and then it dropped out I can tell that but
I can't really tell did they pause it and then go do something and come back I can't tell those sort
of things or that they rewind you can't really see that but the thing about it is is that I
usually will start my films and I try to get them to a point where you don't feel there's a place
to jump off because something's always building to something else and one scene leads into the
next very naturally so I'm constantly trying to do that so it doesn't feel there's a place
to really drop off or you'll feel you're missing something because something just happened so now
I have to see how that affects the next thing I'm constantly trying to to keep that momentum going
and I think that's what you you have to do or what you should aspire to do when you're doing
anything something it always has to be building towards something or what else are we doing
why would I be investing my time if if nothing in your script is investing towards something bigger
so a bigger character goal or a bigger scare or or something with the antagonist
yeah set up your stakes give me a character who's who's interesting that I care about
even if you don't want to root for them to succeed root for them to not succeed something give the
audience something to to to to keep them invested and keep them interested and it does start with
having something in the first few pages whether it's tone whether it's an act of whatever that
drives the story forward give them something that keeps them watching more importantly something
that lets them know what kind of a ride they're on sure because even with hereditary we didn't
totally know we just knew something ominous yes was there and it kind of keeps you on the edge
and you didn't know what was it though yeah and the great thing about hereditary right now is if
if you if we talk about hereditary the first thing we do is go hereditary we went just thinking
about it right but if you if you go back and you think what do I remember from the film I remember
there was this little sibling thing with the brother and the sister I remember her
head hit that pole and it came off and then I remember he didn't want to he just parked the
car and went into the house I remember the thing from him in the classroom where his face kind of
went crazy and he slammed his head on the desk and stuff I remember that and then I remember all the
stuff that happened at the end with him with the mother and the father bursting into flames and all
that stuff and the mom banging her head but we're recalling just these few moments but the fact is
is that we made it to the end in complete terror because of the tone of the film
the tone was set very early and they never let up even when they had moments where it looked hope
was starting to shine in through the window it didn't matter the tone was so dark and ominous and
heavy that you just you felt oh and you felt cold I don't know if anybody I felt cold watching it
it was it was such a weird feeling that you got watching that movie but they kept that tone up
throughout the entire film and that's what I mean is it's finding your tone and staying
with it very early something that makes people care and make them keep watching.