Film Courage: What is a scene?
Jen Grisanti, Speaker/Story/Career Consultant, Author: A scene is like one step toward the
bigger picture. In the scene you're looking at who wants what and what is getting in the way.
Who wants what, what is getting in the way, how do you create the small piece of the bigger puzzle
through looking at the scene and also understanding what is the conflict in the scene is
a struggle that I see a lot of writers go through. You often will find scenes that have no conflict
and you have no sense of who wants what and what is getting in the way. By simply understanding
the scene as a part of the greater picture and how you are creating a step toward an outcome
while escalating the conflict is an important part of scene work.
Film Courage: What happens in a good scene?
Jen: A good scene is a strategic approach to how does the scene serve the purpose of
advancing the external plot as well as the internal with the character development.
A good scene brings us into the personal so that we feel the personal as well as understanding how
it's a step in the external plot what do a lot of new writers get wrong when they write scenes
I would say the biggest thing that I see writers get wrong with certain scenes is they forget that
they're I remember I came upon three things that I thought about should be in the scene and the idea
is the desire the conflict and the the conflict being the flaw so so when so you're looking at the
want the conflict and the why as a part of a scene and when you have a scene where we lose sight of
what does the character want what is the main goal and we and we don't feel it in the scene that is
probably one of the biggest mistakes I see main when I get halfway through a script and I look at
a scene because I'm feeling lost because I lost the why the want and the conflict with the flaw
so there's no there's no filler scenes in movies where those elements don't exist within each one
like there has to be that to move the story along there's value if there's that I think that you can
as we talked about rule breaking I think you can always find a way to it like voice trumps a lot of
the rules if we feel the voice in a scene and yet there is one of the three components I mentioned
missing then the voice can make a difference and if we understand how that scene is a part of the
bigger puzzle and understand the intention of the writer within that then again you can look at
rules and say the writer was able to communicate a message without having to have specific things
if you look at let's say sideways I know it goes a few years back but it seems like in every scene
miles is is in a dilemma with himself really yeah because he feels so inadequate whether he wants
to blame others for it but he he's always it's something relates to that he's being slighted
somehow yes well that's because of the flaw work and the flaw that we feel stemming from the wounds
that we're feeling a part of it from the beginning and how there there's an escalation of that but
also not feeling in that movie that would there's a full understanding of the want
in a way that is transformative with the character like looking at the want and going all right what
specifically does this character want and how the sideway Pursuit is bringing the character
to that point in that character you if I remember correctly and it's God it's been so long since
I've seen that film but that film really resonated certainly from someone who's been through divorce
someone who knows what pain looks like and what the healing process looks like I feel like that
was a film that everyone identified with and certainly the whole Merlot aspect of the wine
industry and all that like it stays with you and you remember that character because of of
the wound and the flaw work and and looking at the trans information within it that story has
stayed with me so so that that is that is a good example of of looking at at it in the way that
you're talking about right because it seems like there were no really useless scenes in that film
whatsoever everything set something up where Miles was going to somehow feel badly about himself yes
and luckily he had this other component which was the Thomas Hayden Church character who felt
so incredible about himself to remind him of how how low he was so it was there was always this
tension of here was this person on a pedestal and here was Miles yes and it was it was a wonderful
and what you tapped into that's so good there is polarity when you have polarity in story and you
have one character who's weak where the other is strong and vice versa then again that's something
very Universal in life polarity is another thing for me like dilemma where there was this massive
Aha and sideways is an excellent example of looking at how polarity adds so much depth to
story and to character transformation what does it mean to start a scene late and leave early
to start a seeing late means your audience could feel stuck with how the scene is fitting into the
overall picture and to end it early there is a term called the button of a scene where we feel
the button at the end of the scene that's in the overall meaning of of the story so you you also
want to look at scenes as in another respect that I thought about in in talking about this
is your scenes should always set up where your character is going to next so another mistake
that writers make in scenes is we should never arrive in a scene and not know how we got there
interesting I'm thinking of Sophie's Choice yes and one of the many incredible scenes in the
film is where the Kevin Klein character arrives home late yes and and finds her drinking with the
the neighbor and and just just sort of the the the the tension in the room and so I guess we
it's been a little bit since I've seen it but just just how those scenes were set up because
there was always like a weird implication of something we didn't know totally what
it was we didn't know what Sophie was we knew something she was dealing with we didn't know
everything you didn't know everything and that's where scene work comes in handy as
far as the whole linking aspect I remember another thing that I remember from Jeffrey
kitchen was the idea and I learned this at the beginning of my career as an executive take a
script from the back to the front and make sure that every preceding scene sets up the next scene
and it was a great tool so easy like it still stands in my mind and when I covered procedurals
as a current executive it particularly came into play of oh my gosh that I get
that that's something that stays and I and and there there are so many scenes where you're like
how did we get here what is this I didn't feel the setup and because you didn't feel the setup it's
because the writer didn't do the setup and and the significance of setting up where the character is
going next or having a puzzle as you're mentioning that we understand how it fits the greater picture
and if we don't understand then that comes down to the writing and even for time lapses let's say
I realize every scene is usually involves a time lapse but like a major yearly or decade time lapse
yeah how are we how are we playing with the scene and that we're tying them together I
think the time lapses are interruptive like the flashbacks so you need to know when you
are going to have a time lapse how that affects the overall goal like if in the middle of a script
you have a 10-year jump then you're going well how does that affect the initial goal
I remember there was a show that I think in editing they probably shifted it if if
I remember correctly I think I read an article on it there was a show called the night manager with
Hugh Laurie where they did do in the middle of the pilot episode they did a time Jump
however the rule the the goal remained the same because the goal still had to do with
bringing the arms dealer down so that was a time jump that worked so I always think when you're
doing time jumps is it needs to have a strategy just like your arc of growth has a strategy just
like your story arc has a strategy your time jump can't take us out of where we feel the
main plot is going we need to understand how the time jump factors in to the goal.