Film Courage: Can we talk about backstory? For the character is it crucial not so much with
a screenplay. Alan Watt, Founder of LA Writers Lab/Author/Screenwriter: Backstory is crucial with every story I mean I can't think of a
story that doesn't you know need some kind of backstory so but yeah the the
the one of the first things I do when I'm working in the 90 day novel or the
90 day screenplay the first month of the workshop is spent imagining the world of
your story which includes the backstory okay so I they're they're not a separate
thing in other words I want to lose myself in the world of the story so that
the because backstory is going to become exposition right so so so it's necessary
it's sort of like looking at a painting if you ever see those $49 paintings when
you drive out to like the airport or something they're selling them on the
size of the roads and it's a landscape but it's completely flat because it's
one coat there's no undercoat okay so the
backstory is the undercoat you can't really see it but you can feel it you
know so like if you if you're if you're gonna have a snowy landscape your
undercoat you're gonna be using you know numbers and and browns and and dark
colors so that we can start to experience the depth of the snow you
can't explain it white it's it's it's it's just it just looks it's just kind
of cheesy so that that's that's the more work you do in really connecting to your
characters backstories the more it's that that bachelor is going to start to
get infused into into the characters experience it's going to be it's going
to be in the dialogue we're gonna be it's going to be in the flavor of their
language it's gonna be in the detail of their you know of their it's gonna it's
gonna be in the detail in terms of revealing that backstory to the audience
how how much can you hold that I realized maybe then the writer needs
to know that backstory right away but in terms of revealing it to the audience
let's say in a film how much of how effective is it to really hold back that
backstory or should be revealed right away because I was thinking like I just
saw this movie THE MUSTANGE [Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre and Brock Norman Brock] and he's [Matthias Schoenaerts] in prison and you don't totally know why
he's there right you're just seeing his life and he's working with these horses
and Bruce Dern is like this guy that's kind of pushing him around he's charging
the horses right then you finally realize what it was that landed him
there who this woman is that comes to visit him for these visitations and
tension between them but it was really great because you didn't know it that's
a great question because because the so you're talking about mystery and and a
lot of the times writers confuse mystery with withholding essential information
to move the story forward in other words don't like if you're if you're writing a
mystery you don't want to confuse your reader or your audience or you don't
want to withhold something that we actually need to know what makes a
mystery really fun is that you gave us all of the essential information but in
a way where we weren't able to put it together and we experienced the
delicious surprise of oh my god that makes perfect sense and and and there's
some kind of transformative experience but if you're writing a mystery
and-and-and-and you're withholding something essential for us to understand
what needs what happens next we're just gonna be confused you know or we're
gonna be annoyed no it was done in a way that no no I'm not saying Mustang or
saying I'm saying they probably did it yeah they did it you did it so so I'm
saying that there is there is the goal with backstory is to find ways to
dramatize or disguise exposition okay you want to dramatize it you want or the
sky I mean if you're dramatizing it you are disguising it but like
I used to do an exercise with my student I've been done a long time but we go
around the table and I'd say okay Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a
pail of water now who what's Jack and Jill's relationship the first person say
they're brother and sister okay second person how old are they they
go they're 25 and why are they going up the hill to fetch a pail of water why do
they need the water the house is on fire okay and then I go okay now that's all
that's all exposition now I want you to write a dramatic scene that includes all
of that information but you can't say Jack and Jill are 25 years old you've
got to find a way to convey that information that back story or that that
exposition without us knowing that or the back story would probably be why
they're going up the hill to fetch a pail of water so we need to has they're
on their way up the hill we need to you want to find a way for us to experience
that their house is on fire does that make sense it does right so so
you're you're showing not telling you want to show and not tell exactly yeah
yeah we want to experience it we want to you know filmmaking is is taking the
audience through a series of experiences that lead to a transformation
you