We are in an ahistoric modern era, a consequence of the coronavirus that has swept the globe, along with threats to democracy in America, a land war in Europe, and economic destabilization in Asia.
There is a growing malaise of once stable edifices crumbling (religion, science, politics) exposing a nearness to mortality mostly unaknowledged in popular culture. What should the fictional narratives be to best bring us entertainment if not enlightenment ?
We still aren’t returning fully to the movie theaters and communal entertainment venues for art and music. Although we can’t exactly predict exactly what new aesthetics for storytelling will emerge post-pandemic, the stay-at-home comfort foods of comedy and escapism will retain streaming popularity. At least reading has returned to help fill the story-hungry public: sales of U.S. book retailers amounted to 632 million U.S. dollars in May 2021, an increase from the 275 million recorded in May of the previous year. (This on top of a six percent uptick in book sales in 2020).
What I’ll be focusing on here is the quicker-to-market changes needed in visual storytelling, though the lessons apply to fiction as well.
Even before the coronavirus scourge stripped us of our socialability, there were growing grumblings that major American storytelling was losing its creative edge.
By the end of 2019, directors (and former rule breakers) Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola were the voices railing against the replacement of auteur-driven, idiosyncratic movies with comic-book franchise story subject sourcing. Meanwhile, the public (as represented in box office receipts) was weary of IP driven franchises and reboots of familiar characters and repetitive stories (outside of the Marvel Universe ATM). It’s not a “new” movement as Hollywood has always navigated the tension between the collective crafting of films in a studio system emulating past financially successful films versus providing directors with autonomy to create and realize unique but precedent-free storytelling.
A related critique is of the overreliance on formulaic storytelling, whether it be the catechism of Robert McKee, the clear plotting of Blake Snyder to “save the cat”, or the ennobling heroic structure identified by Joseph Campbell and Disneyfied by Chris Vogel (more of that below). My favorite screenwriter, the nihilist New Yorker & Knicks fanatic William Goldman, had a golden rule that’s still applicable in examing the shifting guide to what works in Hollywood: “nobody knows anything”).
Is there even a need for a new story aesthetic to enlighten and enrich this strange new world emerging out of the global pandemic and war in Europe?
The architects’ guides are still useful for screenwriters (none more so than time-tested Aristotle) in that they provide direction for incorporating universally accepted features of narrative storytelling, building upon audience expectations in a system-reinforcing way. However, the main problem with contemporary storyteller is the failure to incorporate and engage with the resonant myths and fears of the audience beyond the referencing of other novels, films, shows, or comic books.
The most glaring omission of a deeper resonance is in the horror genre. The most successful films are usually those that are “true”, although the veracity of the facts is sometimes stretched to better propel the story.
“The Exorcist” is considered the most effective and moving horror movie because the story elements remain “real.” Jesuit-educated William Peter Blatty based it on a true case of a possession (though changing the story location and the sex of the subject). Many in the audience – particularly if Christian – understand the supernatural set-up in a deeply engaging way because as kids they likely absorbed its worldview (even if as adults they consciously covered it up) of fallen angels, now demons, tormenting humans, favored by “God.” The deeply ingrained mythology of fallen angels, levitation, and divine intercession utilizes a two millenium old religious belief system rarely shown on screen (excepting “The Passion of the Christ” which…. made $622 million!).
A story resonates when it captures the symbolism of a living, widespread belief system rather than a superficially created mythos made for a particular story or franchise. Renaissance art didn’t abandon the iconography of the medieval ages: it leveraged the powerful imagery of a richly visual inherited religion learned in childhood but in a deeper, more realistic way demanded by the more questioning newly literate audience through new techniques of presentation. The shared or long-held or even new but widely entertained beliefs, even if irrational, are the collective unconscious “tulpas” that manifest in the culture. They should be utilized by the storyteller to deepen the story resonance in both the individual and the society.
The failure of many horror films is in creating a transient mythology just for that story that has to be understood to be absorbed by the audience. Stephen King is perhaps the best at creating an idiosyncratic world in which the audience can vicariously enter, but it is not a fully realized mythology since it is created for only that story or series of stories. What modern storytelling needs to do is to use the often-unconscious mythology of religious – not necessarily rational – beliefs (including the nascent “religion” of ufology, for instance) to trigger deeper resonance to the visually unfolding narrative. The plotting and genre conventions needn’t be abandoned, but the utilization of shared beliefs, both new and old, unconscious and conscious, provide a more deeply immersive aesthetic experience.
Now let’s return to traditional story structuring. When telling stories professionally, it’s helpful to realize the larger and universally resonant nature of long form narratives. For screenwriters, comic book artists, video game creators, novelists, and even marketing and public relations professionals, it’s crucial to implement the full power, aesthetics, and audience craving for deep, emotionally compelling stories. The builder of narratives should never forget the most important tool to create a deep, long-lasting resonance with the audience: incorporating mythic structure to breathe life into an original story.
As mentioned, Martin Scorsese criticized contempory Hollywood’s emphasis on superhero stories, equating the Marvel Cinematic Universe (“MCU”) to being more like theme park entertainment than cinema. My bigger point is that contemporay blockbuster cinema has yet to take advantage of larger mythical – particularly religious – universe that can provide a deeper resonance that is so often lacking in the superficially superhuman comic book adaptations.
After deeply integrating the theories of Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell developed a blueprint for the most common and elemental human story structure in his 1949 book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”. His analysis identified the structural elements of what he called “the hero’s journey”. Forty years later, Chris Vogler, while working for Disney, adopted Campbell’s theory to film in a seven page memo. The memo took on a life of its own beyond Disney, spawning books as well as a “new” way of structuring film that is in fact very old. (Vogler’s book expanding on the memo is “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers”).
Remember that this “mythic journey” of the hero is not easily dismissed, superficial characterizations of dealing with dungeons and dragons in a fantasy world. Rather, every story character encounters real trials and conflict on inner, familial, and societal levels that are constantly cycling and resonating through the hero’s journey.
The importance of the narrative journey is because in our own lives there is a circular and cyclical pattern that resonates with these myths. So understand that the principles gleamed in the traditional myth of the hero can help strengthen your story if used judiciously, and if written with a connectedness to your own emotions and experiences on your personal journey.
Here’s what the traditional hero undergoes:
1. The Audience meets the Hero in the ORDINARY WORLD.
2. The Hero receives the CALL TO ADVENTURE; a challenge, quest, or problem that must be solved.
3. The Hero expresses fear and is RELUCTANT or REFUSES THE CALL.
4. A MEETING with the MENTOR provides encouragement, wisdom, or magical gifts to push the Hero past fear and doubt.
5. The Hero finally accepts the challenge and CROSSES THE THRESHOLD into the Special World.
6. The Hero learns about the Special World through Tests, encountering Allies and Enemies.
7. The Hero makes the final preparations and Approaches the Inmost Cave.
8. The Hero endures the ORDEAL, the central crisis which the Hero confronts his greatest fear and tastes death.
9. The Hero enjoys the REWARD of having confronted fear and death.
10. The Hero takes the ROAD BACK and recommits to completing the Journey.
11. The Hero – having survived the climatic ordeal- is now purified and redeemed (RESURRECTION).
12. The Hero RETURNS WITH the ELIXIR to benefit the ORDINARY World.
Comedy Writing
There is a common criticism that all writing is an ART and can’t be taught, but the CRAFT of dramatic storytelling can certainly be learned and structurally applied. But with comedy writing, those critics might be more on the mark, as there is no consensus on what makes us laugh. In fact, the challenges posed in writing original comedy are harder than those for dramatic writing, but mastery of comedy writing means you can probably write anything, regardless of genre. Comedy is the CrossFit of storytelling compared to the inclusive Zumba that is romcom or the attainable HIIT of action pacing; focused, brutally demanding, and hardest to sustain year after year. Also, nearly every script – regardless of genre – can be improved with a touch of comedy used where appropriate. Comedy bonds the audience to the story world and can accelerate empathy for your characters.
A century ago, philosopher Henri Bergson noted that the greatest of thinkers since Aristotle have tackled the problem of comedy, and none have successfully held down a coherent theory (and Aristotle’s work on it has never been found – though the imagined finding of it by medieval monks was the unusual inciting incident in “The Name of the Rose.”) And the sober analysis of “what is funny” dissects that immediate, pre-frontal cortex gut reaction that of non verbal comedy. Regardless, here are the latest attempts to categorize why audiences laugh, and then we’ll look at the genre of comedy films for some practical hints.
There are three major theories of comedy:
1) Superiority Theory (oldest; classical Greeks subscribed to this and it was fully articulated by Thomas Hobbes in “Leviathan” 1651) Audiences feel superior to those that make them laugh, whether it is the medieval court jester/dwarf or the weird/inane/overweight comedian. Humor is also a way of saying “we’re civilized, you’re not”. The Farrely brothers reigned in this, but it doesn’t age well, (“Something About Mary”, “Kingpin” “Shallow Hal”) and “Jackass” is an appropriately titled stunt movie entertainment that works on this level. “Borat” and the “Hangover” movies also rely on this level.
2) Incongruity Theory (most widely accepted today; original theory is from Blaise Pascal in the 17th Century). “Nothing produces laughter more than a surprising disproportion between that which one expects and that which one sees.” We get pleasure in two stages: surprise followed by coherence. Eg. “I went to my doctor for shingles – he sold me aluminum siding.” The first story line of the story – the doctor visit collapses (suprise!) and then immediately we realize the other story line – the doctor sells him shingles, the metal kind. In “A Fish Called Wanda” Uptight lawyer Archie (John Cleese) takes Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) to his borrowed love nest loft. He strips, recites Russian poetry to drive her wild with passion, then puts his underwear on his head, and — his FAMILY walks in! The huge gap between expectation and result has opened the same as in all great film writing; but here it’s hilarity rather than suspense/suprise/fear that results. “Some Like it Hot” has two unlikely musicians forced to disguise themselves as women after witnessing the St. Valentine’s massacre: the incongruity drives the narrative. This type of incongruity is the basis for all sit coms: the very name “situational comedies” implies an incongruity in each episode! In “BlacKKKlansman” , an African-American detective infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan. In “21 Jump Street” a nerd and a jock – both cops – are thrown together to go undercover in a high school but switch identities; similarly in “The Other Guys” a nerdy desk cop is matched up with a rogue macho cop. In “Thirteen Going on Thirty” the comedy plot comes from watching surprise of a 13 year old girl suddenly in the body of a thirty year old magazine editor (same plot as “Big”). In “Step Brothers” two adult “kids” (Will Ferrell and John Reilly) still living at home become mismatched brothers when their parents marry. In “School of Rock” we laugh at the incongruity of a heavy metal guitarist substitute teaching at an uptight private grade school, and we keep laughing at the incongruity scenes while the story still progresses in a classical dramatic way as well. In “That’s My Boy” a man child (Adam Sandler) connects with the son (Andy Samberg) conceived from his affair as a student with his high school teacher.
In “Juno”, an articulate teenage girl gets pregnant from her first full sexual encounter with her boyfriend. In “The Wedding Crashers” two confirmed bachelor friends who go to weddings essentially as a sport to sleep with women, find their own soul mates at one particularly big wedding. (Although this movie relies more on character development than on plotted incongruity). In “Ratatouille” a rat becomes the finest chef in Paris. “Pineapple Express” and the Harold & Kumar movies also deal with incongruity – usually one or two stoners in intense situations that they are totally unprepared for. In “Despicable Me” a bad guy wants to be a good guy. The more recent “Booksmart” switches it up with having the two smartest teen friends decide to be the “bad girls” for one night, cramming in all the fun they missed in four years.
There is a newer, third stage to this “Incongruity Theory”: “Detecting that what actually makes sense… is pleasant nonsense.” This takes into account more recent “shock” comedians from Lenny Bruce to Sam Kinison and has been explained as a particularly modern humor that works in an information and rule overloaded society. This may also explain the trend in contemporary ground breaking comedy where the laughs are more subtle but still deeply felt, and are realistic portrayals of the contemporary world (rich playground of L.A. in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”; the corporate hell of Dunder & Mifflin in Scranton in “The Office”and the new local government reality in “Parks and Recreation”). “30 Rock”, the late “Arrested Development” and “My Name is Earl” are fast paced sit coms that also tries to use more realistic settings than other network comedies.
3) Release Theory (Freud) Jokes are our way of expressing otherwise taboo wishes; they mine repressed sources of pleasure in our unconscious. Bergson, in a related view, thought that we “laugh at the mechanical encrusted on something living.” In “The Producers” Bloom and Bialystock revenge through mockery the Nazi mentality that caused the Holocaust (this can touches on Superiority Theory explaining the humor of its otherwise taboo premise.) “Team America” satirizes both terrorists and terror fighters (as well as anti-violence advocates); making fun of what we most fear in America today. “Dodgeball” also mocks current obsessions for body perfection and gym fascism.
Practical Applications of Comedy Theory
Del Close, mentor to Belushi, Candy, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, believed that comedy works best on patterns of three: i.e. two straightforward examples then the third to shatter it. “If I tear a piece of paper into four, what do I get? Quarters. If I divide it into eight? Eighths. And if I divide it into eight thousand? Confetti.”
Scientists tell us that conceptually challenging jokes require more frontal lobe activity, whereas simple/slapstick humor relies on very little frontal lobe (flexible thinking). Great comedy writing takes advantage of both levels of brain functioning. Another scientific fact of laughter is that it operates as a social conditioning/bonding mechanism. Psychologist Robert Provine (in “Laughter: a Scientific Investigation”) explores laughter contagion as well as the fact that most people laugh in groups at things that are not necessarily “funny”; but rarely alone. This social aspect is why laugh tracks have become staples of network comedies, and also why most comedy writing is done in teams.
One rule of humor at the joke level is indisputable – be specific; personalize the humor. Instead of “a guy” and “a girl” walking down the street give them names or make it you and your girlfriend, or some celebrity or known politician or athlete so that you thus give a PICTURE as well as allowing the intimacy that is a catalyst for laughter. This holds true for all writing, but it is particularly crucial in joke writing.
In Drama, the audience is pulled forward, wanting to know the outcome. But in Comedy, the writer can pause with the narrative drive to set up scenes just for laughs. Comedy thus tolerates more coincidence and may even allow deus ex machina! But the protagonist must have first suffered enormously AND the protagonist hasn’t given up hope. “Bridesmaids” is a good example. If comedy is used in a dramatic script, it must still move the story forward; it can offer a release but the humor must come naturally out of the characters and setting rather than having been “set up” as in a true comedy. For instance, many contemporary comedies now have song and dance numbers to end the film. They are not really used to push the story forward, but mainly to make the audience feel good and get one last laugh out of the characters. This trend started with “Something About Mary” in 1998 (with the entire cast and crew singing “Build Me Up Buttercup”), then “Shrek”, English indie hit “Bend it Like Beckham”, “Hitch” and “The 40 Year Old Virgin”.
Robert McKee says that Comedy is simply a funny story, “an elaborate rolling joke.” Wit can always be used to effectively lighten an emotionally heavy or otherwise too violent story (eg. “Lethal Weapon” “Annie Hall” “Pulp Fiction” “Kill Bill”). And who can forget Clemenza’s line in the scene after the roadside assassination in “The Godfather” (“leave the gun; take the cannoli..”)
True comedy is when you can pitch the story of your film (without dialogue!) scene by scene, and the listener collapses in laughter page by page. The way to get to this is not by devising clever lines, but to concentrate on those Turning Points; opening up the expectation gap in setting up the scenes. “Old School” relied on a great funny premise and good physical comedians, but suffered from a story that wasn’t consistent enough in it’s scene by scene comedy.
The screenplay itself is an intermediate form of art, though increasingly recognized as a work of art in itself. The Russian avant-garde film maker Andrey Tarkovsky stridently disagreed with this (and his argument was similar to populist American director Frank Capra) but that is because of their overwhelming prejudice – for vastly different reasons – of favoring the director as a kind of “God” over the film. Today screenplays formatted for shooting are published “as is” or slightly reformatted for ease of reading (Scenario Magazine). The screenplay will change once the other, collaborative elements work on it to make a film. Don’t be stuck on form. The “shooting script” will have numbered scenes and more complete camera angle; it is not necessary for your first draft and it inhibits the ability to read the script.
Why such rigorous formatting rules?
1) You want your script to LOOK professional; don’t turn off readers just because it looks amateur!
2) You need a presentation, in words, of what your film will be, capturing the length and tone.
REMEMBER – ONE PAGE = ONE MINUTE!
Use the format to your advantage. For instance, don’t bury jokes/brilliant imagery in a big block of description. Use the format to creatively highlight your unique work by setting off whatever you want emphasized.
Feature film: 116 pgs (Comedy scripts a bit shorter- 100 pgs).
Teleplay (hour drama; network show): 44 pgs. (16 minutes for commercials/titles/station promotions.)
Your short film will require a script of 6-10 pgs.
There is a difference between a “Spec Script” and a “Shooting Script”. Shooting scripts require technical instructions (camera angles, sound cues, distinct scene headings) because it is the text that will be used by the crew in making the film. A spec script, however, is clearer and reads easier because it is the script to attract talent and money. It is only when the spec script is sold that the shooting script should be written. I’ll discuss both types in going through formatting.
A well designed page should be read in 15-20 seconds, but will EQUAL ONE MINUTE of screen time.
Never go over the one MINUTE = one PAGE rule; though as with all rules, this may change soon enough, due to the increase in the last 15 years in the tempo of American speech! And in the “screwball comedies” of the thirties and forties, rapid dialogue was the norm, requiring longer scripts than the norm.
This means you must collapse description to not waste page space. Conversely, for fast moving camera shots, you may have to write DOWN the page to capture the sense of fast moving action. Remember, screenwriting style is free enough to accommodate writing DOWN as well as ACROSS.
Action is sometimes
Best written
DOWN the page!
Remember, screenplays will ALWAYS be a work in progress. The collaborative nature of film making means that the screenwriter must not be overly concerned with retaining every detail and nuance of his written work, but instead should focus on working WITH the other artists involved (in those rare situations when the director retains the writer) to keep the INTEGRITY of her work intact.
Think of the screenwriter as the boat builder: his duty is craft a tight ship that will float. The producer will decide where to sail it; the director will captain it, determining what sails to set as well as working with the casting director to crew the ship; and if it all works well the boat will be faster and better than ever. But your professional duty as a screenwriter is to make the story WORK; airtight and structurally sound. But now let’s get back to the hammer and nails part of putting pen to paper.
