Read Romantic Screenplays 101 for Free Online Page B
Authors: Sally J. Walker
things to remember: 1) Do not go for the most obvious or most convenient and 2) do not make anything a coincidence. The choices made and the actions taken must be deliberate. Yes, two people can be in the bank as the same time it is held up and they are taken as hostages, but that they just happened to have gone to school together and had a high school affair is too much of a convenience. The What-if becomes contrived, melodramatic and improbable. You lose your audience’s sense of illusion because they are refuting the storyteller’s contrivances.
Bring the two parties together and have them interact within their natural, normal routine. That meeting will come off as “of course it was meant to happen” serendipity.
By the time you get to the last scene before “The End,” think about how you want your couple feeling after the climax of the story, after they have come into their powers to overcome the antagonist and have recognized they need one another to go forward into life as a unit. How do you want them showing their commitment to each other?
ROMANTIC SCREENPLAYS Chapter 3 Exercises
Exercise 3a: State four possible situations or events for your story’s four major relationship points:
1) Meeting
2) Misunderstanding
3) Separation
4) Commitment
Note: This is an exercise in making What-if lists, of many possibilities of actions and reactions you could use.
Exercise 3b: What are three major roles in your female lead’s life that create her Identity? Now, the three major roles in your male lead’s life?
Exercise 3c: What is your female’s Essence (what does she want more than anything else, but keeps locked within)? The Essence of your male lead?
Exercise 3d: How do you want these two complex people to celebrate their victory over life’s assault on their tenuous relationship after the Climax of your story? What Happily Ever After images will your audience take home to translate into their own imaginings of the couple’s future? (Note: If you can imagine the histories of these two characters then how they meet at the beginning of your story . . . and you know how you want to conclude the story, it becomes much easier to construct the middle.)
Chapter 4
Unique but Universal Hero
& Heroine and Cast
FUNDAMENTAL CINEMATIC CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Because a romance is character-driven, it is absolutely essential that you totally understand your Hero and Heroine through in-depth character profiling before you write the script. Cinematic characters make the events happen. The events do not happen then the character is forced to react. To control your story from the get-go, you have to understand character history, influences, motivations. Many novelists like learning about their characters as they set them in motion. The length of the medium gives them that luxury. Screenplays demand succinct depiction of character. To do that, you must figure out character beforehand. Period, end of the discussion of the need for Character Profiling.
Here is a 36-Step Character Profile. There are many kinds of profiles out there that others may like better, but this contains the essential information for you to understand your character. It is divided into three main sections.
36-POINT CHARACTER CHART
General
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. Height & Weight:
4. Hair:
5. Eyes:
6. Scars/Handicaps:
7. Birthdate & Zodiac:
8. Birthplace:
9. Parents & Childhood:
10. Education:
11. Work Experience:
12. Home & its Physical Atmosphere:
Personal
13. Best Friend:
14. Men/Women Friends:
15. Enemies & Why:
16. Strongest/Weakest Characteristics:
17. Greatest Fear:
18. Sees self as...
19. Is seen by others as...
20. Sense of humor about...
21. Basic Nature:
22. Ambitions:
23. Philosophy of Life:
24. Hobbies:
25. Music, art, reading preferences:
26. Dress & Grooming Habits:
27. Favorite Colors:
28. Typical Day:
Story
29. Present Problem:
30. How will it get worse?
31. What is the
Bring the two parties together and have them interact within their natural, normal routine. That meeting will come off as “of course it was meant to happen” serendipity.
By the time you get to the last scene before “The End,” think about how you want your couple feeling after the climax of the story, after they have come into their powers to overcome the antagonist and have recognized they need one another to go forward into life as a unit. How do you want them showing their commitment to each other?
ROMANTIC SCREENPLAYS Chapter 3 Exercises
Exercise 3a: State four possible situations or events for your story’s four major relationship points:
1) Meeting
2) Misunderstanding
3) Separation
4) Commitment
Note: This is an exercise in making What-if lists, of many possibilities of actions and reactions you could use.
Exercise 3b: What are three major roles in your female lead’s life that create her Identity? Now, the three major roles in your male lead’s life?
Exercise 3c: What is your female’s Essence (what does she want more than anything else, but keeps locked within)? The Essence of your male lead?
Exercise 3d: How do you want these two complex people to celebrate their victory over life’s assault on their tenuous relationship after the Climax of your story? What Happily Ever After images will your audience take home to translate into their own imaginings of the couple’s future? (Note: If you can imagine the histories of these two characters then how they meet at the beginning of your story . . . and you know how you want to conclude the story, it becomes much easier to construct the middle.)
Chapter 4
Unique but Universal Hero
& Heroine and Cast
FUNDAMENTAL CINEMATIC CHARACTER CONCEPTS
Because a romance is character-driven, it is absolutely essential that you totally understand your Hero and Heroine through in-depth character profiling before you write the script. Cinematic characters make the events happen. The events do not happen then the character is forced to react. To control your story from the get-go, you have to understand character history, influences, motivations. Many novelists like learning about their characters as they set them in motion. The length of the medium gives them that luxury. Screenplays demand succinct depiction of character. To do that, you must figure out character beforehand. Period, end of the discussion of the need for Character Profiling.
Here is a 36-Step Character Profile. There are many kinds of profiles out there that others may like better, but this contains the essential information for you to understand your character. It is divided into three main sections.
36-POINT CHARACTER CHART
General
1. Name:
2. Age:
3. Height & Weight:
4. Hair:
5. Eyes:
6. Scars/Handicaps:
7. Birthdate & Zodiac:
8. Birthplace:
9. Parents & Childhood:
10. Education:
11. Work Experience:
12. Home & its Physical Atmosphere:
Personal
13. Best Friend:
14. Men/Women Friends:
15. Enemies & Why:
16. Strongest/Weakest Characteristics:
17. Greatest Fear:
18. Sees self as...
19. Is seen by others as...
20. Sense of humor about...
21. Basic Nature:
22. Ambitions:
23. Philosophy of Life:
24. Hobbies:
25. Music, art, reading preferences:
26. Dress & Grooming Habits:
27. Favorite Colors:
28. Typical Day:
Story
29. Present Problem:
30. How will it get worse?
31. What is the
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