This is in response to my findings in this week’s screenwriting exercise.
How useful was the exercise in helping to construct a story outline? How easy/hard was it to place your characters into your scenario? Did choosing a genre help to guide your story in any particular direction? Do you think this type of exercise is a good pathway into writing a screenplay? Why/why not?
It has been made evident that the action is not the sole force which drives the story. The characters’ three-dimensionality, bring out the conflict that provides interest in the plot (climax), and which they themselves, must encounter and solve (resolution). The action reveals itself as how they deal with the conflict they are presented with. The drama doesn’t just exist within the setting, rather within the characters’ pre-determined morals, ethics and characteristics and how they must balance these to fulfil their personal happy endings.
In this instance, it was quite easy for me to place the characters into the scenario. Andy and Bec have similar problems in terms of dealing with their parent’s predispositions about their life choices, and it was this that I played around with to find my story. I didn’t necessarily choose a genre beforehand, I just wrote a story and let itself dictate its genre.
I truly believe that this exercise was an effective method in drawing out a potential screenplay. A writer must at least think through (and jot down) their main characters’ primary characteristics. This is essential in deterring how they would react to the situation they are presented with and how their actions affect those around them. It’s highly possible that the characters themselves would warrant their own conflict, the quirkier and more eccentric they are written to be.