Looking At The First Ten Pages Of A Screenplay Through A Director's Eyes by Mark W. Travis Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

Michael what would you tell that
beginning screenwriter who's not yet had
the opportunity to work with the
director and and banter back and forth
about what that director sees
appropriate for the film what would you
tell that beginning screenwriter in
terms of creating characters and story
when they've never actually been in the
trenches okay well I I can talk to the
writers and when I coach writers I can
talk about my approach to story and the
principles of story but then it's mark
that could probably be more informed
about talking about what the director is
going to look for so for instance when I
first start working with the
screenwriter on a new project as I said
I start with a lot of questions to get a
sense of how do they see the characters
what's their vision for the story and so
on but for example one of the things
that's key in creating the hero of the
story is a couple things one we need to
meet that character living their
everyday life before the story gets
underway we've got to we've got to have
a set up so we can see who is this
character who is this character been for
some time before the train leaves the
station before the action gets big
before they're up against the obstacles
and going after the big goal so who is
that and in that portrait what I also
want to see is how is that character
stuck how is that character limited in
their living how is their fear or wound
from the past or whatever it might be
keeping them from being fulfilled or
fully individuated so how are they
telling themselves their life is fine
but it's just sort of tolerable because
then the writers going to have to
present them with a desire that's going
to take them out of that stuck place and
force them to confront their fears so I
can talk about that aspect of the
character and how you can create that
empathy with the character introduced in
that way but I'd be interested in
hearing what you'd say so when as a
director you get the script are those
the things you're looking for at the
beginning of the
screenplay - or are there other elements
knowing you're going to have to direct
actors in the role that you're going to
be eager to see in a well-written script
yeah I mean a lot of what you say is
great but I mean I'm just thinking as I
was listening to Mike I was just
thinking of when I read a screenplay
and a lot of the directors I work with
have the same thing weird reading the
first 10 pages in other words and hoping
in the first 10 pages you will capture
my imagination with exactly what you're
talking about
can you within a few minutes introduce
me to a character who I get to know in
his regular life and then introduced to
me a problem whether it's the inciting
incident that I am so intrigued I have
no idea what the hell's going to happen
in other words can you this is the big
challenge can you get me in ten pages
outside of my director's head in other
words where I will stop directing and by
that I mean because many times we as
directors are reading scripts and going
how do I direct this how do I direct
this how do I direct this the good
scripts but that's that voice has
stopped I'm now with this character and
his or her situation and and I realize
I've been pulled out of that function
that mechanical function of directing
and I've been pulled into the story that
I all I want to do is keep reading I
need to keep reading so I'm looking in
the first 10 or so pages to be captured
by an event in a situation that now I
don't literally don't want to put the
script down and if that doesn't happen
in 10 20 or 25 pages then I'm getting
really discouraged then my director
brain is going well if I was directing
this how would I save it how would I fix
it and now I'm going into what you do so
brilliantly I'm going into script
consulting script and you know what I
mean I'm going into it fixing and I
don't want to go there I don't want to
be in that so it's a lot a lot of it is
I is the director when I'm reading a
script and let's assume it's a film that
eventually I do make want to make I do
I am at that moment in a very very
critical point in my process I am the
first audience okay I'm reading it and
whatever reactions I'm having to this
script now and if it's going well this
is what I'm going to want to replicate
months or a year later when it's up on
the screen in other words the emotional
journey I've been taken on so this
emotional journey that I'm on if it's
truly an emotional journey that I've
engaged with the characters involved in
the characters worried about the
characters cheering for the characters
hating the cat whatever it is I'm in
relationship with these characters and I
get to the end and I go oh wow that was
a ride and I realized I wasn't directing
yeah then my job for the next year that
it may take to make the film is to
create a film that will do that what
just happened to me to an audience of
100 200 300 people but I'm going to do
it with a film if I don't have that
experience then I know it's a long road
I'm going to have to do a lot of work to
try to create an emotional journey I am
curious because this happens to me a lot
I find writers making what I think is
this mistake often and it's not that the
script is too slow to get going it's
almost that it's too fast that it tries
to get going I think one of the
difficulties a lot of newer writers I
think in particular have or faces they
hear that old maxim you got to grab the
reader in the first 10 pages and so they
think something big and exciting and you
know filled with special effects or
something has to happen right away and
that actually is detrimental to the
story because it doesn't give us the
chance to get to know the character it
doesn't introduce them
do you find that I mean do you have that
same reaction do you find that sometimes
it feels like the writers sort of trying
to jump the gun and and get to the good
stuff sort of speak instead of really
letting us be with a character and get
inside that character before things kick
into gear yeah and exactly and I think
you know the question is when you say
get to the good stuff what is the good
stuff
some of the good stuff is a lot of
action and explosions and
political intrigue like that and quite
honestly I look at that say that's
fascinating I have no idea what's going
on and more importantly I don't care you
know I don't care that this army is
going that way or this political
explosion or there's an assassination
attempt against this president or
something I go fine you know and I'm
sure it'll be very interesting but I
don't care which means I have nobody to
care about you know and there a lot of
people there but I don't care about so
when you said the good stuff sometimes
the good stuff is the most seemingly
mundane benign thing I mean American
beauty is a great example the good stuff
is a fantasy there's a sexual fantasy
that Lester Burnham has at a basketball
game and I by that time I know this
character so well and he has this little
epiphany about something something's
ignited inside him and I'm going I'm
intrigued you know so the question is
what is the good stuff and I think a lot
of people think well I have to do
something big and splashy you don't you
have to do something startling I think
something unexpected that but something
that is logical and rational but
unexpected but it can be small give me
one it could be a comment I mean in
ordinary people actually the inciting
incident is over a serving of french
toast when the mother to me when she
says here's your favorite meal he says I
don't want takes and she puts it in
the garbage disposal and says you can't
save french toast and the husband say
he'll eat it later no you can't save it
and I read at that moment I can feel the
whole family cracking and it's over
French telling so that's to me is a big
event if you look it on the screen it
doesn't look big it feels big and that's
what I'm looking for now because it's so
illustrative of all the conflict that is
going on and pushed down beneath the
surface especially in that movie because
the whole mo of that mother and that
family is we can't let any conflict show
and and that's it one of the key
principles I talked about all
time is your primary goal is the
storyteller is you've got to elicit
emotion and emotion grows out of
conflict but at the beginning when we
meet the hero a lot of times is what is
the conflict from the past or what's
going on on the inside with this
character that has been pushed down so
they can avoid any conflict but we
become aware of it because we see the
banality or or the sadness or the
missing piece in that character's life
so the conflict is there it's just not
explosive yet
you