Not so much
a pop culture reference as a tech reference.
Came up with that title and then remembered working with my first
computer when I was... nine? I remember
having to format floppy discs before you could use them. Anyone else remember that?
Very sorry
I missed last week. Deadline crunch.
Which I’m still in, really, but I didn’t want to miss two solid weeks in a row.
Anyway...
I was
rewatching some episodes of an old show recently, and it struck me that it had
a major format problem. And as I mulled
on it, it struck me I’ve seen this problem a few times before. Sometimes
firsthand, happening right in front of me.
I want to
point out something... well, I’d say it’s obvious, but I don’t think it always
is. I think it’s been muddled by a lot of would-be gurus and experts spreading
bad information. And since that’s what led to the ranty blog in the first place, well...
Anyway, let
me throw some wisdom at you.
Novels are
not comic books.
Comic books
are not television scripts.
Television
scripts are not movie scripts.
Movie
scripts are not stage plays.
Stage plays
are not novels.
As I said,
should be obvious, right?
Thing is, each
of those storytelling formats is unique unto itself. Seriously. I can rattle off at least half a
dozen inherent differences between any of them.
We always
hear people complain about changes when something is adapted from a book into a
movie, but the simple fact is things have to change. I cannot tell a story in a screenplay the
same way I’d tell it in a book. And I
can’t tell a story in a motion picture script the same way it’d be told in an
episodic television script.
Let me give
you some examples.
Based off
my own experience—as a crew person, a contest reader, and a screenwriter--I’d
guess that 99.9% of all film, television, and stage work is done from the
audience point of view. The only parts
that aren’t are the very limited POV shots that sometimes crop up in horror
movies or thrillers(usually outside windows, inside closets, or across parking
lots) and the rare experimental film like Hardcore Henry that was funded
entirely by the powerful carsickness/nausea lobby.
Contrast that with a book, where the author, with full control, can shift to any point of view they want. I can make the reader see, hear, and experience everything through one character’s senses, knowledge, and memories... and then shift to a different character. There’s no real way to do that on film.
Contrast that with a book, where the author, with full control, can shift to any point of view they want. I can make the reader see, hear, and experience everything through one character’s senses, knowledge, and memories... and then shift to a different character. There’s no real way to do that on film.
However...
a book is, for a lack of a better term, a one-source format. I have to write things out. There’s no way for the reader to know George
has blond-brown hair without me
putting “George has blond-brown hair” down on the
page. I might be able to get a little
subtle with it, maybe pull some literary sleight-of-hand, but at the
end of the day all I can do is put words on the page. That’s it.
I can’t slip in some details in the background, because everything in a
book is presented in the foreground—right there in front of my reader on the
page.
If I’m
writing for television, I also need to be aware of the very specific format
that most television writing requires.
Episodic shows are usually done with a four or five act structure (not
to be confused with three act structure, which is kinda-sorta something else) which requires my story to have a series of mini-cliffhangers where the
commercial breaks will be. If it’s a
show with an arc, it also needs to address that a week’s passed since the last
episode, and some story points may need to be repeated or re-addressed to cut
down on audience confusion.
Of course, if I’m writing for,
say HBO or Netflix, then that doesn’t apply and I have a bit more freedom,
structure-wise. These episodes are
almost more like mini-movies. Except
that now I need to be clear people may be binging these stories, watching them
back-to-back-to-back, and take that into account.
Stage
writing is also unique because it’s happening right in front of us. There’s an
inherent storytelling conceit that we’ll accept these actors don’t see us. Or that they’re not actually in a
forest. Or they can’t hear that guy
behind the tree bellowing his lines out to the back of the theater. This is a
different kind of storytelling mechanic, and that’ll be reflected in my
writing.
And none of
these are like comic books. Comics are this fantastic medium where we can have
an active, flowing story that’s being told completely through static images. So my comic script has to reflect this. Each
panel has to be a single moment, and it has to be the right moment to convey
the most impact and information while still flowing smoothly into the next
moment I choose to continue the narrative.
You’re wondering why I’m talking about all this, yes?
These days
it’s not uncommon for a story—or a storyteller—to jump mediums. As I mentioned
above, we’ve all seen a ton of books and comics adapted for the movies. I know several novelists and screenwriters
who’ve worked in comics. I’ve worked
with theater directors and playwrights on film projects.
Thing is, a
story can’t go directly from one format to another. The devices and mechanisms I use here won’t always work here.
Usually won’t, in fact. And I need to be able to make those adjustments. A really common mistake I’ve seen is when
people just yank a story from one format to another with no changes. Or when they start using the conventions of
one format in another
That show I
mentioned up at the top? In one episode
it had three reveals. Thing is, each one was essentially revealing the same
thing. But the filmmakers had assumed
since Yakko was the main character for that scene, and Dot was the central
figure in that scene, and Wakko was the focus of the final scene...
well, they could do the dramatic, big music reveal for each of them. Alas, it just doesn’t work that way, because—as I mentioned above—we can focus on different characters but it’s
all really audience POV. So the second
time around it was more eye-rolling than dramatic and the third time was...
well, laughable.
Last year I
had a chance to be in an X-Files anthology. Truth is, though, the main spine of my short
story actually came from a spec script I’d written for an old TV show called The
Chronicle. And I had to make
adjustments for that. Most notably, all
those mini-cliffhangers in the story had to be smoothed out. Some things had to be described much more
than they were in the script, because now all those details actually had to be
on the page.
Y’see,
Timmy, if I want to shift a story from one format to another, I better
understand the conventions and limitations of each one. And if I want to write in a different format.
I need to learn that format as well as I know my current one. I can’t just go in assuming it won’t matter,
or that I’ll be the exception who gets to slide.
So know
what you’re writing. And how you’re
writing.
Next time,
I’d like to talk about some artsy character stuff.
Until then,
go write.
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