Creating Unique Story Ideas
Develop Unique Story Ideas -- A Fight Against Derivative Scripts
Nothing's new its just taking a look at great stories from a different angle. "Cruel Intentions" is a contemporary re-working of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and "Save The Last Dance" is a great modern version of Shakespeare's "Othello."
It's not always necessary to steal from the masters, but sticking to classic story structure might be the best way to begin to write a script. Even screenplays like "Pulp Fiction," "The Usual Suspects," and "Memento" may appear to be innovative, but it's the writer's fresh take on the three-act structure that makes each of them complete and satisfying.
Everyone knows screenplays begin with an idea, but everyone's got an idea. But, it's taking that idea and calculating just how much you want to present. Each moment should propel the story further. Often something visual speaks volumes. In "The Apartment," legendary writers, Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, were looking for a unique way to tell the audience that Jack Lemmon's character, C.C. Baxter, suddenly realizes the woman he loves is having an affair with his boss. The device was simple: Baxter finds the woman's broken-compact mirror, which Baxter had given to his boss. In one shot, Baxter looks at himself in the mirror and knows what the audience has known all along.
The fewer details, the cleaner the story! "Star Wars" is a great example of a young man who comes home to find his family murdered. As with all great myths, the hero must take a journey to right the wrongs and find his place in society. The story is simple, the details few, but just enough to have the audience rooting for Luke Skywalker. The script never strays from Luke's intent. The theme or the spine of the story is always in every scene.
Screenplays that stick to the spine always, as invisible as that spine might be, always bring audiences into the local Cineplex. Director, Sydney Pollack worked tirelessly with Larry Gelbart and a whole host of uncredited writers on "Tootsie." Until they came up with the idea that Dustin Hoffman's character Michael Dorsey/Dorothy Michaels is a better man because he plays a woman is in every scene of the movie. The struggle never lets up, even in the final moments when he admits to Jessica Lange, "I was a better man with you, as a woman... than I ever was with a woman, as a man. You know what I mean? I just gotta learn to do it without the dress."
Another Pollack film, the epic "Out of Africa" was very difficult to turn into a screenplay. The books on which it was based were much more episodic in nature, nothing that could hold a screenplay together. After many discussions and hours of tearing their hair out, Pollack and screenwriter, Karl Luedtke, realized that the one tangible thing in Karen Blixen's life, was her tremendous need to own things, or call them her own. If you look at a very tiny scene, where Redford's character gives he a pen to write stories, it's about ownership. The same could be said for the water she's trying to control, but really belongs in Mombasa, or the Kikuyu children she wants to educate. The whole script is tied by the theme of ownership and the audience is propelled through Karen Blixen's life in Africa.
Personal experience often works its way into screenwriting, masked as the experiences of the characters. The personal is often universal. The anguish Charlie Kaufman felt in trying to write, "Adaptation" drove him crazy. He took those feelings and turned the screenplay into his own sort of catharsis. The task of writing a screenplay engulfed Nicholas Cage's character. It became a metaphor for anyone trying to accomplish an overwhelming task.
All characters need to have an arc. The audience wants to see change and/or growth. They're investing time and emotions in this person, who at some point may become an everyman. Rocky Balboa, from the very first movie, represents all of us, someone just trying to succeed.
For our hero or heroine to transform they need two things, an ally and an opponent. In the first five Rocky pictures, Adrian was his ally. But, the last picture took a different turn and Rocky's son eventually becomes his father's ally. Allies are almost the only way to convey how the main character is feeling.
A protagonist always needs an antagonist. They are of equal importance. In Stephen Frears' "The Queen", the antagonist turns out to be a dead woman, Princess Diana. Even though we, the audience, only see glimpses of her in archival footage, her presence is a front and center. It's what drives the story and presents the conflict for the royal family. Princess Diana is not evil, so she's not the conventional antagonist, but her death is the unseen obstacle that creates the drama. She may not be the classic opponent, like Alan Rickman's character is to Bruce Willis in the very first "Die Hard," but her presence is felt in every frame of the movie. She's an unseen force that drives Queen Elizabeth's every move.
Writing interesting and compelling scripts is never easy. A narrator at the end of 1948's "The Naked City" says it best, "There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
Links:
http://www.writingfix.com/6Traits/IdeaDevelopment.htm
http://imdb.com/title/tt0084805/quotes
http://imdb.com/title/tt0089755/
http://www.truby.com/audio.html
http://imdb.com/title/tt0040636/quotes
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