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How To Guides

by Ray Frensham

Ray Frensham is a writer, script doctor, freelance lecturer and script workshop organiser. Ex-chairman of The Screenwriters’ Workshop, he is also author of the best-selling book Teach Yourself Screenwriting (Hodder Headline).

1) The great core story idea

What attracts you to see one film and not another? A star name? Special effects? Critical reviews? - Perhaps.

But ultimately it’s a great core story idea - something you can express in one or two lines. It’s what grabs your attention and makes you interested in the tale to be told. A great story, with three dimensional characters we can identify with and who engage our emotions, which takes us on a roller-coaster journey of discovery, with its unexpected twists and turns and setbacks that keep us asking: “What happens next?”

Because watching movies is primarily a group experience, writing them is about affecting and manipulating your audience’s emotions through imaginative storytelling.

Your two main tools are Character and Structure: they feed, support, illuminate and drive each other.

2) Character

You'll need your Protagonist (or Hero) figure: the one we should focus on and most identify with, the one who will travel the journey and through whose eyes we experience the story.

Your Hero also needs a goal - something they need to achieve or get by the end of your tale - and in getting to that goal they will change, develop and grow.

Your other characters all operate in relation to your Protagonist and his/her goal(s). They are either against them, support them, illustrate aspects of your protagonist, or they are the romantic prize at the end.

3) Structure

The most common blueprint is the three act structure. Put simply, your beginning, middle and end. Hollywood will tell you that, lengthwise, they should take up a quarter (Act I), half (Act II) and a quarter (Act III) of your screen time.

Act I
Act I is your Set-Up. This is where you need to:
• Hook your audience quickly into the story and character/s (your first ten pages are crucial).
• Establish your main character(s), their situation, the world they live in and conflicts.
• Create our protagonist’s end goal.
• Create the incident which sets your protagonist off on the journey they will follow in your film.

Act II
Act II is about Development:
• of your main story, your protagonist and other characters.
• of the obstacles your protagonist faces in reaching their goal(s).
• of your sub-plots.

Act II generally pivots around your Point Of No Return, half-way through your movie. It’s where your Protagonist considers abandoning their journey. He/She can’t do that (it would mean the end of your movie). They have to push onward.

Act III
is about Pay-Off and Aftermath:
• it contains the Climax and Resolution of your story.
• the goal has been achieved/task completed (or not).
• all the characters’ relationships and sub-plots have been tied up.
• the audience wind down, feeling satisfied at the end.

… And endings are important. You don’t have to give it a happy ending (though Hollywood may insist), but at least give it a satisfying ending: one that sends your audience away feeling… however you want to make them feel. Just don’t let them leave asking: “Why did anyone bother making that?”

4) Other aspects to consider

Of course there are many other aspects to consider: story concept, genre, scene construction, sequences, screen dialogue, subtext, character motivation, pacing, plants and pay-offs, theme, rewriting, one-page synopses, etc.

Just remember, films are essentially a visual medium, so 'Think Visual' and 'Show - Don't Tell'.

And always remember screenwriter William Goldman's famous quote: "Nobody knows anything" - so there's hope for us all.