Romantic Screenplays 101 (2 page)

 Not every story has to have a romantic relationship. In the late Rosemary Sutcliff’s novel THE EAGLE, she wove in a relationship subplot. It added aura and an anchor to the suffering of the Protagonist. Since Sutcliff wrote action-adventure for the Young Adult market, the relationship did not contribute significantly to the main plot. When Jeremy Brock adapted the story to a screenplay (movie released in 2011), he focused on the adventure and the male-bonding conflict between the Protagonist and his slave as they experienced the epic quest. The power of the story would have been diminished if Sutcliff’s subplot romance had been inserted.

So, You-the-Writer must examine the events and characters of your story to know if you even have a complex romance that will sustain the concern of the audience for two hours. Then you have to be truly enthralled to even want to tell this story.

DO YOU ALREADY UNDERSTAND SCREENPLAY FUNDAMENTALS?

Tackling the specialized genre of romance in the discipline of film implies that you come already versed in writing screenplays. You know the craft, jargon and format of screenwriting.

If not, then you need to back-track to the essentials of Character Profiling (available in Appendix A) and plotting with a Story Paradigm (available in Appendix B). Romantic characters will be addressed in Chapter 4 and romantic plotting in Chapter 6. Both subjects are examined in overview fashion in my book
Intro to Screenwriting
. The requirements of character profiling along with paradigm planning and pacing in cinema are different from novel writing. You cannot craft a marketable cinematic story in the proper format without understanding what the professional film-makers expect of the screenwriter. Novels are written with lots of freedom. Screenplays have definitive restrictions understood by the time-and-money conscious film makers.

Read the many recommended resources listed in the Foreword. Commit story-building concepts to your soul as explained by Syd Field, Chris Vogler, Lew Hunter, John Truby, Michael Hauge, and so on. Understand the basic Paradigm outline that is detailed, because this book will build on that fundamental, indicating the pacing or signposts of the relationship evolution. Film makers expect the events of the story to progress in this manner. They know how to create and deliver a satisfying cinematic story. Their concepts have proven true since the first silent films. You either learn how to work with them in writing a screenplay or go back to writing novels.

At first the Paradigm may seem cumbersome, asking for many things at once, but the more you work with it in all of your storytelling, the easier it will become. All of the referenced books look at the page limits and story structure needed for cinematic storytelling. Each breaks the process down according to the author’s own insights. One is not more accurate or used more often than any other. The majority of their concepts are interchangeable and a matter of semantics. Do not be intimidated by the vastness of these approaches.

 The key concept is to incorporate what works for
you
into your story organization, as long as you are hitting the signposts that progress the story forward and depicting the required elements. Some people have enlarged the paradigm to poster size and laminated it to use like a wet board. Others have created programs that have pages for each portion of the paradigm. Those writers feel overwhelmed by the visual of the entire paradigm and work better in increments. Some have a file folder full of printed copies of paradigm. A copy is taken out for each story, be it a short story, a children’s book, a novel or a screenplay. These writers use itty-bitty pencil print to gradually fill it in once the over-all structure or plot is figured out. They like to keep the whole evolving story in front of them as they write. Some people use index cards they can shift around and even color code according to character or subplot sequencing. Both software programs of Final Draft and Movie Magic’s Screenwriter have a similar Scene Card system as one of their tools.

Taking the paradigm planning one step further is the Beat Sheet or Step-Outline listing the 36-48 essential Scenes of the story. Each scene is described in a succinct sentence or two. Remember that a screenplay is only 97-120 pages with 100 pages for a Spec Script (script written on speculation that someone will buy it and make it into a film). That means each number with its summary sentence will cover approximately 2-3 pages of the actual script. If you are still puzzled, open up the little folder included with a movie’s DVD. You will find a list of the scenes on the DVD. This is the film makers rudimentary Step Outline. Each scene grouping covers only 2-3 minutes of screen time. That translates to 2-3 pages of the script.

The paradigm gives the writer the whole picture of story progression with the necessary signposts designated. The Step Outline or Beat Sheet summarizes the scenes needed to fill out the spaces on the Paradigm.

All that detailed pre-planning is necessary before you write the screenplay because film makers do not want to waste production time on a multitude of unnecessary scenes. They want to film only those scenes essential to moving the story from Beginning’s Set-up through the complications of the Middle to get to the Ending’s Resolution. Tight screenplays are more likely to get bought and made than haphazard stories filled with novelistic details and subplot side trips.

 The point is not to get scattered. Try one process, work with it, then maybe incorporate something else . . . until you find the match to your creative process.  There is no right or wrong. Any of the above techniques simply allow you 1) to identify when something isn’t working, 2) to stay on track or identify when you’ve missed something and 3) to identify exactly where you need to revise more efficiently.

Character Profiling for film is another unique matter. Romantic characters will be addressed in Chapter 4.

SPECIFICALLY ROMANCE

Both fiction and the film industry categorize the subject matter of their products for one reason:
consumer expectations
. So, what does an audience expect of a romantic screenplay? Both male and female audience members expect
a relationship story
. The difference is that
men expect physical responses
between the couple and
females expect a commitment.
Tongue-in-cheek, this can be simplified to “Men just need a place; women need a reason.”

The bottom line is that both sides of the equation want to see a story about a satisfying relationship. The term “satisfying” initially has different levels of meaning for the two genders in this context. Yes, males like to see a story that has one woman committed to her man (because that goes back to the primal territorial instincts). However, they are more interested in the male demonstration of his manliness and sexual prowess than in all the touchy-feely softening of the male beast to the feminine wiles of the female. Men want to see the action of the man proving himself worthy.

Women want to see the gradual evolution of the male surrendering to his emotional need for this one woman. Most women are attracted to confident males who need convincing rather than the easily manipulated male. From the woman’s point-of-view this can be defined as “The male-female unit struggles through life’s changing saga until the female (intentionally or unintentionally) transforms the male’s awareness of her value to him.” Women identify with the element of female empowerment in romantic stories. Most women want a degree of control over their own lives, yet want mates who are confident in their own skins.

Even in the prehistoric times, the female nest-builders had to feel confident that they could problem-solve the stresses in their lives. Through the era of women-as-chattel who had to follow the dictates of the males in their lives, females still had to make behavior and thought choices. Their perception of options may have been limited, but they still made choices. A female’s essential humanity sought value and respect. Nothing has changed in the 21
_^st
century. The evolution of the relationship needs to make the woman more than she was before. As was said in JERRY MAGUIRE “You complete me.” A guy in the audience may have groaned when Jerry (Tom Cruise) said this, but every woman got it! With that line, the female succeeded! She was complete as well because he needed her!

Note to any discomfited males: Here’s the generalization. Women are inherently nest-builders seeking a mate to create family, whereas males may desire the security of a relationship but are more concerned about the world, not the nest. They seek the challenge of spreading it around, attracting as many females as possible . . . as a side-line hobby, not as a vocation. The human male is about survival (jeopardy), whereas the female is about assuring the continuation of the species (consequences of sex). That’s the lowest common denominator in our biology, not a stereotyping, merely a biological imperative.

IS CONFLICT IN ROMANCE A BATTLE OF THE SEXES?

The simple answer is “No.” More often the characters are experiencing an internal battle of what each wants to do within the framework of their circumstance. Each is resisting the change demanded by the attraction to this other person. There has to be resistance or angst by one or both parties or there is no conflict. No conflict means no story. The internalization can be explained in a novel but in cinema it has to be demonstrated by facial expressions, body language and dialogue’s diction and syntax. The internal struggle has to bleed over into the choices and consequences the audience sees the characters making.

Additionally, you want the kind of conflict that will throw the two parties together and make the pheromones fly as they struggle with the everyday life demands. Plot out the evolution of the relationship and their acting upon the attraction then curl the controversy and opposition around their attraction and awareness of one another.

 Look at SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE. Both Tom Hanks in Seattle and Meg Ryan in Baltimore were constantly thinking about one another! The promise of a relationship came back again and again until they had to meet to figure out if the other was actually their life partner. This was inferred, certainly not acted upon at the top of the Empire State Building, just as happened in AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, the model for the ending of SLEEPLESS.

A ROMANCE CHALLENGE

Many who want to write romantic screenplays are already addicted to the romance genre via novels. Romance readers are credited with being voracious readers. You, in turn, need to be an obsessive student of romantic films.

Watch as many films with a primary or secondary romance as possible. After finishing this book, go back and watch each a second time to see if you identified the signposts and the beats, as well as to consider if you missed anything. You should see nuances and signals you were not aware of the first time around. (Note: There is a list in Appendix C that will continue to grow as the film industry continues to release romantic films.)

Remember, a film need not be a story with the main plot focused on the romantic relationship. The romance could be a subplot contributing to the complications of the main plot. The two requirements of a cinematic romance are that 1) the relationship evolves because of the main plot and 2) the couple needs to advance through the various relationship stages toward commitment in the end. Whether the relationship is the main plot or the subplot the key is that the pair will be committed to be a couple in the end.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF A ROMANCE

1. Motivated character-driven, not complex plot-driven story
. . .
A highly motivated character is an intense character, a role that appeals to the really talented, dynamic actors, those A-List actors. These characters are the ones who do not just let life happen to them; they make it happen. They are inherently dramatic. That means they are not watchers but doers.

One of the major characters will arc or change internally in the course of a character-driven movie. In a romance this can be either the male or the female and the change will be because of the relationship! (This will be explained more when the cast itself is addressed in Chapter 4).

Character-driven stories are perpetually focused on the words of the dialogue and the consequences demanded from those speeches. The dialogue in a character-driven story is compact, multilayered and demands gut-deep intensity from the actor. In a character-driven plot, the dialogue so enthralls the director that he / she naturally focuses on motivating the actor’s facial expressions and body language.

The only time a screenwriter needs to describe either facial expression or body language / positioning is if a contrast is intended rather than the natural nuance of the dialogue. For example, a speech is excruciatingly polite but the tone needs to be sarcastic. A screenwriter’s job is to write dynamite dialogue that stimulates the actor and the director to live their jobs with concentrated excitement.

Plot-driven stories are based on events and how the characters react to them, all for the sake of engaging the reader / audience in the experience. Think of historical renderings, police procedurals or James Bond movies. Yes, characters can cause events to happen, but the events themselves are the focus of the story. A romance is about the people, not the events they move through.

2. Predictable structure of meeting, misunderstanding, separation, commitment

Several of the UCLA Film Department faculty often quote: “No one wants to see the story of the-happy-people-in-the-happy-village.” In a romance that translates to 1) introducing the characters to establish the attraction, 2) creating an opposition which can be either external or internal but plays off character history and personality and sets them at odds, 3) pushing the couple apart despite the attraction with the implication that they are overwhelmed by circumstance to make the relationship work, then 4) forcing them back together with the realization that satisfaction in life can only be achieved
with
this mate.