The Scene

Before I started Reading Iglesias, I had figured out that the key to good writing was intimately knowing and embracing structure, and then focusing on the individual scenes.

Mr. Iglesias confirmed for me that I was more or less correct.

My initial thinking about scenes, though was a little skimpy. I had deduced that a scene was about Setting/Atmosphere, Off-screen Movie - The World Outside the Scene, and the Character Relationships. And since each scene performs a specific function of the structure, as well as revealing character information, I thought I had pretty much nailed it.

However, Iglesias has a more thorough approach for me. Screenwriter Ron Bass (SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, RAIN MAN) always blocks out the elements that go into a scene before he writes it. Here's what Iglesias suggests I consider going into each of my scenes:

First, I am to remember that a scene is a mini-story, which means the core of EVERY scene is: Somebody wants something and is having difficulty getting it. That's where I start with each and every scene.

Next, I consider the following aspects of the scene:

1. Type of Scene
I have had no end of frustration recently, because I didn't realize that not every scene was meant to be a dramatic scene! But apparently, there are 2 other legitimate types of scenes:

Exposition - Sometimes you just gotta make sure the audience knows what's what.
Spectacle - Sometimes the point of a scene is to blow their socks off!
Dramatic - And sometimes the point of a scene is to make an audience FEEL something (besides awe or wonder).

2. Purpose
If I'm going to write the scene, I need it to exist for a reason. Even if I'm inspired to write the scene because it's a cool idea that I want people to read, I can still find a structural use for it. (Or I can make it a character moment as well, but character scenes are the first to go when a film is being edited for running time, so if I really like the scene I need to make sure it serves a structural purpose... And involves the star of the movie, too. If I really like it.)

3. Location
Think about the emotional impact of where the scene takes place. What do I want my audience to feel? What is the emotional thrust of the scene? Is there a location that can heighten that?

4. Time
Day, night, dusk, dawn all have emotional connotations, particularly when used in conjunction with or juxtaposed against what is playing in the scene.

We can also use details about the time of day we're setting the scene in to help heighten the emotional impact of the scene. (Shadows falling across a character's face, partially obscuring their features, for example.)

5. Weather
Seems cliche, but weather should not be discounted by us beginners as a means of emotionally heightening a scene. It's true. It's better to play with ideas and discard them than to simply fail to utilize this obviously effective tool! (It wouldn't be cliche to use weather to suggest subtext if unless it had be used -- effectively, mostly -- many times before.)

6. Who's Scene Is It?
One character usually drives the scene and the other character(s) usually reacts. Who drives this scene?

7. Previous Moment
This is useful in 2 ways:

What took place in the scene just before this one? In other words, in order to help the audience along their emotional ride, what emotions did they just experience, and what should this scene do to them emotionally? Should this be an up scene? A down scene? Tense? Light?

ALSO, what happened offscreen that we didn't see, just before this scene started? If my character feels a little dull I can spice up the scene by figuring out what happened to him/her just 5 or 10 minutes before he/she entered the scene.

8. Feelings and Attitudes
Knowing the previous moment allows you to know how your characters enter a scene.

9. Objectives
Everybody in a scene wants something, and they're having trouble getting it. Otehrwise, the scene just lies there.

10. Character Actions
The driving character wants something; now what action is he/she taking to to obtain the objective?

11. The Main Conflict
An arguement isn't dramatic. The main conflict needs to be internal, external, or interpersonal for a dramatic scene. If this is an expository scene, dramatic conflict isn't necessary.

12. Stakes
What happens if the driving character in the scene fails/succeeds to achieve his/her goal? (Keep in mind that a scene is a portion of the story, so failure is definitely an option, even for the Protagonist, in a scene.)

13. Beats
Straight-up quoting Mr. Iglesias now: "Every beat in a scene should be a dance between action and reaction, with bonus points if the reaction is unpredictable." Every new action -- that solicits a reaction -- is a beat that makes up the scene.

THIS is what I've been looking for; the perspective in scene-writing that I've been missing: I need to think about the actions and reactions of characters. My emotional responses to, say, Whedon live in the beats of what he writes. My stuff has been superficial arguements and exposition; I need to live in THE BEATS!

14. Exposition
Even if this is a dramatic scene or a spectacle scene, every scene in a story exposes a little more of the story to the audience. How much of the story am I revealing in this particular scene?

15. Scene Structure
Scenes -- being mini-stories -- need a beginning, middle and end. What's the flow of this scene?

16. Scene Polarity
This one's too easy to forget about! Part of Robert McKee's definition of a scene is that the Value Charge of the scene swicthes from the positive to the negative, or vice versa. According to McKee, the scene doesn't end until the emotional value charge is reversed. So, for instance, if you have 3 scenes in which they begin on a positive note and end on a positive note until the last scene, which then turns negative, then you don't functionally have 3 scenes, you've got one really, really long scene.

McKee does allow for a scene to go from bad to worse, or from good to better. Iglesias helps to clarify that for this to work, the gap between the emotional value charges needs to be of a significant range. Like something that's kind of good/bad to something that's deffinitely good/bad.

17. Chase-and-Escape vs. Chase-and-Capture
This seems to me -- at this point -- maybe a little insignificant in the big picture of scene-writing. But I'm including it because Iglesias includes it as one of the questions we should answer when considering our scenes. Plus, it kind of seems like one of those things that, once I am professional, I may come up in jargon with the other pros. So I don't want to forget it.

The "chase" is when one character wants something from another character. If he/she gets it, one way or another, it's a "capture". If he/she doesn't get it, that's an "escape".

Like I said, it seems awefully specific, but who knows. Maybe once I start writing my next project I'll discover that almost every scene is in one way or another a Chase & Capture/Escape scene.

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And that's that. The next several scenes I write, I will be refering back to this blog entry to make sure I'm hitting all the bases, until it becomes habbit.

And just maybe this infor is helpful for you, too...