Scriptwriting Course – Lesson 6

WRITING FOR TV

Lesson 6

Who are we actually writing TV stories for?

Okay, fine, the correct answer must be: For the viewers of a TV channel. We want to reach as many people as possible with our stories.

But there’s another answer: We write stories for ourselves, for someone close to us. In my case, my mother was always my best audience. Because she was so close to me, I knew her taste and her presence was always with me when I worked on a script for a TV series. Will Mom like this? Will this scene make Mom laugh? Scare her? Fortunately for me, her taste and that of millions of other viewers were quite similar, otherwise my scripts for Arende , Konings , Onderr Engele and Vlug na Egipte would have done poorly. Since my mother’s death I’ve been finding it hard to see my viewers clearly, I have to focus hard on someone who would best fit the role of audience for me.

Let’s call this my extra tip this last time around: Try and write for someone you know well. It’s hard to imagine the taste of millions.

This week, in our final chat, we talk about

Style, research and budget 

The original King Kong , created as a book in 1930 and shortly after that filmed for the first time, went through eleven screenwriters before one was announced the winner. We know it’s the story of a giant gorilla discovered on a primeval island. The winning script began as follows:

EXT  SKULL ISLAND  DAWN

Beyond the blue and black horizon a purple sky promises the coming of dawn. As our first titles appear, a golden sun rises in that purple sky and shows us the island jungle with its lush green, yellow and orange colors.

What do you think? The author wants to show us what the island looks like, the ancient place where we will meet the big gorilla and other primeval monsters. You think this is a good place to start the story?

Shit, I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. And my problem is not the place where the story begins, nor necessarily the over-the-top writing, my problem is how colorful the opening scene looks.

Watch my lips: There was no such thing as color film in those days. Even if the best screenwriter in Hollywood described the prettiest rainbow with the greatest words, no cameraman at the time could film color. Black and white, that’s it, and that’s all the first King Kong could ever be.

In other words that winning writer wasted our time with a bunch of cute words and nonsense about color. A screenwriter is not allowed to do that. Remember, there will always be a pile of other scripts waiting to be read. Write nonsense like this today and your script will quickly lose the important reader (the one with the money), never to be filmed.

Words are important. I’m not just talking about the words, the dialogue, you have to put in your characters’ mouths. I’m talking about the words you use to write the screenplay, and these words consist of three sections: STYLE, RESEARCH and BUDGET.

STYLE: the words you have to tell the story with. Do me a favour and quickly re-read the opening scene of the first King Kong. Done? Now read how the words would look in a professional script:

EXT   SKULL ISLAND   DAWN

Open on island horizon. Sun rises as first titles appear. Go to lush jungle as titles continue and threatening title music starts.

That’s it, done. You’ve told the director and camera crew everything that is really necessary, and you didn’t waste anyone’s time with a steaming pile of pretty words. Remember, please, it’s not a novel you’re writing, it’s a screenplay. You direct your words to the people who will be involved in the filming. Your script is basically the map they have to follow. They won’t ask you to draw a picture of a forest where your story wants one. The word forest – would be enough for them.

RESEARCH is required if you want the camera crew to trust your words. Even if you’re writing a story about yourself or your own family, we all just think we remember everything. Do you really remember where you two got married? Double check. Do you really know if your dad owned a car when he first visited your mom? What kind of dress she would have worn back then? Please talk to someone who remembers or google the fashion of the time.

I recently had to doctor an American writer’s script. Doctoring other people’s scripts can be a sweet income when your own scripts are struggling. The writer was commissioned to write a true story that begins in South Africa. Well, it’s supposed to be a true story. The writer clearly never bothered to google facts about South Africa. Among other errors, he wrote a scene in which a character has to travel from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg for an important meeting. It’s a train journey, the character doesn’t have a vehicle or money for a plane, and all of this supposedly happens in the year 1970. According to the writer the character boarded an express train which, fortunately for the character and his important meeting, covered the considerable distance between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg in just 50 minutes. Really? Imagine sitting and watching this nonsense on television. I bet you won’t believe a word of the story from that moment on. That’s why research, even on small things, is so important.

BUDGET is perhaps the most important of these three sections. I hesitate to say this, because style and research are terribly important, but let’s be honest: If the money dries up while filming a story, that’s usually the end of that story. I know of cases where other sources of money became available, but it doesn’t happen often.

If you think it’s none of your business how the money is used during filming, your career as a screenwriter will be short-lived. Let me tell you a little secret that is widely known in the industry, although many pretend it’s not true: Everything is always the writer’s fault.

So protect yourself right from the start. Think about budget, how expensive your story might be. Let’s say there’s an important scene in a cave that needs to be blown up. Without the scene, the story doesn’t work. Okay, fine, write the scene, let the cave explode. But also write other scenes they can shoot in the cave, essential scenes, parts of the story before the cave is blown up. The more time the actors and camera crew are going to spend in that cave, the better your chances that the cave exploding won’t put the money people off your story. Time is money in television.

Back when I was also filming my own scripts, I learned this truth over and over again. Time is money. In a specific script I had several scenes take place on the roof of a high building, and after the shoot a quite famous actor attacked me about it. I suspect the young man suffered from a fear of heights, and I sympathize with that – but not with his attitude that I was wasting everyone’s time with “a whole day going up and down elevators”.

Time is money, son. If I took everyone to that roof, with all the camera, lights and sound stuff, and then did just one scene…well, then you may accuse me of wasting time.

Hey, we’ve come to the end of these chats. See why heavy manuals on screenwriting are BS? You can learn what you need to know in six easy lessons. I enjoyed them and hope you did too. New screenwriters, may it shed some light on the darkness of the trade for you. It is indeed a trade, I prefer to call myself a tradesman rather than an artist, and I am grateful and proud that I am one.

Go and make up beautiful stories, and write them as well as you can. One final tip, if I may: Don’t write one draft and send it off. Do at least two, perhaps even three drafts. Not even You-know-who got Eden complete right the first time, there’s always the human factor and we do tend to screw up badly.