Writing Page One of Your Screenplay

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Thu, 04/30/2009 - 20:00 -- Nick Dager

By Donald L. Vasicek You have your movie idea.  You’ve played around with ways to begin writing it in screenplay form.  About the time you come up with something that feels good you hit an obstacle or more in the next few pages.  You bog down by page ten hit quit on your toolbar or break your pencil or throw your pen across the room.  You wonder if you will ever be able to write this screenplay something your heart continually digs at you to do.  What to do?  What to do? Well I have a simple solution.  If you follow what I am about to write I can’t guarantee that you won’t bog down again.  What I can guarantee you is that every time you begin writing a new screenplay you’re going to get off to a fresh and creative start that will keep you writing.   What is this your muse asks?  What this is is how to write page one of your screenplay.  The first step is to organize your thoughts.  What is the main theme for your story?  Who is the main character?  Where is your story taking place?  When is your story occurring?  Why are you writing this story?  How did you come up with this story idea?  Most screenplays that get sold and produced address these questions on page one or in minute one of the movie.   The second step is to answer these questions. Start with how you came up with this story idea.  Look inside of yourself for the answer.  Search your heart.  Somewhere inside of it you experienced something that triggered your desire to write the story you are about to write.  Find what that is and write it down in a short simple sentence.  Then think about why you are writing this story.  The answer to this question should emerge out of your answer to how you came up with your story idea.   Figure it out write it down.  From these two answers you should be able to determine the main theme for your story what caused you to want to write your story. Study your answers to learn how and why you came up with this story idea.  What you find will relate to a single emotion.  This emotion is universal.  It will define your main theme.  It will be universal since all human beings experience the same emotions and you must be universal if you want to attract people to your screenplay.   Write down the answer in a simple sentence.  By defining your main theme you will be able to define who your main character is going to be.  Don’t deny yourself this fact; your main character is going to be you.  At the least he/she is going to be some part of you that part that strongly relates to your main theme.  The last two answers should come more easily.

 Where is your story taking place?  Relate how why who what to where?  Here you can play around a little bit.  This is easy because you know quite a bit about your story now.  You’ll probably come up with a setting that relates closely to you.  By coming up with the setting for your story you can also easily determine when the story will take place.  By now being aware of how why who what and where your muse will beckon you to establish the appropriate time of your story when.  When should your story take place is easy if you think about how you feel now as compared to how why who what and where.  Once you have your answers step three is that you need to come up with a visual metaphor that begins your screenplay. This visual metaphor must reflect the how why who what where and when of your story.  In my produced screenplay “The Crown” (changed by the producer to “Born to Win”) the how was a vacant place in my heart that was created in my childhood.  The why was how I was raised.  The who was me.  The what was trusts were broken.  The where was in a small town in Nebraska.  When was the present but I made my main character a 14 year-old boy when I was 14.  The visual metaphor surfaced out of the what trusts were broken.  The single emotion trust became the main theme of my story.  The visual metaphor on page one of “The Crown” is a butterfly fluttering away from a gravestone symbolizing that to let go is to trust.  The boy’s transformation arc (all well-done movies have at least one character going through a transformation arc during the movie and the key character for this to occur is with your main character) in the story was based on this theme.  Once he let go of his deceased mother who died when he was a little boy in his mind she broke the trust he had with her.  She left him.  He had to learn how to let go of her in order to learn how to trust. There you go you know how to write page one of your screenplay and you can get up in the morning and still like yourself.  How about that?    Author’s Credits Donald L. Vasicek studied producing directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simen’s and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay with Sally Merlin (White Squall). He has taught mentored and is a script consultant for over 400 writers directors producers actors and production companies and has also acted in 20th Century Fox’s Die Hard With a Vengeance NBC’s Mystery of Flight 1501 ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley and Red-Handed Production’s Summer Reunion. These activities have resulted in Don’s involvement in more than 100 movies during the past 23 years from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million Warriors of Virtue Paramount Classics Racing Lucifer and American Pictures The Lost Heart among others. Vasicek has also has written and published over 500 books short stories and articles. His books include How To Write Sell and Get Your Screenplays Produced and The Write Focus. Donald L. Vasicek Olympus Films+ LLC Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting http://www.donvasicek.com [email protected]