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In "Writing screenplays that sell", Robert Hauge describes the script-writer's primary job as "eliciting emotion from the person reading the screenplay."
My take on the script-writer's primary job: to construct a question that's interesting enough that the audience will keep watching to find out the answer.
How to apply that structurally is to introduce the question as early as possible, and answer it as late as possible.
4 comments:
There is an interesting contrast there - with Mr Hauge focussing on the script's audience - a person reading a written document - and your take focussing on the audience who see the final product.
- Matt
secret word: bavbmxv - it has bmx in it!
Hey Matt (C? W? Other?)
Actually I hadn't thought about it like that. In both cases, the aim is to keep the reader reading to the end.
What I like Hauge's quote is its immediacy - you're trying to sell the script, so you try and make the reader care while they're reading.
I think my suggestion is all about hooking the reader, too. It's just that hooking their curiosity (which I guess could be an emotion) feels more important to me.
Generating that "I gotta find out what happens next" thing in the reader seems more like a by-product of setting up a question that looks impossible to answer.
Hi Steve,
I like both definitions, but don't quite find either one entirely sufficient.
I do like that emphasis by Hague on emotion, but it doesn't provide any guidance as to how to elicit emotion!
As for the definition you've presented, 'the hook' and building tension of a question through a story is very important to me personally. But I do see it as only one element of the overall experience.
Characters, story, theme, and that sense of the writer's voice all work alongside of that 'question' for me. I don't think I'm able to privilege any one of them as paramount.
Thanks for putting the question.
Cheers,
Sean
Hi Steve,
To return to this (because you've got me thinking), and to take a slightly different tack, it seems to me that a primary thing a screenwriter has to do is win the trust of the reader.
By a short distance into a screenplay or movie I've already made a snap judgement about whether the writer is 'any good' and by extension, how good this particular screenplay/movie is going to be.
It ain't fair, but it's true. I make my mind up early, and my belief is most people do too.
If I'm in a favourable place towards a piece of work, I'm more willing to forgive stuff. I don't even notice stuff.
But if I'm in a negative place, I'm more likely to looking for the mistakes - for 'the reasons why I didn't like the movie'...
A hook is a good means to engage early. But it's not the only way. An engaging character, an interesting sense of time/place, Something I Haven't Seen Before. Those things will also keep the writer in the game for me (for a little while anyway).
Cheers,
Sean
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