My Story Can Beat Up Your Story: Ten Ways to Toughen Up Your Screenplay from Opening Hook to Knockout Punch by Jeffrey Schechter

Author:Jeffrey Schechter [Schechter, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
Published: 2011-10-31T23:00:00+00:00

“Excellent,” you may be saying. “Just one other thing; what’s the difference between beats, scenes, and plot points?”

To illustrate the difference between beats, scenes, and plot points, let’s take a look at the first page and one-eighth of one of the great unproduced screenplays of the twenty-first century, House Swap:

EXT. BROWNSTONE - MORNING

Sunrise over the upper Westside of Manhattan. This is the New York of our dreams: vibrant, rich in texture. Alive.

INT. BROWNSTONE - MORNING

The CAMERA SWEEPS through. Upright piano with sheet music open. Paintings and sketches in a sunroom studio. Snippets of half-finished poems on the back of café napkins.

INT. BROWNSTONE / BEDROOM - MORNING

TWO different alarms are HEARD from opposite sides of a queen-sized bed. Hands reach out. The alarms are turned off.

JULIE, mid-twenties, cute, frisky, and BEN, late twenties, serious, studious. They get out of bed from their respective sides. Courteous smile. Nothing more.

INT. BROWNSTONE / MORNING MONTAGE - DAY

Julie and Ben brush teeth at different sinks. Dress on opposite sides of the room. Make different breakfasts. Sit at the same kitchen table and read the front section of the New York Times, but from their own subscriptions.

And when it’s time to go to work, Ben hugs Julie, even means it, then leaves.

INT. BROWNSTONE / STUDIO - DAY

Julie is a wedding dress designer. Makes beautiful sketches of wedding dresses on a large foolscap pad.

INT. METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART - DAY

Julie wanders through the Met’s Victorian clothing exhibit. Looks at wedding dresses from years gone by.

A MAN and WOMAN stand nearby. Madly in love. Julie watches as they giggle and cuddle. She begins sketching them.

EXT. OUTDOOR HARBOR CAFÉ - DAY

Julie sips cappuccino and leafs through her sketchpad. Wedding dresses, lace designs… and finally the giggling couple she saw at the MET.

She bursts out crying. Big, gushy tears. Just like that.

PEOPLE around her turn and look at this spectacle. An OLD WOMAN at a nearby table knowingly offers a napkin.

OLD WOMAN

What’s the jerk’s name, dear?

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