The Essential Screenplay (3-Book Bundle) by Syd Field

Author:Syd Field
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2018-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

THE EXERCISE

Rent or buy the DVD of Cold Mountain, Seabiscuit, Thelma & Louise, or Magnolia and study it from the point of view of conflict and the Circle of Being. If need be, write a free-association essay of what you notice in terms of conflict.

All drama is conflict. So when you’re thinking of creating your main character(s), it’s important to think about finding ways to generate conflict. There are either internal or external forces working on your character that can help you articulate and define some of the conflicts your character encounters during the course of the screenplay.

Once you define the dramatic situation, see if you can break the arena of conflict into an external source, or an internal one, or any combination of internal or external conflicts. Think about the external forces working on your character. What are they? Can you define and articulate them? Just write them down in a free-association essay in about a page or two.

Go into your character biography and see what kind of Circle of Being event you can create for your character. Sometimes, an event will just “pop out” on the page and at other times you may have to dig into your character’s emotional life to find it. Even if you don’t actually use the Circle of Being event in your screenplay, it’s good to know your character has a history that you can draw upon while writing.

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