Theres Only 197 Begin Again Thanks Alot

I in one case did a rewrite on a porn picture show. The producer wanted to impart a couple of guidelines before I began. We met for breakfast at a coffee shop in Santa Monica. What he told me has proved incredibly useful over the years—in all kinds of writing, including the most literary.

Adam Levine and Keira Knightley in "Begin Again"

"Every skin flick makes the same mistake," said the producer (who was a thoroughly nice guy, like a suburban soccer dad). "When the picture gets to a sex activity scene, the story stops dead in its tracks. That's my first marching lodge to you, kid: keep the story going through the peel scenes. Brand something happen, and so we're not just sitting there watching people screw."

His second guideline was a corollary of the showtime. "Always have some separate just related action going on during the sex scenes. If the wife and the pool boy are having sexual activity in the bedroom, throw in something similar the hubby unexpectedly returning home and walking in the front door. That way we can cut back and forth between the husband and the-wife-and-the-pool-boy and generate suspense. See what I mean? The story doesn't stop. It stays interesting."

At that fourth dimension I was working primarily on action films. I immediately translated the porn producer's wisdom to that field. Chase scenes. Shoot-outs. Fistfights. The same principles applied.

Keep the story moving fifty-fifty during the activeness sequences.

Don't let the movie grind to a halt while we watch Gene Hackman punch out a drug dealer or Steven Seagal chase bad guys downward a city street.

I bring this up because I saw a great scene in a picture the other night that I'd like to unpack here today in some item. The scene brilliantly employed the 2 principles cited above.

Let'south get into information technology.

The motion picture was Brainstorm Again starring Keira Knightley and Marking Ruffalo. Brainstorm Once more is from writer-manager John Carney, who also did the terrific indie flick Once.

Begin Over again is a musical. Non in the Rodgers & Hammerstein sense, where each song overtly carries its share of the story-telling, but more like a record album, where each tune is its own piece and may or may not have annihilation to do with the story.

In other words, Begin Once more faces the same perils as a porn flick or an activity picture. In that location'south a huge adventure that the story volition come to a grinding halt each time a vocal is performed.

I'm certain John Carney was excruciatingly aware of this as he was structuring the screenplay. "How," he was asking himself, "tin I brand each vocal work and keep the narrative moving at the same time?"

Hither'due south the scene I want to tell you lot almost:

Keira Knightley and Adam Levine (of the band Maroon v in real life) are boyfriend and girlfriend in the picture show. They're both songwriters and singers. Adam has been out of boondocks for a calendar week. The scene starts with him returning home, to the New York loft he and Keira share.

Kiss osculation, welcome home. It's evening, practice you want some vino? Can I play y'all a song, Adam asks Keira, that I wrote while I was gone? Yes yes, say Keira. She adores Adam, she wants to support his career—and she loves his music, she wants to hear this new tune. Adam plugs his iPhone into the loft's sound system, the song comes on, Keira listens.

The story could come up to a screeching halt here if this scene had been clumsily conceived. Instead here's what happens:

The song starts. Adam brings glasses of wine for himself and Keira. They're continuing beyond from each other at the counter in the kitchen.

Keira listens expectantly. Umm, the song sounds good. Her expression says she likes it.

But for some reason, Adam'southward eyes are lowered. He can't seem to heighten his gaze to run across Keira's.

Keira keeps listening.

Her expression changes subtly.

With effort, Adam meets Keira's eyes. Only he immediately lowers his gaze again.

The song keeps playing.

Keira's expression becomes grim. Her jaw sets. She searches Adam'southward face up as if seeking confirmation of something.

He raises his glance to meet hers.

Tears fill her eyes.

All of a sudden she slaps him furiously across the face.

Adam reels from the blow. "What the f*#chiliad's the thing with you?" He storms from the kitchen, slinging his wine glass shattering into the sink.

Keira stalks to the iPhone and pulls the plug.

Clearly Keira has intuited something dire from some subtle (to us) cues within her boyfriend'due south song.

Adam returns sheepishly. "What are y'all, a mind reader?"

Keira asks him, of the song: "Who's information technology for?"

Yes, but can she trust him?

The tail of the scene reveals that Adam has had an matter while he was out of town. He's in love with some other woman.

The scene ends with Keira, heartbroken, packing her stuff and bolting.

Go on in mind that the lyrics of Adam's song contain nothing overt, no reference whatever to the fact that he is cheating on Keira. It's just a nice upbeat love song.

That'south what I mean by "making a scene cut two ways." It can't be done with every scene. But when nosotros can go far work, it's dynamite.

In this scene in Brainstorm Again, author-director John Carney took a vocal whose lyrics were past no ways overtly related to the plot, and made it not just accelerate the story but turn it dramatically.

Consider this scene through the prism of positive/negative that Shawn defines in The Story Grid.

The scene's charge starts totally positive. The lovers are together. Information technology ends on a flat-out negative. Keira and Adam have cleaved apart.

(And this interruption-up, forth with the born subtextual question Will They Get Back Together?, powers a huge role of the rest of the movie.)

Not merely that, but Keira's character is shown by her actions in this scene to exist 1) keenly intuitive, 2) totally plugged in to what makes her boyfriend Adam tick, and three) a woman of activity, pride, and confidence, who won't take this kind of stuff from anybody.

All from a song that had nothing whatsoever to exercise with the plot of the movie.

That's great writing.

That's bravura storytelling.

Bravo, John Carney!

My porn producer would have been proud.

millerexthavird.blogspot.com

Source: https://stevenpressfield.com/2015/07/making-a-scene-cut-two-ways/

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