WRITERS STORE Q&A INTERVIEW WITH SYD FIELD
Partial re-post of the interview from The Writers Store.
How much thought do you think writers should invest in terms of tracking the broad strokes of the protagonist’s emotional journey when structuring the story?
I think all screenwriters should know the emotional journey from beginning to end. If you have the character’s arc clearly in mind, you can then begin to build your story and character utilizing the emotional journey as one of the major leads into the physical journey. Action and character, those are the two things to follow during the unfolding of the script. Take a look at Avatar or The King’s Speech – it’s an emotional journey as well as a physical one. The Fighter embodies this as well. When I designed my App for the iPhone, the Syd Field Script Launcher (soon on the market) – I wanted writers to understand just how the character’s arc can frame the narrative through-line of the story. The structure holds the action and character, emotionally and physically, together. And the Script Launcher App is designed to guide the user through the process – idea to subject to structure to character arc and development. It’s an essential part of the screenwriting process and cannot be overlooked or taken for granted.
Speaking of sequences, and having taught at USC, what do you think of sequence structure and how do you think it relates to your Paradigm?
Structure is what holds it all together. Whether it’s a story, a sequence, or a scene, you build and construct into the pieces you need to tell your story. And, by the way, I’m still teaching at USC, in the Masters of Professional Writing Program, a graduate 2-year program leading to an MFA. And, I teach that to the screenwriters – starting out with understanding the language of film – shots, scenes, sequences – they’re all structured. They each have a beginning, middle and end – but in some scenes, you’ll only show a snippet of the beginning, then enter the scene in the middle and only have a shot at the end, or no scene ending at all. But when we come to a sequence that’s a different story – by definition, a sequence is a “series of scenes connected by one single idea with a definite beginning and end.” One single idea, like a chase, wedding, funeral, shootout, escape, – just watch the ending of The King’s Speech when he actually gives the speech. The whole third act is delivering the speech. That’s the action line. They start at the beginning and move through the arrival, preparations, and delivery of the speech. Beautiful! Great writing! You have to design the sequence, whether it be long or short, into a unit of dramatic action – just look at the Real Estate Sequence in American Beauty. Sequences are an essential part of screenwriting, and therefore are an integral part of structure, whereas the Paradigm is a form, and sequences, along with shots and scenes, are a part of that form. You have to structure your storyline with shots, scenes, and sequences. The form doesn’t change, only the pieces within the form change. Ask a fish how the water is and he’ll say – “what water?” That’s why structure IS the Paradigm!
What, in your opinion, is the Great American Screenplay of the last decade? I have many screenplays that are my favorite – in the last decade, maybe The Lookout, a great teaching film written and directed by Scott Frank. 500 Days of Summer shows you what you can do with a simple love story in a non-linear structure, and The King’s Speech is just a masterpiece of great storytelling
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