WRITE THE DAMN THING!
DAY 28
We’re so close to the finish line! Can’t believe it.
You’ve stuck with us through this journey. I’m sure it has not been easy, but nothing worthwhile ever is. If you are coming from the future and doing the challenge on your own I want to thank you too. I hope you’ve all enjoyed the content so far.
Today will be the last day of examples from TV and Film. These have been my favorite posts to write. I really enjoy watching the master of the craft do their thing. I always learn something new.
Without further ado.
Key concept of screenwriting: Great endings from TV and Film.
THE GRADUATE
Much has been written about this scene by people a lot more eloquent than me. I’m not going to do an in-depth analysis.
What I like about this ending is how questions are being raised without a single line of dialog. The duration of the shots alone, combined with the music makes us ask ourselves. ‘What now?’. Which is probably what the characters are thinking themselves. Talk about empathy.
If the credits would’ve come a minute earlier we would probably regard this has a happy ending. But that drawn-out finale turns the whole scene on its head. It’s sweet and sour.
I think this might work as the ending of a TV Pilot because we are left with a question. Not an answer.
ZOOTOPIA
This ending here is all about order. This is a very different ending from the one we’ve just discussed. This is probably a more classical one.
In this ending, we discover the things that have changed after the adventure. We see what we have learnt throughout the story. Prejudice is bad. We had a status quo, the story changed it, and now we explore this new world.
We go back to the situations we saw before, but now they are better and adjusted. Even the smallest of children can understand that there was a positive change in this society. And they learn the lesson.
Most children stories are very heavy-handed in the final act. In this type of ending, we get answers rather than questions. One is not better than the other, this one is just “closed”.
Not very good for a TV show. Everything has been answered.
BREAKING BAD
Of course, I was going to use the ending of the pilot here.
I feel like I’m becoming some sort of broken record but that’s fine, we’re near the end. This pilot is all about Walter and all about change. The last scene of the pilot is a call back to an earlier scene. They showed us what Skyler and Walter’s sex life is like. It’s pretty much dead.
But this new Walter wants to spark up the flame again.
When he begins to get it on with his wife, Skyler asks the question that I feel should be the name of the episode.
“Walter, is that you?”
No, this is not the old Walter. This is Walter 2.0, about to engage in the adventure of a lifetime.
CHANGE.
GAME OF THRONES
This is how you get an audience excited for the next episode. When I talk about questions, this is what I’m referring to.
What is going to happen next?
First, we get the reveal that Cerci and Jamie are in an incestuous relationship. Second, we see Jaime push little Bran Stark out of the tower. Remember when I said you should be a sadist. This is being a sadist.
We meet Bran as this intrepid climber, a young man with a great family. The whole world is ahead of him. Then they push him off a tower and take what he loves out of his life.
I remember being very angry after I saw that ending. And that’s what you want out of your audience. Strong emotion. You should do everything in your power to elicit those feelings.
Day 28 task:
Finish writing the 4th Act. You should be 2 or 3 pages short. Push a character off a cliff. Make them change. Make us ask ourselves what’s going to happen next. Use any means necessary. The audience can take it.
This is all for today. We’ll be back tomorrow.
Happy writing!
And, as always, you can read the last post here.
