The Calling Card Script Read online

  the calling card script

  A WRITER’S TOOLBOX

  FOR STAGE, SCREEN AND RADIO

  This page intentionally left blank

  the calling card script

  A WRITER’S TOOLBOX

  FOR STAGE, SCREEN AND RADIO

  PAUL ASHTON

  A & C Black • London

  A & C Black Publishers Ltd

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  First published in 2011

  A & C Black Publishers Limited

  36 Soho Square

  London W1D 3QY

  www.acblack.com

  Copyright © Paul Ashton 2011

  Paul Ashton has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs

  and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 408 11017 1

  Available in the USA from Bloomsbury Academic & Professional,

  175 Fifth Avenue/3rd Floor, New York, NY 10010

  www.BloomsburyAcademicUSA.com

  Typeset by Country Setting, Kingsdown, Kent CT14 8ES

  Printed and bound in Great Britain by Martins The Printers,

  Berwick-upon-Tweed

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade

  or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated in any

  form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and

  without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed

  on the subsequent purchaser.

  FOR SUSIE, NIAMH, EMRYS

  AND THE LITTLEST ONE TO COME . . .

  This page intentionally left blank

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  1

  An act of faith • The ‘toolbox’ • The form of this book • What this

  book does not do • An industry perspective • Points of reference •

  The ‘calling card’ script • A basic definition • The writer’s ego

  versus the writer’s journey

  1 THE MEDIUM

  9

  THE WRITER AS MEDIUM

  11

  ‘Medium’ • One man and every man • What writers do • Instinct

  and craft • Is the writer a medium? • Using medium

  THE THEATRICAL SPACE

  13

  What is theatre? • Magic, ritual and spectacle • Spectator and

  audience • Auditoria • Complexity of space • Complexity of form •

  The empty space • The technological space • Clarity of space •

  Money, monsterism and miniaturism • The director • The actor •

  Directing the action • Theatre and metaphor

  RADIO AND THE ACOUSTIC ENVIRONMENT

  21

  ‘Theatre of the airwaves’ • Cinema of the airwaves • The contra diction

  • Auditorium • The purest form • The audience • Only for radio •

  Acoustic environment • Scope • Voice • Music • Sound

  FILM AND THE CINEMATIC CANVAS

  26

  The big picture • Theatrical release • Cinema scope • Knowing your

  place • ‘Show don’t tell’ • Sign language • Up close • Montage •

  The whole story • The complex singularity • The kind of story •

  Universal

  TELEVISION AND THE RELENTLESS FORMAT

  32

  Distractions • The morning after • The cold light of day •

  The schedule • Audience is god • The phenomenon • Jumping

  the shark • The single exception • Format not formula • Basic

  distinctions • Serial • Continuing series • Precinct • Returning

  series • Relentless meets format

  viii THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT

  2 THE BEGINNING

  45

  WHAT ARE PRODUCERS LOOKING FOR?

  47

  The meat market • The market • So what are people looking for?

  WHERE TO BEGIN?

  49

  The blank page • Knowledge is power • News of the world • Devil

  in the detail • A head for ideas • You • Your feelings • Your voice •

  The X Factor • What is a voice? • Can you hear your own voice?

  KINDS OF STORIES

  55

  Archetypes • Linear • Epic • Full circle • Fractured • Repetitive •

  Reversed • The impact of shape • Genre • Theatre and genre •

  Radio and genre • Television and genre • Tone • The right form

  WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

  64

  ‘Droit moral’ • Theme • Universal • Concept and world • Premise •

  Premise and character • Premise and emotion • The big idea •

  Idea and medium • Theatre • Radio • Film • Television

  WHAT’S THE STORY?

  71

  Beginnings and endings • Knowing where you are going • Direction

  and purpose • Focus • Point of view • Movie ensembles • Hook •

  POV turned upside-down

  GETTING INTO CHARACTER

  77

  Test of character • Dramatic versus comic • Spending time •

  Empathy • Definition • Archetypes • Features • Eccentricity •

  Qualities • Capabilities and flaws • Estimation • Attitude • POV •

  History and backstory • Moral compass • Morality and conflict •

  The ‘agon’ • Hero and villain • Desire and need • Desire versus

  need • Action • Vulnerability • Character and medium • Theatrical

  character • Radio character • Film character • TV character

  HITTING THE GROUND RUNNING

  94

  Page one • Know your story • Hook the attention • The midst of

  a moment • A focused way in • ‘Getting to know’ the characters •

  Exposition • The captive audience

  STRUCTURE AND THE BEGINNING

  100

  ‘Act one’ • Structural diagrams • The universal formula • Three

  is the magic number • But three is not a simple number • The

  beginning • Disorientation versus confusion • Establish the world •

  Delayed establishment • Desire, need, problem • Call to change /

  action • The complex call • The uncertainty • Point of no return •

  Tension • Episode and series beginnings

  CONTENTS

  ix

  THE PLAN OF ACTION

  112

  When to start writing? • Treatments • Clarity • Coherence •

  Building a blueprint

  3 THE MIDDLE

  117

  THE MUDDLE IN THE MIDDLE

  119

  Managing the muddle • Muddled metaphors • Fail better • Dig

  deeper • Stretch the line • Dominoes

  DEEPER INTO CHARACTER

  122

  The ‘arc’ • Change • State of becoming • Muddied wants and

  needs • Muddled consequences • Beyond the comfort zone •

  Developing the ‘agon’ • Developing the complexity • New world,

  new charac teristics • Qualities • Capabilities and flaws • POV,

  morality, attitude • Vulnerabilities • Developing relationships •

  Journey towards awareness • Contradiction • Surprising

  themselves • Character and action • Character and structure •

  The ‘middle’ in series and
serials • Returning series • Serials •

  Abstract alternatives

  SURPRISE

  139

  Revelation • Deus ex machina • Shock tactics • Secrets •

  Dramatic irony • Unexpected outcomes • Predictability • Tedium •

  Cliché

  STRUCTURE AND THE MIDDLE

  146

  The dividing lines • Momentum • Dominoes • Peaks and troughs •

  The road ahead • Sharp bends and chicanes • Cul-de-sacs • A clear

  view of the distance • Quicksands and high tides • The cave •

  Chasms and rockfaces • A second point of no return • The (not so)

  natural order

  CAUSING A SCENE

  156

  What is a scene? • The basics • Picture and montage • Dramatic

  action • Conflict • Goals • Conflicts that matter • What’s at

  stake? • Three dramatic levels • Subtext • Surprise • Beats •

  What to show • Juxtaposition • Less is more • Kinds of scenes •

  The theatrical scene • The radio scene • The screen scene

  FROM PLAN TO ACTION

  170

  Ready to write • Refer to the blueprint • Develop the blueprint •

  Step outline • Wild drafts • Write the beginning

  x THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT

  4 THE END

  175

  AN ENDING IN SIGHT

  177

  Fundamentals • Some endings • ‘The End’ • Simple versus

  complex • Is that it? • Ending is emotion • A fitting end

  SATISFACTION

  181

  Entertainment • Follow through • The story beyond • Open

  endings • Ambiguity • Twists • Deus ex machina • Anagnorisis •

  Impact

  STRUCTURE AND THE ENDING

  190

  Climax and crisis • Change • Resolution • Conclusion • Coda •

  Absurd endings • Series and serial hooks • Cliffhangers • The

  natural order • No pause for breath • A means to an end

  THE CHARACTER’S VOICE

  198

  Mouthpieces • Dialectic • Dialogue is not conversation •

  Monologue • Theatrical soliloquy • ‘Inner’ and ‘close’ in radio •

  The cinematic voice-over • TV catchphrases • Can you hear it? •

  Can you say it? • Dialogue is not logical • The non-sequitur • Voice

  is expression • Authenticity • Uniqueness • Tics • Accents •

  Dialect and slang • Naturalism • Stylisation • Rhetoric • Lyrical

  • On the nose • Exposition and information • ‘Bad language’ •

  (Prefacing) • Shouting! • Terse versus glib • Wit and wordplay •

  Silence and space • Subtext

  WRITING AND REWRITING

  218

  Focus and control • Expectations • Questions • Realities •

  Rewriting • Rewriting your signature • Time and space •

  Objective and subjective • Feedback • The red pen • Reclaim your

  subjectivity • Is it really finished? • How finished does it need to be?

  CODA

  226

  Starting over • It never gets any easier

  APPENDIX

  229

  Script reading and viewing • Books about writing • Resources

  INDEX

  235

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To my family for always supporting my work – taking me to the theatre,

  showing me great films, and having books around the house.

  To Jenny Ridout for commissioning this book. To Julian Friedmann for

  selling it to Jenny. To Celia Brayfield for suggesting I talk to Julian. It was

  a serendipitous chain of events. To all at A&C Black and Blake Friedmann

  who helped this along the way behind the scenes. To the writers who so

  generously contributed their thoughts in quotable form – Jack Thorne, Joe

  Penhall, Toby Whithouse, Peter Moffat, Ashley Pharaoh, Matthew Graham,

  Sarah Daniels and Katie Hims.

  To Kate Rowland and all the brilliant people I have worked with through

  BBC Writersroom – within the corporation and outside it – with a special

  mention for the dedicated script readers who are a mostly unsung and some -

  times unfairly maligned team of talent-spotters. There are too many BBC

  people to mention individually – but thanks to anyone who ever agreed to read

  a script and consider a writer I recommended to them and then had the desire

  and confidence to commission and produce them. Also to the agents, literary

  managers and development people across the industry who ever gave me a

  good steer on new writers (Abigail Gonda is a particularly guilty party in this

  regard).

  To the various (non-BBC) people and places that helped me hone my

  instincts with writers and new writing – the Arts Council, Spice Factory,

  Liverpool Everyman, Paines Plough, New Writing South, Theatre and

  Beyond, University of Sussex, NAW and the many theatre companies,

  universities, writers’ networks and festivals that have provided me with

  willing audiences and sometimes difficult cues.

  To those who have written about scriptwriting before me, in particular

  people cited in the Appendix. Anyone who claims to offer a complete swathe

  of utterly original, never-before-seen hints, tips, ideas and information for

  scriptwriters must surely be lying – or fooling themselves. Most of this stuff

  has probably been said before by someone else in some way, shape or form;

  xii THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT

  the job of any new book is to find a new perspective on it, a new way of

  organising it, and a new way of focusing and expressing it. And if you are

  lucky (or brilliant – or both) you will find yourself saying a few things that

  nobody else has thought to say. When I set out to write this book, I very

  deliberately avoided rereading scriptwriting books I had already read or

  seeking out ones I had not previously read because I wanted to feel sure

  that if I was going to come up with similar ideas (which I inevitably would

  at some point) then at least it would be a meeting of minds or a latent

  influence rather than a shameless regurgitation from a recent brush-up.

  That said, if I do accidentally borrow unacknowledged from anybody else, I

  feel reassured in the knowledge that they too will have borrowed.

  To the thousands of writers whose work I have ultimately been res -

  ponsible for rejecting along the way. It might seem strange and this may be

  little consolation to you, but the vast amounts of time spent trying to decide

  and express quite why your script didn’t work has undoubtedly sharpened

  all my instincts and I am genuinely grateful for that.

  To the many established writers (and other industry professionals)

  who have had the generosity of time and spirit to help inspire the emerging

  writers who I have spent so much time trying to bring through at the BBC.

  Finally, to all the fantastic writers whose work I have had the fortune

  (and I hope insight) to spot and the desire to help. Again, there are too many

  to detail. But some of you I have referred to along the way in this book, so

  please do take that as the ultimate acknowledgment.

  INTRODUCTION

  Today, many professional writers are chameleons at some point in their

  career and work across mediums, formats and genres in orde
r to survive,

  thrive and stay fresh. The climate at the time of writing this book (world -

  wide recession and a tightening of opportunities for scriptwriters) means

  that it’s even more pertinent for writers to stay flexible and not be solely

  defined by only one medium or format. This book takes a uniquely broad

  perspective across all dramatic media, exploring the crucial differ ences and

  drawing together the universal similarities in writing drama for stage,

  radio and screen.

  The ‘how to’ of writing scripts always has and always will divide

  opinion. Probably the only certainty is there are no hard and fast rules, only

  an ever-varying combination of talent, craft, technique, practice, effort and

  luck. Script development is an imperfect science, but many elements of the

  writing process are not a mystery. And while talent can’t be taught in a

  class room or acquired through reading a book, the application of under -

  standing, craft, technique and approach can. It would take a pretty big ego

  to claim I have answers that nobody else has. But what you get here is a

  particular way of asking the questions that need to be asked by script -

  writers who are serious about their craft.

  AN ACT OF FAITH

  In drama commissioning, development and production across mediums and

  forms there are no secrets, no hidden agendas, no absolute rights, no abso -

  lute wrongs, and there is a huge range of disagreement about what is and

  is not good quality, worthwhile, entertaining, original or satisfying. Every

  decision, commission, green light and production is an act of faith in a

  writer’s idea in some way, shape or form. Many resulting productions turn

  out to be something other or less than what was intended. But this doesn’t

  render the decision-maker a fool or the producer a failure; it simply

  2 THE CALLING CARD SCRIPT

  underlines not only the inescapable sense of risk in the industry, but also

  that essential act of faith.

  It takes a brave person to put their head above the parapet to make

  top-line editorial, commissioning and production decisions. It’s easy for un-

  produced aspiring writers to criticise things; it’s much harder to improve on

  them. The only way to do so is by writing the kind of script that demands

  attention. Such scripts don’t turn up very often and they don’t appear out

  of thin air; they are a rare spark of idea and insight given form through

  craft and technique, fuelled by energy, sweat, distraction, despair, hope.