Character Theme Plot Part 2

Wow… Lots of emails about THEME. Could it be that theme is as elusive to others as it is to me?

Let me reiterate… I know theme. I believe in theme. My screenplays have at least one theme but until NOW, it’s always been the gettin’ to the gettin’…

That’s right… Gettin’ to the gettin’. Thanks Grampa. That’s what he always used to say when he’d see you screwing around instead of working. He’d watch you for awhile and when he got tired of seeing zero progress for whatever chore he’d tasked you with, he’d walk on over and say, “When are you gonna start gettin’ to the gettin’?

Grampa only had a sixth grade edumacation but he was pretty damn good at cutting to the chase of just about everything.

Some of the emails I received flat out disagreed with me about theme… LOL. And, just as I replied back to those theme zealots, I will repeat what I told them here…

I know what theme is. I particularly know what theme is to ME. I know how to use it. I know how to find it. You are obviously welcome to your opinions… LOL. A lot of you tried to tell me that theme is the …

Hmmm.

I’ve always thought that the of the story was more like a lesson to be learned after having read said story… Like with a . To me, that’s just this side of preaching. That’s not to say that you can’t write a screenplay that has a moral but that’s just not my cup ‘o tea.

At all.

:

A theme is a broad idea in a story or literary work a message or lesson conveyed by a written text. This message is usually about life, society or human nature. Themes often explore timeless and universal ideas. Most themes are implied rather than explicitly stated. The theme is different from the superficial outlay of the text; it is normally the meaning of the text on a more abstract level.

Here’s also something called (never heard of it but we obviously do this in screenwriting)

Thematic patterning is “the distribution of recurrent thematic concepts and moralistic motifs among the various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may be arranged so as to emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea which disparate events and disparate frames have in common.”

On :

Theme ~ a literary element; a unifying subject of a story or literary text (hard work brings rewards; good always wins out; coming of age, etc.).

Moral ~ the lesson or principle contained in or taught by a fable, a story, or an event.

So back to moral… Remember how I said that I prefer broad, universal themes? Remember how I said that some of these preachy movies are falling through the cracks?

I’ve read a lot of newbie scripts with what I would define as a moral instead of a theme… To me, a moral is just NOT BROAD ENOUGH to provide an insight about life. Does a straight-up moral really teach us anything about ourselves as opposed to a broad theme? Moral is simply too narrow for my taste and still comes off rather preachy (to me). I don’t want to convince anyone of anything… Theme-wise. What I would rather do is simply get them to walk away THINKING about what they just saw or read. Weigh the pros and cons. Cause discussion with others.

Of course everyone is different… We grow up in completely different environments. We have devout beliefs about lots of different things and some of us have a hell of a lot more life experience than others so… To me, because of this INNATE TRUTH of people being so different, to me, BROADER IS BETTER unless of course you’re Michael Moore.

I’m not.

At the same time, I would probably toss this in the ring… DON’T BE TOO BROAD WITH A THEME. LOL.

Are you completely confused now?

Good.

That means you’re thinking about it and isn’t that why we’re here? For instance, a theme of FAMILY is probably too broad of a theme. It doesn’t really get us thinking about anything in particular within the context of one of life’s insights… There is no observation about family nor would the theme of just “family” navigate you through your story and screenplay.

On the other hand, what if your theme is NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY? Now I know some of you are going to email me AGAIN and say that is a moral… LOL. And you know… It could be a moral if you write your story that way but to me, the difference would be IF your story, screenplay, or movie leaves absolutely no doubt in your mind as a reader or viewer that the author just tried to convince you that NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY. If this is the case then sure, it’s just been written as a moral instead of theme. What if I were in a family where nobody cares about each other and I read this screenplay or watch this film? How would that affect me? Would it make me ponder NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY or would I walk away saying BULLSHIT? Maybe it would make me kill myself because my family is so fucked up.

Maybe that’s what you want…

If however, you wrote your story and screenplay using NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY as your theme, then your story, screenplay, and hopefully, movie will not merely allow us to draw the conclusion — NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY — rather, it will HOPEFULLY cause us to ponder whether or not that statement is worth considering when it comes to our own family and maybe even someone else’s family… Maybe you know someone who always shits on their family and after reading this screenplay or watching this movie, you feel compelled to at least bring up the discussion with your friend. Maybe I’m still in a family where nobody cares about each other but your movie shows me that there are families out there that do care about each other.

Can theme and moral be connected to each other? Absolutely. Theme is the insight about life in the situation(s) and events you’ve provided us… A moral almost forces us to draw a conclusion from the situation(s) and events of the story and screenplay. A moral is more of a that you’ve made about the best way for us to act in the situation(s) and events you’ve given us.

A good story, screenplay, and movie doesn’t have to teach us a lesson DOES IT? I’d be interested in what your opinions are… I for one don’t think a movie should be teaching anyone a lesson rather, it should provide some insight into life and people… For lack of a better phrase… Human nature and how it works and hopefully expands our understanding of it.

Is it a fine line? It sure as hell could be depending on WHO you are and how you write… LOL.

Unk

December 9, 2008 | Filed Under Screenwriting

38 Comments 

Character Theme Plot

character-theme-plot

I was watching very early this morning and in so watching, it clarified something to ME. Character — Theme — Plot. Now don’t get me wrong… I’m no newcomer to theme and do I think a screenplay needs a good strong theme.

You betchya.

I might have to go out on a limb here — maybe not much of one actually — and say that in my own humble opinion, the best movies I’VE ever seen have at least one outstanding theme.

Can you have more than one theme?

Sure.

Even your characters can have themes.

But wow… Why does THEME seem to be so elusive to the screenwriter attempting to hone his or her craft? Could it be that it’s one of those story elements that the gurus don’t seem to talk about that much? Could it be that when the gurus do talk about theme, they’re really not that clear on it? I’m sure theme is clear to them but are they able to hand off a decent understanding of theme to us so that we may in turn implement theme into our screenplays?

Who the fuck knows…

Who the fuck cares…

So for the last month or so, THEME has really been something that I’ve been SERIOUSLY analyzing and evaluating in other screenplays and movies. Not that I wasn’t somewhat clear on theme but hey… I want to be even CLEARER. If not in reality, then at least in my own mind i.e., a look at theme that WORKS for ME.

Let me expand on that…

How have I approached theme in the past? Shit. Just like every other fucking thing I seem to do in my life… I JUST GUT THAT SHIT OUT. Meaning, I write my ass off — tweak and polish draft upon draft and SOMEWHERE within all that gutwork, I find theme.

Like most everything I’ve done in my life, it finally appears to me that the way I’ve been going about finding the theme to my writing has definitely been THE HARD WAY TO GO ABOUT IT. LOL. And maybe, like a lot of YOU, maybe we have to do things the hard way a few times — or hundreds of times — or thousands of times — before we get it.

Now I get it.

Like I said, I’m watching . Not my favorite flick but it just happened to be on the tube early this morning and rather than pop in a DVD, I just went ahead and watched it. The last time I watched it was maybe six months ago and to let you know — I’ve never analyzed this movie for anything.

So I’m watching it and the scene where Matt Damon’s character, Mike McDermott sits down to apologize to Martin Landau’s character — Abe Petrovsky — pulled me right in…

It was simple. It was concise. It hit me like a ton of bricks. It was THEMATIC.

Toward the end of this particular scene, Abe explains to Mike how all the men in his family have all become rabbis until HIM. Even though he had this amazing understanding of the Talmud, he couldn’t become a rabbi because becoming a rabbi wasn’t his destiny…

MIKE

But yours is a respectable profession.

PETROVSKY

Not to my family. My parents were destroyed, devastated by my decision. My father sent me away to New York... To live with distant cousins. Eventually, I found my place, my life’s work.

MIKE

What then?

PETROVSKY

I immersed myself fully, I studied the minutiae, I learned everything I could about the law. I mean, I felt deeply inside that it was what I was born to do.

MIKE

And did your parents get over it?

PETROVSKY

No. I always hoped that I would find... Some way to change their minds, but... They were inconsolable. My father never spoke to me again.

MIKE

If you had to do it all over again, would you make the same choices?

PETROVSKY

What choice? The last thing I took away from the yeshiva is this... We can’t run from who we are. Our destiny chooses us.

If you watch Mike’s face as he listens to Petrovsky’s story, you get the feeling that he’s really taking it in — mulling it over. Of course on the flipside is Worm… Edward Norton’s character… LOL. No matter what, he just can’t play the game STRAIGHT UP. He’s just got to cheat. Cheating and being a cheater is his destiny. It is his theme and his actions illustrate that theme all through the movie until Mike can no longer escape his destiny…

So if you look at Mike’s actions based on this theme, it looks to me as if he’s definitely on a journey to fulfilling his destiny of being a straight up pro poker player — that is, not cheating or even working a table with a partner taking other unsuspecting patrons down.

When you realize this is the theme of Mike’s story, it seems to me that this theme is actually leading him through each scene and yeah… He fucks up. He makes mistakes. He’s trying to be true to his girlfriend, law school, and Worm but his destiny keeps kicking him along in the right direction. In fact, as I watched this movie, I envisioned one of those little windup toys that you wind up and let go… They go pretty much in a straight line until they hit an obstacle and then they tread water for a few seconds and eventually turn in a new direction until the next obstacle gets in their way… On and on this cycle goes until the little windup toy runs out of windup.

And, by the end of the movie, he’s true to his destiny as he hails a cab and tells the driver he’s headed for Las Vegas.

What I would love to know is if the screenwriter discovered this theme during the writing OR had it up front because what I’ve recently found FOR ME is that knowing your theme UP FRONT certainly makes the writing almost effortless.

Of course, I had to write several drafts to find the theme(s) I implemented but it occurred to me afterwards that WOW… Once I had the theme nailed, writing was a piece of cake.

Having said that…

You may not be lucky enough to have your theme prior to writing your screenplay no matter how hard you try to come up with it… I know that’s certainly happened to me but for my next project, I’m not going to write a fucking word until I’ve nailed the theme UP FRONT. In fact, I am on a fucking quest to nail my theme because damn, I want to work smarter not harder.

I also know that I might THINK I’ve found my theme when it’s very possible that yet a more-focused theme could evolve but hell… Even that appeals to me much more than starting out without a theme and writing IN SEARCH OF A THEME.

So how to implement it IF you’re lucky enough to have nailed it before you start writing?

I don’t know… LOL. I haven’t done it yet but I am about to start and this is the way I am going to try it out…

After I outline my story with a very loose outline that simply launches my writing and points me in a direction, I will attempt to keep THEME HANDY and IN FRONT OF ME at all times and as I twist and turn through the story, theme will be ever-present in my mind as I dream up locations, action, dialogue and symbolism. Now I understand this could be a bit tricky because I don’t want my story and screenplay to be preachy but I’m lucky because I really don’t preach to anyone about anything because I just don’t give a shit how anybody does anything… It’s a free country and hey, if your way works for YOU — Outstanding. In other words, I don’t have any agendas about anything in particular. The themes I tend to enjoy as well as implement into my writing are usually universal in nature. No politics. No bullshit opinions. Just decent GOLDEN RULE themes.

This behavior of being preachy seems to be something that’s gaining in popularity as I read more and more screenplays. Some of this stuff even gets made and I for one, hate preachy movies. I would rather make my own mind up about something.

On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with exploring themes or rather… Let your characters explore themes and see how they react. See what decisions they make. Let them do what they need to do.

Because if you let them… They will.

Unk

December 6, 2008 | Filed Under Screenwriting

28 Comments