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Dead Harvey Interview with yours truly

The website deadharvey.com just published an interview with yours truly about the making of "Splinter"  please check it out and comment!  Lots of detailed post information for those of you who are interested.

Cheers.

-David Michael Maurer

Writing Tip: Calling Behavior

For several years I worked with an exceptional acting coach in Los Angeles, Andrew Benne (website here) who teaches a Meisner based acting technique.  Andrew coaches consistently working actors and as a filmmaker, I wanted to dial myself in to the rhythms and voice of an actor.  The result has been nothing but helpful in my editing career, directing craft, and storytelling ability.  If you are a filmmaker, I highly recommend working with a coach like Andrew.  It will help you see great performances in your actors and give you skills to help guide those performance when an actor is struggling with moment to moment work.  Also for editors in non-fiction, this is very helpful in building dramatic scenes.

One of the basics of Andrew's technique that can be extremely helpful to a screenwriter, is "calling behavior".  When you're working on dialogue, a great way to stimulate conflict is to write dialogue that calls the behavior of another character.  An extremely simple example: Say two people are sitting across from each other at a dinner table, the mood is sour...

CHARLES
Stop it.

MELANIE
Leave me alone.

CHARLES
You're making that face again.

MELANIE
It's just how I look.

CHARLES
Well I hate it when you do that.  It's like you're hiding something.

MELANIE
Quit judging.  You're the one that called me.

Charles is calling the behavior of Melanie by accusing her of making a sour face.  He's calling her behavior.  She's calling his behavior and acknowledging his action by directing him to stop accusing her.  He gets more specific and she's put on the defence.  He offers point of view "I hate it when you do that" and calls her behavior again this time accusing her of hiding something.  She calls his behavior "quit judging" and gives us some more exposition.

It's a very simple scene but has a ton of conflict.  Every time a character calls behavior, the conflict escalates.  It's an effective technique if you need to punch up a scene.  If you saw the movie I edited "Splinter"  the word "firecracker" comes up between the characters Dennis and Polly.  Dennis is calling his impression of the behavior of Polly.  It instantly escalates the argument.

It's important to note that it doesn't have to be a serious scene either, you can call behavior in comedy or sad scenes.  Friends can be sarcastic, worried, empathetic, or any number of emotional states and still call behavior.  Give it a try on your next script.

For more information on Andrew Benne visit http://www.andrewbenne.com/

Editing Tip of the Day: Breaking down dailies in Non-Fiction

For the beginning filmmaker, finding the best take can be a reel challenge.  Here's some tips on how to simplify your editorial process.

1. View your dailies and pulls relevant selects.

Start by creating two sequences.  One sequence is for story beats.  The second sequence is for reaction shots.

In your first sequence, pull any language that contains words or actions of conflict, or story set-up.  This could be any behavior that says "No", it could be passive aggressive behavior, this could be dialogue of concern or dissent, this could be bites or interviews that support conflict for the scene.  Also pull any specific emotional moments, crying, shouting, laughter etc.  You'll also need any basic setup and point of view.

In your second scene, pull reaction shots, every reaction shot.  Any shot where a person isn't talking, you'll edit it into this sequence.  You want everything because you'll take this sequence and organize it later by character.  When it comes time for a close-up, you'll go to this sequence and find the absolute best reaction to the moment at hand.  It's a tool box.

2. After you've formed your sequences, start to structure your story.

Every scene requires a beginning, a turn, and an end.  Start your scene by starting us in the middle of the real life action, not the beginning.  If your first sequence contains hours of entrances into a room, and lots of formal "how do you dos", duplicate your sequence and cut them out.  Start the scene someone where the action has already begun.  We the audience are "entering the meeting" late.  Let the people involved state their case, these are opposing views and conflict based behavior which you should have already saved in sequence one.

In non-fiction, you are using your selects to create a "radio cut" initially.  The pictures are almost irrelevant as long as the dialogue we're hearing represents the actual events in an honest and dramatic way, you should be able to turn off the picture track and understand most of the story.  Later, you can fix the picture to be finished, but in the early stages of non-fiction editing, you are writing the story with the audio.

3. Use bites to comment, not direct the story.

A very talented editor and friend of mine once said that the interview bite is the window to the soul of a non-fiction character.  Your first instinct should be to resist the temptation to lead with an interview bite.  If anything, the bite should comment or provide point of view on what is already happening dramatically in the vérité footage.  When the bites lead, there are no surprises.  Use your bites to provide information to what we don't already clearly understand from your documentary footage.  A bite can reveal far more exposition in an interesting way if it is delayed in scene.  Wait for the last possible second to comment on a scene with a bite.  The more you do this, you'll start to notice that you don't really need very many bites to clearly tell the story, and because a great deal of the story is being told through vérité, the audience will be far more actively engaged in your story.  Take a look at the highest rated reality shows on television.  The very top tier networks programs all use this structure.  Their ratings reflect a deeply connected audience based on scenes that reveal vs. guide.

4. Cover for drama.

Once you have structured your narrative properly, your timeline may sound pretty but will likely have picture that looks like a mess.  Look through your second sequence and pull appropriate close-up shots to engage the audience further based on the style of your project.  You'll notice that you likely have some awesome choices for looks, perhaps from other scenes even.  Remember that if a person is outside, they can generally be anywhere and have a close-up that will work.  If a person is in an office building, as long as the clothing matches, you can use a shot from any office building, anywhere during production, a white wall is a white wall is a white wall, offices all look the same to the general audience member.  Find the absolute best moment/reaction based on your radio cut, use this opportunity to enhance your scene.  It's not just about covering bad edits.  Reactions can make the difference between and average audience experience and something unforgettable.  This part of the process is really something that comes from the world of traditional scripted filmmaking.  You can tell so much about a character through their eyes and reactions.  You have the power in editorial to focus your characters and clearly demonstrate their desires, even with just a look.  It's magic when it all works together.

5. Polish, polish, polish.

In non-fiction, the images and sound were not necessarily shot to work together in a natural way.  When you're done with your story structure and reaction pass, go into your sequence and finish it out.  Make sure you've filled your audio with room tone.  Pan your audio tracks as needed, don't just let the editing system randomly drop the sound in for you, it's never right.  Look out for eye blinks (if you don't know what I'm referring to, you should read Walter Murch's book "In the Blink of an Eye").  The polish in the offline editorial makes all of the difference in the world.

Hope that helps.  Please comment or ask questions if you'd like.

5 Scene Tips for Screenwriters

Here's today's 5 tips for screenwriters on scene structure.  When rewriting your scenes, ask yourself the following questions...

1. What is this scene about?

When two people have a conflict in real life, they're rarely fighting about what they're actually talking about.  Are your characters fighting for power?  Respect?  Are they trying to convince someone of something?  Are they seeking approval?  Or lust or love?  Seduction or avoidance?  As a screenwriter, if you don't know what the scene is about thematically, think it over.  If you can't find something specific and active, you probably don't have a strong scene.  Try rewriting through a simple theme and see how a scene changes.  You might discover something stronger.

2. What do the characters want?

Characters should have clear, simple, opposing desires.  That's the basis of conflict for a screenwriter.  They don't have to be earth shattering, just opposing.  Characters who know each other well like family members or close friends likely have expectations for how the other behaves.  Those expectations can be used to create conflict.  So and so "always" does this.  Those expectations can be debunked for a nice surprise.  They can feed a conflict if one character does what they always do.  If characters have clear wants, clear desires, singular desires, they fight for their position based on that and you have a good scene.  If not, you should figure out what they want and rewrite to sharpen these positions.  Without it, your scene will likely be quite flat.

3. What is the "turn"?

If two characters go into a scene expecting something, when we leave the scene something should change for them.  A good scene starts one way, and exits exactly opposite.  Take a simple example, Johnny wants to buy milk for his kid but he has no money.  Carol has money but in the past, Johnny has borrowed from her and spent it on a bad gambling habit.  Johnny expects to get money from Carol since she's been helpful in the past, Carol expects to Johnny to ask, perhaps lie and say no.  If the scene is written from Johnny's perspective the turn could be Carol saying no; he expects her to say yes, she says no.  If it's written from Carol's perspective, Johnny would need to ask, Carol likely says no, but Johnny convinces her- the turn would be the moment she accepts his plea and hands him the money.  EVERY SCENE REQUIRES A TURN.  If you don't have a solid turn, it is not a scene.  It's an idea, a moment, a slice of life.  It's not a scene.  You the screenwriter must have a turn, or create a turn in every scene.  Even if the turn is as slight as a character changing their perspective, like in a drama, that's enough of a turn to hold up.  You must have a turn in every scene or it's not a scene.  Also remember, we the audience love a good surprise.

4. What does this scene contrast?

In theory, your scenes should stack in contrast, the existing scene could end big, the start of a new scene starts small and quiet or vise versa.  By building contrast, your script will develop peaks and valleys.  The valleys provide relief, the peaks build the tension.  We love the roller-coaster of a great movie.  An action movie might have high level, life or death, peaks and valleys.  A drama might focus its moments on character transitions.  Someone's frustration might build and cause them to act in a way that causes conflict that builds then resolves.  Build contrast between your characters, build contrast between your emotional moments.  It's the pulse of your movies.  The beat keeps us engaged.

5. Is it a duplicate?

Look at your scenes, is this scene a duplicate scene?  Do you have two scenes about convincing someone to do something?  It's extremely common.  Every scene must be unique and necessary.  If there is a duplicate scene or a similar scene in your script, you must cut one of them out.  When I say duplicate, I don't mean literally duplicate.  A duplicate scene could have completely different characters involved, in a different location, saying different things, but if the scenes thematically are similar, the audience will feel it and get bored.  A lot of folks can't put their finger on this phenomenon but when you feel it, that's what is happening.  Know what your scenes are about, not what happens in the scene, but thematically what the scenes are about, and what makes them different.  Screenwriters, you must edit out your duplicate scenes or rewrite them to be about something unique to make them necessary and you'll have a stronger script.  If you don't cut them out on the page, I promise a good editor will do it in post when large quantities of money have been spend on shooting them.  Cut them out on the page, and you'll have more time making necessary scenes shine in production.

Happy writing.

SESSION 1: An Introduction

David Michael Maurer Explains How To Use This Podcast