The Think Tank #1
Before you even think about scriptwriting, you need an initial idea. Rather than coming up with something incredibly detailed from the get-go (which few scriptwriters can do) I find it is a lot easier to look at the following questions and mould an idea around them.
Who is the main character?
What is their goal?
What is the script about?
What is the underlying message or theme of the script?
For example your main character could be Brian Goodman, incarcerated for a crime he didn’t commit. His goal being to prove his innocence by escaping prison and finding the evidence necessary to prove his innocence thus redeeming himself.
When you’re coming up with ideas always try to ask the question “what if?…”. What Brian Goodman was framed by someone he considered a friend? What if Goodman was framed as an act of revenge? And so on. By both asking and answering “what if?…” questions you can provide the depth required to allow your story and characters to stand out as real, complex worlds and people rather than being flat and flavorless.
Keep it Real Not Commercial
Don’t worry about whether your idea is commercially viable. Everyone has at least one script in them that comes from the heart. If you are determined to make sure that script is a commercial success you will end up diluting the idea until it is just another cookie-cutter action movie.
As a scriptwriter you have a choice. You can be a second-rate somebody else or a first-rate you.
How Your Background Affects Your Ideas
Simply put your personal background will make a great deal of difference to the ideas you have and the scripts you write. If you were raised in a dirt poor area your mind will naturally be more focused on violence, trying to climb the social ladder, struggling to make money and so on because those will probably be the actions and influences that surrounded you growing up.
Think of it this way. If two people happened to meet in the middle of the road with a dying bird between them (not a daily occurrence hopefully) and one of them was a farmer, the other a housewife they would want to deal with the situation in a different way. The farmer would put the bird out of it’s misery by wringing it’s neck while the housewife may try and nurture the bird back to health or take it to an animal hospital.
We all have our own perspective on things and it is important to realise what this is in order to create an idea with a unique spin on it.
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