Theme and tone
Theme and tone are two VERY essential elements to a story that, though they may not be found right off the cuff, should definitely be implemented as soon as possible in your story.
We may be learning that the hard way…
Not to say there wasn’t a theme or a tone to our story to begin with, but that it wasn’t completely solidified until a few days ago. Instead, we’ve just been working on story and structure, but without feeling the screenplay’s tone. We were just sort of matching to plot and where it had to go… I.E. my biggest fear when writing a script.
So the other day, we took a walk, and discussed, among other things about the project, what we wanted to accomplish, where we wanted to story to go, and exactly what our theme was.
You see, having your theme is kind of like having a larger umbrella idea over the whole of your script. No matter where you take your story, no matter how diluted it might seem, as long as your theme stays in check, your story will sort of meld to the theme. Like a sort of glue, holding the cracks together. The stronger the theme, the smaller the cracks. This keeps us in check and reminds us what needs to happen.
However, we ran into another snag. The dreaded plot-heavy story. A story that makes you run from point A to point B, not because that’s the next logical order of things or because it would happen organically, but because that’s just how we’ve written it and viewed how this whole thing would play out.
Now typically, I’m a short story writer. When I write my stories, I almost never, EVER have a plan on where they’ll end up. I just begin with a thought in my head, and let slip the dogs of words (badump *crash*). So when writing a full-length feature, things tend to get hairy for me. I often times write myself into a corner, where the plot I’ve devised seems to come to a stand-still simply because I don’t have the motivation for it.
And this is why I like character driven stories in the first place. When the character’s actions and reactions, or their flaws or triumphs turn the story in the direction that it needs to. Ultimately, it’s about delving in psychologically that attracts me to these things.
It seemed that we had hit a block of sorts because the plot had only taken us so far before we needed to rely on the characters to make the decisions for us. And decide they did.
This is where our tone has become the central focus of our writing thus far. Up until this point, the tone of the film was very vanilla. Of course we had something to say, something to do, but it all seemed pretty run of the mill. Characters making the choices most anyone else knows they would have made in the first place. Secrets, though kept, were starting to unravel; and quite frankly, I as an audience member to the script, was getting kind of bored.
So we changed our tone. We went from a warm, lightly lit and heavenly feel, to a much darker and sinister feel based on the emotions and natural transgression of our main characters and just how far down they’re willing to dig into themselves. It was nice. I often think of tone in colors. Our tone initially was pretty yellow and warm, like sunlight for the first part of our story, but based on what’s happening from this point on, it turns almost black and red, with splotches of grays for a little optimism.
I know, without giving too many details, this all seems pretty confusing, but trust me, it’s starting to really work; and it’s only our first draft. We’re hoping with the new character descriptions and after fleshing them all out, that we can make a real concerted chunk come alive in the last half of our screenplay.
Honestly, in scope… this thing could be a pretty big film. It’s not worthy of putting millions upon millions of dollars in it, but the statement we intend to make, the anxiety and fear we hope to instill, the questions we hope to leave, and the pure insight we hope to convey, this film with a decent-sized budget, a few oft-known names, and a decent distribution deal on the back-end… this thing could be a real statement piece, the likes of which I would hope to be just as viable 20 years from now, if not more so. This could easily either make our careers, or help me realize a darker truth about myself.
I’m hoping for the former…
