Episode 10: Scene Structure: Dramatic Conflict and Writing Visually

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The Go Draft is a masterclass series with veteran Hollywood screenwriter Andy Guerdat.
In each episode, Andy breaks down the proven techniques that he uses and has used for 45 years of writing in the industry.
If you are currently a staff writer, a screenwriting student, or just someone who wants to break into screenwriting, then this series is for you. Learn how to take the writing skills you may already possess and elevate them to start getting paid within the industry for your work.
If you have topics that you want covered or have questions for Andy, feel free to email them to thegodraft@gmail.com

Опубликовано:

25 мар 2024

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Комментарии : 77

@themightymattp 3 месяца назад

My favorite day of the week is the day a new Go Draft episode drops. Thank you!

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

@JaredJanus 2 месяца назад

You're so good at relaying this info. Please don't stop.

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

I won't stop, I promise -- assuming I can stay upright.

@guntram5 3 месяца назад

Best screenwriting advice on RU-vid. Great stuff! On a side note, the first scene from 12 o'clock High is one single shot, which adds even more tension to the scene...

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Thanks. Glad it's working for you. And yes, the scene in 12 O'Clock High is one shot with a slow push in. It's also a very well directed film, by Henry King, an underrated director.

@robertkulb6640 2 месяца назад

Thanks for introducing me to this film - just watched it and it’s wonderful and has taught me so much. The second scene you break down where Peck visits the pilot in the hospital has an interesting turn at the very end where the guy is watching from his bed as Peck exits and speaks with the nurse, The nurse comes in and says to him something like “you’re a very special patient, we’ll have to give you the best care.” This causes the pilot to tear up and look away from the camera- which I took to mean that he was overcome with emotion that he had actually earned Peck’s respect.

@ricklime7403 3 месяца назад

Thank you Mr Guerdat, your techniques and insights are invaluable. Your natural presentation exudes your skill and craftsmanship.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Thank . Kind words.

@TiagoCavalcanti-ji6hu 2 месяца назад

Ditto.

@caleebpinkett6450 2 месяца назад

This was absolutely BRILLIANT!!

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

Glad you're enjoying the series.

@jimjo8541 3 месяца назад

LOVE when you post new videos on the craft. Eloquent but to the point. The examples are top notch too. In fact, you’ve driven me to watch some of these films I’ve missed. The pressure that kid was under in Hoosiers to hit those shots in a row while Hackman was delivering those lines! Now THAT is impressive. Wonder how many takes it took…

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Yeah, it's one of the better sports movies made. Not an easy genre to execute.

@TiagoCavalcanti-ji6hu 2 месяца назад

Same here.

@LouisWritingSomethingCrazy 3 месяца назад

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Great writing makes great actors.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Yes, it does. Of course, great actors can make a good scene great or a great scene better, but they can't make nothing good.

@paulthompsonx Месяц назад

Love The Apartment and this analysis is so good - the mirror is the obvious one, but I love this concept of 'the axe' and counting them in this scene.

@TheGoDraft Месяц назад

Yeah, we can all learn a lot from Billy Wilder.

@eugenetswong 4 дня назад

*NOTES* * 0:34:09 find the axe

@paulpasadena 3 месяца назад

This video is brilliant! Loved the way you describe "The axe of the scene." Also loved the Ur moment from your previous videos. I binge watched all your screenplay videos. Amazing work! Keep up the good job.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Thanks. I'll keep them coming as my schedule permits.

@paulpasadena 3 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft Definitely. I have learned a lot from these videos and they are very useful and informative. Keep making these! I am really enjoying them.

@TheFeelButton 3 месяца назад

Great examples throughout! Cheers Andy!!

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Glad you're digging it.

@nikoletta_ 2 месяца назад

Thank you so much Mr. Guerdat! Your videos give me some of the most valuable lessons in screenwriting I’ve ever learned and the way you illustrate your points is so powerful! I have two questions that I’m struggling with. I would really appreciate your advice on: 1) how to figure out the target audience of a screenplay, and 2) how to show character wound/fear/backstory in comedy, without ruining the fun of the comedy. Thank you once again!

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

2 big questions. 1) If I'm writing on assignment, the producer and the show itself make it clear what my target audience is. If I'm writing on spec, I just find a story I feel passionately about and tell it to the best of my ability, THEN figure out who this will likely appeal to. I've written for pre-school and VERY adult material and everything in-between, and I approach them with the same joy and excitement. I'm just not using the same tools. 2) Never approach comedy with the idea that it has to be "lighter" than drama. The fear/wounds the characters feel should be just as truthful and intense as in a drama (look at The Apartment). What makes it a comedy vs. a drama (and it can shift from one to the other within a film or even within a scene) is your handling of the material: whether you want the audience to FEEL the pain the characters feel, or if you want to distance the audience so they can laugh at the characters' (and their own) pain. I'll get into this more deeply in future episodes.

@nikoletta_ 2 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft Thank you very much for your help and for the time you took to answer my questions! They have troubled me for so long. I'm looking forward to your next video!

@MsYellowginger 3 месяца назад

YEAH!!! You're back! Best ever!!!

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

THANKS!!!

@dontuttle 3 месяца назад

Love it!

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Great!

@krzysshotwell6357 2 месяца назад

An interesting video would be about “contrast” within scenes. I’d be curious to hear how you implement it.

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

Not exactly sure what you mean by contrast, but I hope in my coming offerings I cover something like what you're referring to.

@krzysshotwell6357 2 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft Sorry for being vague. What I mean is, let’s say a scene gets heavy, would you want to lighten up the next scene, or perhaps use something both bad and good within a scene? It seems the audience must have an emotional threshold.

@larsjrobertson 3 месяца назад

It seems like the music in the Hitchcock scene almost works like an axe too... starts when he sees her, and ends with no doubt....

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Well, yes, it helps make the point (Bernard Herrman, great composer), but it's not an axe. The screenwriters had no control over the score.

@ryanhowell4492 22 дня назад

cool

@TJ-cg8mq 3 месяца назад

... Andy - really appreciate you giving us a thorough breakdown of the screenwriting process:) I wonder, would you be able to suggest some successful short form films that follow the 3 act structure. I'm more interested in something like 'Cats Eye' that revolved around 3 separate stories -' Would you consider that movie a success and can you suggest others we can take a look at..?!!

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

Short films are not really my specialty. I don't know "Cat's Eye" so I can't deconstruct it for you. But I have consulted with many beginning filmmakers, sometimes on their short films, and like almost all stories they usually have a three act structure if you break them down. I worked with Henry Dunham on his short "The Awareness" a few years ago, and it worked so well for him, it got him representation and his first feature "Standoff at Sparrow Creek" and subsequent features he's now working on. It did for him what most young filmmakers want their short films to do. That short has a solid 3 act structure that he worked on very hard long before he shot the film. It was the y -- not the style, which most young filmmakers obsess on -- which made it work so well. You can probably find it online somewhere.

@TJ-cg8mq 2 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft ... thanks for your reply - if it's online.. I'll take a look at it!

@ericvaldivieso4202 3 месяца назад

Forgive me, I'm learning. Please let me know if I'm following you... Are you suggesting in the axe/cigarette scene of Twelve O'Clock High that these two soldiers have been driving in the car as equals? And the stop-and-puff and rearrangement of the car seating was the finale of that 'equal moment' because they now have to get to the base and resume their hierarchical roles? Did I get that right?

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Yes, a senior officer always had a driver (an enlisted man, not an officer) and usually sat in the back seat, with the driver acting like a chauffeur. So for a General to ride in front and call his driver by his first name and light his cigarette for him was a big deal. The audience for this, only 4 years after WWII, would've known that and it's significance. Then when the General sits in back and lets himself be driven it shows that he's being by-the-book.

@ericvaldivieso4202 3 месяца назад

Thank you@@TheGoDraft

@OtoLivingston 3 месяца назад

Great content. This is a master class. Could you please do a video on beats. When writing how do we know what points to reach eg plot points, darkest moment. Or are we just writing without these beats?

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

I'm not sure I understand your question, but primarily most of your concerns boil down to a matter of developing your "audience antenna" -- you have to feel when and how to move your story. There is no formula for doing that. And the more you write -- and especially get your work produced on some level -- the better your antenna gets.

@OtoLivingston 3 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft thanks. I’m just used to formulaic approach like saved the cat which says we need a hook, inciting incident, bad guy moves in, climax, b story etc.

@corruptduboiscountyindiana5058 3 месяца назад

From your video before, i was hoping you would explain why you think taxi driver is a great movie and rocky is just a nice popcorn movie. I think most people consider rocky to be one of the greatest movies of all time.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

When Rocky came out, one of the producers of TAXI DRIVER said it this way: "ROCKY is an effect, not an experience." I think that's true; Rocky is like a poor little puppy. He works hard and then he triumphs. It's an easy, appealing fantasy (and that's fine, the way LASSIE is a lovely fantasy too) but it's not challenging in any way. By the way, I wouldn't necessarily say that TAXI DRIVER is a "great" movie either. Its ending is so obliquely ironic that it accidentally motivated John Hinkley to try to assassinate Ronald Reagan. That's a flaw in the filmmaking but it also shows how much power a film can have.

@corruptduboiscountyindiana5058 3 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft I have to admit i have never watched taxi driver other than a clip or two trying to see what all the fuss was about over the years. De niro himself has never attracted me to a movie. Rocky has some great music and that always helps. And those scenes when mick climbs the stairs knowing he has to eat a pile of doo with his hat in hand and ask rocky for a favor by including him. Then rocky brushes him off only to end up running out to say yes, knowing he has to have someone in his corner. The scene where rocky tries running but ends up limping up the steps in the dark and then limps back down in pain. A lot of people know those painful feelings in life and feel it when its on the screen. I think most people want to see some version of themselves in the characters as they struggle through life.

@ENApunktSE 3 месяца назад

Best f'in channel on youtube!

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

F'in thanks.

@MARCOS44GP 2 месяца назад

Andy, watching this Episode I kept thinking about that Godfather scene, when Michael kills Sollozzo at the restaurant, and the loud sound of the train gets higher and higher as he finally takes the guts to pull the gun and kill him. In this case, do you consider sound to be one of the axes of the scene? Can montage be consider and axe too? Since they are also things you as screenwriter would "suggest" in your script?

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

Great question. I'd have to go back and watch the scene, but from memory I would say no, it's not really an axe, since it's not a tangible element of the scene but rather an effect that enhances the existing drama (I wouldn't be surprised if Copolla added the sound after the fact). The axe of the scene is the restroom (in my opinion), because the scene is about Michael stepping over the line between a bystander and an active participant in his family's evil. When he finds the gun above the toilet and steps back into the restaurant, he literally and metaphorically crosses the line into the filth of his family's business. But yes, sound could be the axe of a scene.

@miggseye 2 месяца назад

I’ve listened to this video several times and, after seeing your various examples, I’m trying to get a handle on the specific definition of an “axe” in a scene. Am I missing it somewhere in the scene? Or can you clarify what you mean by an “axe”? I gather it’s metaphorically the tool that chops that tree that is the scene. But is there a more specific working definition?

@miggseye 2 месяца назад

I mean… am I missing it somewhere in the video.

@TheGoDraft Месяц назад

It's a storytelling device, usually visual, that allows the characters to SHOW the dramatic information of the scene, not just talk about it.

@mystere4838 3 месяца назад

21:37

@corruptduboiscountyindiana5058 3 месяца назад

How would an audience feel about a child in a dangerous situation with two insane parents that is lightly sprinkled with a touch of humor? I have a scene where a 13 year old girl is upstairs in her bedroom one evening. Just the day before, her mom had told her abusive alcoholic dad she was filing for a divorce and had just now had the dad sign the papers downstairs at the kitchen table. The dad does not want the divorce and only reluctantly signed the papers and then stormed out of the house and drove away to get drunk at the bar. It is a sure bet that this is what he will do as it has been his years long routine which often ended with him hours later barging in the house blackout drunk and raging at his wife and child. After the dad leaves, the mom walks into the girl's bedroom and asks for the rifle that the dad had given to his daughter as a gift a year before. The girl asks the mom why she wants the rifle. The mom tells the girl, because he is pissed about the divorce and he is going to go get drunk, and he might come home later tonight and kill us. The mom and her daughter have a calm yet lightly comical back and forth debate about who should be the one to shoot the dad if he does in fact come home raging drunk and tries to kill them later on. I want to shoot him. No let me do it. I want to do it. You will get in trouble, so let me shoot him. No it's my gun and i want to shoot him. The mom gives up and leaves the room. The 13 year old girl picks up the winchester 94 3030 and racks a round in the chamber so it is ready to go if needed. She starts to lower the hammer when without warning her thumb slips and the rifle goes off blasting a hole in the drywall ceiling. Seconds later the mom walks softly back into the room as if she is afraid to ask what happened. The girl stands with ears ringing and a cloud of gun smoke hanging in the air. The mom quietly and politely asks, did that gun just go off? The girl says, Huh? Uh, no i didnt hear anything why? The mom then walks out of the room. We cut to later that night. The girl sits in the darkened bedroom with the rifle in her lap as the dad barges loudly into the house. With the rifle in her hands, she moves slowly to her bedroom door where she can sort of see down into the kitchen below where the angry words between the mom and the dad grow louder.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

What you're asking is something I'll get into in coming videos: the difference between comedy and tragedy. It's a complex subject I can't get into in a comments section, but yes, it's possible (and has been proven thus many times) to have comedy amidst a tragic situation (like the one you describe). But doing it successfully is difficult and depends on many factors, but especially on execution.

@johnphares3358 2 месяца назад

8:42 You can see a camera man for a split second in this scene. Haha. Whoops.

@TheGoDraft 2 месяца назад

Good catch. My willing suspension of disbelief often helps me not see those tech lapses - or usually care after they're pointed out. If one examines any movie to the degree of catching these things, it usually means the movie was so good it warranted multiple viewings.

@johnphares3358 2 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft Agreed. That definitely won't make me stop watching. A good story is a good story.

@AlexeyShort 3 месяца назад

What if i do not need a conflict in a scene? For example i want to emphasize the joy of life through the baking scene. How mom and her little daughter making cookies together. How can i create such a scene? What are the tools?

@lalogiamalvacoffes1007 3 месяца назад

Conflict not always is a bad thing, you can create conflict that shows the good moment in contrast whit the bad ones. In the example of the mom and her daughter, you can put them having a "fight" for who makes the cookies or something funny. I am not so smart whit the examples, but i think you get it.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Yes, you could just show people being happy and delighted with each other -- and that's a legitimate point to make in a story -- but wouldn't it make the point more powerfully if the daughter dropped the bowl and spilled the batter and for a moment wanted to cry... but the mother said it's okay and they started to scoop up the batter together? There's a reason why all those "happy-falling-love-running-on-the-beach-and-picking flowers" scenes are done as short montages. Because they're boring. Nobody wants to see people be happy in a story for very long. They want them to earn their happiness.

@AlexeyShort 3 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft thank you. Keeping in mind a comment above - can you make additional video about dramatic conflict types or how you can use different AXES to create more diverse dramatic impact? Thank you very much for you videos ))))

@chazboxzero 3 месяца назад

@@AlexeyShortOne possibility to consider, the conflict could be between happiness and sadness. You could introduce the mother and daughter baking in their happy home, then later in the story, a storm ruins their life, and they are very sad, but one of them notices ingredients and a working oven, and they bake something together, and become happy again. Their bond is their "tree", their strength that makes them stand up in happiness against the sadness left by the storm.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

I'm sure I'll get into that in general, but I have a lot of material to cover in future episodes. But if you study the many video clips I'm showing and look for the axe, you'll often find it. @@AlexeyShort

@corruptduboiscountyindiana5058 3 месяца назад

Were you on the set of mork and mindy when dave letterman was on the show? I guess robin thought he would do his buddy dave a favor by having him on the show, but later dave made fun of himself talking about how bad he was at trying to act.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

No, I would've remembered that. Probably was in the last season when they were desperate for ratings to keep the show going.

@rain7746 3 месяца назад

I feel bad for getting all of these great advices for free if people only knew how real your knowledge about writing is this video will get way more views And I can tell that cuz I’ve been creating stories for over 13 years

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

Yeah, you're probably right, but I'm not big on doing publicity. I'll try to do more, but I'm hoping for word of mouth, and so far we're doing okay. Thanks for the nice words.

@CamelBack-du5jr 3 месяца назад

It's normal for a young child to say 'I hate you' to their parent. It happens. They're immature. But it's abusive for a parent to speak to a child in such a way. A parent needs to protect their child's emotional wellbeing.

@TheGoDraft 3 месяца назад

That may be technically true, but in fiction we're writing about how people are, not how we wish they should be. And people are flawed in may ways.

@CamelBack-du5jr 3 месяца назад

@@TheGoDraft yup