Book: Writing The Visual Scene: for screen, plays, novels, journalism.

Copyright © 2005 Dorian Scott Cole

Silence is often pregnant with meaning, if we will only listen... or watch. Silence allows time for the dramatic pause in which character physical action communicates loudly. Just a look can chill a world of passion. If we will just turn off the words for a moment, a garden of action blossoms into life.

Communicating dramatic action to the audience is partly the purview of the actor. Actors make choices in their actions, such as voice expression and intonation, facial and bodily expressions, and interaction with the setting minor props (commonly known as stage business).

The fewer physical actions that the writer gives in the script, the more the actor has to work to communicate. Actor communication has strong limitations, as demonstrated in two media.

When an actor performs on stage, the audience is far away, so normal facial expressions are difficult to see. To communicate through expressions, the actor has to exaggerate his facial and bodily expressions to be seen. If the stage actor performed the same way on camera, it would come off as melodrama, or "over-acting." So for some media, the actor can only push his choices so far. The writer must find action symbols with which to reveal character feelings.

Silent film is the other venue in which the limitations of actor communication choices are evident. Charlie Chaplin, in his "Little Tramp," character, captured the hearts of his audience in movie after movie, but never spoke a single word.

In silent film, the dramatic action is portrayed through situations and physical actions. Words, if appearing at all, appear as caption screens between shots, and are disruptive intrusions.

First you see the character speaking, and get an idea of the emotion through character actions, then a caption appears, showing the words that the character just spoke. The captions disrupt the flow of action. In silent film, it was much more effective to tell the story with physical action, and leave the words out.

Silent film is full of melodrama. Leading ladies swoon with love, touching their hands to their hearts, looking skyward, and throwing their other arm back, as if fainting. Villains sneer menacingly and make threatening gestures. Heroes swoop in grandiosely, gesture with expansive sweeping motions showing their command of the situation, and take great brave steps toward the villain.

While such actions portray the character's inner states and the situation, they are comical to the audience and only seen today in cartoons and comic books, if at all. Melodrama has limited use in most contemporary media. Today, the tough guy popping his knuckles, or his neck, is about as much melodrama as audiences can stand.

Silent film is an excellent medium to study to see the effectiveness and limitations of character choices of physical actions, and writer choices of actions. Too much of silent film action would be considered melodrama (over-acting). It clearly shows the necessity of words, and the effectiveness of physical action in communicating dramatic action.

Writers are discouraged from making small choices for actors. In screenplays, character instruction will typically be thrown out in the next draft, and the actors will ignore the advice anyway. However, these choices can be important in communicating the drama for the readers who see the screenplay first, so put them in if the character's inner state is not obvious.

What is "stage business?" The small choices that the actor makes to reveal his character's inner states and make the scene look real. The character may eat food as if starved, read papers, file papers, clear items from tables - all of the things that make the situation seem real and help portray the character's inner state.

Character expressions and stage business are the domain of the actor. Where does this leave the writer? Having the character interact with the setting that the writer develops. Larger actions.

First, the no-no set - magic pockets

First a warning about what is in a setting. Live with the set that you initially develop - don't add to sets piecemeal as the need arises.

In the movie, The Mask, Stanley Ipkiss (played by Jim Carrey in the 1994 version), while wearing the mask, reaches into his pocket and pulls out whatever object is needed. It might be a machine gun, a shotgun, a mallet, a giant alarm clock - anything imaginable - things that people don't, and can't, carry in a pocket. The magical mask character has magic pockets.

Some scripts that I read are absurd in the items that are magically at hand on the set. They typically would not be there.

The writer's three choices

1. Create a realistic setting, and use the items that would normally be there.

2. Set up the setting. Set up is more work, since it involves advanced planning. It basically means that in several scenes back, the writer shows why a certain item happens to be there. The item didn't just magically appear in a later scene just because the character would need it then. (And then the setup scene will probably get edited out later to shorten the length.)

A good example of set up is in the Lethal Weapon movie series. Roger Murtaugh (played by Danny Glover) has a room addition going on at his house. In one scene, he is in a battle with a bad guy. Murtaugh grabs a nail gun, which would normally be in that setting, and shoots the bad guy. The room addition is part of the story - we are already set up to believe that a nail gun would be there. On the other hand, if one just happened to be lying around Murtaugh's house, we would be skeptical. So, either the story already had a room addition in it, or the writer went back and put it in for set up.

3. Change the scene to a different setting in which the character can interact more appropriately with the set.

Choice 3 is perhaps easiest. Most stories have choices of settings, for which certain types of action are more appropriate. Typically the writer's characters and their situations determine the main settings. A story about golf will likely use the settings of the golf course, the clubhouse, and character homes.

A story about marriage will probably be centered in the home, recreation areas, and possibly places of work.

Each setting has advantages and disadvantages for character actions. A feuding couple, in their home, could isolate themselves in separate rooms, or even jump in the car and leave. For those on the beach, a sudden storm may make the couple crowd under an umbrella. Unable to run from each other, they may resolve their problem.

In the house setting, it is unlikely that the house roof would leak and the car fail, trapping the couple, but the beach is an easy setting in which an umbrella would normally be present and sudden summer storms are typical.

Choosing scenes

The same dramatic action can usually be unwound in many different settings. In the following two settings, see if you can imagine ways for these physical actions to take place:

On the golf course, if a character had to hide, where would he go? If he had to defend himself, what would he use? If he was angry, what might he use to demonstrate his anger?

On the beach, where would a character hide? What would he use to defend himself? What might he do to demonstrate his anger?

Most scenes can easily be moved to a different setting. The dramatic action will work just as well, and the physical action will gain a fresh set of choices.

In the following two scenes, note that the dramatic action is the same, while the physical action choices are consistent with their setting:

Scene 1.

Setting: Dining room of Jason and Cora's home. A baby grand piano takes up most of the room, so that the dining room table is off to one side, off-center of the small chandelier.

Jason (looks at the dining room table): Couldn't you at least make some dinner? You have to eat!

Cora: I didn't have time. Let's go out.

Jason: I've had a long day and I'm tired. I don't want to go out.

Cora (feigns sympathy): Ohhhh. So sorry.

Jason (glances around the house, steps into other rooms): Just what did you do all day?

Cora: Things.

Jason: What things?

Cora (sighs): I went shopping, and then I picked up stuff for the fund drive. I practiced the piano. I straightened up the house. You know...

Jason approaches her, trying to control his emotions, but is too frustrated. He hits his head on the chandelier. He loses it.

Jason: Our lives are too crowded! You practice piano - we don't eat. This piano has crowded out our table and our time to prepare food.

Cora goes to the piano and pounds on the keys, discordantly.

Cora: This is the way you sound to me. You're not discussing this with me like you love me, you're just throwing words at me. Tell me you love me... and mean it.

Scene 2.

Setting: Business parking lot. Cora's car is full of objects.

Jason walks up to the car and opens the door to get in. Objects fall out of the car, and Jason has nowhere to sit. He sighs and carelessly throws the objects toward the back. They fall back down, frustrating him. Finally he clears enough room and squeezes in, objects continuing to fall around him. The head of a toy horse is between them.

Jason: Hi hon. What's for dinner?

Cora: I love you, too.

Jason: OK, OK, I'm all that. Now, what's for dinner?

Cora: I didn't have time. Let's go out.

Jason: I've had a long day and I'm tired. I just want to go home.

Cora (feigns sympathy): Ohhhh. So sorry.

Jason: Just what did you do all day?

Cora: Things.

Jason: What things?

Cora (sighs): I went shopping, and then I picked stuff up for the fund drive. I practiced the piano. I straightened up the house. You know...

Jason turns on the seat to talk to her, trying to control his emotions. The horse falls forward, hitting his head. He loses it.

Jason: Our lives are too crowded! Your collecting stuff is stopping us from eating. Your piano has crowded out our table. We don't have room for food.

Cora pushes the horn for a long blast.

Cora: This is the way you sound to me. You're not discussing this with me like you love me, you're just throwing words at me. Tell me you love me... and mean it.

End of scenes.

The dramatic action, and even the same dialogue, is portrayed as well in both scenes. The important thing is, to know what is in the setting, and use it in the scene.

Exercises.

In the following scenes, the setting does not allow talking, so the characters won't be able to communicate verbally. In each, find a way for the character to communicate through his physical actions and interaction with the set.

1A. Bill and Irene scene

Scene 1

Setting: Bill and Irene are passengers on a Coast Guard rescue helicopter. The door is open, they don't have headsets for communication, and the helicopter is so loud that they can't hear each other well enough. They are both cold and wet.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the helicopter that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Bill thinks that Irene feels that he is to blame for their predicament that resulted in their rescue at sea. They have been dating. He is afraid that she will now ditch him.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

Bill was not responsible for their predicament.

Irene doesn't blame him.

Bill wants to propose marriage.

1B. Bill and Irene Scene

Scene 2

Setting: Sound stage. Bill and Irene, who are stagehands, had fallen backward into a pool of water and had been rescued by a production crew. Time is critical to the crew, so shooting quickly resumed, and they are needed on the set. If they talk aloud, they will disrupt the production, costing thousands of dollars in lost time.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the setting that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Bill thinks that Irene feels that he is to blame for their predicament that resulted in their rescue from the pool. They have been dating. He is afraid that she will now ditch him.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

Bill was not responsible for their predicament.

Irene doesn't blame him.

Bill wants to propose marriage.

2A. Jesse and Jason scenes

Scene 1

Setting: Horse farm barn. The main corridor is lined with horse stalls. At one end is a tool closet. A wagon for mucking out stalls (manure and straw collection) sits in the middle. Jesse and Jason are cleaning out stalls on opposite sides of the wagon - their weekend job. Their boss is standing nearby, so they can't talk.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the setting that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Jesse is upset because Jason always takes the lighter jobs. Jesse doesn't know that Jason has back problems. Jason keeps the secret from his boss, who might fire him.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

1. Jesse make Jason understand that he wants him to do more work.
2. Jason make Jesse understand that he has back trouble.

2B. Jesse and Jason scenes

Scene 2

Setting: Jesse and Jason are in their normal office environment, a cubicle. The entire office of cubicles is open, with low walls, and the supervisor sits just inside Jesse and Jason's extended cubicle, so they can't talk. They both sit at computers, and two stacks of paper are between them, which represents their work.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the setting that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Jason has back trouble, so is uncomfortable in his chair, and he takes frequent breaks. Jesse is upset because Jason always does less work than he. Jesse doesn't know that Jason has back problems. Jason keeps the secret from his boss, who he is afraid might fire him.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

1. Jesse make Jason understand that he wants him to do more work.
2. Jason make Jesse understand that he has back trouble.

3A. Dean and Janet

Scene 1

Setting: Ocean, underwater not far offshore.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the setting that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Dean and Janet are diving. They can't talk underwater (putting their helmets together is cheating). Dean swims into Janet's view.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

1. Dean wants Janet to see an exciting discovery that he has just made.
2. Janet feels that they don't have enough air left to swim away and then back to the boat.
3. Dean feels that time is critical to the viewing, and it is worth getting into the danger zone on their air supply.

3B. Dean and Janet

Scene 2

Setting: Distant planet; hostile environment.

Set properties: List the items that would be in the setting that they could interact with to communicate.

Situation: Dean and Janet are walking around in space suits. A solar storm has interrupted communications. Dean walks into Janet's view.

Communicate through physical action, especially interaction with the set:

1. Dean wants Janet to see an exciting discovery that he has just made.
2. Janet feels that they don't have enough air left to walk away and then back to the ship.
3. Dean feels that time is critical to the viewing, and it is worth getting into the danger zone on their air supply.

- Scott

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