Spice up your screenplay with this plot device !!

As a screenwriter, an important question arises as to how to engage your audience. Today I am going to discuss a winning formula to spice up your screenplay. As a famous proverb goes - “You reap what you sow”, similarly in a screenplay, one of the very important device is ‘Plant and PayOff’, which simply means that you establish something earlier in the film that pays off later or is later used in the film. 

Some of famous ‘Plant & PayOff’ used in films are as follows:

1)        In James Bond films, the character Q introduces different gadgets, car and weapons to 007 which he uses toward the end to fight with villains (PayOff). 

2)        The term ‘Rosebud’ in Orson Welles’ classic ‘Citizen Kane’ is beautifully planted in initial few shots which remains a mystery throughout the film, only to be revealed in the last shot of the film (PayOff) and that too only to the audience (won’t reveal here- watch the film). 

3)        In ‘Do Dooni Chaar’, the plant is the question paper of a student (having roll no. 1393) that allures the school teacher into a money-making deal for the down payment of his dream car ‘Alto’ (PayOff). 

4)        In ‘Mom’, the plant is the shady detective guy (played by Nawazuddin) who helps the protagonist (payoff) to trace the rapists. 

5)        In Abbas Mastan’s ‘Race’, the plant is establishment of Saif Ali Khan’s character as a daredevil who loves racing and stunts. It pays off later in the film when his character is re-introduced doing gravity-defying stunts and saves Bipasha Basu. 

6)        In Shyamalan’s ‘The Sixth Sense’, well, the plant is so subtle that the payoff comes as a surprise (One of the best I have seen).

7)        In ‘Jaws’, it is the pressurized scuba tank which later helps in killing the shark (payoff). 

8)        In ‘Fukrey’, the plant is the character of the homeless drug-addict (who used to sell Lali’s motorbike parts) who later helps Lali by giving him the money to invest in the next dream (payoff).

9)        In Abbas Mastan’s ‘Aitraaz’, the plant is the mobile phone defect that is introduced later in the film and it finally helps Raj’s acquittal.  

10)     In ‘3 IDIOTS’, the plant is the ‘Viru S’ inverter that takes power from the car batteries, which is later used in the film to carry on a delivery (PayOff). 

In short, a dialogue, a character, a painting or a photograph, a prop or some piece of information or a combination of all these is introduced (planted) early in a film, is mentioned repeatedly in the film (depends) and finally pays off later in the film generally during a climax (not always during the climax). It can also be used during several scenes instead of the entire film. 

A good ‘plant & payoff’ engages audience and gives them a chance to be an active participant in the narrative rather than being a ‘sitting duck’. The best way to use it is to make sure that both plant and payoff are far away from each other in a narrative, otherwise both plant and payoff would appear deliberate and forced upon. For eg. Consider the above mentioned ‘3 IDIOTS’ scene. Now if Ranchho invents the inverter in one scene and in the next scene, the delivery happens with the help of the inverter… Sounds too superficial.. Isnt it?? 

We have to make sure that the plant is not too obvious otherwise the payoff will fall flat and becomes quite predictable. And, if the plant is too subtle, we might not even notice the payoff. 

So, a ‘plant & payoff’ is a vital element in feature and television writing. Next time you watch a film or a television series, try to identify one and try to use in your own productions as it not only develops your sense of story structure but also helps you to make your narrative unexpected.

Need Ideas for Making a Short Film?? Try this.. (PART TWO)

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4)        Visual Stimuli- Anything happened the last time you looked at a photograph or a painting ?? Any idea crossed your mind? For eg. Look at this photograph. It was published in a newspaper. What moves you/intrigues you about it? Can you create a new backstory (everything that happened up to the moment this shot was taken? How did this person reach there? What happened after this photograph was taken?

 

5)        Forced Connection- As the name suggests, take two props or two characters or two locations exactly opposite to each other or having no obvious connection and then create a connection between them. For eg., pen and paper is an obvious connection but what about pen and money or paper and sunglasses? Or write a story about a chance encounter of an industrialist with a rag-picker, etc. 

6)        Shoebox- Next time, if you buy a nice pair of shoes or any other footwear, do not throw away the shoebox. Rather, just wrap the opening lid with the base by a cellotape and make a small horizontal cut at the top. What next? Well, jot down on a piece of paper whatever crap comes into your mind, put it inside this shoebox and forget about it. Next time, repeat the same process. After a few weeks, when you feel you have put enough material inside the box, open the lid and take out all the papers. Open and read all of them, try shuffling them or re-ordering them, you will get something to work with for your next film. 

7)        Brainstorming- This is a technique which is used in advertising. Try picking up a subject and list down a free association of thoughts and feelings that come to you. For eg., a wife getting ready for office is searching for her pen drive, which contains an important presentation, drives to office and gives the presentation. Now this scene has no conflict or problem. Keeping PCR (Problem-Complicate-Resolution) theory in mind, we have to create a problem first. We can start with a problem that she is unable to find her pen drive and time is running out for her. She finally gets her pendrive. She starts to drive (may be the tyre gets punctured and she takes a lift which leads her to even more troubles) OR she reaches office in time only to find that she carried a wrong pen drive. So, try to complicate a problem thereby providing a final resolution. 

8)        “What if”- Always ask yourself- “What would happen if this happens??” For eg., you get up one fine morning to find that you are inside a coffin, alive. Or what if you found out that the world will end in 24 hours, what would you do? Or what if you realize that you can read anyone’s mind? Most stories start this way. You will end up getting challenging situations leading to new twists. 

9)        Dreams- Make sure to keep a diary or a note book along your bedside to immediately write whatever you dreamt last night. It could be not so interesting but you will definitely get a starting point. 

10)     Mind Mapping- Write a key idea on the centre of a page. Then write     associated ideas in bubbles around that centre idea, with a line linking each one to your core idea. Then draw bubbles of associated ideas and so on until you create an information web on that page. 

These are some of the ways to generate ideas. Essentially screenwriting is divided into 3 parts:

1)        Pre-writing (65% of total writing)

2)        Actual writing (5% of total writing)

3)        Re-writing (30% of total writing)

The more you work on pre-writing, the better outcome you will get. Don’t just start writing your first draft. Pre-writing cannot be ignored.

Need Ideas for Making a Short Film?? Try this.. (PART ONE)

Ever thought of making a short film ?

Well.. yes.. a voice came from inside..

What about writing one?

What happened.. Not possible?

Let’s make it possible then..

It is not even that difficult a task. All you need to know is a few basics of storytelling and a little bit of passion. If you are not going to be passionate, why would others be ? More than the output, it is the process that you should enjoy. Once it gets mechanical, it is not writing.. It has to come from within.

Writers think in a number of ways:

a)        Inductively (from specific to universal)

b)        Deductively (from universal to specific)

c)        Logically (causality- how one thing follows another)

d)        Non-logically (co-incidences)

e)        Creatively (discovering hidden meanings and connecting two or more things beautifully)

Our brain tends to work creating visual relationship. When I was in 6th standard, I didn’t score very well in my internals. I realized when I had to study long paragraphs, my mind never used to work but whenever I divided those paragraphs into points which are at equal distancefrom each other, I could decipher the pattern quite well. May be because it created a form of symmetry that resulted in creating a visual that my mind could understand. 

Similarly, fonts also play an important role. Well this is all very subjective and may differ from person to person but the truth is that we all tend to think visually. 

In inductive thinking, it is like a divergent, opening out-of-the-ideas, the aim is to come up with as diverse ideas as possible. At this stage, you should only be interested in quantity and don’t filter out anything. Just let the ideas flow in and out. 

In deductive thinking, you can filter out your ideas, test them and select the best ones from not so good ones.

Generating ideas

Here, I am sharing a few good sources of idea generation:

1)        Personal Experience- This is something which is close to your heart. Your life. You have lived it certain way. You are the best person who can make a film on it. Real life is boring so it is important to make it interesting cinematically. Your upbringing, your education, your first affair, your first job, your biggest strength, your weakness, your lowest point in life- you know it all. No one can relate better than you. So write a short film based on your experience. 

2)        Others’ Personal Experience- Well, if you have lead a un-happening life or not to dramatic life, you can observe those close to you and write a short film on their experiences. Your father is a doctor, write a film based on medical issues as you can deal with it in a better way. Your brother used to be bullied as a kid in school and you have observed him venting it out behind closed doors. You can handle it in a sensitive manner. As a filmmaker, it is important not to venture into territories which are unfamiliar to you. 

3)        Newspaper- Recently you read an article in newspaper, where two students died in a road accident and the post mortem suggested that they were drunk. What would your conclusion be: They must be driving rashly. Ever tried to find out what could be the exact reason? May be they just got out of a friend’s party, all sober and a speeding truck driver forced them to go off track. What is your conclusion now: It could be truck driver’s fault also. So always try to create a back story of every such news and there you go- you have a story. 

To be continued…………..

Rendezvous with Negligence : Teesri Manzil lost a vital cog !!

It was a bright sunny day at Amity University and I was all excited, not because of the weather but for the reason that I was screening Vijay Anand’s musical thriller ‘Teesri Manzil’, that day, to the BJMC students. The atmosphere inside the class was electric as I had already pre-discussed about the film in class many-a-times. You can say I had slightly over-hyped about the film but as a teacher, I knew it is worth the experience and students are going to like the film for sure.

I entered the class and to my surprise, the projector was all set up and connected. The attendance was almost 90% which was always an exception in a final year class. I took out my pen drive from pocket and inserted it to my system. The screen read ‘UNITED PRODUCERS’ PICTURE followed by a disclaimer and a lightning sky animation introducing to NH FILMS (Nasir Husain Films). A POV shot of a car follows with RD Burman’s thrilling background score. The film marked the beginning of Nasir Husain’s collaboration with R D Burman which was followed by films like Carvaan, Pyar ka Mausam, Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, etc.

 

 After having watched ‘Teesri Manzil’ more than 50 times, nothing was new for me but everytime the signature tune came, goosebumps got activated and an adrenaline rush skyrocketed. After all, the film was a whodunit thriller and the killer is somebody who is not directly linked with the victim so I was pretty sure students would like every moment of it. Well, how many times has this happened to you when you know the ‘who’ in a ‘whodunit’ and still watch it all over again??? Vijay Anand skillfully combines elements of comedy, romance and mystery into a cohesive whole. 

 

 Well, the film slowly builds up and the mystery gets intensified after each sequence. The film has its share of quite intelligently placed ‘red herrings’ starting from the waiter, to Helen, to estate manager, to Prem Chopra, to Iftekhar and even Rocky himself. The film’s background score (designed by R D Burman himself) brings one to the edge-of-the-seats. The film went smoothly until at 1:16:44, the film switches to a rural fair with Rocky (Shammi Kapoor) and Sunita (Asha Parekh) romancing around a giant wheel (The song is ‘dekhiye saahibon wo koi aur thi..). For a second I thought I am hallucinating or somebody fast forwarded it accidently. I stood up, went to my system and played back the sequence but it again switched to the same song. I tried a couple of times more but nothing happened. My students asked me ‘Sir, what happenend?’ But I had no answer to it. My shoulders dropped. I realized that I had downloaded a trimmed version of the film from YouTube. 

I came back and started searching for an uncut version over the internet. Luckily, I found 8 different websites having Teesri Manzil film but unfortunately all the 8 of them had that 25-30 minutes of footage missing. I almost felt numb and speechless. As a kid, having watched the full VHS version more than 50 times, I felt as if somebody has robbed my most prized possession.

 The fact is that no full version of this film was made on to a DVD or VCD. While transferring the contents, some idiotic guy chopped off the 25 minutes of this classic. It is like spoiling the Mona Lisa painting or ruining the beauty of Taj. It is more than a crime. 

Between Ruby’s (Helen) envious stances and the song at the rural fair is about 25-30 minutes of footage which marks the entry of Kunwar’s (Premnath) character. Now those who have seen the full version can only relate to the importance of these 25-30 minutes to the plot, which not only makes the narrative smoother but more logical.

  

 

To all those, who have not seen these missed scenes, here is a quick description:

Sunita informs Rocky that her friends have planned an outing for everyone, but Sunita and Rocky want to spend the day alone together. Both of them pretend as if they are not well and the girls leave without them. They meet at their usual place on a hilltop and are interrupted by her friends, carrying hockey sticks. Since, the girls are hungry and thirsty, Sunita suggests that they stop by Rocky’s chachaji’s place (in an earlier scene Rocky had pointed out a big mansion on the same hill while trying to impress Sunita). Rocky tries to stop them to avoid any further embarrassment as he made out a story. He runs ahead and observes the mansion’s owner Kunwar Sahab (Premnath) driving away while giving instructions to his servant regarding arrival of some guests.

Rocky tries to play smart here and confidently enters the mansion along with girls. However Kunwar Sahab returns unexpectedly and upon hearing the chaos inside, goes in to confirm. He looks angrily towards Rocky, who is dumbstruck and after a few stares supports Rocky’s story that they are uncle and nephew. As they leave, Rocky stops to thank him. A man in black (Another Red Herring) dressed exactly like the mysterious figure drives into Kunwar’s compound. Kunwar Sahab tells Rocky that the man is his estate manager, who is a bit of a drunkard.

After this scene, another scene takes place where Rocky accidentally flirts some other woman in place of Sunita and is chased by a mob leading to the same song (Dekhiye.. Saahibon.. wo koi aur thi…).

It is an irony that a country, which produces as many as 1,600 films in various languages every year, is not able to properly preserve the classics that it once produced. I think the way DVD manufacturers edit films is way too lackadaisical; all they’re trying to do is ruthlessly trim it into their 750 MB or whatever, without giving much attention to what affects the plot. This is just felonious.

Now, for those who have seen ‘Teesri Manzil’ exactly know WHAT all has been MISSED. What appears to be just a sequence where 2-3 characters are introduced, turns out to be one of the important cog of the wheel called ‘Teesri Manzil’.