Good Film Tips - Story First, Conventions Second

This second installment may not apply to all people, only those who have received formal education in terms of screenwriting, namely following Hollywood conventions. Also, anyone who has read through any of Syd Field's or Joseph Campbell writings may find this useful due to the emphasize put on conventions and structure.

First things first - most audiences don't really care about conventions or structure. In fact, following conventions too closely can lead to boring and predictable stories, as audiences are usually bombarded with hundreds of different movies that follow along the same predictable storylines, especially such movie genres as romantic comedies or action films. Conventions are a set of rules conformed to by the screenwriter, who must make their script fit certain moulds and have certain features. The common Hollywood structure states that the script must have three acts, two main plot points, as well as a multitude of other things.

This was one of the things we were forced to adhere to during my time at the S.I.T. Although conventions can add to a film and make it more audience friendly, conventions hold a number of problems which can arise while following them.

1. Story is more important

If you spend all your energy trying to adhere to a set of rules, its going to have consequences, namely being your story is going to suffer. Developing a good story should be the most important thing, and once you have that all worked out then you can apply some conventions to improve the script if need be. One prime example is the first Star Wars film by George Lucas. Mr. Lucas often attributes the success of the film and story to Joseph Campbell, which wrote "The Hero With a Thousand Faces", which is basically a set of conventions based of the mythology of the world, and how almost all mythology contains certain common threads that all humanity recognizes. Of course, Mr. Lucas had already written a couple of drafts of his script before he even read that book, and then decided to add a more mythical structure to the script and incorporated many features he learnt in the book to make it better. The important thing to note is that he already had most the story worked out first, and didn't work straight from the book as most would believe.

2. Convention can lead to boring, predictable scripts

A lot of Hollywood screenwriters out there use conventions as almost a kind of bible, basing every part of their story around it as though the conventions were laid down by Moses in the Old Testament. They equate convention with success, attempting to make their script both as commercial and easily digestible by audiences as possible. The problem with this of course is predictability. How many films out there are entirely, utterly predictable. A fair few by my count. If you follow conventions way too closely and concentrate on them more than the actual story itself, you're going to end up with a fairly boring script. It may be commercially successful, like a lot of bad Hollywood, but that doesn't mean its actually any good.

3. Use conventions to improve your script, not write your script

Similar to my example about Star Wars, you simply cannot use conventions to base your script from or write your script around right from the beginning. More often than not, your story won't even make sense if you write this way. In terms of Hollywood conventions, the main stream of rules goes as follows - Hook, Establish Normal Life, Plot Point One, The Pinch, Plot Point Two, and the Conclusion. Although this might not make a lot of sense, these are the most common elements in Hollywood convention. Conventions can only help structure your story, they can't really be a basis for the story itself.

Conventions are usually sold to budding screenwriters as the be all end all way of becoming a successful screenwriter, especially in Hollywood where it is almost a requirement for being selected by a major studio. However as I have pointed how there are definite dangers in following these too rigidly, as you will most likely end up with predictable, mindless dribble. It can also suck out a lot of creativity in the writing process, as any ruleset can. So my advice would be to concentrate entirely on story first, and conventions second, in order to make a good story. You can use conventions as much or as little as you like after you have the main story worked out, just don't use them to influence your story too greatly to start with.