Tips and Techniques on screenwriting comedy
An interview with Len Blum
Montreal, March 27, 2006
Len Blum has written many hit comedies in the past 30 years, such as Over
the Hedge, The Pink Panther, Heavy Metal, Feds, Beethoven's 2nd, Meatballs,
Howard Stern's Private Parts. He lives in Montreal.
Len Blum:
Lets discuss the physical experience at the movie theatre. The audience
paid their money for a good time, their body feels pretty good. The very
first joke in a comedy is very important. Because it either gives them the
confidence that they are in good hands, and their chest begins to open with
the first laugh, their voice relaxes, it gets easier to laugh. So they feel
that they made a good choice, the anxiety goes away, or they begin to worry
... that wasnt very funny, maybe I wasted my money . The chest and the
throat tighten, the second laugh is even harder. So the first joke needs to
be strong.
Sometimes if you laugh a lot, your voice will actually hurt at the end of
it. And you can hear the audience laughing. Certain things are funnier to
women, with high laughter, other things to men. Very often, one person has
a very funny laugh. Or something happens on the screen, you dont find it
that funny, but you hear the funny laugh, and you go hey, somebody out
there thinks this is funny and it makes you laugh. So that vibration gets
shared, and it becomes a powerful physical experience
THE HOLLYWOOD READER
The important reader is a person who can sign a check that will deliver a
lot of money to the writer. That reader tends to be a man over the age of
40, sometimes you get a woman in which case you are luckier, they are more
patient, their eyes will move more slowly and they will take it in better.
Chances are, it will be a man over 40, and the first thing you need to know
about him is that the Hollywood reader hates to read. Repeat that: HE
HATES TO READ! He has a staff between three and thirteen people, who read
everything that comes in. They have a young Chinese woman, a young black
man, a young MBA from Harvard, they all read stuff that come from agents ( a
lot of stuff), because these readers form a large cross-section of the
audience. Each reader might read 10 pieces a week. Only one of those pieces
is good enough to be sent to the Hollywood reader. These are scripts or
books, but they wont be treatments or synopsis (a treatment is usually
pitched in person , for three or five minutes). And the person who is
pitching is very open to ideas, it usually is not a set thing. If the
executive suggests ideas, or changes, the writer is responsive to them.
It is a team sport. So let us say the Hollywood reader has 10 readers
sending him one script each. He has ten scripts to read on Saturday
morning. He hates to read. He wants to go play tennis, gold, have a swim,
or watch movies on the screen, but he cannot until he finishes reading those
10 scripts. He is expecting that they will all be "shit". He is motivated
to throw the first one in the garbage can, as soon as he can. So if he can
reject it on page one, it is a good thing. At this rate, he can go golf by
ten in the morning. He picks up the first script, the first thing he does
is look at how many pages it contains. If it is 130 pages, he thinks this
asshole, thinks he is gonna keep me interested in hundred and thirty pages,
lets see!. He is feeling negative, he has got a chip on the shoulder, and
if he can reject it on the first paragraph, he will throw it away. If he
sees the script has 119 pages, he will feel okay, if it is 109, he will feel
good, it wont appear too long.
His eyes will start in the upper left hand corner, page one, and it will
move to the bottom right-hand corner. Job number one is legibility. It
means that his eyes have to have the easiest task of moving, which means no
complicated words use the shorter simpler words and minimum description.
Dont describe a room with four pictures unless one of those pictures
becomes a murder weapon. You dont mention anything specific, unless it
plays a part in the action. Describe the room in 2 or 3 words, so that you
convey the attitude of the decoration, for example, rather than the details.
Understand that his eyes are going to go much too quickly! So job number
one, give him an easy time, and you want to slow down his eyes by creating
some interesting things.
At the end of page one, something has to compel him to turn to page two.
He would rather throw it in the garbage. That thing, for my purposes, is
a joke. Then as he is reading, his eyes are moving smoothly, nothing
complicated intellectually, he laughs, visual stream freezes, he still sees
the joke, chest is pleasantly shaken, eyes re-attach to top left corner of
page two, hungry for the next happy experience. The eyes are going to move
down to the bottom of page two, happier than it was on page one. Where
should the next joke be? On the bottom of page two. The reader will be
greatly disappointed if there is no joke. He is going to think Maybe the
thing is running out of steam. If he laughs again at the bottom of page
two, he will turn the page.
The next best thing, if you dont have a joke, is a compelling question, at
the bottom of page one. Did you sleep with her?. He will turn the page
just to find out if he slept with her a very simple transaction. This
approach is very important for the first twenty pages. Why? Because the
Hollywood reader has no emotional commitment to your story, he does not know
your characters, he doesnt care about their problems yet. By the time he
gets involved, it becomes easier to turn the pages. It is a relationship,
and you the writer, are manipulating the reader. A little treat at the end
of page one, to make him turn to page two. You have to keep those pages
turning to increase his sense of commitment and interest in your characters
and their problems.
You cannot introduce their problem on page 25, you will not get him to page
25, their problem, or the extraordinary event has to happen rather quickly.
YOUR JOB IS TO KEEP HIS EYES MOVING SMOOTHLY AND HAPPILY, WITHOUT A LOT OF WORK, AND KEEP THE PAGES TURNING.
Within that architecture of the page, there are a few things that I do. I
have a paragraph of description, lets say a 3-line log, then I have
dialogue. Lets say the first and second lines are very long, and the third
one is just 2 words. This is not good. His eyes are a muscle, and he is
over 40. His eyes get tired easily. Here, his eyes are going from the far
left to the far right, twice. Then he has to jump in the middle for the
dialogue. I would rather have a three-quarter length line, a second
three-quarter length line, and the third line would be half the page, so
that it ends right above the dialogue line. That said, I want this to be
logical syntax.. I dont like to end the line with a word like of. It
looks funny, it is incomplete. Sometimes, I will end the line with
something like and, because I want his eyes to find out and what?. You
are manipulating his eyes all the time. I know this sounds like a lot of
work, I know you want this to be about your brilliant idea , but he will not
get to the content, unless you reward him all the time, for keeping his eyes
moving and turning pages, that is your first job.
THE CHARACTER NAMES
The names of characters: no 2 names should begin with the same letter, or
should be the same length. A character name is like a brand name. A very
good character name is for example AZA, because the readers eyes dont even
have to read it, he can tell from the way it looks who is talking. You can
have a character named Beatrice, but you cant have another character named
Bettina, because remember, he wants to play golf, he hates reading. Try to
have the main characters names have a look, that he will take in. The name
is a logo.
Introducing your main characters, generally, the first reference does not
use their name. A young man, filled with energy, walks into the room, and
trips over a dog. This is Bobo. You give him an action before you give
him a name. The action has to be a distinctive happening. So you first
have the picture, then you have the label. Then, right after you give him a
name, you go over to the dialogue Who put this god dam dog here?. These
are not strict rules, but for a comedy, if he says something funny, then our
reader gets to laugh. You established a positive relationship. Or if he is
the villain, you visualize him doing something evil, you see the name, and
then the villain says whatever evil thing he wants to say. The villain has
to say something more imaginative and more creative than the reader expects.
The villain has to be smarter than the reader expects. The first thing
the characters say is a wonderful thing, that sets the character in the
readers mind. Unless he is a silent character, as a Ninja, he can come in
and kill someone and leave. But he still has to do something distinctive;
he still has to paint his mark on the forehead of the victim, before he
leaves. Then you know, you are dealing with an interesting character.
THE EYES
In movies, they say it is about this (Len indicates a close-up of the eyes
with his hands). The close-up is the most important shot in any movie.
The eyes are in fact a window to the soul, and the actors who become
extremely successful can say anything just with their eyes. When Rudolph
Valentino died (he was the first romantic silent movie star), thousands and
thousands of women threw themselves to the ground weeping and screaming
because their lover had died! Why was he so powerful? Cinema was
relatively new, and his eyes would say Now, Im gonna make love to you.
The women would be turned on by him because the message in his eyes was so
powerful, they would have a physical response. Film still operates at that
level. John Travolta is very successful because, as he says, he has a very
transparent face. You could see what he thinks, what he is feeling, it is
not that hidden. He is not overacting and you can just see what he feels.
So how does the writer deal with the eyes? When we want to provide a look
into the character soul, into his emotions, after the characters name (in
the dialog mode), you put brackets and write eyes brightening, or eyes
narrowing, because the reader suddenly feels he is looking into the
characters face. You can do that only for main characters, only at the
most important time, as a way to look into the character.
CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS
The main female character in my most recent screenplay was described
something along the lines as She is so beautiful you cant stop looking at
her. She is so beautiful, you hate yourself for looking at her, and you
wished you could stop, but you cant. She is just that beautiful. Her
name is . You might think it is pretty transparent, but in fact, when
the actress reads it, she is saying thats me!, because she is beautiful
and men have responded that way to her beauty. What she wants is to
magnetize the men, unconsciously. So she identifies with the description,
and so does the studio executive, who wants to put her in his movie, because
he thinks she is so beautiful. Not every character has to be beautiful, of
course, but if you are writing for a beautiful woman, I use that kind of
language because I am selling it both to the executive, and also to the
actress.
The description of your main male character is about energy, or attitude,
such as he has a special magnetism, that is almost never seen, but when you
see it, you know he definitely has it. It is bullshit, but they believe
it! Then you give him a good initial action, so that he is memorable.
THE VISUAL PARADOX
The first global film star was Charlie Chaplin. He was asked to make films
while still a vaudeville comedian, and he turned it down. He was working on
his character the little tramp. Two years later he came back and had it
perfected. He described the little tramp as follows: Shoes too big, hat
too small, pants too baggy, jacket too tight, you cant tell if he is a rich
man on his way down, or a poor man on his way up. That is a visual
paradox. It creates an unconscious question in your mind, and you want to
answer that question. Paul Newman is a very good-looking actor. In a
movie, he goes to a kitchen, picks up the old coffee grounds in the garbage
can, and uses them to make some coffee. Heres your visual paradox. This
very successful looking person is seemingly down and out, and we want to
know, what is his problem? It is not one thought Good looking guy, it is
two thoughts. Woody Allen creates a character who should never end up with
beautiful women, but somehow he does end up having relationships with them.
You want to find out why. If you could create a visual paradox, you will
have a much more interesting character.
PUNCTUATION
At the beginning, I want to slow down the readers eyes just a little bit.
The reader is accustomed to seeing very rapid cutting in the movies, on
television. But I do want the eyes to take in whats on the page, to take
in the jokes, but if his eyes are going too fast, they wont take in
anything. He hates to read, he wants to go through this as quickly as
possible. So I am going to slow down his reading by using appropriate
punctuation. Comas, periods, dashes, , I create breathing spaces.
Even in dialogue, I will use . I never write pause, because it takes
energy to the eyes to read it. For short pauses, Ill use space, dash,
space ( - ), a longer pause may be space, hyphen, hyphen, space ( -- ),
but most of the times I use which is a full pause. Particularly for
dialogue, you want to deliver with pauses. We dont talk fluently and
smoothly all the time. And two-third into the movie, the story stops being
about a lot of things, and starts to narrow down about one thing. The
movie moves very quickly to the last third. Ill start dropping the
punctuation, and shortening sentences, because I want the eyes to move more
quickly, which leads to a faster heartbeat, to more excitement. So Ill
write two-word sentences, even one-word sentences. Example, a good one-word
sentence is Blood. You dont need anything else, such as descriptions.
You put the location, thats it, in order to move forward. Remember, a
hundred pages have gone by, his eyes are more tired, you give him new things
to keep his eyes energized, such as jokes, sexuality, physicality, Wham!.
Intellectual conflict does not energize the eye. I am talking about writing
in order to make a good living. I am not trying to wash away your deep
thoughts. I am just talking about this: you want to get the check, use
those techniques that I have developed over twenty five years, knowing who
the reader is.
THE BATHROOM SYNDROME
I want the reader to actually want to turn pages not only for the first
twenty pages, but for the entire screenplay. Even after I know they are
interested in the story. I want the reader to finish the entire screenplay
before having to get up to go to the bathroom. A guy over forty, who
doesnt like reading, chances are he is going to want to give his eyes a
break, go to the bathroom half way through. But if I can make those eyes
move nice and smooth towards the end, pages turning very quickly, you will
find him read it with one sitting, and then he will go to the bathroom. If
he goes to the bathroom, whatever emotional or action momentum built up is
going to be hurt. He will have other thoughts, read a magazine, maybe get a
snack; his mind will be cluttered with other things than your characters and
their problems. But if you can have him read in one sitting, the momentum
will build up, he will have a big laugh, get excited, then he goes Wow! I
think I like that!. He will go to the bathroom and ask himself if he
really liked it
If he does, he now has to decide if he is going to commit fifty million
dollars to making it, another fifty to advertise it But, he will show it
to other people, maybe senior members of his team. That is why I am using
these techniques. As a writer, you are creating a relationship with the
reader. It is a seduction, even though the writer should stay invisible.
A GOOD STORY
What is a good story? In a nutshell, if it happens to me, it is a good
story (laughter) In the sense that if I am personally emotionally involved
with the story, the better the writing will be. I am talking about habits
to take on the page, to give the readers eyes a positive experience. For
the past 15 years, my approach was to ask myself : How am I going to write
this movie? What is the reason that keeps me going back to the table
everyday? What am I trying to achieve for myself, not money wise, but as a
writer?. And once I think I got that, things go pretty smoothly. There is
no formula. It is different each and every time.BY:Alex Vachon
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