Hello, my fellow artists! I am recapping my weekly experiences of the writing course I’m taking at the Sundance Collab. These recaps are a cool insight into the creative process and personal journey of building something from scratch. In this case, a feature film treatment.
Recap: Week 6. This week, we were challenged to expand upon the beat sheet that we created last week. To help us expand our beat sheet, we were introduced to the “index card method.” This method was really cool because it reminded me of a method I use when I prepare for an audition. (For my fellow Richard Lawson Studios colleagues who have taken the Professional Development Program, you’ll figure it out as soon as I describe the index card method further.) Keep reading below 🙂
Take a stack of index cards and write down every scene from your beat sheet onto them. Once you are done, put them up on your wall in chronological order from left to right. (My fellow RLS peeps, does this ring a bell yet?) Once the index cards are up on your wall, read through what you have. This visual story on the wall helps you see what scenes you have and what scenes you don’t have. By seeing what scenes you have and don’t have, you can start filling in the blanks to expand your story. Having your story up on the wall helps you to see it in a clearer way versus seeing it on your computer. The story is out in front of you. Keep reading below 🙂
As I read the index cards each time through, a new scene occurred to me because I saw and understood my story a little bit more. Great! I wrote that new scene on a blank index card and placed it on the wall. (My RLS peeps, are you getting warmer?) Keep reading below 🙂
We were also encouraged to color code our scenes so that the main storyline was in one color and the B storyline in another. By utilizing colors, we can see how balanced our story is or how one note it is. For example, I realized that my B storyline was lacking in act 2. I also realized that act 2 needed more scenes in general! The other aspect of the index card method that I like is that you can move the cards around to make certain scenes track better, or take them out if they don’t work. Rearranging certain scenes or removing them helps to create clarity for your story. Seeing my index cards on the wall was so awesome, and I had fun reading through my story repeatedly and adding, moving, and removing scenes. Keep reading below 🙂
Okay, okay! My RLS community has to know by now what the index card method sounds like………………………THE SUBTEES PROCESS! The Subtees Process is a method we use in our audition preparation to discover the subtext of our character. Film acting is about subtext. It’s about what you don’t say. The first step of the Subtees Process is to write the entire audition scene on one stack of Super Sticky Post-it Notes before you transfer them to the wall, top to bottom, left to right. And through an extensive series of steps where you utilize different-colored Post-it Notes, you create and build a character from scratch, infusing them with history, light and dark subtext, the moment before, etc. And each time you go through the Subtees Process, you gain more clarity about your character and the scene. And the power of this process is that if I were to look at your wall and go through it, I could also perform the character. Why? Because the Subtees Process is a blueprint, an architectural design, that guides you on how to play this character. Once I expanded my story on the wall, I added those new scenes to the beat sheet on my computer. Keep reading below 🙂
The next step was to use the “sequence method” to continue expanding my beat sheet. I like the sequence method because it breaks down the three act structure into these smaller sections, or “manageable chunks”, that are like these mini stories. And each sequence serves a specific purpose or function to move the story forward. It’s a more gradient approach where I can tackle my story one sequence or chunk at a time. I can see what needs to happen in one sequence before I can transition into the next. I went back to my wall and rearranged my scenes into these sequences. The sequence method gave me more clarity. It helped me to see where the holes in my story were. For example, I realized I needed a little more set up in act 1 to propel my protagonist into act 2. I realized that the scene I thought was my act 2 climax was incorrect and that it was actually the one after it. I also had to make sure that not only did my scenes create a beginning, middle, and end within each sequence, they also had to fulfill the purpose of each particular sequence. So I ended up creating more scenes to add to my beat sheet. Keep reading below 🙂
See you all next week!
Chasing The George 