Writing for the Cut: Shaping Your Script for Cinema

by Greg Loftin

Discovering the story, rather than being literally told the story, is what gives us greatest pleasure when we watch a film.

All aspects of film have been radically transformed by the big shift from analog to digital production. Except the writing bit.

Every word you write must of necessity be makeable, doable, and speakable.

They used a screenplay format called the Continuity Script, which not only presented the film story, but also included the manufacturing instructions (details about camera angles, mise-en-scene, and editing). This generation of screenwriters were versed in the practice of movie making and they were literally writing for the shoot and the cut.

juxtaposition never tells us “the truth” but instead prompts us to discover the truth for ourselves.

So this is a substitution splice. Sometimes called “match cut” editing.

This kind of substitution cut (flame / sun) triggers poetic associations in the viewer’s imagination, and the viewer’s imagination is greater, more powerful than anything we can hope to directly put on screen.

Revisit your own screen story, but this time in the company of Méliès. At each scene break, think about opportunities for some substitution magic. As the man says, don’t worry if it seems cheap, as long as it’s wow.

1. Suggestion: The cut ignites aesthetic and lyrical possibilities. The viewer adds imagination and subtext.

2. Puzzle: The cut creates mystery and piques curiosity. The viewer adds a solution.

3. Kinesis: The cut creates a sense of motion, time, pattern, and rhythm. The viewer adds emotion.

Kinesis is the property of editing closest to music. It determines the intensity, tempo, and pitch of suggestion and puzzle.

Suggestion > Statement Puzzle > Exposition Kinesis > Stasis The cut can register on any and all of these axes at once.

the cut is the key mechanism for prompting the viewers’ contribution to the story.

When we begin a new screenplay, or review work-in-progress, we can make it a habit to consider how much we’re letting the cut tell the story.

For-the-cut strategies: ■ SPLIT SCENE BREAK — spill across the cut ■ NONLINEAR SHUFFLE — move the parts around

The poetry of suggestion is how silent films told their stories;

Cinema delivers such an inordinate quantity of data that the verbal component becomes secondary to the image.

John Truby, author of a seminal screenwriting manual called The Anatomy of Story,

For-the-cut strategies: ■ ELLIPSIS — don’t show, don’t tell ■ IN MEDIAS RES — start in the middle ■ SCRIPT-PLANNED MONTAGE — poetry in motion ■ OPENING / TITLE SEQUENCE — overture

Murch saw that some key scenes, ones that seemed to “shine” the theme of the film very brightly, could cast into shadow those scenes where the theme was more subtly stated. He has a good thumbnail for this: “You pay attention to the stars on nights when there is no moon.” At

Start in the middle of things

Montage In many parts of the world, “montage” simply means editing. In English-speaking countries, it refers to a particular editing figure

the best montages appeal to the eye for sure, but their primary purpose is to appeal to the emotions.

Script-planned montage

Title / Opening Sequence

PARALLEL ACTION — the thrill of cross-cutting ■ ACTION SCENES — writing the set piece ■ SUSPENSE — stretching those nerves ■ DIALOGUE — another kind of action

Our bridge to kinesis is the rhythmic pulse of poetry — pithy dialogue, laconic present-tense action lines, parallel action, use of em-dash, exclamation, “beat,”

Parallel Action

Action Scenes

Suspense

Dialogue for the cut

Writing for the cut means writing in images and sounds with editing in mind.

Can the cut really tell the story?

If we were able to write using images, text, and sounds, then it’s quite likely we’d deliver screenplays that sit much closer to the screen.

2. Just as editors are able to rehearse the cut, so we too might rehearse and “prove” our stories before the shoot begins.

3. Tighter scripts make big-budget savings, and no Monkey Time.

Enter the cutting room

Both screenwriting and editing are iterative and mending crafts.

Screenwriting on the other hand is all about slow failure.

We’re all producers now

we have moved from an analog read-only culture to a digital read-write culture.

Editing is a postproduction craft, it comes into play after the script, and after the shoot. How can we writers possibly “cut” our story without rushes?

One from the heart

I did a survey

Rush the Sky.

There really is an awful lot of waste in film production, and I imagined tighter scripts would be one of the big prizes of writing for the cut.