Screenplay Tips: Teach Something

As an intern at Raindance this past summer I had the choice to come to a course each week. The course I chose was the Raindance Writer’s Certificate. We read scripts, watched film clips, and most importantly learned the art of writing and selling the hot screenplay. Here are some of my notes from those Wednesday nights.

A screenwriting tip from the movie Fight Club (1999): Teach your audience something.

My notes are great as you can see, but I remember exactly what this tip means. In the movie Fight Club our narrator Jack has the barrel of a gun stuck down his throat as his alter ego Tyler Dyrden waits patiently for the pending explosion. Of course what would that explosion be without soap. In a few quick scenes at the beginning of the film we see the fruits of project mayhem wrapped around the foundation of ten buildings in the business district of the city. The script paints a prettier picture:

Jack turns so that he can see down -- 31 STORIES.

JACK (V.O.)

We have front row seats for this

Theater of Mass Destruction. The
Demolitions Committee of Project
Mayhem wrapped the foundation columns
of ten buildings with blasting
gelatin. In two minutes, primary
charges will blow base charges, and
those buildings will be reduced to
smoldering rubble. I know this
because Tyler knows this.

What else does the narrator teach us? What it's like to have insomnia...

INT. COPY ROOM - DAY

Jack, sleepy, stands over a copy machine. His Starbucks cup
sits on the lid, moving back and forth as the machine copies.

JACK (V.O.)
With insomnia, nothing is real.
Everything is far away. Everything
is a copy of a copy of a copy.

How about how car companies determine recalls on faulty parts…

INT. WAREHOUSE - CONTINUOUS

A giant corrugated METAL DOOR opens.

JACK (V.O.)
On a long enough time line, the
survival rate for everyone drops to
zero.

Two TECHNICIANS lead Jack to the BURNT-OUT SHELL of a
WRECKED AUTOMOBILE. Jack sets down his briefcase, opens it
and starts to make notes on a CLIPBOARDED FORM.

JACK (V.O.)
I'm a recall coordinator. My job is
to apply the formula. It's a story
problem.

TECHNICIAN #1
Here's where the infant went through
the windshield. Three points.

JACK (V.O.)
A new car built by my company leaves
somewhere traveling at 60 miles per
hour. The rear differential locks up.

TECHNICIAN #2
The teenager's braces around the
backseat ashtray would make a good
"anti-smoking" ad.

JACK (V.O.)
The car crashes and burns with
everyone trapped inside. Now: do we
initiate a recall?

TECHNICIAN #1
The father must've been huge. See
how the fat burnt into the driver's
seat with his polyester shirt? Very
"modern art."

JACK (V.O.)
Take the number of vehicles in the
field, (A), and multiply it by the
probable rate of failure, (B), then
multiply the result by the average
out-of-court settlement, (C). A
times B times C equals X...

CUT TO:

INT. AIRPLANE CABIN - MOVING DOWN RUNWAY

Jack is speaking to the BUSINESSWOMAN next to him.

JACK
If X is less than the cost of a
recall, we don't do one.

BUSISNESS WOMAN
Are there a lot of these kinds of
accidents?

JACK
Oh, you wouldn't believe.

BUSINESS WOMAN
... Which... car company do you work
for?

JACK
A major one.

Fight Club is full of lessons in its script. I didn’t know how to make a bomb out of soap (still don’t), but it was interesting to hear how it might be done. I didn’t know you could turn people’s own fat into soap, and I certainly hope this car recall business is made up. The points being if you are one of those many people out there working on a script keep this idea in mind.

Screenwriter’s tip: Teach your audience something.