Yesterday we linked to Tony Tost’s blog post about how he broke in. Among the many interesting insights he shared, one stood out for me :
As a rule of thumb, when you’re breaking in, you probably want to do one of two things in your breaking-in script:
1. Find a unique way to tell a time-tested type of story. (TRUE DETECTIVE, etc)
Tony Tost – How I Accidentally Wrote a Great Script for Breaking In
2. Tell a unique story in a simple, direct voice. (LOST, etc)
This echoed for me with another rule of thumb I picked up recently from the Draft Zero podcast, which I will now paraphrase – because features only have 90-120ish minutes, you get either a complicated plot, complicated characters, or a complicated execution, but only one of those three.
Now obviously there are exceptions to both these ideas. As we said in our very first article and statement of intent – this site is about a method, not the method. No rule is going to hold true one-hundred percent of the time.
But as a way of thinking about your storytelling and what your narrative can bear, I think both of these rules of thumb are very interesting.
Keep It (Mostly) Simple, Stupid
There’s a reason “the same but different” is a go to phrase in Hollywood. When developing stories, you want something fresh enough that viewers don’t feel like they’ve seen it before but familiar enough that they don’t get lost or turned off by the experience. This is, of course, a generalization about the audience, but also a useful one.
In the end you’re only going to be able to spend so much time training your audience in how your story works. By keeping your ask simple – here’s the one thing where you really need to pay attention – you make their lives easier and let them better appreciate the complicated thing you’re doing.
Conversely, it’s also a good way to check that you are bringing something new to an otherwise familiar story. If everything in your script is simple and done before – why should we want to watch it? What about it will stick with us?
Some Examples –
I’m now going to cherry pick some examples of 2020 films that back up this general rule of thumb. You can of course find counter-examples, but we’re talking about this as a guideline and not a rule so don’t sweat it so much. And with that caveat –
Promising Young Woman has a complicated execution – with its act breaks and highly presentational directing – with a simple plot – she wants revenge – and characters – she wants revenge.
Bill & Ted Face the Music has a complicated plot – with time travel, trips to hell, and multiple generations of Wyld Stallyns running around – but simple characters – most excellent! – and execution – it cleanly explains to us the goals of each sequence and presents them in a straightforward fashion.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom has complicated characters – there’s a reason they keep giving us monologues, to peel back more layers – with a simple plot – record an album – and execution – three sets and clear, chronological cause and effect.
The Takeaway
So for your next project, at some point it may be worth asking yourself – what’s my one complicated thing? And then follow through on that decision, keeping the other clutter to a minimum and really delivering on an interesting and fresh execution of that one element.