Su-City Pictures East, LLC

Screenplay & Film Consulting By Susan Kouguell

Tag: Locarno Film Festival 2014

Susan’s: Director Luc Besson talks LUCY and the Protagonist

The 67° edition of the Locarno International Film Festival opened with Lucy in the outdoor Grande Piazza on August 6 before a standing room crowd.  At the Festival, Luc Besson described Lucy as a thriller with action.  In my book Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! I write about how to develop characters in this genre.

In a thriller, your protagonist (often the ‘everyman’) must be in jeopardy and eventually outsmart the antagonist in order to survive. Readers must feel empathy for your protagonist and root for him or her to survive.  The suspense must continue to build as your story unfolds with intricate twists and turns.  Readers must sense the imminent danger.   You must build the audience’s anticipation, uncertainties and questions, and deliver on their expectation—while keeping them guessing.

Lucy is an engaging protagonist because she is identifiable and resourceful, and uses her physical and mental prowess to survive against all odds.  She is an unlikely hero.

Besson talked about his films with powerful action female characters, La Femme Nikita, The Fifth Element or The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, stating:

“I think Lucy is different because Nikita, Leeloo and Joan of Arc were very powerful women with skills, whereas Lucy is a totally average girl at the beginning of this story. What was interesting for me about Lucy was to take a character, who represented Miss Average. She could have been me, or she could have been you. She had no particular characteristics.  It’s the first time I took someone who is at the bottom of the ladder. She’s stupid in the beginning; she’s a student that maybe is partying too much, and sort of has a boyfriend. She’s away from home.

TO READ MORE:

http://www.screenwritersutopia.com/article/32622e96

 

Modern Times, Metaphor and Visual Storytelling (The Script Lab)

At the 2014 Locarno International Film Festival, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times was shown accompanied by a live orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.  I had not seen the film for many years and was particularly struck by the visual storytelling and the use of metaphor; two points I detail in my book Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays!

Use visual storytelling to establish the setting and mood. Opening with a significant image will also help to grab the reader’s attention. The reader must be able to step into the world that you have created and have a complete understanding of it.

The first four shots of Modern Times:

1)    Title card: “Modern Times” A story of industry, of individual enterprise – humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness”

2)    An image of the second hand of a large-faced clock moving forward

3)    A herd of sheep rushing forward

4)    A mass of rushing workers ascending subway stairs.

In these four shots the audience is informed what the story is about from the opening title card, and the three separate shots that follow – the clock, the sheep, and rushing workers. All of this vital information is conveyed in less than 30 seconds.

Characters’ intentions, agendas, beliefs, feelings, behaviors, and so on, can be conveyed through the careful use of metaphors. In visual storytelling, metaphors can be used to illustrate the theme or themes of your script, a plot point, or a character’s action or behavior.

In Modern Times, the sheep serve as a metaphor of the rushing workers; they are the masses – the humanity.

In a more contemporary example, let’s look at Little Miss Sunshine, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, screenplay by Michael Arndt. The 1960’s Volkswagen van in which the Hoover family travels to the children’s beauty pageant, is a metaphor for the 60’s era of rebellion and freedom, and signifies the various family members’ desires and actions. The only way to get the van running is for the family to push it and then jump inside while it’s moving. This van-pushing routine symbolizes the family needing to work together in order to reconcile their differences. The open road, the pageant, and Richard’s get-rich schemes, are metaphors of the American dream.

In Frank S. Nugent’s 1936 review of Modern Times in the New York Times, Nugent writes:

TO READ MORE:

http://thescriptlab.com/features/screenwriting-101/2829-modern-times-metaphor-and-visual-storytelling