Script Tip: Second Chapter First
wcmartell
by William C. Martell
IRON MAN opens with Tony Stark (Robert Downey jr) listening to loud
rock music from a boombox while drinking a cocktail in a Humvee
somewhere in the desert - maybe Afghanistan. He's a civilian
surrounded by soldiers in uniform. What is he doing here? He jokes
with the soldiers, including the woman driver. One of the soldiers
asks if he can take a picture with him... Stark agrees - jokes that he
doesn't want to see it on the soldier's MySpace page. Just when they
get ready to snap the picture, the Humvee on the road in front of them
hits a mine and is blown to smithereens. They slam on the brakes...
and are blasted by gunfire. The soldier riding shotgun gets cut to
ribbons, the driver is killed. The soldier who was posing for a
picture only a moment ago tells Stark to stay where he is, then opens
the door and is riddled with gunfire. Everyone is dead except Stark.
He staggers out of the Humvee, into the war zone. Hides behind a
boulder. A bomb lands only a few feet away from him, and he dives for
cover as the bomb explodes. Wounded, bloody, he is captured by enemy
soldiers... a dozen terrorists aiming automatic weapons at him. From
cocktails to prisoner of war in a minute.
Then we get a title card... 36 Hours Earlier.
We're still catching our breath from the opening scene at an awards
ceremony in Las Vegas where we get a puff-piece bio movie of Tony
Stark along with some words of praise from his friend Colonel Rhodes
(Terrence Howard). Stark is getting some sort of Man Of The Year
award, very prestigious. But when it's time to hand over the award,
Tony is nowhere to be found. His business partner Obadiah Stane (Jeff
Bridges) has to accept it for him. You get the feeling Stane has done
this a dozen times before - he's the responsible one. We learn a bit
about their relationship when Stane gives his acceptance speech for
Tony.
Meanwhile, Tony is playing craps - two beautiful women on either side
of him, a cocktail in hand. Rhodes shows up, reminds him he's here to
get this Man Of The Year Award. Tony says, just a minute, I'm on a
streak. Completely blows the dice roll - maybe it was a losing streak?
And Rhodes hands him the award, just like that, at the craps table.
Later, Tony hands the award to some guy in the casino lobby. He
doesn't care.
As they are leaving, a hot female reporter (Leslie Bibb) asks him what
he thinks about his nick-name, "The DaVinci Of Death"? Stark quips
back - and we discover that he's the owner of Stark Industries - a
company that makes weapons. Stark and the reporter trade barbs... then
we cut to them in bed trading precious bodily fluids. When she wakes
up the next morning, no Tony. His computer "butler" Jarvis (voice of
Paul Bettany) and his personal assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth
Paltrow) help her find the door. Pepper goes down into Tony's workshop
to remind him that he's supposed to be on a plane 2 hours ago... But
Tony is busy tearing apart a car engine. It's his private jet, they'll
wait for him. And he continues working on the engine. Getting his
hands greasy.
This is a great two-way scene, one of a couple in the film. You think
the scene is there to show how Tony Stark thinks that he is more
important than anyone else in the world - he's keeping a plane full of
people waiting, not to mention a bunch of VIPs in Afghanistan who are
waiting for him to fly in for this demonstration. And he's playing
around with a car engine. Behind him in the work shop, we see all
kinds of custom sports cars - this is hobby. He'd rather fool around
with his hobby than be responsible. So, this is a character scene,
right? Well, actually it is setting up Tony's mechanical abilities -
which will come into play when he builds his Iron Man suit a couple of
scenes later. The scene secretly sets up Tony's ability to build the
Iron Man suit... but at the time, we think it's just showing how
selfish and irresponsible he is.
(Another great two-way scene deals with Pepper giving Tony a gift.)
When Tony is done playing around with his engine, he gets in an Audi
sports car and drives to the airport at warpdrive. Everyone on the
plane, including Colonel Rhodes, have been waiting for him for
*hours*. There are several more character building moments, on the
plane, and by the time we get to Afghanistan again, we know everything
there is to know about Tony Stark...
And we start with a bang (literally). We open with an exciting scene,
*then* go back to fill in the less exciting (but required for story)
character material. We front load some excitement so that we can take
our time introducing our lead character, the supporting characters
around him, and all of the emotional and character issues he will have
to deal with in the rest of the film.
CHAPTER TWO
Lawrence Block explains how to do this neat trick in his book "Writing
The Novel: From Plot To Print", calling it Second Chapter First.
Basically you take the first chapter that introduces the character and
put it AFTER the second chapter that usually introduces the conflict.
We can use this in our scripts, by starting with the story in progress
and finding ways to introduce our character on the run... then go back
and fill in the character information.
Alan Ball's AMERICAN BEAUTY opens with a grainy videotape with Thora
Birch talking her boyfriend into killing her dad (Kevin Spacey), "You
want me to kill him?" Then Spacey narrates, "This is my life. In less
than a year I'll be dead." That's all in the opening minute of the
film! We KNOW that this seemingly perfect upper middle class June &
Ward Cleaver family is headed to hell... and we get to watch. Knowing
that Spacey will be killed by the end of the film makes him
fascinating.
We will watch the most boring aspects of his life because the story
has already begun... we know where we're going. The greatest side
effect of Second Chapter First is that the audience will really pay
attention to the character information, because this isn't just any
guy... it's the guy who witnessed the murder, or discovered that his
wife is a spy, or found out that lotto ticket he gave to a homeless
guy is the big winner. Now the ordinary parts of his life are
interesting. We can spend some time building character because the
audience knows that this is a SPECIAL character.
THE FUGITIVE uses the second chapter first method with flashbacks. The
film opens with an ambulance joining a dozen police cars in front of
the Kimble house. We see Kimble's wife dead, and forty seconds into
the film Kimble is taken away by the police. Now a flashback
introduces Kimble, his wife, and his friend at a party. The film
alternates between flashbacks showing the events leading up to the
murder, and the police interrogation of Kimble. Each flashback is
designed not only to tell the backstory, but to expose character. We
learn about Kimble, about his wife and their relationship, we even get
information about his friend and a handful of clues that we'll need to
solve the crime later in the film. And by the ten minute mark Richard
Kimble has been found guilty of murdering his wife. Wham!
MICHAEL CLAYTON opens with George Clooney's lawyer pulling his car to
the side of the road, and running up a hill... behind him, he car
explodes! Someone is trying to kill him! Why? Then we flash back to
what brought him to this point. A film like MICHAEL CLAYTON is
basically a very slow paced character study - so we need some hook to
make the audience interested in this guy. In this case, it's Second To
Last Chapter First. We get the big explosion from the end, then zip
back to the beginning of the story. Now, we *know* people will
eventually be trying to kill this Michael Clayton guy, so we are
interested in him... even though his family drama and office politics.
NO FLASHBACKS REQUIRED
IRON MAN and these other films use flashbacks, but you can use the
Second Chapter First method and maintain chronology. You just
rearrange your story so that your conflict comes first... then you
fill in all of the character details and supporting characters and
subplot material.
Let's say your script is about a Businessman who witnesses a murder on
his lunch hour and gets a great look at the killer. He describes the
killer to a police sketch artist. The sketch looks similar to three
known criminals. They decide to have a Line Up. The three criminals
are brought in, and a pair of detectives that fit the same general
description are added to the line up just to fill in the spaces. This
is a fairly common practice. The witness looks at the five men in the
line up, and identifies the killer... it's one of the cops!
You could start your story with the witness waking up in the morning,
and we meet his wife and kids. His wife thinks he works too much, his
kid has problems at school and they need to go to a parent-teacher
conference... but our hero isn't sure he has time for that. Little
spat with the wife over whether he cares about his family or not. Then
he drives to the office, and we meet the people in his car pool - and
all of their issues with each other. He works half a day - and we see
all of the office politics he has to deal with. His boss is completely
incompetent, and the company is going to go bankrupt unless they can
land this one big account. Our hero is in charge of the account, but
his office rival is trying to sabotage him... and keeps creating
rumors and problems that our hero must quash. After all kinds of
office politics, our hero breaks for lunch... and witnesses the murder
at end act one.
But the story doesn't really start until he sees the murder - all of
the stuff before that may be setting up the lead character and even
some elements of the stiry, but it's boring. It's stuff that happens
BEFORE the story starts.
But what if our businessman witnesses the murder on page one? Then we
learn some things about his character as he deals with the police,
then he goes back to the office and tries to work - and has to deal
with his incompetent boss and scheming business rival and all of the
office politics. But now these things are bigger problems, because
he's a murder witness. He rides home in the carpool, and tries to live
his life at home with his wife and kid... and deal with the parent-
teacher conference and his family issues... but now he's a murder
witness.
The same character information, but instead of being a boring
businessman, our protagonist is a murder witness. Same exact
character, but now we know WHY we're supposed to be interested in him.
And when we drop in the "killers is a cop" plot twist on page 10,
you've hooked the Reader for the rest of the script.
You want to start as late as possible. If the story can't start until
the businessman witnesses the murder, that's not the end of act one,
that's the beginning of your script!
By following the lead of IRON MAN and many other scripts, and
*starting* with conflict and then setting up character and story, you
can grab the reader on page one and make your lead character more
interesting. Second Chapter First... try it!
- Bill
For more FREE script tips:
http://www.ScriptSecrets.Net
copyright 2008 by William C. Martell
Alan Brooks
> Lawrence Block explains how to do this neat trick in his book "Writing
> The Novel: From Plot To Print", calling it Second Chapter First.
I'm writing a novel now, so I've got to get a copy of this. If 300 pages
into it isn't too late to read about how it's supposed to be done...
> By following the lead of IRON MAN and many other scripts, and
> *starting* with conflict and then setting up character and story, you
> can grab the reader on page one and make your lead character more
> interesting. Second Chapter First... try it!
>
> - Bill
>
> For more FREE script tips:
> http://www.ScriptSecrets.Net
>
>
> copyright 2008 by William C. Martell
Another great tips post. William C. Martell for Vice President!
Alan Brooks
---------------------------
A Schmuck with an Underwood
-- Only if Kerri Walsh
turns Obama down,
of course.
MWSM FAQ: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/faq.html
Filtering Trolls: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/trolls.html
Remysun
> I'm writing a novel now, so I've got to get a copy of this. If 300 pages
> into it isn't too late to read about how it's supposed to be done...
Second chapter first? You could always cut and paste. Just make sure
to back up your file before attempting to do so.
wcmartell
> Another great tips post. William C. Martell for Vice President!
Thanks! I'm voting for Paris - I really like her energy plan.
- Bill
Alan Brooks
>
>> Another great tips post. William C. Martell for Vice President!
>
> Thanks! I'm voting for Paris - I really like her energy plan.
Geez, I got so involved in Kerri Walsh's energy campaign I completely forgot
about Paris'. Kerri just says energy to me. She's at least got to get some
sort of ambassadorship in the new administration.
Alan Brooks
---------------------------
A Schmuck with an Underwood
-- People's Republic of
Woodstock?
wcmartell
Paulo Joe Jingy
> SECOND CHAPTER FIRST
> by William C. Martell
>
> IRON MAN opens with Tony Stark (Robert Downey jr) listening to loud
> rock music from a boombox while drinking a cocktail in a Humvee
> somewhere in the desert - maybe Afghanistan. He's a civilian
> surrounded by soldiers in uniform. What is he doing here? He jokes
> with the soldiers, including the woman driver. One of the soldiers
> asks if he can take a picture with him... Stark agrees - jokes that he
> doesn't want to see it on the soldier's MySpace page. Just when they
> get ready to snap the picture, the Humvee on the road in front of them
> hits a mine and is blown to smithereens. They slam on the brakes...
> and are blasted by gunfire. The soldier riding shotgun gets cut to
> ribbons, the driver is killed. The soldier who was posing for a
> picture only a moment ago tells Stark to stay where he is, then opens
> the door and is riddled with gunfire. Everyone is dead except Stark.
> He staggers out of the Humvee, into the war zone. Hides behind a
> boulder. A bomb lands only a few feet away from him, and he dives for
> cover as the bomb explodes. Wounded, bloody, he is captured by enemy
> soldiers... a dozen terrorists aiming automatic weapons at him. From
> cocktails to prisoner of war in a minute.
>
> Then we get a title card... 36 Hours Earlier.
Freakin' ripoffs!
I haven't seen "Iron Man", but I rewrote the beginning of my current
(on again, off again) script about six months ago to do the same
thing.
"Your lawyers will be hearing from my lawyers, Mr. Iron Man!"
(And I don't want to hear anything about that chronology crap, either.)
mary...@rcn.com
> If I'm gonna be VP, I want to be under Paris.
OMG, are you closet French?
Ron
I find this technique pretty hackneyed.
Battlestar Galactica was doing it every other episode for a while. Hey,
I like that show, but I'm getting tired of this trick.
It's really not anything new. How is what Michael Clayton did any
different from what All About Eve did?
(Wow. Is this a Neal moment? Getting cantankerous and talking about old
films. Uh-oh. Actually, scratch that. Neal is more successful than I am,
so ... cool.)
Actually, I think Michael Clayton (a film I otherwise liked quite a bit)
demonstrated the biggest problem with this technique.
SPOILERS FOR MICHAEL CLAYTON
It comes in the sequence right before the car blows up. The scene COULD
be tense and thrilling - will Clayton somehow avoid getting blown up? We
have all the ingredients for a classic suspense scene, but the scene
isn't suspenseful at all.
Why not?
Because we know that Clayton is out of his car when the bomb goes off.
I understand why people are attracted to this technique, but to me it
bespeaks a lack of confidence in the script's quieter moments. The fear
is that those talking scenes won't keep an audience interested, so we
have to chop up the movie to trick the audience into enjoying them.
A better technique, in my mind, can be found in North by Northwest.
But before I get to that, let me talk about first acts for a minute. The
first act has to do two things. It's got to establish the status quo,
and it's got to introduce the element which changes the status quo and
pushes the protagonist to a point of decision.
So we see Luke Skywalker on his home planet, and then the droids show
up, and they push him to decide to go rescue Leia. Or we see Ripley on
her spaceship, until the Alien shows up and forces her to fight to get
it off the ship. Or we see Sarah Connor being a waitress, until Arnold
shows up and forces her to run for her life.
(Aside: notice how that thing they're forced to do ... that's the second
act tension!)
But what North by Northwest does is very clever. Instead of starting the
film with the status quo (Cary Grant is a womanizing drunk dominated by
his mother) we start it with Grant getting kidnapped. That's the action
that will eventually force him to make a choice to launch the second
act.
What about the status quo? We still get it - but we get it in the
context of Cary Grant trying to clear his name. So rather than static
scenes illustrating his life we get dynamic scenes with strong drama,
which just so happen to touch on all the key aspects of Grant's status
quo before the film began.
In other words: where a film like Iron Man keeps the story linear, but
restructures the film, North by Northwest restructures the underlying
status quo to put the status quo second.
It's second chapter second ... but the second chapter does the work most
films do in their first chapter.
-Ron
Remysun
> I find this technique pretty hackneyed.
Both Ron and Bill have made very good points. Second Chapter First
forces the writer to enter the story as late as possible, "in media
res", as an infamous Wolverine once put it.
And yes, it's hackneyed to start with a flash forward. I didn't
appreciate that out of Ghandhi when I was seven.
On Aug 20, 8:48 pm, wcmartell <wcmart...@compuserve.com> wrote:
> You want to start as late as possible. If the story can't start until
> the businessman witnesses the murder, that's not the end of act one,
> that's the beginning of your script!
I guess the hack part comes with handling the story elements. Starting
a story does not necessarily mean you're starting the story, no matter
what order you put your scenes in.
But I hope there isn't any confusion as to what's second chapter and
what's character intro.
On Aug 22, 10:34 pm, Ron <ronaldinh...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> We
> have all the ingredients for a classic suspense scene, but the scene
> isn't suspenseful at all.
> Because we know that Clayton is out of his car when the bomb goes off.
Good point, but I feel some of your other examples are Second Chapter
First.
> So we see Luke Skywalker on his home planet, and then the droids show
> up, and they push him to decide to go rescue Leia.
The story starts with the capture of the Rebel ship and the escape of
the droids. Luke had lived his whole life on the podunk planet, but we
don't see any of that until the droids lead us there.
> Or we see Sarah Connor being a waitress, until Arnold
> shows up and forces her to run for her life.
The Terminator had already arrived from the Future. Therefore, we can
focus on who the intended victim is. She had no importance until we
knew the Terminator was gunning down all the Sarah Connors in L.A..
> In other words: where a film like Iron Man keeps the story linear, but
> restructures the film, North by Northwest restructures the underlying
> status quo to put the status quo second.
I didn't think Iron Man needed to resort to a 36 hour flashback, but
it set up a lot of Tony Stark's arc-- not just for this film, but the
inevitable sequel as well. I'm not sure how much of that could have
been presented linearly, because the two settings are on opposite
sides of the world.
Perhaps you show the test failing, then you show the carousing Tony
Stark, holding up everybody counting on him. But he eventually
stumbles in, tinkers, and KABOOM! Jericho works. Then you can blow up
his Humvee. Either way, the story is set up that Tony Stark, that mech
wunderkind, needed to be in Afghanistan, but I might be messing with
the comic's origins.
> The first act has to do two things. It's got to establish the status quo,
> and it's got to introduce the element which changes the status quo and
> pushes the protagonist to a point of decision
True, but introducing the element that changes the status quo before
establishing the status quo means that there's already a conflict set
up between what was, and what will be.
Ron
Remysun <remys...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> The story starts with the capture of the Rebel ship and the escape of
> the droids. Luke had lived his whole life on the podunk planet, but we
> don't see any of that until the droids lead us there.
Think structurally about what's going on there. What's the status quo?
The status quo is that there's a civil war - a rebellion, and Luke is
stuck on this podunk planet even though he wants to be in the middle of
the action.
You don't need to see his "whole life" because it's all
well-demonstrated through a brief scene or two. It's worth pointing out
that Lucas originally shot an additional scene here, but cut it because
it's completely unneccesary. (Ah ... remember when he used to do that?)
"Second chapter first" in this model would be putting the escape from
Tattoine first (that's the first real action sequence that involves
Luke) and then jumping back to him on the planet.
> > Or we see Sarah Connor being a waitress, until Arnold
> > shows up and forces her to run for her life.
>
> The Terminator had already arrived from the Future. Therefore, we can
> focus on who the intended victim is. She had no importance until we
> knew the Terminator was gunning down all the Sarah Connors in L.A..
This is more of a gray area, and certainly there is a sense of impending
doom for Sarah - but again notice how this is achieved without the
artifice of chopping up the timeline. The events of the story, unfolding
in linear time, are enough to keep us interested.
Again, what's the first action sequence that involves Sarah? I guess
it's the shootout at the nightclub. Wouldn't "second chapter" start
there?
Nothing in a more linear model suggests that the "first chapter" should
be boring. There's no rule against having action in the "first chapter."
In both of these cases, the first chapter really illustrates the
character's status quo: Sarah is a waitress, single, getting dates
cancelled on her, lonely. Then the Terminator almost kills her at a
club, and her life changes. The second half of the first act is Sarah -
reacting to that attempt on her life - putting her faith in the police
to keep her safe.
Luke is a dirt farmer, doing menial work on robots. The droids show up,
he learns that they carry a secret message, and his life changes. The
second half of the second act is Luke trying to track down the origins
of that message.
mary...@rcn.com
interesting stuff about Star Wars and Terminator.
Sarah's roomie was murdered - mistaken identity - and she ends up on
the run from the Terminator. She was forced out of her life onto the
run. Luke wanted to own his own life, was restrained by family rules
- and then forced onto an adventure when his folks were killed. He
wanted adventure - not this one - and she wanted piece and quiet.
Remysun
>
> Remysun <remysun2...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > The story starts with the capture of the Rebel ship and the escape of
> > the droids. Luke had lived his whole life on the podunk planet, but we
> > don't see any of that until the droids lead us there.
>
> Think structurally about what's going on there. What's the status quo?
> The status quo is that there's a civil war - a rebellion, and Luke is
> stuck on this podunk planet even though he wants to be in the middle of
> the action.
> You don't need to see his "whole life" because it's all
> well-demonstrated through a brief scene or two. It's worth pointing out
> that Lucas originally shot an additional scene here, but cut it because
> it's completely unneccesary. (Ah ... remember when he used to do that?)
Yes, I do *sighs*.
> "Second chapter first" in this model would be putting the escape from
> Tattoine first (that's the first real action sequence that involves
> Luke) and then jumping back to him on the planet.
No, I think you're taking that too literally. You're taking the first
turning point, or BIG EVENT, and trying to say that was the inciting
incident, or CATALYST.
Like when you describe Terminator:
> Again, what's the first action sequence that involves Sarah? I guess
> it's the shootout at the nightclub. Wouldn't "second chapter" start
> there?
That's the turning point, which is what the movie's about. That's the
ingredients coming together.
This is Bill Martell summarizing Lawrence Block:
: Basically you take the first chapter that introduces the character
and
: put it AFTER the second chapter that usually introduces the
conflict.
The character is introduced after the conflict is set up. That's true
in Star Wars and Terminator. In fact, they're bad examples for looking
for problems, precisely because they solved them. Second Chapter First
is for the person who's having trouble getting their story started.
To go to my novelist's Americano story, he started the novel with
getting fired, rather than the inciting relationship, or even better,
stepping off the plane in the Philippines. He totally lost where his
conflict was coming from. His firing was a symptom, not the cause,
which could actually be traced back to the death of the first wife--
but that's backstory. The firing should have been backstory.
The conflict was how he could consider any of the women flaunting
affections to get a visa to the US to be true love. He was being used.
He was using them. That occurred in the Philippines, not in the
office.
Now, start with the conflict of being a stranger in a strange land,
and build the conflict. These women he has corresponded with throw
themselves at him, but we discover how he might not be so worthy of
their esteem. Everybody's motives is brought into question. It starts
to become more than just an alt.sex travelogue.
> Nothing in a more linear model suggests that the "first chapter" should
> be boring. There's no rule against having action in the "first chapter."
Of course. The rule is the need for conflict. Conflict first. Then the
character has the need to think of how to react. "I think, therefore,
I am."
RonB
> IRON MAN and these other films use flashbacks, but you can use the
> Second Chapter First method and maintain chronology. You just
> rearrange your story so that your conflict comes first... then you
> fill in all of the character details and supporting characters and
> subplot material.
Hmmm... So, if that script snippet thing that I put up (starting with an
attempted suicide) *could* work if I had a strong second scene. (Which, at
this point, I don't.)
Interesting tip. Thanks.
--
RonB
"There's a story there...somewhere"
Remysun
> Hmmm... So, if that script snippet thing that I put up (starting with an
> attempted suicide) *could* work if I had a strong second scene. (Which, at
> this point, I don't.)
Of course. Everybody's been looking forward to it. Once you define the
conflict, character is easy.
wcmartell
> A better technique, in my mind, can be found in North by Northwest.
Yes - that's the section of the tip called NO FLASHBACKS REQUIRED -
and it's the best way to do it. The bigger issues with CLAYTON was
that it was a completely false scene fro the get-go, designed *only*
to provide the action opening. If you look at the rest of the scene as
it plays out, it's nonsense. The killers plan is stupid, and it
obviously doesn't work.
It completely works in IRON MAN - and I don't think there would be a
better way to start that film. One of the great things starting with
Stark being captured does is create a sense of dread during all of the
"flashback" portion, because we know whta is going to happen. Also -
the irony of the arms maker being the victim of his own devices.
What's important is - does it work in this story? And then, the skills
of the writer (the difference between a crappy script and a great
script is usually the decisions the writer makes and their ability to
pull off those choices).
- Bill