As I read chapter eight, “Two Incidents”, of Syd Field’s “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting”, I noticed that I started to feel more confident with my own screenplay. When I first started writing my screenplay for this class, I was not really sure how to do so. I was uncertain on the format, the differences in description between novel writing–which is what I’m used to– and screenwriting, and the layout of a script/screenplay overall. Fortunately, writing up to about twenty pages has brought me to a point where I feel much more comfortable, but there are still things I have been uncertain about. For example, did I open my screenplay in a way that will grab my audience’s attention and effectively set up the rest of my story?
What Syd Field wrote in this section of his book has largely helped me answer that question. As he described the style and aspects of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I started to look for parallels or similarities in what I had done. And I was actually able to find some, especially in the concept of an opening scene “visual grabber”. In most of Esterzhas’s works, according to Field, he begins by thrusting the audience into the story immediately with an opening sequence that “grabs you by the throat and seizes your attention.” That is what I tried to do with my own screenplay. The very first scene of my story is Evakdor Hafdin–the Trusted One– running through his palace as the walls essentially crumble around him. It’s a dramatic, rapid-paced series of action that not only introduces a main character and the conflict, but also sets the stage for the rest of the film to commence in a way that I hope is effective and engaging.
Syd Field’s “Screenplay” chapter “Two Incidents” discusses the inciting incident and how important it is to the screenplay. As someone who focuses most of her writing on fantasy, I’ve always had a unique relationship with inciting incidents. Fantasy stories, due to the nature of them existing in fantasy worlds, require a foundation of worldbuilding that contemporary fiction doesn’t require. Superhero stories like any of the Spider-Man movies across the past twenty-two years typically require less exposition to do this, but overall, there is often some level of introduction or exposition that is often required to establish worldly mechanics. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is one of the textbook examples of this, the introduction for the entire first season filled with exposition quotes about what the Slayer is. Needless to say, this required exposition often pushes the inciting incident, thus leaving people watching or reading fantasy stories disastified with the pacing, and much more willing to give up on it despite the fact that fantasy stories often offer new avenues to analyze the human condition and the environments and societies we live in. Within my own screenplay (and corresponding book project), this was something I worried about. Although my world is modern and much less “high-concept” than say “Lord of the Rings” with its entire world map and history, I still have a variety of fantastical influences that require some level of explanation. As a result, I often have a habit of jumping into my inciting incident too early, leaving exposition in weird pockets around it, something that appeared within my first five pages of my screenplay until I restructured my entire first act using advice from this class, and by extension, Syd Field’s writing. This chapter helped me feel more secure in this reconstruction, as it helped me understand the difference between a key incident and an inciting incident. In my story, the inciting incident (as I’d initially planned it), due to the fragmented nature of Dolores’ remembrance of Mariko’s presence in her life, could arguably be split into two parts. The first part, oddly enough, happens later into the run-time than the second one, much like the 2016 film “Deadpool” (directed by Tim Miller and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick), and is the introduction of Mariko and the subsequent sabotage of her attempts to stop the looming end of the world threat. It sets the main storyline (Dolores and Mariko’s relationship with its themes of societal failure in the face of mental health, abuse, and social justice issues) into motion. The second part of the inciting incident mostly exists as “the attention grabber” but also supplies inklings of the main storyline’s ending and stakes— a scene where Dolores prepares to lose *everything* she has worked for due to the series of previous failures that can be traced back to herself, Mariko, and the Council. Ultimately, the inciting incident’s fragmentation lends part of itself to being the key incident as well— the key incident being Mariko and Dolores meeting and the subsequent sabotage, which occurs at Act I’s end— and the inciting incident being that opening scene. This chapter not only helped me define this better, but fill my mind with ideas of how I want to approach the overall pacing and inner monologue of Dolores here-on-out.
I really liked this chapter of Syd Fields book, one feature of the “inciting incident” that struck me was how different it can be depending on the story you’re writing. Most inciting incidents in film are flashy, action and drama, which very clearly spell out exactly what you can expect in the story. Other movies however can have more simple and subtle inciting incidents, a quiet mystery or maybe just the introduction of something interesting. Your inciting incident is almost always the opening scene, leading into the key incident. The inciting incident and key incident are not something I previously saw as separate elements of a story, which is maybe why I found this chapter so interesting as it was something I had never really heard of or at least not been overly aware of.
In my screenplay, the inciting incident is not necessarily revealed until later on in act 3, but is instead hinted at enough for the audience to get an understanding of whats going on without drowning in the specifics. Odette’s grandmother’s death is the inciting incident, and takes place before the story, however the key incident is Odette recieving the cactus, kickstarting her whole emotional journey of processing her grandmother’s death. I love my story and premise, but ironically i think my first few pages are my weakest, not because its poorly written but because I worry the key incident is not clear or interesting enough. Syd Field discusses how you can show or tell your inciting and key incident, i went for the former personally. This chapter did make me feel more confident in this element of my story however, and I will keep moving forward and maybe make an edit here or there if necessary.
As I read Chapter Eight, “Two Incidents,” from Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, I found myself feeling more confident about my own screenplay. Initially, when I began writing for this class, I wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. I struggled with the format, the differences between novel writing—which I’m familiar with—and screenwriting, as well as the overall structure of a script. Thankfully, after writing about twenty pages, I’ve reached a point where I feel much more at ease, though I still have some uncertainties. For instance, I question whether my opening will effectively capture my audience’s attention and set up the rest of the story.The insights Syd Field provides in this chapter have greatly assisted me in addressing that concern. As he explored the style and elements of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I began to identify parallels with my own work. In my story I really though about the beggining and end as well as parallels between my pro and antoginist. For my story these are inciting moments that depend the plot and it just adds so much. I think the biggest thing for me is my opening that action and how it progresses my story.
As I read Chapter Eight, “Two Incidents,” from Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, I found myself feeling more confident about my own screenplay. Initially, when I began writing for this class, I wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. I struggled with the format, the differences between novel writing—which I’m familiar with—and screenwriting, as well as the overall structure of a script. Thankfully, after writing about twenty pages, I’ve reached a point where I feel much more at ease, though I still have some uncertainties. For instance, I question whether my opening will effectively capture my audience’s attention and set up the rest of the story.The insights Syd Field provides in this chapter have greatly assisted me in addressing that concern. As he explored the style and elements of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I began to identify parallels with my own work. In my story I really though about the beggining and end as well as parallels between my pro and antoginist. For my story these are inciting moments that depend the plot and it just adds so much. I think the biggest thing for me is my opening that action and how it progresses my story.
In Syd Field’s “Two Incidents,” one thing that stuck out to me was the concept of a visual “grabber” in an opening scene, that “grabs you by the throat and seizes your attention.” He says that it also sets the story into motion and puts you in the storyline along with the main character. This concept has made me rethink my opening and if it’s exactly up to par with what it should be in order to capture the attention of the audience. Understanding the inciting incident and the key incident is really helpful in visualizing where certain scenes should be placed and how they should be fleshed out. Being able to pick out which scene in my screenplay is an inciting incident is also really useful so that I can better understand if I’m checking the boxes of what a good screenplay opening consists of, especially given that I’ve never written one before. Also knowing which of my scenes consists of the key incident is useful to know that I am giving a purpose to my characters and am establishing an end goal to the screenplay. This chapter is definitely one of the more helpful ones to me in regard to the technical aspects of a screenplay that move a story along and give it purpose.
One thing that grabbed my attention in chapter 8 of “Screenplay” by Syd Field was this idea of setting up your story around your inciting incident. Due to the nature of the screenplay I was intending to make, I was thinking I could more or less make it create the inciting incident as the movie progressed, but there was something about it I didn’t like. After reading this chapter, I understand what it was and why. Rather than allow my story to loosely flop around what the main key incident and what the plot of the movie is about, I should instead showcase it in a pleasing way to pull my audience in and want to see it till then end. In Django, for instance, the inciting incident is the sporadic shootout between Shultz and the two Spek brothers. The key incident is then when Shultz and Django form a partnership to hunt down Django’s previous “masters”. In this way, you’re pulled in and want to know more as soon as possible. It also allows the story to be structured around these incidents. It sets up who the main characters are, what they act like, and what they hope to accomplish. We later learn in the movie that Django remembers his last captors so well due to the fact that they did horrible things to him and his wife. This adds to the key incident as well, but it was only allowed to do so because we already setup everything at the beginning. This chapter has lead me down a rabbit hole of trying to better figure out how I truly want my screenplay to develop.
10 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 15”
Here is the link to my ePortfolio page, where I have uploaded the first twenty pages of my screenplay!
https://tlawrence4.uneportfolio.org/screenplay/
(Sorry! This was supposed to be posted under Journal #14.)
As I read chapter eight, “Two Incidents”, of Syd Field’s “Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting”, I noticed that I started to feel more confident with my own screenplay. When I first started writing my screenplay for this class, I was not really sure how to do so. I was uncertain on the format, the differences in description between novel writing–which is what I’m used to– and screenwriting, and the layout of a script/screenplay overall. Fortunately, writing up to about twenty pages has brought me to a point where I feel much more comfortable, but there are still things I have been uncertain about. For example, did I open my screenplay in a way that will grab my audience’s attention and effectively set up the rest of my story?
What Syd Field wrote in this section of his book has largely helped me answer that question. As he described the style and aspects of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I started to look for parallels or similarities in what I had done. And I was actually able to find some, especially in the concept of an opening scene “visual grabber”. In most of Esterzhas’s works, according to Field, he begins by thrusting the audience into the story immediately with an opening sequence that “grabs you by the throat and seizes your attention.” That is what I tried to do with my own screenplay. The very first scene of my story is Evakdor Hafdin–the Trusted One– running through his palace as the walls essentially crumble around him. It’s a dramatic, rapid-paced series of action that not only introduces a main character and the conflict, but also sets the stage for the rest of the film to commence in a way that I hope is effective and engaging.
Here is the correct Journal #15 entry!
Syd Field’s “Screenplay” chapter “Two Incidents” discusses the inciting incident and how important it is to the screenplay. As someone who focuses most of her writing on fantasy, I’ve always had a unique relationship with inciting incidents. Fantasy stories, due to the nature of them existing in fantasy worlds, require a foundation of worldbuilding that contemporary fiction doesn’t require. Superhero stories like any of the Spider-Man movies across the past twenty-two years typically require less exposition to do this, but overall, there is often some level of introduction or exposition that is often required to establish worldly mechanics. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is one of the textbook examples of this, the introduction for the entire first season filled with exposition quotes about what the Slayer is. Needless to say, this required exposition often pushes the inciting incident, thus leaving people watching or reading fantasy stories disastified with the pacing, and much more willing to give up on it despite the fact that fantasy stories often offer new avenues to analyze the human condition and the environments and societies we live in. Within my own screenplay (and corresponding book project), this was something I worried about. Although my world is modern and much less “high-concept” than say “Lord of the Rings” with its entire world map and history, I still have a variety of fantastical influences that require some level of explanation. As a result, I often have a habit of jumping into my inciting incident too early, leaving exposition in weird pockets around it, something that appeared within my first five pages of my screenplay until I restructured my entire first act using advice from this class, and by extension, Syd Field’s writing. This chapter helped me feel more secure in this reconstruction, as it helped me understand the difference between a key incident and an inciting incident. In my story, the inciting incident (as I’d initially planned it), due to the fragmented nature of Dolores’ remembrance of Mariko’s presence in her life, could arguably be split into two parts. The first part, oddly enough, happens later into the run-time than the second one, much like the 2016 film “Deadpool” (directed by Tim Miller and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick), and is the introduction of Mariko and the subsequent sabotage of her attempts to stop the looming end of the world threat. It sets the main storyline (Dolores and Mariko’s relationship with its themes of societal failure in the face of mental health, abuse, and social justice issues) into motion. The second part of the inciting incident mostly exists as “the attention grabber” but also supplies inklings of the main storyline’s ending and stakes— a scene where Dolores prepares to lose *everything* she has worked for due to the series of previous failures that can be traced back to herself, Mariko, and the Council. Ultimately, the inciting incident’s fragmentation lends part of itself to being the key incident as well— the key incident being Mariko and Dolores meeting and the subsequent sabotage, which occurs at Act I’s end— and the inciting incident being that opening scene. This chapter not only helped me define this better, but fill my mind with ideas of how I want to approach the overall pacing and inner monologue of Dolores here-on-out.
I really liked this chapter of Syd Fields book, one feature of the “inciting incident” that struck me was how different it can be depending on the story you’re writing. Most inciting incidents in film are flashy, action and drama, which very clearly spell out exactly what you can expect in the story. Other movies however can have more simple and subtle inciting incidents, a quiet mystery or maybe just the introduction of something interesting. Your inciting incident is almost always the opening scene, leading into the key incident. The inciting incident and key incident are not something I previously saw as separate elements of a story, which is maybe why I found this chapter so interesting as it was something I had never really heard of or at least not been overly aware of.
In my screenplay, the inciting incident is not necessarily revealed until later on in act 3, but is instead hinted at enough for the audience to get an understanding of whats going on without drowning in the specifics. Odette’s grandmother’s death is the inciting incident, and takes place before the story, however the key incident is Odette recieving the cactus, kickstarting her whole emotional journey of processing her grandmother’s death. I love my story and premise, but ironically i think my first few pages are my weakest, not because its poorly written but because I worry the key incident is not clear or interesting enough. Syd Field discusses how you can show or tell your inciting and key incident, i went for the former personally. This chapter did make me feel more confident in this element of my story however, and I will keep moving forward and maybe make an edit here or there if necessary.
As I read Chapter Eight, “Two Incidents,” from Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, I found myself feeling more confident about my own screenplay. Initially, when I began writing for this class, I wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. I struggled with the format, the differences between novel writing—which I’m familiar with—and screenwriting, as well as the overall structure of a script. Thankfully, after writing about twenty pages, I’ve reached a point where I feel much more at ease, though I still have some uncertainties. For instance, I question whether my opening will effectively capture my audience’s attention and set up the rest of the story.The insights Syd Field provides in this chapter have greatly assisted me in addressing that concern. As he explored the style and elements of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I began to identify parallels with my own work. In my story I really though about the beggining and end as well as parallels between my pro and antoginist. For my story these are inciting moments that depend the plot and it just adds so much. I think the biggest thing for me is my opening that action and how it progresses my story.
As
As I read Chapter Eight, “Two Incidents,” from Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, I found myself feeling more confident about my own screenplay. Initially, when I began writing for this class, I wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. I struggled with the format, the differences between novel writing—which I’m familiar with—and screenwriting, as well as the overall structure of a script. Thankfully, after writing about twenty pages, I’ve reached a point where I feel much more at ease, though I still have some uncertainties. For instance, I question whether my opening will effectively capture my audience’s attention and set up the rest of the story.The insights Syd Field provides in this chapter have greatly assisted me in addressing that concern. As he explored the style and elements of Joe Eszterhas’s writing, I began to identify parallels with my own work. In my story I really though about the beggining and end as well as parallels between my pro and antoginist. For my story these are inciting moments that depend the plot and it just adds so much. I think the biggest thing for me is my opening that action and how it progresses my story.
In Syd Field’s “Two Incidents,” one thing that stuck out to me was the concept of a visual “grabber” in an opening scene, that “grabs you by the throat and seizes your attention.” He says that it also sets the story into motion and puts you in the storyline along with the main character. This concept has made me rethink my opening and if it’s exactly up to par with what it should be in order to capture the attention of the audience. Understanding the inciting incident and the key incident is really helpful in visualizing where certain scenes should be placed and how they should be fleshed out. Being able to pick out which scene in my screenplay is an inciting incident is also really useful so that I can better understand if I’m checking the boxes of what a good screenplay opening consists of, especially given that I’ve never written one before. Also knowing which of my scenes consists of the key incident is useful to know that I am giving a purpose to my characters and am establishing an end goal to the screenplay. This chapter is definitely one of the more helpful ones to me in regard to the technical aspects of a screenplay that move a story along and give it purpose.
One thing that grabbed my attention in chapter 8 of “Screenplay” by Syd Field was this idea of setting up your story around your inciting incident. Due to the nature of the screenplay I was intending to make, I was thinking I could more or less make it create the inciting incident as the movie progressed, but there was something about it I didn’t like. After reading this chapter, I understand what it was and why. Rather than allow my story to loosely flop around what the main key incident and what the plot of the movie is about, I should instead showcase it in a pleasing way to pull my audience in and want to see it till then end. In Django, for instance, the inciting incident is the sporadic shootout between Shultz and the two Spek brothers. The key incident is then when Shultz and Django form a partnership to hunt down Django’s previous “masters”. In this way, you’re pulled in and want to know more as soon as possible. It also allows the story to be structured around these incidents. It sets up who the main characters are, what they act like, and what they hope to accomplish. We later learn in the movie that Django remembers his last captors so well due to the fact that they did horrible things to him and his wife. This adds to the key incident as well, but it was only allowed to do so because we already setup everything at the beginning. This chapter has lead me down a rabbit hole of trying to better figure out how I truly want my screenplay to develop.