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creativescreenwriting May/June 2010
Dear Subscriber,
Four 3-D movies in a row
(Avatar, Alice in Wonderland,
How to Train Your Dragon and
Clash of the Titans) have
topped the box-office charts
in recent months. Two of
them went, in one way or
another, off the top of the
charts. And, of course, we
will see Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me in 3-
D as well, not to mention stories about
owls and wolves and ogres (Shrek Forever
After), plus a Hole, a Gate, a Hubble, more
Cars, another Tron (you date yourself if
you recall the first one's theatrical release),
and if rumors can be trusted, some 3-D in
the next Harry Potter.
So is it time to start writing for 3-D?
And how exactly would one go about
doing that? I'm going to stick my neck out
until I see a better answer and say:
The answer to the first question is, "No.
Not your job."
The answer to the second is, "You can't.
And it's not your job."
That is not to say you cannot write
with 3-D in mind. Definitely, there are
subjects that lend themselves better to 3-D
than others (more on this below), and it
doesn't hurt to pay some mind to what
kinds of stories are selling, but with a few
flops the market could change. Write your
best story.
The reasoning behind my first answer
is that "to 3-D or not to 3-D" is a pro-
ducer's decision, one that is likely to be
based on budget and market considera-
tions of the time. The reasoning behind
the second answer is that decisions on 3-D
scenes are director decisions that have to
do with camera placement and shot com-
position. Trying to write scenes with 3-D
instructions in a spec script is likely to get
you laughed at, not sold.
I base that in part on some browsing I
did in a book called "3D Movie Making:
Stereoscopic Digital Cinema
From Script to Screen," avail-
able at The Writers Store here
in Los Angeles. The chapter
on preproduction, especially
pages 94-100, has valuable in-
formation for those writing a
script that might be a good
candidate for 3-D.
That preproduction chap-
ter is worth reading because it gives you an
idea of how 3-D shots are done, where the
action takes place in a 3-D scene and why
these decisions belong to the director, not
to you as writer.
3-D action almost always moves toward
the audience -- or, as one can tell from nu-
merous scenes in Avatar, when it moves
away, the camera tracks in faster than the
action moves away, thus bringing even re-
treating action toward the viewer. This
seems to be a universal constant of 3D:
that one way or another, 3-D action is al-
ways sent toward the audience.
So here's how that separates candidates
for 3-D scripts from the non-candidates:
Motion coming at the viewer can effec-
tively evoke only a few emotional re-
sponses and would wreck other kinds of
scenes that viewers are not emotionally
programmed to see coming at them.
Case in point: In the climactic scene in
the second Godfather film when Al Pacino's
character shuts his wife Kay out of his life
and their children's life, he is seated in the
foreground, in a chair, large in our eyes
while she stands in a doorway in the back-
ground, looking small. Between them is a
great, darkened depth of field. The scene
is as visually three-dimensional as any-
thing in Avatar, but the sense of depth is
created by the static positioning of the
characters and the lighting. The scene de-
pends on the lack of motion for its vitality.
Its static quality gives us time to breathe
in its rich emotional resonance. When Kay
finally leaves, she moves away from us, de-
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feated, and becomes smaller visually as she
is forced to retreat from the family.
3-D motion wouldn't work in a scene
such as this. My point is not to say the ob-
vious ­ that 3-D isn't right for the likes of
The Godfather ­ but that 3-D works only for
movies in which motion should be regu-
larly propelled at, and even right by the
ears of, the audience.
Avatar is a monumental achievement in
the history of film. It's the Mona Lisa of 3-
D movies, and its ecological themes are a
strong audience draw. But as storytelling,
the Academy understood that it was just a
decently good actioner. That might have
made it perfect for 3-D, but not for little
gold statuettes.
So you can, of course, write a movie with
3-D in mind. It should be a good candidate
for shooting a lot of action coming straight
at the audience, with toothy critters and
plants that move, and please keep the Liam-
Neeson-doing-bad-Greek-theater-in-a-toga
scene as brief as possible.
Anyone who has words of wisdom on
this is welcome to send such guidance
or opinions on this topic; write to
advice@creativescreenwriting.com.
Movies you might miss
but should not...
Speaking of dragons, I loved The Girl
With the Dragon Tattoo, but be prepared for
some stark violence; and also the politi-
cally contentious Green Zone, and The
Ghost Writer. The kid behind the counter
at my favorite indy theater also recom-
mends A Prophet and the Korean thriller
Mother. And if you missed Creative Screen-
writing's screening of the Best Foreign Film
Academy Award winner The Secret in Their
Eyes, don't miss senior editor Jeff Gold-
smith's podcast of the Q&A with co-writer-
director Juan José Campanella on iTunes.
Bill Donovan, Editor and Publisher
Creative Screenwriting
Editor
L E T T E R F R O M T H E