Why This is Good

Taking the reader out of the world they inhabit and into the world of your story is a vital part of good storytelling. Whether you’re writing a novel, a short story, a stage or a screenplay, you must transport the audience into the world of the story. This is especially important when writing about a time or place that is drastically different than the world your viewers inhabit, but it is still important if you are writing about the present time in a very familiar location.

Stories that fail to properly bring the reader into the world of the story are less engaging and less real. If the setting doesn’t feel authentic, and the story begins abruptly without establishing where we are and what the rules of this world are, the reader will have a hard time relating to the story and caring about what happens. Just as you must create empathy for your hero in order for the audience to relate to them and see the story through their eyes, you must create a world which feels so real and alive that the audience is transported there and forgets that they’re actually sitting in a movie theater, or at home reading a script, and is completely enveloped in the vivid, exciting place you have created. As with character description, the most effective way to do this is to choose the most vivid, visual details that most efficiently convey the image and essence of the place or time you are creating.

After plunging us down into the depths of the world the sunken Titanic now inhabits, the script takes its time to show us what life was like for those who boarded the ship in on its maiden voyage in 1912. The grandeur and richness of Rose’s world was portrayed in the opening of Titanic by showing her clothes and the opulence of her world, as compared to the dull, dingy rough world Jack inhabited. These details not only set the stage for their star-crossed love story, but brought us into the world of 1912 London with stunning realism.

In Daybreakers this future world is examined carefully and much time is spent showing us what life might be like if everyone were a vampire. The different inventions and changes that have taken place to accommodate a population who cannot tolerate sunlight are shown and examined, and the filmmakers take their time drawing us into this new world, with shots of the dead faces of the people, the small changes to everyday life, the fact that everyone smokes, they examine the minor problems of how people get around in the daylight, and the fact that there are kids who will never grow up. By the time the story gets underway, the audience feels immersed in this strange world, and understands how everything works.

In the first Lord of the Rings we spend plenty of time in the Shire with the Hobbits, before rushing into the story. Since this is not only the past but an imaginary realm with different species and types of people, the writers have made sure that everyone-even those unfamiliar with the books-will feel comfortable in this new word.

Shrek opens with the storybook to help emphasize that this movie pokes fun at all of the other fairytales, and to draw attention to the fact that this is a fairytale.

In Sideways, the opening slowly reveals where we are, what Miles is like, and where the characters are going. The drive up the coast is gorgeous and immediately orients the reader in California and offers a wonderful transition from the cities they leave behind to the quiet wine country they approach.
While some who love downtown L.A. and want to imagine it as the next New York City adore the way 500 Days of Summer uses its setting, it felt very generic and un-Los Angeles like to me. The settings were beautiful, and time was taken to discuss them, but the way the characters acted and the people populating this world made it feel very un-Southern Californian and made it evident that the writers were more familiar with a city like San Francisco, where public transportation is the norm, and where people actually walk around at all hours of the day and night.

Not only did the makers of The Box fail to successfully draw the viewer into the story, they failed to utilize the setting they chose. For some reason, the story was set in the 70’s, but aside from the mention of the date and the excess sideburns, one would have never known that it wasn’t taking place in the present. Aside from wanting to adhere to original story, I can’t comprehend why the story was set in the 70’s as it didn’t seem to matter to the story. Like 500 Days of Summer, if no one had mentioned where they were-in this case, where in time-I would have never guessed it was supposed to be in the 70’s.

As you read screenplays and watch films, pay attention to how well the screenwriter or filmmaker draws you into the world of the story. The contrast is sharper in stories set in another time or place, but even contemporary stories set in your hometown can succeed or fail at creating a realistic and vivid world that brings you into the story and makes you want to stay. You’ll know the story has succeeded at drawing you into the world if you feel completely engrossed and do not want to put the script down or pause the dvd. If a sound in another room startles you because you are so engaged by the film that you have forgotten where you are and what world you really inhabit, then the screenwriter has done their job well. If you find yourself getting up, fidgeting, looking away from the page or the screen, getting popcorn or going to the bathroom, the story is not compelling, and this may be due in a large part to the failure at drawing you into a new world in the first ten percent of the story.

For more information on the first 10%, check out Michael Hauge’s lecture Grabbing the Reader in the First 10 Pages-available on DVD by clicking here.