3 MOVIE MUSTS

1.-THE WAY TO START...

2.-ESTABLISHING CHARACTER(s)

3.-THE END

1.-THE WAY TO START...

“The Sixth Sense”INT. BASEMENT - EVENING

A NAKED LIGHTBULB SPARKS TO LIFE. It dangles from the ceiling of

a basement.

“Memento”

FADE IN:

1 INT. DERELICT HOUSE - DAY <> 1

A POLAROID PHOTOGRAPH, clasped between finger and thumb: a

crude, crime scene flash picture of a MAN'S BODY lying on a

decaying wooden floor, a BLOODY MESS where his head should

be.

"THE BOURNE IDENTITY"

DARKNESS. THE SOUND OF WIND AND SPRAY.

MUSIC. TITLES.

EXT. OCEAN -- NIGHT

The darkness is actually water. A SEARCHLIGHT arcs across

heavy ocean swells. Half-a-dozen flashlights – weaker beams

racing along what we can see is the deck of an aging FISHING

TRAWLER.

FISHERMEN struggling with a gaff -- something in the water

A HUMAN CORPSE.

2.-ESTABLISHING CHARACTER(s)

You have 5 minutes to tell me everything concerning THE CHARACTER

to create something from nothing

GOOD OR EVIL The first time we hear a character is the most important one

The Godfather

VITO CORLEONE

(sitting behind his desk,

petting a cat)

Why did you go to the police? Why didn't

you come to me first?

Pulp Fiction

JULES

– Okay now, tell me about the hash

bars?

VINCENT

What so you want to know?

Interview with a vampireLOUIS

So you want me to tell you the

story of my life...

MALLOY

That's what I do. I interview

people. I collect lives. 

3.-THE END

The way to finish a movie is not telling everything not explaining everything not doing the audience all their homework 

let there be something to talk about after 

“The Silence of the Lambs”

INT. DORM HALLWAY - NIGHT

As Clarice reacts, the fill weight of his words sinking in.

CLARICE

Dr. Lecter... Dr. Lecter...!

But only a DIAL TONE comes from the phone. She is still

staring at her receiver, in shock, as we –

Dr. Lecter, sets his phone down, then rises.

He follows Dr. Chilton down the street

CREDITS ROLL

“The Usual Suspects”

EXT. STREET 

The car stops. The driver gets out.

IT IS KOBAYASHI, or the man we have come to know as such. He

smiles to Verbal. Verbal steps off of the curb, returning the

smile as he opens the passenger door and gets in.

The man called Kobayashi gets in the driver's seat and pulls

away .

A moment later, Agent David Kujan of U.S. Customs wanders

into the frame, looking around much in the way a child would

when lost at the circus. He takes no notice of the car

pulling out into traffic, blending in with the rest of the

cars filled with people on their way back to work.

BLACK

“AMERICAN PSYCHO”

BATEMAN (V.O.)

But even after admitting this, there is no catharsis. I gain no

deeper knowledge about myself, no new knowledge can be extracted

from my telling. There has been no reason for me to tell you any

of this. This confession has meant nothing...

The camera moves up to a sign on the wall behind him:

"THIS IS NOT AN EXIT."

CREDITS ROLL

“Never let the audience get ahead of the story”… Craig McKay (film editor of The Silence of the Lambs and Cop Land)