[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: What is a scene?
John Vorhaus, Author/Artist/Screenwriter: What is a scene?
A scene is a series of beats.
Beats are individual examples of things happening and how people feel.
Usually, scene is constructed around a central pivot.
Pivot, you recall, is a piece of new information that triggers a change in emotional state.
So now we know that the scene has two parts.
What happens before the pivot and what happens after the pivot?
We used the pregnancy example earlier.
The first part of the scene is we don’t know what the results of the test are going to be.
And the last part of the scene is now that we have the results, what do we do next?
That’s the sum of the scene.
Existing situation, new information, new situation.
That’s scene in its simplest form.
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Film Courage: What happens in a good comedy scene?
John: What happens in a good comedy scene?
A lot of things happen in unexpected ways.
A lot of characters behaving inappropriately.
A lot of expectations are defeated.
Maybe there’s some…(Watch the video interview on YouTube).
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BIO:
John Vorhaus is best known for his comedy-writing classic, The Comic Toolbox: How to be Funny Even if You’re Not. He has taught and trained writers in 37 countries on five continents at last count, and created TV shows of his own in Nicaragua, Romania and elsewhere. His writing credits include dozens of teleplays and screenplays, plus seven novels and some two dozen works of non-fiction. His latest book is the little book of STANDUP. Vorhaus is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and a member of the Writers Guild of America. He lives in Southern California and secretly controls the world from JohnVorhaus.com.
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