Half-Baked Theory #1: Event Compression
So I’m sitting at a little get-together with some other screenwriters recently, including Masters of the Scribosphere John August and Josh Friedman. Naturally, we talk briefly about blogging, and I mention that my site is a bit on the boring side compared to John’s because I never really talk about anything personal per se.
John pointed out, correctly, that this is going to have to either change, or I’m going to have fewer and fewer posts to make as time goes on.
In a desperate effort to avoid a future where you guys log on to read about some intestinal problem I’m having, I’m going to fill the gaps here and there with some more posts about the actual craft of writing.
And yet…who am I to theorize on writing?
I’ll be honest. My ideas come with no force of authority. They’re yours to take or leave as you’d like. In fact, they’re mostly half-baked. Here’s my first half-baked theory: event compression.
Now, we’re all familiar with character, theme, narrative and all the other good stuff that make up a screenplay. Recently, though, while working on a script for an animated film, I started thinking about another variable.
How much movie time does an event of X importance take?
Event compression is different than pacing, which is the relative sense of “how much stuff is happening in X amount of movie time.” Instead, event compression describes how expansive or cursory each “stuff” is. Here’s the example that led me to think about this.
In my current script, a penguin is going to travel from the south pole to the north pole. In order to get to the north pole in time, he must seek the help of a magical creature who lives on an island a few hundred miles off the coast of Antarctica.
The penguin begins his journey on page 23. Now, I know that there’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen once he gets to the island, and I know there’s a lot of stuff that’s already happened.
But when the penguin sets off on his journey, he’s a bit sanguine about how easy this will all be, because he’s a naive little creature who’s seen nothing of the world.
Hmmm, sounds like I, the screenwriter, should give him a quick dose of reversal even before he gets to the island (so that I can re-reverse by making the island seem great, then re-reverse again by revealing the island and the monster to be treacherous, etc. etc.).
I decided to have the penguin hit by a terrible storm. A tempest. A tempest with tsunami-sized waves and a massive, penguin-eating giant squid for good measure.
If done the way I intend, the tempest will last about 30 seconds.
Why? Well, because the tempest isn’t exactly story-advancing. It’s designed to reveal to our hero that he’s not as well-equipped as he thought. He’ll get that point quickly. No need to belabor it.
Now, let’s imagine I were writing in live action.
A 30 second tempest? Ummmmm, no. No one is going to go through the time, energy, expense and danger of a simulated tempest just for a 30 second bit of character illumination.
The fact is that animation provides me the freedom to…
…and this is where I thought, “event compression!”
Event compression works both ways, of course. Any story event can be compressed or expanded for effect. We can do this without speeding up the story itself, in fact. We can choose what to make a meal of, and what to let go in the blink of an eye.
By altering event compression as you desire (within the limitations of our production medium), you can often avoid a sense of plodding or flatness or linearity. Changing up your event compressions keeps the audience on their toes. It offers a strange verisimilitude to life itself, which doesn’t have actual event compression, but often feels like it does.
Remember, compressing an event doesn’t mean it has to be paced quickly. Pacing and compression are two different things.
For example, let’s say your hero is about to box for the first time. You can write a slowly-paced, highly compressed scene in which he steps into the ring, and we watch in “real time” as he and his partner dance around each other for 30 seconds, not even touching each other. And that’s it. Next scene is the lockerroom. Your hero is getting his gloves cut off. And his face is hamburger. We can extrapolate.
The pacing was languid, but the event itself has been compressed to almost nothing. Two different variables manipulated independently.
Or you can write a fast-paced, highly-expanded scene, which would be similar to any of the climactic fights in a Rocky movie. They’re long—you see every damned round—but each round is full of fireworks.
This independence of pacing and event compression is true for both scenes and the overall feel of the movie’s time.
Dinner parties, first dates, car rides, fist fights, strolls through the park, a hitman’s first kill…doesn’t matter what the event is, and you should feel free to expand or compress as you desire.
But do think about it, though. It was something I was doing before I knew I was doing it, and all things being equal, a conscious understanding of a writing variable is probably better than an unconscious one, if only because you have more control.
Screw you, cats, dogs, and mice - you’re monopoly on animation is OVER! PENGUINS BABY!
Anyway.
Intriguing concept. I’m now asking myself where I can use this concept to manipulate some moments in my own project. It sort of resonates with the “arrive late, leave early” rule o’ thumb with scene construction, yes?
I always have a problem with the lengh of a scene, especially at the beginning. In the first act of the movie I’m writing, I have to tell a lot of things and the events are coming on a long period. The hero is hit by a car. 1 month later, he has been kept at the hospital where he has met his new girlfriend for 2 weeks. That’s the day where he leaves the hospital. 6 months later, they’re happy together but we feel some little tensions, it’s not like the first days. We also have to expose the job of the hero, his friends etc… We meet a nasty girl that tries to be loved by the hero.
All that (without the details) in the first act.
I want the spectator to like the hero/girlfriend loving relationship. They have to want the hero/girlfriend to be together at the end. But in the same time, I have to explain that their couple begins to break. The nasty girl has to be a menace, not an answer to the hero problem, for the audience. I would like a long enough part to show why the hero and his girlfriend are a lovely couple but I have to make the story begin with the nasty girl. The car accident and the hospital scene are important for the end of the movie. So it’s hard to know where I have to be longer or shorter because I feel all is important.
Sorry for that mylife.com answer.
Nice article Craig, let’s say less “cold” than a WGA article, even if they are important and make the specificity of that blog.
For the penguin story, he could have met the late Steve Irwin in order to “reveal to our hero that heÂ’s not as well-equipped as he thought”… Also sorry for that…
Until this day, I used the term “Event compression” to describe, in a negative sense, the ending of SW Episode III. I’ll just have to find a new term for that… “Lucas is a hack”. Yeah, that’ll do, Steve, that’ll do.
Anyways, a couple of things:
1) I always had problems with the, whaddayoucallit, event compression. Especially if I am to show travel (And when you’re adapting FALLOUT, DUNE and AMERICAN GODS, there’s a boatload of that). It was especially tough in Fallout, because I had no parallel action to cut to while my main characters get from one point to another. Also I have to be careful for those scenes not to look identical to those in LOTR.
2)Penguin travelling from the South pole to the North one? Cool concept! But why, Craig? What drives little Pingu? Glory? Fortune? A bet? The wish to prove himself? Creating cool travels is easy. Creating a valid cause for these travels to happen, is fucking hard.
3)To make my post little more than just complaining about how hard writing is, I will try to offer dear colleague Alfie some assistance in the form of Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio’s SANDMAN script:
http://www.wordplayer.com/archives/SANDMAN.cover.html
I hope that helps. There is a similar situation at the beginning of the script, with scenes happening decades apart. Even if it doesn’t help, read it anyway. It’s awesome.
P.S. Craig, if you don’t mind me asking, how does that HTML thingy work on this site? Can I make a clickable link?
Forget my question. This site is so amazing, links make themselves.
Cheers.
Why? To get his heart’s only true wish granted by Santa Claus, of course!
Hi Craig,
Since this is my first comment here, I’ll preface it by saying that I really enjoy this site!
This column reminds me of a recent online discussion (one of those that comes around again on a semi-annual basis) regarding an old board game called Civilization. In the game, each player represents an ancient nation — Egypt, Greece, Babylon, etc. — over a period of thousands of years, spreading the empire, developing concepts like money and a legal system, inventing iron tools, and so on. The game would take a good 8-12 hours to complete, and way back when we had that sort of time and stamina, staying up all night to play it was no problem.
For years, people have been trying to come up with a similar sort of game that can be finished in 2 hours or so (so we responsible adults can relive our youth without losing track of the kids). There have been some good attempts, but nothing that quite captures the feel of the original, and the reason for that is a common topic of discussion.
Anyway, someone recently made the point that it may not be possible to truly replicate the feel of Civilization in a short game, simply because at the end of 2 hours, one hasn’t just spent 10 hours developing an ancient empire. It’s one of those observations that seems incredibly obvious once somebody says it out loud. :)
Now, I realize that, especially in animation, economy of time is a very important concept. That said, I wonder how something like a 30-second tempest would come across on the screen. On the one hand, it could seem obviously tacked-on — “Hm, need to provide some danger for the hero. Here’s a storm! OK, on to the next bit.” (Which, I suppose, it is, but our job is to prevent the audience from noticing.)
On the other hand, I wonder whether I just think of it that way because I’m a writer and that’s how my mind works when I watch a film. :) 30 seconds may be plenty enough screen time to give the audience the feeling of having experienced a storm of epic proporitons.
What do you think about the idea of measuring the screen time devoted to an event based on its inherent impact/ size as well as to its actual importance to the overall storyline? I suppose that striking a balance when those angles conflict is the trick.
Aaron:
Good question.
I think the answer has everything to do with the experience you intend for your audience.
In the case of my tempest, I want the audience to experience a hero learning that his voyage is not going to be all sunshine and smiles. That’s it.
And thus, a short tempest should just about do it.
If I needed him to do something duringthe tempest, i.e. rescue a friend, figure out a method of survival, solve a puzzle, face his fears, etc., then I suspect the tempest would need expansion.
As it is, though, in my scene the hero is a failure. He barely survives, and that’s just because of dumb luck. Otherwise, he spends the scene shrieking in horror and paralyzed by fear.
I guess what I’m saying is, it’s less about story importance, and more about the takeaway for the audience.
Do you want them to have a quick hit of something? Or do you want them to get that Civilization-style “earned” enjoyment?
It’s up to you.
SA Petrich : Thanks, it helps a lot ! Besides, I love Ted & Terry works :-)
Nice way to put it; that makes sense. Thanks for the answer!
“So I’m sitting at a little get-together with some other screenwriters recently, including Masters of the Scribosphere John August and Josh Friedman.”
Dozens of screenwriting blog junkies just passed out at the mere thought of it!
Joe U.
A penguin travelling from the south to the north pole so he could meet Santa? I love your movie already, Craig! Just one thing… is it supposed to ba family film, or something more in the vein of your eariler work? I mean, it’s a great concept for a family film, but a R-rated comedy about a penguin in search of Santa… possibilities are limitless.
P.S. I’m glad the Sandman helped you, Alfie. It helped me too. It’s generally one of the best, and most helpful scripts you can find. Whenever I’m in doubt, I visit Sandman.
S.A.:
Sorry…family film. :)
Wow. It really is all about penguins. Back in the drawer, you penguin idea, you! Sigh.
Marmosets… anyone got marmosets?
Good, good. We need to raise awareness of the penguin community in our children.
Gr8 post Craig.
Thanks for a thought provoking post.
Isn’t this just two sides of the same coin? If you have one unit of plot per 30 secs, and only one happens during the storm, then the storm only gets 30 seconds. The same would go for journies.
Oh, and Alfie: Your story starts when your conflict starts. You either need to shift nasty girl into the hospital, or kick off with the homecoming, and her part in it.
Aaron and Craig,
How long was the tempest scene in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”? I’m not trying to be cute bu bringing up the bard, but I recall that the actual tempest was not on stage for all that long, though I’m pretty sure it was for more than 30 seconds. The tempest in that play, as I remember it, was a setup for the rest of the play.
—josh
Craig,
you must be aware of HAPPY FEET, right…?
Totally different story, but is there a market for two animated penguins movies?
Craig, Johnny’s right. I think you should change your penguin to a baby seal. He should watch his mom, dad, and brothers get clubbed by a crazy scientist at the beginning of the movie (event compress this down so you only see one or two clubbings.) And instead of Santa Claus at the North Pole, it should be a genie in Egypt he’s trying to get to… because the juxtaposition of a baby seal in the African desert will be dramatic (you should event decompress this scene to cover 30 pages.) Then, when little Satchmo (his parents loved Jazz) reaches the hidden tomb, he finds out that genies don’t exist and his dreams are shattered. Fade out. Not a dry eye in the house.
Derek:
Unfortunately, that’s the plot of Dreamworks’ upcoming animated film What The Fuck Was THAT?.
Oh, and Johnny, it gets better. There’s also a movie at Sony called Surf’s Up or something like that…about surfing penguins.
It happens. Bug’s Life, Antz, Finding Nemo, Shark’s Tale, Barfly, The Derek Haas Story…
I’m not concerned. Good movie is a good movie.
I suppose seeing that you’re in script stage and they’re in post there’s about a 3 year window between release dates… unless some major Event Compression would go down!
Johnny:
We’re due out Christmas of ‘08.
C.
2 years from script to screen… that’s pretty fast. wild guess… korean animation house?
Craig,
Quit trying to event suppress me. It’s unseemly.
Josh,
Funny you should ask — I actually played Prospero once! Of course, this was about 20 years ago, and for the life of me I don’t remember a thing about how the tempest was done.
I expect that it varies greatly from production to production, though. Tweaking Shakespeare’s work is a long and storied tradition!
One script of mine experienced event compression so severe that it amounted to “event removal”: I had moved chunks of action off-screen to make room for characters’ reactions. Result: Not much left to look at, if one were hoping to see, say, a movie made from that script. Did I mention that was an early script? An ancient script, even, probably typed and besmeared with white-out …
Johnny:
I’m hearing Indian. But who knows? Our directors are first-rate, as are our story artists. Let’s pray that the fleet of computer people are also up to snuff.
Cool. I didn’t mean to imply any disparagement by the way. Koreans are doing amazing work, producing beautiful 3d work with short time/small money.
one day i’m going to make a post here when i’m not blind drunk … today will not be that day.
penguins are the new “in” animal (long overdue, if you ask me) i suspect because of the success of the march of them. hence their (overdue) march into production. (i’m sure everyone will claim their penguin pic predates the doc, but then everyone who has ever seen a penguin has a penguin pic in their mind, so that’s not saying a lot)
2 + years for an animated movie? still???
dear animation producers - they’re called “com poo tors”. don’t be scared of them. you can still throw in hand drawn stuff, but the movie will come out a full year (or more) earlier. which means an extra year of royalties all round before you can give it all tax free (courtesy of bushco) to your sprogs.
if i can afford a mac that does this shit double quick time, then so can you.
and on to - so derek comes in with a post that requires reading of tone. craig got it. i got it. i’m sure many people got it. obvious tone? sure … but i’ll bet dollars to donuts that some (too many?) people still didn’t get it.
if there’s going to be “half baked theories” here now (and i’m ok with that), then i’d say again that i’d love to see a post on READING tone.
i’d say that that is a hard topic. how do you explain (in text) to people who obviously already can’t read tone in text how to actually read tone in text???
i’m totally throwing down the gauntlet here.
partially because i think it’s a valid topic and partially because i’m fed the fuck up with people who can’t read even the most obvious, batter you over the head, do you see it now you moron, tone in text.
…
… tone in text.
“Cool. I didn’t mean to imply any disparagement by the way. Koreans are doing amazing work, producing beautiful 3d work with short time/small money.”
Nice save! You almost got bombarded by a dozen “Johnny is a racist” posts.
I would love to hear more personal stories by the way. I’m not sure you need to go into any intestinal or diarrahetic anecdotes but some business related stories are very, very helpful for a site like this, especially for people who have a hard time putting things into perspective.
meant to say, by the way, that john august’s site has been pretty awesome lately, as you say.
now, maybe this is just me, but i think he’s been all kinds of … i dunno … relaxed and chummy with his readers since he’s done the movie.
i’ve been reading his site a long time and just recently (since he came back from shooting the movie) he’s been a lot more informal (without being personal, per se) with the readers and i think that’s lead to some cool chats.
i’ve been wondering if we are seeing a happier, more content writer/director (rather than writer for hire) or just a man who is too tired (from directing) to keep his previously perceived “professional persona” up?
i hope it’s the former, but either way, you’re quite right that john august’s site has been quite on form of late.
i know there have been some great posts/debates there from his personal life in the past (some of which you’ve blogged about here), but i’m talking overall recent … not quite sure what word or phrase to use … relaxed coolness, there lately.
meh, i’ve totally not really said what i meant, but i’m sure some people will read the tone and know what i’m getting at.
Not another penguin movie!!!
Craig,
the Bomb explodes at the idea of you trying to be more interesting on your sight. Lasers of joy shoot out. And i think we both know what that means.
But seriously, talking about craft is almost always cool. I think it’s a good idea. Wouldn’t mind hearing about the most consistant problems you see in screenplays you read (for assignments or to produce or whatever.)
The Bomb says “boom.”
Well, bad spelling for one, Malc. :)
Seriously, though, that’s not a bad idea for a post. I have to think about that one.
Craig,
I’d like to hear more about what event compression or decompression (e.g. the montage) is good for. It seems as if you’ve shown us a tool but not how to use it.
A couple good uses for event compression that I can think of:
Adding emphasis to an important point or clue that might otherwise be disregarded by the audience.
Drawing out a climactic moment or an emotion (especially suspense) for maximum impact.
Reagan:
Actually, it’s not a tool, but a variable. Here’s how I suggest using it. Before you write a scene, just think about it. Think about it as something you control. That’s all.
And make a choice.
For instance, Quentin Tarantino wrote a scene in Pulp Fiction where John Travolta shoots himself up with heroin.
He clearly made a choice to expand this event. Rather than show Travolta inject the drug and go “Ahhh,” he expands the event into the careful preparation of the drug, the draw of the drug into the needle, the initial injection, the drawback to mix blood with the heroin, then the push in.
I assume he did this to impart a sense of ritual and care to the audience. Injection heroin probably DOES feel time expanded for those who do it, because time slows down.
When I smoked, I know that my day seemed to slow during the moments I would fish out a cigarette, tap it down, get a little saliva on the filter so it wouldn’t stick to my lip, grab a match, light it, draw, shake the match out…AHHHH….
So if the scene were about a guy addicted to smoking, you might expand it like that. If not…then hell, he might just light up and move on.
But it’s a choice.
I wish I could event compress this whole getting up at 5 AM to write before I have to get to the office every day.
Like a quick montage of me at the computer, then scribbling on a print out, then computer again, then getting a couple rejections, then BAM — skip to a long drawn out scene of me signing my first contract.
30 seconds for the montage. Tops. Then maybe 2 hours of the contract. That would be awesome.
I’d skip the montage and cut directly to my Academy Award acceptance speech. ;-)
You don’t care about John August. You’re already letting your “craft” thread degrade into penguin killing.
You don’t care at all. So I’m gonna compress events…
Before this post posts, I’ll have already cried and beaten my girlfriend up.
EXT. COUNTY JAIL - NIGHT
(see!)
i believe you’re talking about subplot when you say event compression. that is during the course of one plot event, say round 4 in rocky, you may have several events occur in the subplots:
(hypothetically: i haven’t seen ‘rocky’ for years)rocky may take a beating so his wife (with whom he has had a falling out and who was rooting against him on a subtle level at the beginning of the fight) suddenly feels surges of love for rocky (or the hypothetical boxer in question) and roots for him. rocky may see her cheering him on and this may represent a turning point in round 4.
all this would take place within the space of a few seconds — rocky gets bashed in the head, reels back against the ropes, wife rises to her feet, rocky gets in a good punch - sends opponent back on his heels - wife cheers, rocky sees this, audience feels there is some reconciliation between husband and wife, etc.
this expansion is similar to the slowing down of time when travolta shoots up in ‘pulp fiction’ but it’s not just the physical action that means something - it’s the subplot and depth of character. the boxer’s relationship with his wife bolsters his ability to continue and increases his chance of winning (because the subplot has been set up). similarly, travolta’s character finds respite from the violence of his life and then is introduced to the forbidden object of attraction (bosses wife) after the ahh moment of shooting up. in ‘pulp fiction’ this subplot is much more subtle and not as well set up as in the hypothetical ‘rocky’ scenario. this makes the PF example more portraiture than true event compression.
event compression is portraiture if it is not supported by subplot (a very euro technique). if event compression is supported by subplot it comprises the fabric of ‘story’ (rarely, found in hollywood movies - often found in japanese movies and in novels), and always the product of a fine writer (or a lucky one).
either way, event compression adds color and depth to the passing seconds of any scene and brings the movie to life. if the small details don’t capture the audience’s attention, whether it’s because of how they expand on subplot or they simply make the character more interesting, then you have a boring movie.
Eh… am I missing something? Isn’t all storytelling in screenplay form (truly, all storytelling period) a form of event compression? With the exception of say a show like “24” or a film like “Rope” which attempt real time chronology.
I remember a thread about ‘pigeonholing’ being deemed “much ado about nothing” by the curator of this very site…
Yes, how much time/pages is/are assigned to emphasize an event in a character’s journey while keeping an engaging flow of narrative varies and impacts the structure.
And the sky is blue and horses don’t know polynomial long division.
Next.
I wouldn’t be so sure if I were you, Man. I knew a horse once who was very proficient in polynomial division.
And yes, the sky might be blue, but it didn’t stop thousands of scientists over the centuries from trying to find out what exactly makes the sky blue and what requirenments have to be met in order for the sky to have just that right shade of blue we know and love.
Okay, Craig, let’s get another half baked theory. It’s Sunday and there’s no one on WA and I’m bored.
On a personal note, I’m come here just for the craft.
Jake