How to Write a Perfect Scene

this is your last chance after this there is no turning back you take the blue pill the story ends you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe you take the red pill you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes pause this is a choice Neo's choice between the blue pill or the red pill a choice that can send his life in two complete completely different directions we know what he's likely to choose but we also know that after taking that pill There's No Going Back

remember all I'm offering is the truth nothing more it's not an action scene just two characters sitting in a room yet this is one of the most memorable scenes from The Matrix a choice is what makes the scene dramatic and gives action to dialogue and in this one video I will simplify writing a great scene for you forever so the Matrix blue pill red pill scene is Big dramatic and obvious but is the choice still this obvious in a more subtle scene mom how much can we spend I would say $4 anything under $4 this

is a scene from Little Miss Sunshine the family is traveling so that Olive can compete in the Litt Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in the beginning of the scene Olive orders ice cream what is elodi mean oh that means it comes with ice cream okayi Olive for breakfast said $4 this sets up our character want Olive wants ice cream so she takes an action to get some however Olive's Father Richard believes that since Olive is about to compete in a beauty pageant she should not eat the ice cream Olive can I tell you a little something

about ice cream well ice cream is made from cream which comes from cow's milk and cream has a lot of fat in it Richard what she going to find out anyway remember pause so Olive wants ice cream and Richard wants to stop her a choice has now presented itself will olive eat the ice cream or not now the dialogue about what choice to make begins Let me quickly clear up dialogue for you dialogue is a debate about a choice characters argue the two options in the choice back and forth trying to make a decision this

is how words become action the characters are taking action through dialogue to win the choice and get their way Olive's mother enters the debate and falls under side a backing Olive's choice and she does so by giving her beliefs I just want you to understand it's okay to be skinny and it's okay to be fat if that's what you want to be whatever you want it's okay but then her father gives a counterargument okay but olive let me ask you this those women in Miss America are they skinny or are they fat we get each

character's world view through this simple decision to eat the ice cream or not the scene remains open until a choice is made and the scene will end when Olive finally answers the dramatic question will she eat the ice cream or not once you see dialogue like this you'll never unsee it with the Templars have attacked a s Caravan it was no caravan was an Army headed for Bethlehem to desecrate the birthplace of Our Lord Ral with the Templars have broken the king's pleasure peace this debate is as obvious as it can get the characters are

literally colorcoded white wants to go to war blue doesn't Salah will come into this King liberus knows more than a Christian should about salah's intentions and they debate in front of the king about what choice he should make once you understand understand that dialogue is characters debating a choice you can express this Choice debate in all sorts of genres maybe an amateur detective wants to convince a cop to arrest a suspect and there was no way of getting Allen into court in the first place because there was no evidence Robert what do you mean there's

no evidence you have him seen with the ciphers the military bootprints the same siiz shoes and gloves the most dangerous game the Zodiac watch the background with school children the the misspellings of Christmas the bloody KN all circumstantial maybe a Suitor wants to ask for a lady's hand in marriage from the first moment I met you your arrogance and conceit your selfish disdain for the feelings of others made me realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry you can also make a choice funny by having

a character overreact to win a debate yeah but I wasn't over give me the marker dude I'm marking an eight Smoky my friend you're entering a world of pain Walter you can give them a twang he going to stay in the big house Sten he's a slaver it's different in the big house you subtitles you can even make them sing I Will [Music] Not point is you can switch the genre all you want but no matter what dialogue is characters debating a choice back and forth want to see more examples I couldn't fit in this

video check out practical screenwriting tocom choice for more seeing breakdowns so characters are debating a choice in dialogue but who makes the choice you'll hear writers talk about who has the power in a scene but where does power come from whoever holds the choice holds the power the other characters must convince the decision maker to make the choice they think is right in this scene Olive has the power of the choice she listens to both of her parents give their point of view as they try to convince her to take their side but it's still

her decision Stakes raise the ice cream arrives I'll emot you right I'll be back with your waffles in a sec now it's time what will olive do does anyone want my ice cream Richard wins in this moment Olive has made a choice in One Direction Richard feels satisfied that his worldview has won out but this is where the other characters in the scene come into play as Olive chooses not to eat her ice cream the other characters choose a side by taking action yeah I like a little Dwayne Frank Olive's not going to have our

ice cream yeah do you mind if I have a little yeah let's dig in all the characters in the scene are now involved with all the characters involved Olive makes her final Choice wait stop don't eat it all the choicemaker in a scene holds the power in that moment but there's a relationship dynamic in the scene as well all right ol Richard this is where character hierarchy comes into play in every scene whether stated or not there is hierarchy in character relationships even in the Little Miss Sunshine scene there is hierarchy Olive's parents are the

first to argue the two sides of the choice while the other characters stay quiet the rest of the family knows not to insert themselves rudely into a conversation between parents and their child but when Olive opens the dialogue up to the entire table does anyone want my ice cream Grandpa speaks up first yeah I like a little Dwayne Frank Olive's not going to have a ice cream grandpa is the mentor for Olive's Viewpoint in the scene boy I feel sorry for anybody that doesn't want to enjoy their ice cream so early in the morning and

throughout the story he is philosophically against Richard when Grandpa speaks up and takes aside the other characters follow his lead this influences Olive and she overturns her choice Grandpa wins the scene overturning Richard in the hierarchy Whoever has the choice has the power and the other characters must convince the choicemaker to do what they want quick tip if you give a character The Power of Choice they don't have to say anything to win the debate so if you want to show that a character is powerful make them say very little the same silent power of

the choice can be used to make a joke is this your homework lar look man please is this your homework Larry just ask him about the car man is this yours Larry this is why Olive barely says anything in the scene but the ice cream scene is a little diner scene with a family what if we take a character with some real decision-making power and pressure them the FBI is downstairs what this is succession tell them the off yeah these are the ones who don't off this is a search warrant what do they do at

the front desk what are we doing they're at the gates uh can we call Southern District get L Logan has the power of choice in the scene and he sits at the top of the hierarchy in the company because of this notice how all the other characters are against Logan every other character wants him to cooperate and they all matter for the debate even if a character says nothing they are taking aside we see their point of view through their body language and all of this signals one where they are in the hierarchy and two

what side they fall under in the present Choice notice that only Jerry the president of the company speaks plainly to Logan appar there's about 20 of them down there why don't we just ask them if can come back tomorrow Logan they are coming up and if you don't open the door they will kick it in and if you don't open the filing cabinet they will pull out a crowbar this is a show of resolve and there are cameras outside and they do not need to see the FBI meeting any resistance what do we say cooperate

open up let them in and all of Logan's subordinates sigh in relief Logan has made his choice we're cooperating we're cooperating hierarchy is innate in every character relationship work environment and even friendships when a choice arises this is the clearest time to see this dynamic in action now there's one more piece to add to really make a scene pop while you can simply have the characters argue in dialogue and make a choice it makes the scene much more interesting to watch if you set up a scene object the characters used to express the argument here

it's very obvious the two pills represent the two paths Neo can take stay in the dream world or embrace the truth of reality many times a seen object is what you remember from that scene the scene object is more than just an object it is a symbol of the current Choice it is a physical representation of a choice between two worlds two viewpoints two paths okay sign the make your scene object a big enough debate and you can make three movies about [Music] it returning to the Little Miss Sunshine scene the scene object should be

pretty obvious the ice cream notice how a simple bowl of ice cream is now a symbol of being a loser in Richard's eyes and doing what you want to do in cherls the scene object makes the entire drama work want to see more examples check out practical screenwriting tocom choice for more seen breakdowns now let's see all of the pieces together in one masterfully written opening scene this is the opening of Steve Jobs screen says it's an unimplemented trap but the air code is wrong it's a system error so what's the upshot it's not going

to say hello it absolutely is going to say hello nobody's fault it's a Bu The Voice demo The Voice demo is BL I've been telling you that for this thing is over it opens with a problem The Voice demo is not working moments before the launch of Apple's Macintosh computer Steve wants it fixed now skip over The Voice demo we needed to say hello you're not hearing me it's not going to say hello fix it now we have the debate Steve is at the top of the hierarchy as Apple CEO however it's Andy's choice to

fix the Voice demo fix it yeah in 40 minutes I can't who's the person who can the person who can and I can't even though Steve's in a higher position Steve must convince his engineer to fix the demo means the demo is more than likely going to crash you have to keep your voices down Joel forer C Joanna is Jobs's right-hand woman but here she backs Andy worrying about the success of the launch it's 20 seconds out of the 2hour launch why not just cut it we can't cut it yeah you just cut it two

days ago we ran a Super Bowl ad that could have won the Oscar for best short film there are more people who can tell you about the ad than can tell you who won the game akes ra through a new Choice save the world it didn't say it was going to say hello open the house in five don't open the house this mini Choice serves as a little setup for a new character the other Andy fully entering the scene a moment later with another new Choice Andy which one the other Andy you're right there why

would I be calling out he needs to talk to you yeah the exit signs need to be off and we're not going to get a full blackout we've spoken to the building manager and the fire marshal and there's absolutely no way they're going to let us turn the exit signs off I'll pay whatever the fine is the fine is they're going to come in and tell everyone to leave the Unseen Fire Marshall has the power of the choice in this moment because he can make everyone leave the auditorium but Steve refuses to acknowledge the Marshall's

Authority if a fire causes a stampede to the unmarked exits it'll have been well worth it for those who survive for those who don't less so but still pretty good I need it to go black real black get rid of the exit signs and don't let me know how you did it fix the Voice demo Steve Jobs makes the decision about what will happen for everyone then leaves and that's the point of this opening Steve Jobs sees himself as the ultimate decision maker and notice that this opening scene feels huge in high stakes even though

it is simply a few characters standing in front of a box on a stage want more scen breakdowns check out practical screenwriting docomo for more and when writing your scene use this simple formula who wants what in the scene who is in their way will A or B Be Chosen what is the important object the debate is over where do all the characters in the scene stand on the choice whose choice is it how is pressure built on the choice and what option is chosen thanks for watching and if you made it this far please

leave a like on the video and I'll see you next time [Music]