Intense Turbulence

Focus on creating scenes with intense turbulence because when a lot is going on in the situation and inside your main characters that's when your audience cares about what happens next in your story.

One of the goals of your screenplay is to create memorable characters, and when you think of memorable characters you don't see them resting on a couch, they are usually involved in something very intense.

Every good screenplay has 5 pivotal moments. Focus on creating four to five intense moments before and after each of these 5 moments. During the last 25 pages of your screenplay focus on creating at least ten intense moments. Take a look at good movies and you'll see they follow this intense turbulence standard of four to five moments before and after 4/5s of the movie, and having 10 intense moments during the last 25 pages.

Have the 5 moments act as a guide as you write and after you write. If you have completed a screenplay, count the intense turbulence moments. See if there is any way to intensify the turbulence - inside and out - as the story progresses.

Think for a moment about your favorite movie and write down the most memorable moments. Think about how the best movies have rising conflict. Things within the characters are escalating as the story unfolds, and the situation escalates too. Is your story full of moments that are escalating in intensity?

In Casablanca, the turbulence increases because we see that Rick and Ilsa have rekindled their romance. Inside turbulence: they love each other but someone else is involved - will she leave Victor? Will Rick pressure Ilsa to leave Victor? Or will Rick pressure Ilsa to stay with Victor? What kind of man is Rick? At the end of the story, we know what kind of man he is. By his actions, we know him. He pressures Ilsa to go with Victor. "You're getting on that plane."

The turbulence inside Ilsa and Rick cannot get any more intense than at the airport when they say good-bye. Everything escalates to that moment.

Focus on Casablanca's outside turbulence: What's the situation that Rick and Ilsa find themselves? The freedom of the world is at stake. Victor is not a nobody, he's a somebody. Rick has heard about him and admires him. People in Casablanca are getting shot, they are selling their valuables, they are selling their bodies, they are waiting for a chance to get out of that city, and nearly all the countries in the world are at war.

What's your story's situation? Is it turbulent? Is their rising turbulence in the situation? What kind of turbulence is happening inside your main characters? Is their rising turbulence? How many times are their intense moments before and after each of the 5 key moments? Is their at least 4 or 5 during 4/5s of the story? 25 minutes before the end of your screenplays, how many intense moments are there? If there's less than ten, see if you can add a few more.