Romantic Screenplays 101 Read Free

screenplays are more likely to get bought and made than haphazard stories filled with novelistic details and subplot side trips.
     The point is not to get scattered. Try one process, work with it, then maybe incorporate something else . . . until you find the match to your creative process.  There is no right or wrong. Any of the above techniques simply allow you 1) to identify when something isn’t working, 2) to stay on track or identify when you’ve missed something and 3) to identify exactly where you need to revise more efficiently.
    Character Profiling for film is another unique matter. Romantic characters will be addressed in Chapter 4.
     
    SPECIFICALLY ROMANCE
    Both fiction and the film industry categorize the subject matter of their products for one reason: consumer expectations . So, what does an audience expect of a romantic screenplay? Both male and female audience members expect a relationship story . The difference is that men expect physical responses between the couple and females expect a commitment. Tongue-in-cheek, this can be simplified to “Men just need a place; women need a reason.”
    The bottom line is that both sides of the equation want to see a story about a satisfying relationship. The term “satisfying” initially has different levels of meaning for the two genders in this context. Yes, males like to see a story that has one woman committed to her man (because that goes back to the primal territorial instincts). However, they are more interested in the male demonstration of his manliness and sexual prowess than in all the touchy-feely softening of the male beast to the feminine wiles of the female. Men want to see the action of the man proving himself worthy.
    Women want to see the gradual evolution of the male surrendering to his emotional need for this one woman. Most women are attracted to confident males who need convincing rather than the easily manipulated male. From the woman’s point-of-view this can be defined as “The male-female unit struggles through life’s changing saga until the female (intentionally or unintentionally) transforms the male’s awareness of her value to him.” Women identify with the element of female empowerment in romantic stories. Most women want a degree of control over their own lives, yet want mates who are confident in their own skins.
    Even in the prehistoric times, the female nest-builders had to feel confident that they could problem-solve the stresses in their lives. Through the era of women-as-chattel who had to follow the dictates of the males in their lives, females still had to make behavior and thought choices. Their perception of options may have been limited, but they still made choices. A female’s essential humanity sought value and respect. Nothing has changed in the 21 st century. The evolution of the relationship needs to make the woman more than she was before. As was said in JERRY MAGUIRE “You complete me.” A guy in the audience may have groaned when Jerry (Tom Cruise) said this, but every woman got it! With that line, the female succeeded! She was complete as well because he needed her!
    Note to any discomfited males: Here’s the generalization. Women are inherently nest-builders seeking a mate to create family, whereas males may desire the security of a relationship but are more concerned about the world, not the nest. They seek the challenge of spreading it around, attracting as many females as possible . . . as a side-line hobby, not as a vocation. The human male is about survival (jeopardy), whereas the female is about assuring the continuation of the species (consequences of sex). That’s the lowest common denominator in our biology, not a stereotyping, merely a biological imperative.
     
    IS CONFLICT IN ROMANCE A BATTLE OF THE SEXES?
    The simple answer is “No.” More often the characters are experiencing an internal battle of what each wants to do within the framework of their circumstance. Each is resisting the