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Week 3 Day 5: Stacking Intrigue — GAME OF THRONES
1. Please watch this scene and provide your insights into what makes this scene great from a writing perspective.
2. Read the other writers comments and make notes of how you might create this kind of drama in your script.
3. Rethink or create a Stacking Intrigue scene for your script using your new insights and rewrite the scene.
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Scene Mastery, Week 3 day 5 STACKING INTRIGUE
GAME OF THRONES – Night watch meets White WalkersWatch first time for:
Basic Scene Components, which are:
Scene Arc – 3 men ride out of night watch gate into ice world to find out what’s going on. Youngest scared man finds mutilated bodies in a ritualistic pattern. Scared, he rushes back.
Situation – They know something weird is out there and must explore what it is.
Conflict – The three torch men versus whatever killed the village people. But also conflict within themselves as the youngest man goes but is clearly fighting his own fear to be there.
Moving story along – Something has not only killed these people, and mutilated them, but has left them in a pattern, leaving a sick kind of message.
Ent. Value – As we focus on the young rider’s fear, we see everything he sees, and hear every thing he hears. This is 2:44 minutes of complete suspense. Sights, sounds, sights, sounds, sights, sights, sights. By the end of the scene we are scared with him.
Setups/payoffs. The nervousness in their eyes, their resolve to find out, their bravery to go out to find it – all this sets us up for something creepy. The howling wind. The smoke. The super silent sneaking over the edge of the hill to see it. The creepy dead and mutilated bodies don’t disappoint. The fear and nerves were totally warranted. Plus as he runs back, one body spiked to the tree for good creepy measure. Then the last image. This carnage was not accidental. It was ritualistic for some unknown twisted purpose.2nd time:
What makes it great? You can explain the scene in two sentences. But to deliver it in all it’s suspense takes 2:44 minutes. Probably nearly 3 pages of writing, to fully deliver the “you are there” chills. Putting us right into the fear. Literally injecting us.
How does each step create intrigue? We start with three men. One brave, one resolved, one young man afraid. He’s our ticket into the fear. We see them ride out the tunnel. So dark. Getting smaller. Then ride through the tunnel into the snow world. They separate. We follow the young man. Creepy howling wind. He dismounts. Sees smoke. Quietly walks up to it. Coming from a valley. He CRAWLS to the edge. His worried face peers over. And sees….
How EACH REVEAL is DEMANDED. They look afraid. Where are they going? Out the gate. Why? They feel something is wrong. They split up to explore. Young one hears howling, sees smoke from a valley. Creeps to edge of the valley… quietly because he’s afraid. And there it is. Heads. Body parts. Whole bodies. Scared he runs away to run right into a body nailed to a tree. Last scene – we see what else he saw – the bodies arranged in a ritualistic pattern.
Different forms of intrigue – dark tunnel. Men getting smaller. Their faces – how each man reveals that they are going into a scary unknown situation. The door to the outside is heavy, and THUDS behind them. They put down their torches – go into dark snow word without their flames, unprotected. Split up. Scared man hears howling. Sees smoke above valley. Creeps quietly and fearfully to edge of valley to see what’s there. This is 2:44 minutes of suspense building.
The effect of stacking the images and sounds is VERY effective. Makes us see/hear EACH thing our character sees/hears as if we are seeing and hearing it all in real time with him. This puts us into the action and the fear.
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