Five ways to define your film’s tone before writing the screenplay.
Using references will help you craft a vision early in the filmmaking process.
Right now my writing partner, Ziggy Rom, and I are on draft number five of our screenplay. Ziggy is an up-and-coming literary fiction writer, and we’ve collaborated on several projects before this: four short films, a narrative podcast, and two feature-length screenplays that are currently too expensive to make.
We each have a strong vision for the stories we want to tell, and that makes the creative process very fun but it also leads to heated and passionate discussion (argument?). The breakdown in communication typically happens, not because we don’t like each other's ideas, but because we’re not explaining them fully. One of us listens the other’s idea and jumps to a conclusion that’s completely off-base for what the other has in mind. For example if we’re tossing around ideas, and I suggest something like, "and then the protagonist’s neighbor has been murdered at his own birthday party," Ziggy might assume I’m thinking Clue. Meanwhile I’m imagining Se7en.
Explaining the tone to a creative partner is completely different than pitching the idea to investors. We’re less concerned about finding successful comparative titles or cast members that will secure funding, and more about finding references that, together, create a unique tone. As a director, it’s more natural to me to craft the tone using visuals and sound, but I’m sure there are writers who are able to do this solely with words.
Ziggy and I started working on this film the last week of December 2022 while applying for a film grant. We had to figure out how to craft our vision together to share with complete strangers, and we developed a helpful process. We didn’t get the grant, but sitting side-by-side for a few days was incredibly helpful for defining a vision. And though the plot, genre, and tone have evolved several times since December, we were able to get on the same page very quickly.
Crafting tone early in the filmmaking process:
Define genres. We’re writing a psychological thriller with elements of horror (hence, the name of this newsletter).
I loooooove thrillers, but it took me a bit to get on board with horror. I’m squeamish when it comes to horror. I can do campy horror, but I had to turn off Hereditary after ten minutes—literally right when you see the faint after-image of the grandmother ghost in the corner. I have an overactive imagination, so I’m the kind of person who sets traps in front of all the closet doors so that when I arrive home, I can quickly see whether someone’s hiding. But Ziggy convinced me that my scaredy-cat energy and powerful imagination are exactly why I should take a stab at horror. Besides, our idea wouldn’t work without horror elements. And so far, it’s been a lot of fun, and bonus: I can finally watch horror and think about how it’s been made.Write a Logline. Loglines are tough to write, but thankfully there are a million resources and articles to help. I typically search for my favorite films, or similar films, and reference theirs. A lot of experts, including this Masterclass article and the instructors at the Gotham Writers’ Workshop, teach that a good logline has irony. It might feel weird and annoying to do this exercise at the beginning, but it really helped us focus on the protagonist, their goal, and the antagonist/her main struggles and desires.
Tonal comparisons. Defining the films that share the feeling that you want to create will help other people see your vision. I recommend combining two or more references so the film feels unique to you and your vision rather than feeling like you’re trying to copy another filmmaker’s style. If you’re not sure, here are some questions to ask yourself: how is the world the same or different than the one we live in? How do the characters move through that world, and how do they speak to and treat each other? How do characters react to conflict? What’s the style of humor? How much camp? Is it arthouse? Does it feel “Hollywood?”
In our case, we chose a couple of titles that blend multiple genres: thrillers, dark comedies, stories with a specific type of surrealism that feels like reality. The characters in the films are real and raw, they face life-or-death stakes, but they’re also quirky and bizarre. I’ll go into this more in the coming weeks.Visual Tone. Make a mood board using a few images that feel like the film in your head. This should be more about the image itself, and not about the film it’s from.
Take a look at the images we chose.Music. Which artist would you choose to score your film? This is a completely personal exercise, so it’s fine to choose someone whose music you’ll never afford. For our film, my choice is Fever Ray.
Taking the time to define these five elements will give you some tangible ways to start living in your film’s world. I recommend creating a Google Slides or Keynote document, using at least one slide for each of these five elements. Keep the document open as you write, and update it often with additional references. This way, anytime you need to get back into your film’s headspace, the document will remind you of the direction you’re writing toward.
Resources:
This DGA podcast episode about tone, featuring Directors Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, Karyn Kusama and David O. Russell
Debut Feature Recommendation:
One of the best loglines that illustrates the use of irony, in my opinion, is Julia Ducournau’s Raw: A young vegetarian, studying to be a vet, develops a craving for human flesh.