feeling the heat

'in the heat of the night' was quite instructional for me. not only did it teach me that i can enjoy slow films, but it was enlightening about the dynamics of a buddy-cop film. shane black crystallized the buddy-cop film with lethal weapon, but the formula wasn't new, as evidenced by this film.

in watching the film i realized that, although every scene is motivated by the next stage in the plot, and each scene centers around a plot element, the real dynamic of the scenes and the film comes from the contentious relationship between the two "buddies", the southern white town sheriff and the black northern detective who's passing through and forced to help work a murder.

since i'm working on a buddy script at the moment (or at least a detective story involving two detectives thrown together to work on a murder case), i was struck by this realization. i've made no secret of the fact that i'm a much better plot than character writer and i realized this was what my script was missing - that strong polarized dynamic between two very different characters forced to work together.

although i have two characters who are very different from each other and have very different goals, those differences were lost in the drive of the main plot, the logistics of solving a case. understandable since the reason organizations like the military and the police force work is because everyone becomes subject to the system, the methodology of operation, and different personalities can effectively work together because they both invest in the process, whether it's detective work or taking an enemy stronghold.

but working together effectively isn't enough for interesting drama - which was made clear watching this well crafted film. i realized i hadn't exploited the wonderful setup i'd created. like 'heat' i've got two very different characters forced to work together on a murder (though they're not nearly as adversarial as tibbs and gillespie - hard to beat racism in the fifties for tension). i've been complimented on my dialog, on it's realism, it's smartness. but that was icing on the plot cake. i was missing the real character conflict layer of the cake. icing and one layer ain't bad, but no one's gonna be asking for your recipe. or something like that.

so i'm working on draft five, this time with an eye towards the conflict between my two main characters; their different ideas about the case, their different goals and outlooks on life. and of course taking the opportunity to tighten the plot and give it even more drive, since i can never resist that.

i'm finding the process difficult. for me, when you're writing something other than strictly what's driving the plot, it's easy to get lost or end up writing stuff that may be funny or interesting, but ultimately has nothing to do with the overall film. it's backstory or simply people interacting.

it's fertile ground but makes for a long process, since first i write whatever comes to mind, then go back through and edit heavily. this process usually repeats multiple times as i hone down to what's really necessary. in some ways it's like starting all over again. hopefully at the end of it all i have something better, and not just different. so far i believe i do.