Step 1: Mastery of Drama and Thriller
Topic · 1 minute
House Of Games (Drama)
The scene opens with an establishing shot. In most cases, you can cut straight from an establishing shot to the action or dialogue. Here, the first words aren’t spoken until more than halfway into the clip. Why is this?
It is a big deal when the film’s hero, Margaret Ford, enters the HOUSE OF GAMES for the first time. This is why the journey is protracted. It is a major Hero Threshold, entering the special world of the gamblers and con artists. The music and lighting also suggest an element of suspense.
This is a great scene for Mastery, but I would never show you the script as an example.
David Mamet is a fine writer, but his background is in theatre, and the formatting of the script reveals this. The tab settings are very different from what is customary – and acceptable – in the world of screenwriting, as you will see when you open the script at the end of this course.
Mamet, a celebrated Broadway playwright, got away with this…
Would you?
Did you know…
David Mamet wrote HOUSE OF GAMES as a starring vehicle for actress Lindsay Crouse, who he was married to at the time.
Die Hard (Action)
This short clip from DIE HARD takes place towards the end of Act 1, when John McClane enters the office where uber-villain Hans Gruber interrogates the CEO, Mr. Takagi.
It is a moment of suspense, but also a lead-in to a shocking realisation about the cruel nature of the ‘terrorists.’ Once we know what these men are capable of, everything that follows carries higher stakes.
In action films, the weapons are often more than mere props. In the script for DIE HARD, John McClane’s gun is not just a gun; it is named ‘his Walther‘, after the brand.
In the same way, a Western script may name a rifle Holland & Holland, Smith & Wesson, or short S&W.
The best action movies are characte- driven, and DIE HARD certainly is. The screenwriter will ensure that the characters’ defining traits are clear – and described on the page – in every scene.
How would you describe Gruber’s characteristic behaviour, as compared to McClane’s? In a screenplay we don’t see faces. Therefore, we recognise a character from their behaviour.