Using Theme

Writing a screenplay is much like an act of sleight-of-hand. As the writer, you are constantly saying to your audience, “Don’t look over there, look here!” You do that by deciding what you show to your reader. What you present to your audience makes an argument for a specific universe with specific values and ideas. What events you show, the choices your characters make and the images you present, create the world and, thus, the themes you are hoping to get your audience to think about as they become hooked by your story.

The Writer Speaks

In a movie filled with visual images and characters who do all the talking, Theme is where the writer gets to tell the audience what they think. Whether a wide-reaching statement about the human condition or a singular thought on a specific issue, the theme is where a writer expresses their view of the human experience and what they have to say about life — as expressed through the script and the story being told.

Also, it’s usually the reason — whether you knew it or not when you started — that you wanted to write the story you did.

The Human Condition

A script is the blueprint for a universe populated by the characters you’ve imagined. The world is fiction; but the emotions experienced are real. For your story to be impactful, the conditions, the events, challenges and hurdles your…