How screenwriting and copywriting overlap
It’s no secret that I quite enjoy movies.
If the dozen-or-so previous issues of Empire Magazine stacked up on my desk don’t give it away, the endless movie quotes and references that I bombard my colleagues with on a daily basis ought to do the trick.
So, with the Oscars and BAFTA Film Awards looming, I’ve been thinking about how my love of the big screen has influenced how I go about my day job in digital PR.
One aspect of cinema that I take a particular interest in is screenwriting. There are numerous storytelling principles that you’ll be able to spot in any good movie, but I would argue these golden rules have a place in PR, too.
Copywriting vs script writing: what are the similarities?
In its simplest form, a screenwriter and a copywriter are both trying to tell a story and communicate a message to a target audience. And, regardless of whether they’re watching a movie in a cinema or reading a blog on their phone, that audience is going to be intrigued, bored, amused and thrilled by the same storytelling techniques.
It might sound a little tenuous at first; the idea that writing a script for a Hollywood blockbuster or Netflix’s latest release could be similar to writing a piece of online content. But a screenwriter and a copywriter are dealing with the same essential challenges. For one thing, a movie needs to smash the box office just as readily as a blog needs to convert readers into sales.
So, here are a few of my favourite screenwriting principles that I always try to keep in mind while writing here at Bottle.
The opening scene
Reeling in an audience and seizing their attention straightaway is a challenge that screenwriters and copywriters share. That’s why, for me, the opening shot of the very first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, is perfect. We, as in the viewer, look out across the surface of a dusty red planet and a spaceship drifts into view. Seconds later, we see that it’s being pursued by a second ship, a hundred times its size. Red and green lasers are being fired frantically between the two.
It’s a perfect opening because it provides enough functional information to let someone who has no knowledge of Star Wars understand exactly what’s going on – we’re in space, watching someone be pursued – but there’s enough ambiguity that we want to know more. Who is being pursued? Why? And by whom?
This is exactly what the opening line of a piece of copy should do. It needs to tell the reader just enough that they know exactly what they’re about to read, while also posing a question that makes them want to scroll down and keep reading.
Show, don’t tell
‘Show, don’t tell’ is a pretty essential rule when it comes to good screenwriting. It’s often the difference between simply communicating a piece of information to your audience and actually striking an emotional chord.
For instance, a screenwriter could come up with a scene in which Kevin tells another character that he hates kittens. Or, they could show the audience Kevin throwing a basket of kittens off the side of a cliff. Both approaches achieve the same result, but which is more effective? I’d argue that only one is going to have your audience gasping in horror and saying, “Man, this guy really hates kittens…”
I’m a firm believer that the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule applies just as much to copywriting as it does to screenwriting. Find ways to illustrate your story with a clever use of words, rather than simply pile facts onto your readers. Don’t just tell me that your client’s shiny new solution is a game-changer. Show me why.
Three-act structure
A lot of films follow a three-act structure. These acts are known as the Setup, the Confrontation and the Resolution, and in most films, you can spot pretty easily where each begins and ends. The three-act structure isn’t exclusive to fiction, though. A lot of the copy that we write here at Bottle benefits from following a similar structure.
Say you’re writing a piece of “help content” to sit on a client’s site. Think of your Setup as introducing the issue that you want to address.
Then, you bring in the Confrontation. What’s the challenge that makes your setup difficult? What is it that you’re trying to resolve with this piece of copy?
Finally, it’s time for the Resolution. What advice or closing remarks can you offer that will help your reader feel you’ve successfully resolved the challenges introduced in your second act?
There’s a reason this kind of structure is so regularly employed on the big screen. Quite simply, it works. So why shouldn’t it do the same for a piece of copy?
ChekHov’s gun
The ‘Chekhov’s gun’ rule dictates that if you present your audience with a gun in the first act of a story, it has to be fired in the final act. Otherwise, it’s redundant. Like telling a joke that has no punchline. It’s a waste of your audience’s precious attention and will ultimately feel underwhelming.
Again, this rule applies in a big way to copywriting. If you make a point or draw your reader’s attention to something, it has to be relevant. There needs to be some kind of pay-off. If there isn’t, you risk your freshly underwhelmed readers tapping on one of the countless other articles available for their perusal. And worse than that, they won’t be back.
Make it relevant or remove it from your copy.
Firing the gun
This one is less of a rule in its own right, but I would argue that it’s an invaluable trick. Chekhov’s gun needn’t be just a box-ticking exercise. You can actually use your audience’s attention to your advantage.
One of my favourite examples of this mentality is in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver. Towards the beginning of the film, we see the titular Baby watching the Pixar classic, Monsters Inc. Specifically, Baby is watching the scene in which Mike tells Sully, “You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship.”
Midway through the film, Baby regurgitates this line to mob boss, Doc. He does this again in the final act, at which point, Doc replies, “Don’t feed me any more lines from Monsters Inc. It pisses me off!”
I remember watching Baby Driver in the cinema and Doc’s reply receiving the loudest laugh of the entire film – and it’s a funny film. That’s despite there being well over an hour between the joke being set up, teased and ultimately delivered. It was an important lesson for me. Chekhov’s gun dictates that your audience’s attention shouldn’t be squandered. At the same time though, drawing an audience’s attention to the right detail at the right time can be used to weave a powerful thread throughout a story.
A lesson that’s just as true in copywriting as it is on the big screen.
Put a bomb under the table
The great Alfred Hitchcock once spoke about presenting your audience with two people sitting at a table, chatting about something fairly mundane. The weather, perhaps. Or the traffic. It’s far from an exciting prospect.
Show your audience that same scene again though and, tell them that there’s a bomb under the table. Tell them it could go off at any moment and that the people at the table have no idea it’s there. Now you’re cooking with gas. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter how mundane the conversation is or even how long it goes on for. You can make the most boring conversation in the world interesting by adding the right stakes.
I try to apply this mentality to every piece of content that I write, especially when I know that I’m writing about a topic that might not appear on the surface to be particularly exciting. Why should your reader care about what you’re telling them? What’s at risk… what are the stakes?
There’s a bomb for every table. You just need to find yours.
It’s true that digital PR might not share much with cinema on paper. But once you strip back the star power and the special effects, I don’t think there can be any doubt that they have one crucial thing in common. Quite simply, they would both be redundant without good storytelling.