Conflict in Scene-Writing

Scott Myers

Follow

Sep 17, 2019 · 5 min read

As a screenwriter, it’s important to get in touch with your inner Conflict-O-Meter to ensure your scenes convey compelling drama.

Erik Killmonger versus T’Challa in ‘Black Panther’ (2018)

You can’t have drama without conflict. Advice uttered by hundreds, if not thousands of writing teachers throughout the entire history of human pedagogy. For whatever reason, people are entertained by characters engaged in hostile antics. Need proof? Look no further than “The Real Housewives of New Jersey / Dallas / Atlanta / Wherever.”

I remember a conversation I had with producer Larry Gordon (48 Hrs., Die Hard, K-9) in which he said if a writer is stuck trying to figure out a way to convey exposition in a scene, what they should do is provoke the characters into an argument. Then while they’re screaming at each other, have them deliver the exposition. Use conflict to shroud information, backstory, data, etc., through entertainment created by characters engaged in conflict.

More broadly as a default mode of thinking, scenes need conflict. To make this point to my university students, I leap back in time to a TV series my mother used to watch called “Queen for a Day”. The basic premise: Four contestants (women) would each recount the sob stories of their life (“My husband got fired… my son can’t read… our dog thinks it’s a cat”) in an attempt to get the loudest applause from the studio audience. Quivering lips and a trail of tears a bonus. The woman with the highest number would be crowned Queen, complete with robe, crown, and tiara, and given some gifts a la a dishwasher, a refrigerator, a washing machine, etc.

What you see above is the Applause Meter, it quite literally measured the noise level created by the audience responding to each contestant’s tale of woe. I show this image to my students then say, “Imagine this is a Conflict-O-Meter, measuring the level of conflict in your scene. You want that needle to hit 5 at minimum, 7 and 8 regularly, and 10 at critical moments.”

What this translates into is as we write a scene: We need to drill down into it and identify its Central Conflict, then maximize it to create the most compelling, entertaining scene possible.

Bear in mind, conflict exists in many forms. For purposes of this lecture, let’s consider three levels as they relate to scene-writing:

• Open Conflict: Verbal argument, a fight which plays ‘up top’ in the scene
• Underlying Tension: More subtextual in nature, bubbling below the scene’s surface
• Action Conflict: Events in the External World which generate stress in the characters’ Internal World

Let’s take a look at three notable movie scenes which traffic in these three levels of conflict.

Chinatown: JJ ‘Jake’ Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) when she suspects her husband Hollis, builder of the city’s water supply system, of having an affair. When Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake is plunged into a complex web of deceit involving murder, incest and municipal corruption all related to the city’s water supply. It leads to this confrontation between Jake and Evelyn.

Open Conflict: Evelyn Mulwray is desperate to hide the truth. Gittes is equally obsessed with discovering the truth. Two goals collide = conflict. The needle on the Conflict-O-Meter here is definitely parked over in the 9–10 territory with this scene.

In many respects, a fight, whether verbal, physical, or both, is the easiest way to mine conflict. It’s visual, visceral, right there for the script reader to see and imagine. But the reality is you can’t have a script which only features Open Conflict. It will become repetitive and the impact of the conflict diminishes over time. We need to be able to explore other levels.

Like Underlying Tension — conflict simmering below the surface of the events taking place in the External World through action and dialogue. Here’s a great example:

Inglourious Basterds: Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) chats with a French farmer.

Underlying Tension: If you watch the entire scene, the discussion ranges from the quality of the farmer’s milk to reflections about rats to smoking pipes. The subtext is the growing realization that the people in hiding under the floorboards are about to meet a violent end. Landa never once raises his voice. There is no overt hostility, yet the conflict is there, bubbling to a boil just below the scene’s surface, the soon-to-be victims in hiding beneath Landa’s feet an apt metaphor for this type of writing. Conflict-O-Meter: 5… 6… 7… 8…

For our third type of conflict, we invoke one of screenwriting’s most fundamental mantras: Movies are primarily a visual medium. Whenever possible, we should frame scenes to exploit their visual potential. The most dynamic way to do that is through action. A terrific example is one of the most famous action sequences in movie history.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and the Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) find themselves trapped by an armada of Bolivian soldiers.

Action Conflict: How about a 293 word sentence? That’s what screenwriter William Goldman did in the script to create a sense of continuous action in one part of the movie’s final sequence. He uses the visual aspects of the action conflict — Bolivian soldiers vs. Butch and Sundance — to create a breathless, compelling scene which sets up the film’s last image:

In fact, if you break down the last 10 minutes of the movie, you will see Goldman uses all three levels of conflict:

• Action Conflict: The shootout
• Open Conflict: Butch and Sundance argue about Bolivia and going to Australia
• Underlying Tension: Butch and Sundance unaware of the growing army outside

The sequence is an excellent touchstone for writers to see the virtue of using conflict in its many forms to a story’s advantage.

Takeaway: When you write a scene, ask yourself: What is its Central Conflict? Be mindful there are various levels from Open Conflict to Underlying Tension to Action Conflict just three among an endless set of possibilities. Exploring and exploiting conflict is a proven way to craft compelling, entertaining scenes.

And oh, yeah, don’t forget your Conflict-O-Meter!