Transformation from book to screenplay, Part II

Here is the second part of the process of transforming Mustang Fever into a screenplay for my LIT 289 class at Pima Community College:

We may need some backstory, or more about the situation. In Mustang, Where is Chance coming from? What motivates him? We find him in Nevada with a broken heart, recovering from having loved and lost a Polynesian princess when he was on duty in American Samoa and other exotic islands, providing upper atmosphere weather for nuclear testing in the Pacific; too late came his redemption—he overcame his upbringing and the fears of marrying a woman of a different race, a different color, a different culture, a different language, a different religion, but it was too late, and Moana was lost to him. Cheyenne, the Southern Paiute Indian girl he meets while providing weather support for missile warhead testing at the nearby Nevada Test Site, suffered from her own heartbreak years earlier. Both are wounded, fiercely independent, and uninterested in being hurt again.

Turning Points: every film has at least two Turning Points--one at the end of Act One, leading to Act Two, and a Second Turning Point at the end of Act Two, leading to Act Three. These keep the action moving, they help the story change direction; new events unfold; new decisions are made. Due to the two Turning Points, the story achieves momentum, and retains focus.

They move the action in a new direction; they raise the central question again; it’s a moment of decision or commitment for the main character; it raises the stakes, pushes the story into the next act; takes us into a new arena, gives us a different focus
In Witness, the first turning point is a strong action: McFee tries to kill Book, and Book realized the Sheriff is crooked as well.
With Mustang, the first turning point could be where two cowboys try to get Cheyenne killed for trying to help the wild mustangs, and Chance is riding with her. Now Chance has civilian enemies as well as a military enemy; the stakes are higher.

The second turning point does all that the first turning point does; in addition, it speeds up the action and momentum and urgency.
The second turning point often has two beats: the first is a dark moment (the case seems unsolvable), followed by a new stimulus. In Mustang, it could be when Chance has to face a court martial and possible imprisonment for seemingly illegal actions. He has to take new actions.

Spirit of the Mustang - The Extra Mile

This is a really beautiful video!

Transformation from book to screenplay, Part I

In my Pima Community College's LIT 289 class we are in the process of transforming Mustang Fever into a screenplay. Here's how it goes:

Begin with AN IMAGE.
Visualization brings strong sense of place, mood, texture, sometimes the theme.
Create a metaphor for the film, telling us something about the theme.

Find the CATALYST.
After the initial images begins the story; we need to be introduced to any important characters, and information about the situation. In Mustang Fever, the intial images are dawn and we see seven wild mustangs appear out of the darkness watching Chance as he ties pilot balloons to creosote bushes, and then we see a nearby nuclear explosion out of the early dawn darkness at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site north of Las Vegas.

To start the story: the Catalyst. It begins the action of the story. In Mustang Fever, it could be Sgt. Ochs with a pick-up truck trying to drive the wild mustangs away or maybe trying to get them to run over Chance and warn him or even kill him.

This leads to THE CENTRAL QUESTION. Every story is a mystery. It asks a question in the set-up that will be answered at the climax.
In Witness, the central question is, Will John Book get the murderer? In Jaws, the central question is, Will Martin catch that killer shark? In Mustang Fever, it could be, Why does somebody want to kill Chance? And, “How do the mustangs fit into the story—what will happen to them? Will they be killed as a result of radioactive poisoning?