Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Midway in the Photoplay [Part 3]

“The plot within the plot is one form of elaboration on the spoken stage.”

If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDb.

Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920: “How to Write Photoplays”. I have been running a weekly series based on the book. You can access those posts here.

Today: Midway in the Photoplay [P. 100].

The plot within the plot is one form of elaboration on the spoken stage. In this case, there is a story, such as a romance between two of the minor characters which keeps bobbing up from time to time in odd moments and which has some relation to the main plot.

What Loos and Emerson are talking about here is what has come to be known as a subplot. This is such a critical aspect of screenwriting, I’m going to parse what is in the book on the subject over the course of the next several weeks.

A subplot is a secondary or subordinate plot, sometimes known as an ‘underplot.’ Do not be confused by the use of the words secondary. That does not mean subordinate in importance. Indeed often subplots are the most memorable aspects of a movie. For example:

• Casablanca: The Plotline revolves the dispensation of the letters of transit. One of the key subplots is the Protagonist-Attractor relationship between Rick and Ilsa.
• The Silence of the Lambs: The Plotline is based upon the pursuit of Buffalo Bill. One of the key subplots is the Protagonist-Mentor relationship between Clarice and Lecter.
• Inception: The Plotlne is about the attempt to plant a suggestion in Fischer’s mind. One of the key subplots is the Protagonist-Trickster relationship between Cobb and Mal.

In most movies, there are multiple subplots. How do you find them? Look each of the primary characters and their respective relationships with the Protagonist. More often than not, those are subplots.

What Loos and Emerson suggest speaks both to the value of subplots as well as the central challenge:

• “bobbing up from time to time”: Subplots allow the writer to cross-cut between action from Plotline to Subplot A to Subplot B to Plotline to Subplot C to Subplot A to Subplot D to Plotline and so forth. The benefits of this are enormous extending from pace and building narrative drive to increasing the cinematic feel of the story.
• “some relation to the main plot”: However every subplot, no matter how small, must have a specific relationship to the Plotline. In other words, it must service that story. If not, the writer runs the risk of confusing matters and diffusing the impact of the narrative.

Tomorrow: More screenwriting advice from the past.

You can read “How to Write Photoplays” via Google books online here.

For the rest of the series articles:

Introduction
Getting Ideas
Conflict and Crisis
Situation
Theme
Star Sympathy
Action: Part 1
Action: Part 2
Action: Part 3
Action: Part 4
Action: Part 5
Story Synopsis
Continuity: Part 1
Continuity: Part 2
The Title
Marketing the Script
Writing for the Camera
Scenery for Scenarios
The Actor’s Angle: Part 1
The Actor’s Angle: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 1
Character On The Screen: Part 2
Character On The Screen: Part 3
Character On The Screen: Part 4
The “Interest”: Part 1
The “Interest”: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 1
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 2
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 3
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 4
The Kinds of Stories That Sell: Part 5
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 1
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 2
What to Write and Not to Write: Part 3
Cutting The Picture: Part 1
Cutting The Picture: Part 2
Cutting The Picture: Part 3
Writing for the Censors: Part 1
Writing for the Censors: Part 2
Writing for the Censors: Part 3
The Pictorial Element
The Denouement: Part 1
The Denouement: Part 2
The Denouement: Part 3
How To Begin: Part 1
How To Begin: Part 2
Midway in the Photoplay: Part 1
Midway in the Photoplay: Part 2

Note: I ran this series originally in 2012. Unfortunately, the individual articles got bungled up on the site in some sort of technical snafu. So, I am recovering them one by one in this reprise of the series.