Field trip

Jamie Sherry speaks to influential screenwriting teacher Syd Field about the three-act structure, Renoir and why Sideways should have won the Oscar for best film.

For those who have studied screenwriting the name of Syd Field will be extremely familiar. His essential texts on writing for film include Screenplay, The Screenwriter's Workbook, and The Screenwriter's Problem Solver - they have been taught in more than 395 colleges and universities.      

It is easy to underestimate the effect he has had on how writers view the screenwriting process and on the screenwriting teaching movement which has exploded since the 1980s.

It is also easy to be cynical about so-called screenwriting gurus, bringing to mind coiffured TV Evangelists offering hope and salvation in exchange for money.

Yet think about theories of action and character led plots, the three-act structure, exposition and subtext, set-ups and resolutions. Whilst these may be familiar concepts to seasoned screenwriters, it is the bleeding into mainstream culture of Field’s ideas that really mark him out as both a seminal figure and originator of screenwriting craft.

“We really have had a screenwriting revolution in the way that stories are being told," Syd told me from his LA home. "Story in itself will never change, the way we construct and appreciate story is actually relatively fixed in Aristotelian terms, but the way we can express narratives and characters has transformed and is transforming. It’s incredibly energising!”

This is something that appears to be key to Syd’s development both as a writer and as a teacher. A new approach to screenwriting based on changes in technology.

“There is a sense that films now have the ability to be novelistic in scope,” he says. “Technology is advancing the way that we tell stories and allowing us to dip our toes into techniques found in novels that would have been impossible in the past.”

I am interested to find out about his early years and the journey he has gone through to be where he is today.

“That’s a long story!” he giggles. “Well, I started out as an actor and I worked on Carola with the great French film director Jean Renoir who is really my mentor and inspiration.”

Syd mentions Renoir often – in The Screenwriter’s Workbook he is thanked for “pointing out the path through the forest.”

“Yes, he got me interested in film in a big way. My first book Screenplay was really motivated by Renoir's belief that a movie should be an act of revolution. I decided to get into the industry and in the 60’s I worked as a researcher/gopher staff writer and began making documentaries. I moved into screenwriting and out of nine screenplays, two were produced.

“Then I began script reading. I had to read 70 screenplays a week and of the 2,000-plus screenplays I read, only 40 were actually put forward for production. This really intrigued me. I wanted to know what made these forty screenplays better than all the others because at that point I really did not understand what made them good. I just sensed it.”

I suggest that this must have been the point that Syd began to formulate a paradigm in order to understand what made a script good as opposed to bad.

“Almost. I started teaching screenwriting at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College   and I became become aware of a certain structure that seemed to be present in those screenplays and films that really worked. I identified a clear three-act structure and the important plot points that inform the way we enjoy a movie.”

Deeply personal

For me one of the most interesting aspect of Syd’s earlier writings are his deeply personal views on his favourite films, in particular Robert Towne’s remarkable screenplay for Chinatown.

“Well that is very interesting. I have just completed a revision and updating of Screenplay to be released this year. I really wanted to come up with a more contemporary film example to show my ideas and theories. I simply could not find one! I left my analysis of Chinatown in the book because for me it is so perfect, a truly classic Detective story with incredible character development.”

Syd is sometimes criticised for this dwelling on 70s movies, the golden age of innovative film-making in America. I wonder if there any films made very recently that he has enjoyed.

“Sideways!” he says excitedly. “For me Sideways is a real contemporary classic, I really wanted it to pick up the Oscar for Best Film. It’s full of humanity and the narrative line is excellent. The integration of character and action is true poetry and I had to include it in my workshop. The Miles character is so aware of how he appears to other people. The writers use wine as a way to show two parts of his character – his need to project a view of himself as a wine taster and also the way he becomes a drunk to deal with his emotional problems.”

Showing rather than telling, behaviour as action.

“Precisely. It’s inspired. The Virginia Madsen character wants to read Miles’ novel and he takes out two huge boxes of manuscripts. He has a dream, a goal but the amount of writing he has done shows his inability to really let go, to move on.”

This is something that Syd has written about extensively in Screenplay. Ending your screenplay to get it out of your system.

“Yes,” he says, “letting go of your script. Writing those words ‘The End’ so that you can put it away until you come to do your rewrite. The novel is used in Sideways to show character – action is character after all.”

Global differences

Syd has been all over the world teaching his workshops and I wonder how students differ in terms of their approach to the screenplay and to his teachings.

“Well story is story no matter where you are or where you come from. You see, I go abroad to Europe and South America and what I hear all the time is people saying ‘Syd, I want to write an American film.’ I got an email from a Mexican screenwriter student of mine and she said the same thing to me. But she does not live here. She can write her own story and the humanity will be the same. The international writer needs to go to the fabric of what they know and what their experiences are and bring that out. Focus on your voice and your experiences – they are the most powerful tools you have as a writer.”

But if story is story then surely it does not matter if it is set in Mexico or America?

"Four hundred movies are made in America and only two of them are usually any good you know, the rest are bullshit.”

Syd laughs and I know we are getting to one of his favourite subjects, the sheer volume of celluloid coming out of America that seems to be second rate and uninspired. Yet he has been someone that screenwriters have singled out for being too formulaic, criticising his three-act paradigm for being a confining template that produces dull and predictable movies.    

“People ask me about this a lot. The only thing I can say is that those who feel that my writings on screenplay writing are conventional should actually pick up one of my books and read it.

“Laura Esquival was developing her screenplay Like Water for Chocolate from her novel. She would tell me that she felt constrained within the three-act structure, that it was dictating content to her. She was actually afraid of it! But I explained that it is just a form, nothing needs to be compromised in her story. Good structure should never dictate. That’s what form is about. Context not content.”

Maybe what people need to realise is that Syd does not have all the answers. Using one of his own analogies, Syd explains the rules of chess, he does not tell you what moves to make within a game.

“I write ‘what to’ books not ‘how to’ books,” he insists. “Renoir taught me all about that.”

I can empathise with some of Syd’s frustrations here. His focus on the importance of character development is one of the more inspiring aspects of his writings. I would single out his ‘Circle of Being’ as an extremely useful way to really build upon and add extra dimensions to your characters. Something I believe would help screenwriters to steer away from one-dimensional character developments and off-the-shelf motivations.

Three-act exceptions

I wonder if, as McKee suggests, there are exceptions to the three-act rule?

“I am sure that I have seen films that do not conform to the paradigm but I cannot remember them to be honest. There probably is exceptions to the rule but why focus on that? I always confront my students with this time after time.”

What marks Syd’s books out from many other screenwriting books is his look at the environment of writing, the personal details that affect our ability to write. As a serial procrastinator and terminal avoider of writing I find this highly refreshing.

“Yes, this is something that is entirely common amongst all writers. There are many factors that prevent us writing but of course the most important one is ourselves. It is about self-discipline and that is not easy. All writers have the same writing experience, sat in front of that screen trying to create magic. You must explore the realm of the screenwriting experience and have faith in your ability to bring discipline to your writing. And do it because you want to. If you write to sell something then you will not sell it. You must write it in your own way in your own voice. As it is said in the The Bhagavad Gita, ‘be detached from the fruits of your actions.’”

Syd’s students have gone on to wonderful things, it must be incredibly satisfying to see his teachings used so productively.

“To see or hear of my past and present students doing so well is wonderful, although I often do not even know who these people are or what they have done. I once got an email from the Latin America NPA after working there for three years. He said ‘well done for helping to write an Oscar nominated screenplay’. He was talking about Walter Salles’ Central Station. I am not always aware of the effect I am having on the outside world until someone points it out to me.”

Syd is clearly a terribly busy man, it is hard to imagine that he has time for his own screenwriting amongst all the books and seminars.

“I have just finished co-writing a screenplay for a film that is set in the 23rd century and then moves forward to the 53rd Century. It is a sci-fi mystery - I want it to be a cross between 2001 and Memento. I recently showed it to a couple of friends, including my attorney, to read and give me feedback. He came back to me and said ‘I want you to read this book to help out. It is called Screenplay by a guy called Syd Field.’ He could not understand my script at all, it was too confusing and he thought I was trying too hard to outsmart myself!”

I guess this goes back to what he said about still being a screenwriting student.

“Absolutely! We all learn from our mistakes. As long as we define something as a mistake and then find a remedy to that problem we become better writers.”

There really has been an incredible movement towards formal screenwriting teaching and learning in which the process is really honed down as a craft. Some big names now vie for the attentions of hungry screenwriting students. I wonder if Syd is threatened by this.

“It is fine, we all do different things.” He laughs. “We all have diverse approaches. Robert McKee is extremely popular and I respect that. He is obviously doing something right. I think there is space for us all.”

And what about Syd’s omission from Adaptation in favour of McKee?

“Well the weird thing is that people are always coming up to me and saying that they saw me in this film Adaptation. At first I had no idea what they meant and I think they just got me confused with McKee. It is like we are fusing into one person.”

A truly terrifying thought.

Writing screenplays is not easy. Writing a great screenplay is intolerably hard. What Syd Field has done in his own words is to continue a tradition of storytelling that goes back to Aristotle, Shakespeare, Henry James. In the end we can only use the books of people like Field to build upon what we already know. To learn about the context, with the content left up to our imaginations. As the man puts it so succinctly, “The hardest thing about writing is knowing what to write.”

This interview first appeared in the Guild’s magazine, UK Writer (Spring 2005) and was arranged thanks to The Screenwriters’ Store.