Epilogues?

[ScreenWriterNH]

Are epilogues part of the original script or does a director decide to add it on after?

[Joe Calabrese]

Yes. You write it - you are the writer.

[scripter1]

NATURAL part of the story then yes, you would write it.
Your job is to tell all of the story, and NOTHING more then the story.
And nothing that isn't part of the story.

As the Mad Hatter so eloquently stated "Start at the beginning and when you come to the end ...... STOP."

If the epilogue isn't really part of the story then it will get cut by the director.

[dpaterso]

Could you point to a film that has an epilogue so I know exactly what you mean?

-Derek

[Joe Calabrese]

Saving Private Ryan is a good example of the traditional epilogue with the old man at the cemetery.

However, many people think that those pages after the bad guy is stopped at the end (after the end climax) is an epilogue. Like the twenty minutes after the ring is destroyed in LOTR.

[dpaterso]

Ah, okay, LOTR makes sense. The Scouring of the Shire (from the book) takes the adventure on some more, but I guess the part where Frodo sails off to the Grey Havens is an epilogue. Or one heck of a long denoument. :)

I thought Saving Ryan's Privates qualified as a bookend, like Titanic and others.

-Derek

[Joe Calabrese]

A think of a bookend as prologue and epilogue that are out of time with the rest of the story.

I am also reminded of The Fugitive and other 60's TV shows that actually had Epilogue written on the screen at the end before the final scene. A scene that just wrapped things up.

[scripter1]

epilogue with LOTR.

I also tend to think of epilogue as that one little scene that leaves an opening for the sequel.

NH, are you perhaps thinking of the little scenes that are now coming at the end of quite a few films where you see something happen with a minor character?
Like the monkey getting a coin at the end of Pirates, or the girl bringing home a kitten in Flushed Away?

[ScreenWriterNH]

My only reason for even thinking of an epilogue is that the script ends before the hero (Magellan) completes what almost all viewers would see as his epitaph - the first recorded western circumnavigation of the globe (the script ends before Magellan's death actually). I thought it may help bring closer to the viewer with a few, hard facts:

'He started out with 262 men, before leaving Port Saint Juian (the last scene of the script) 192 (?) were left alive.

The Armada de Molucca had sailed 4873 (?) nautical miles, it would sail another 25,000 (?) before their journey was over.

etc., etc.

Magellan had quelled the mutiny of the Castilian royals, his greatest challange lay ahead.'


The script only details the first third of the voyage, I need to leave the viewer wanting more.

[Joe Calabrese]

Although a bad movie, Marie Antoinette ended before she gets her head lopped off (her claim to fame). Similar to what you are doing.

I, for one, felt cheated that it ended so abrupt and at an odd place in her story without any hint of what was to come. Sure, I know the history as do many people about her death, so I imagine Sofia Coppola wanted to end it where it did for that reason.

However, Magellan, is lesser known in popular culture.

With that said, ending it before his claim to fame you need to establish what happens and I suggest a black screen and post script.

I hope that throughout the script you have a deeper goal for your protag other than making it around the world, otherwise your protag has no arc to his need/goal.

I caution you that leaving audiences wanting more is not always a good thing, unless you have a sequel in the works.

[NikeeGoddess]

I caution you that leaving audiences wanting more is not always a good thing

picnic at hanging rock - the absolutely most frustrating leave you hanging ending with no resolution flick i ever saw. it was several years ago and i still remember it so, maybe it's not a bad thing. ;)

[Joe270]

Nikee, I so completely agree. The whole movie built up to . . . nothing. I still think it sucked. I don't think it was great, or noble, or original. It was planned, yes, appreciated, no. That's why you never saw anything like 'from the writers of Hanging Rock, or from the producers of hanging rock'. No one would pay to see more of . . . nothing. Gee, thanks. And you took my seven bucks for what? I'm still pissed, not intrigued.

[Joe270]

Sorry, NH, I intended to respond to you, but got side-tracked by that (inappropriate omitted)

There are so many ways to leave it cliff-hanging. Meeting the next deadly intimidating island tribe, a storm rages and sails are hanging in the wind, three sheets gone. (That's where the drunk acting 'three sheets to the wind came from, by the way'.) Hell, the sun sets that way, the main characters can say "We started chasing the sun", "Yeah, let's catch it", whatever.

You have a good idea here, but only a couple producers will tackle something this expensive. I write 'sea stories' some, as a former ship's captain. I stopped because they are so expensive to produce, didn't think mine could make the cut. Now I'm rewriting two earlier novels. Who knows?

If you need some incredible music to help inspire you, check out Canadian Stan Rogers. His music and lyrics are phonomenal. He died young, but you can still get the music. He has the feel of what you are writing, if you can capture it in script form, you win. I never could.

[poetinahat]

Blade Runner had an epilogue too -- I wasn't sure whether I liked it being there.

[ScreenWriterNH]

Thanks - it's all good advice, and all very applicable to the script. I started out with the intent of ending the story at Magellan's death in the Philippnes but 40 pages into it realized I was trying to put a 3 pound ham in a 1 pound can. I decided the story (history) needed 220 pages to do it justice (at least by my limited hand), 330 to bring what was left of the armada back to Spain.

That very-expensive-to-make-movie had become an even-more-expensive-and-difficult-to-make trilogy. Still I decided to write this one from the heart, for the ages, budgets-be-damned! (my idealistic insanity is only temporary, I assure you)

That left me where I am now a finished(?) script and an unfinished story. Leaving the audience feeling gyped is, of course unacceptable (even for an idealist crazy person). I do realize that the script has to leave the reader with a sense of "completeness and/or clousure" and to that end had included, after the final climactic scene, a brief dialouge between Magellan and his confidant.

I thought that a black screen with postscript stating a few hard facts might also help bring this portion of the story to a satisfying end.

[Joe270]

You never know, they might buy it as a trilogy and make them all at once, then you have a trailer for the next installment.

I'd try to make each one as stand-alone as possible.

[Joe Calabrese]

WARNING!
The following is one of Joe's rants. Feel free to skim through.

Christopher Columbus was but one movie, as was many done for historical figures, like most recently with Queen Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette, etc...

Hell!!!! The entire Book of Exodus was made into just the Ten Commandants. And all the Gospels were made into a whole slew of Jesus films (yet one film each).

What I recommend is that you take the common theme or personal struggle that Magellan had through out his life and eliminate those scenes that do not follow your logline.

What is your story about (and don't say Magellan's life). What about his life makes a story? With Aviator, they dealt with and only showed Hughes' OCD and how everything else was affected by it, but they still showed how he came about, how he struggled and succeeded to what we know him as today.

You don't have to go a to b to c... all the way to z. A good story teller tells a story from a to d to m to z and the missing parts are not missed because of the way the story was told and background info was intertwined effortlessly so we know it without seeing it. I'm not saying tell not show, but you can't show everything. be selective.

The great biographical stories and films are ones where is doesn't matter who they were, but what they did. You could almost take Queen Elizabeth out of the screenplay and replace her with a fictitious Monarch and they story would still be good. Tell Magellan's story, not his life.

If I were you I would divorce myself from the obvious love you have for Magellan's entire life and like a bitter divorce, rip it apart down to 120 (130 at the most) pages.

Now of course, keep what you have. If a producer loves your script you will have plenty of material to add to in the rewrites, or you may be lucky enough to sell the whole thing as a trilogy, but don't shoot yourself in the foot for sake of historical (and complete) disclosure.


That's enough ranting for today.

These of course are my opinions and you should do what you feel is best.

[ScreenWriterNH]

I hear and agree with you Mr. Calabrese.

My story is not about Magellan's life it details the fate of the Armada de Molucca (the fleet he commanded) and the first installment only covers the fleet from 400 miles south of the Canaries to the southeastern coast of South America, a time frame of approximatly 8 months. I do feel that the story moves purposely, without wasted scenes, to the ultimate confrontation of the armed mutiny.

Having said that I know that you are absolutly right about the historical movies you mentioned. And although it has not often been done (Rome - HBO) I would ask you to consider this:

Couldn't that macro-lens used to compress an entire lifetime into a 90 minute movie be turned around with equally interesting results?

Not that that has much to do with an epilogue, only trying to justify my reasoning I guess.