before we begin – in a late and belated attempt to do my due diligence, i typed "writing iceberg" into SEARCH and discovered that some bloke called ... wait a sec, i got it some-- ah! here it is: some bloke called Ernest Hemingway had an idea which he called the "iceberg theory" of writing
well, that's fucked that then, i thought
but after a quick scan of the Wikipedia article, i was relieved to learn that, while interesting and useful in of itself, it hadn’t much to do with my little rant below ... besides, i’d already done my little iceberg graphic, so i really had no choice but to continue with what i call:
THE SCREENWRITING ICEBERG paradigm, hypothesis ... thing
okay, now before we begin (again) – be aware that there’s no great lesson or useful insight here – if you’ve seen the graphic then you can pretty much skip the rest and get back to work …
still here? – alright, let’s try and make this quick:
the first thing that the astute observer will notice is that, unlike traditional icebergs, the preponderance of the Screenwriting Iceberg’s mass is observable above the waterline, with just ten percent of it being hidden below
that ten percent below the waterline represents the screenplay and, while it’s never directly experienced by the audience, it does in fact support the entire movie and everything the audience experiences
doesn’t look too stable, does it?
look at it – all that superstructure balanced precariously on that little wedge of screenplay at the bottom
it scares the shit out of me – my movie, your movie, anyone’s movie – it all relies on those 117-or-so pages of script to be so precisely calibrated and machined, that it won’t immediately flop over onto one side and sink to the bottom, the moment someone tries to take it out for a spin
this is yet another reason why screenwriting is so fucking difficult
with just words on a page, you have to be able to lay the foundations of a massively complicated and complex enterprise in such a way that it will (eventually) deliver the experience you have imagined for your audience
to this end, your screenplay will be the basis for vast array of decisions – from selecting the director and cast – to the thousands of creative choices required in art direction, cinematography, set design, costumes, props, sound, music and so on and so on and so on ...
and with each and every one of these decisions, the screenplay must be able to provide some guidance
but how? – there isn’t enough room in the average 117-or-so-page script to describe the locations in any detail, let alone the thousands of other visual and aural elements that combine to make up a movie – how can we communicate all that complexity when there’s barely enough room to describe the action?
well we can’t – and we shouldn’t – it’s not our job – the screenplay should provide guidance, not answers (my young Padawan) – a movie (or streaming series or whatever) employs dozens (hundreds!) of talented people whose job it is to answer these questions – using the screenplay as guidance … and under the director’s direction (of course)
okay, you say, “but how do you provide this guidance?”
… well, that’s as easy as inverting an iceberg and balancing it on its tip ;-)