Leaving, Confrontation, Confrontations about leaving, you get the idea. There was an exercise we did in improv class wherein one actor would attempt to keep the other actor from leaving the room. I've always remembered this, as the one that wants to leave, can simply leave, therefore, whatever the first actor says must be pretty powerful. I guest directed an acting class once, and they'd prepared scenes from various movies, and they all boiled downto something like this. One guy tried to leave the room, and I asked him why, and he replied, "Because that's what my character did in the film." My response, "Well, maybe he made a mistake!!!"

Famous last words. The first thing that came to mind was Hugh Jackman's speech at the end of The Prestige. I'm sure there are a lot more examples of memorable screen characters signing off in memorable ways.

How about a tribute to side characters? You know the one. The sounding board for the protagonist. The one that asks just the right questions so we can get into the mind of the main character. The one that pitches the ball so our hero can hit a home run with a joke. The contrast. The sidekick. The best friend. The co-worker. The sibling. Sancho Panza. Dr. Watson. Garth Algar. The Foil. A staple of the rom-com genre and often featured in scenes where two characters are talking about a third (Gasp!) So, to continue the homage to Nora Ephron, here's a scene that features not only a memorable side character, but also a good example of how to make a scene with talking heads stand out by adding an element such as a unique location or event: When Harry Met Sally (1989) http://cli.ps/M2p5Z [At a football game. We follow the wave and see Harry and Jess.] Jess: When did this happen? Harry: Friday. Helen comes home from work and she says, "I don't know if I want to be married anymore." Like it's the institution, you know, like it's nothing personal, just something she's been thinking about in a casual way. I'm calm, I say, "Why don't we take some time to think about it, you know, don't rush into anything." Jess: Yeah, right. Harry: Next day she said she's thought about it, and she wants a trial separation. She just wants to try it, she says, but we can still date. Like this is supposed to cushion the blow. I mean I got married so I can stop dating. So I don't see where we can still date is any big incentive since the last thing you want to do is date your wife, who's suppose to love you, which is what I'm saying to her, that's when it occurs to me that maybe... she doesn't. So I say to her, "Don't you love me anymore?" You know what she says? [Jess shakes his head] Harry: "I don't know if I've ever loved you." Jess: Ooh, that's harsh. [They partake in the wave.] Jess: You don't bounce back from that right away. Harry: Thanks Jess. Jess: No, I'm a writer, I know dialogue and that's particularly harsh. Harry: Then she tells me that somebody in her office is going to South America and she can sub-let his apartment. I can't believe this, and the doorbell rings, 'I can sub-let his apartment', the words are still hanging in the air, you know, like in a balloon attached to a mouth-- Jess: Like in the cartoon. Harry: Right. So I go to the door, and there were moving men there. Now I start to get suspicious. I say, "Helen when did you call these movers?", and she doesn't say anything. So I asked the movers, "When did this woman book you for this gig?" And they're just standing there. Three huge guys, one of them was wearing a T-shirt that says, "Don't fuck with Mr. Zero." So I said, "Helen, when did you make this arrangement?" She says, "A week ago." I said, "You've known for a week and you didn't tell me?" And she says, "I didn't want to ruin your birthday." [They do the wave again.] Jess: You're say Mr. Zero knew you were getting a divorce a week before you did? Harry: Mr. Zero knew. Jess: I can't believe this! Harry: I haven't told you the bad part yet. Jess: What could be worse than Mr. Zero knowing. Harry: It's all a lie. She's in love with somebody else, some tax attorney. She moved in with him. Jess: How did you find out? Harry: I followed her, I stood outside the building. Jess: So humiliating. Harry: Tell me about it. And do you know I knew? I knew the whole time that even though we were happy it was just an illusion and that one day she will kick the shit out of me. Jess: Marriages don't break up on a count of infidelity. It's just a symptom that something else is wrong. Harry: Oh really? Well that symptom is fucking my wife. - Plus, just for fun, one more scene from this classic featuring both main characters' foils: http://cli.ps/ZHvgR - Pretty Woman (1990) http://youtu.be/4tuNGwsJnmI Kit: Did you kiss him? On the mouth? Vivian: Uh, yeah, I did. Kit: You kissed him on the mouth? Vivian: I did. It was nice. Kit: You fall in love with him, and you kiss him on the mouth. Did I not teach you anything? Vivian: Look, I'm not stupid, okay? I'm-- I'm not in love with him. I just-- I like him. Kit: You like him? Vivian: Yeah. Kit: You definitely like him. Well, he's not a bum. He's a rich, classy guy. Vivian: Who's gonna break my heart, right? Kit: Oh, no. Come on. You don't know that. Hey, he asked you, right? Maybe you guys could, like, um, you know, get a house together. Like, buy some diamonds and a horse. I don't know. Anyway, it could work. It happens. Vivian: When does it happen, Kit? When does it really happen ? Who does it really work out for? Did it work out for Skinny Marie or Rachel? No! Kit: Those were very specific cases of crackheads. Vivian: I just wanna know who it works out for. You give me one example of somebody that we know that it happened for. Kit: Name someone ? Vivian: Yeah, one person that it worked out for. Kit: You want me to give you a name or something. Vivian: Yeah. I'd like you to-- Kit: Oh, God, the pressure of a name... Cinder-fuckin'-rella! - And Kit has the funniest line in the movie with this: “Fifty bucks, grampa. For seventy-five, the wife can watch.” http://youtu.be/wzuZiERMPEI

Sub text - it's a difficult call - but well worth the effort. Liz

Drug deals and/or narcotics ... on the surface this seems a bit puerile, I know. But there's a wealth of material out there - serious and hard edged, euphemisms, comedic etc

Without going through every single post, is there any list of previously used themes?

Samantha, don't worry about that. We've had some repeats in the past.

Father/Son moment. Bad/Stupid Advice. Revelations (that lead to awkward situations). Little Kids acting as Adults (10 and under). Smooth Talking (trying to get into a club, etc...).

Dialogue-driven comedy set pieces (such as the Insult Scene from Roxanne [1987])

Okay, here's something a bit different: the phone call as inciting incident/ call to adventure. This happens a lot in thrillers - the call from the daughter in Taken, the first call from the hostage-takers in Buried - where it's often the first contact between protagonist and antagonist. In Cellular, though, it's the first contact between the protagonist and the stakes character, which is a nice variation. But I'm sure there are instances of phone calls functioning in the same way in other genres - even a call as simple as "Your father's died" might be an inciting incident/ call to adventure. It's an interesting dramatic technique, because it demands an *immediate* response from the protagonist. They don't have several scenes to debate things: they've got to say *something* to whoever's on the other end of the line.

Not sure if this has already been mentioned in the past, but how about best lines of dialogue from certain writers/actors/directors/genres? So one week we could have best lines from Kevin Smith movies, the next best lines spoken by Clint Eastwood. Then we could have best lines from Woody Allen films, then say best lines from the action/comedy genre. Something along those .... lines.

How about meet-cutes? They tend to be generic, but there are some very memorable ones.

How about gallows humor? When things are at their absolutely worst, and somebody cracks a joke. "Die Hard" comes immediately to mind.

One more... the riff. A long extemporaneous blast of examples, sideways logic, tangents and digressions. Vince Vaughn is the master of this. "Wedding Crashes" & "Dodgeball" come to mind.

MM, because I've got to 'high concept' these themes to get them across to readers quickly, how about Departures. And I can note that one example is departures where one or more characters attempt to stop another from leaving?

Good one! We've had final words of a movie. And dying words. But I don't think we've had Famous Last Words.

Side characters. Often with the best lines. Like Bill Murray in "Tootsie." Love it!

Subtext. Done that before, but always worth repeating. Thanks.

David, because I have to compress the theme to get it across to readers quickly, how about Smooth Talking?

Set Pieces, that's a good one. Great example from "Roxanne."

Debbie, let's try to distill that for ease of getting the idea across to readers quickly. Could just be phone calls. We've done that before and doesn't quite hit your target. Shocking Phone Calls? Phone Calls As Revelation? If you have a suggestion -- and think the brevity required for Twitter -- that would be great.

Sean, way back when, I believe we did an homage to Jimmy Stewart. But I like your idea. And since we're screenwriting oriented around here, why not focus on a screenwriter? Woody Allen would be good. How does that sound?

Rob, of course, Meet-Cute. Can't believe we haven't done that yet. Good one.

Churnage, Gallows Humor. Another one I'm surprised we haven't done. Great!

Riffing. That could be fun, too.

Great work, folks! I'll get a post together for later today and include most of the ones suggested here. A few more need a bit of tweaking to fit into that brevity / clarity mode, and if we can focus them, I'll add them later. Should have enough to take us through the summer. Thanks!

Drug deals. That's one we haven't done before. Nice.

Sounds good to me.