Walking the Tight-Rope Between Confusion and Ambiguity.
Creating confusion is never good, ambiguity on the other hand is a mighty weapon in your armoury.
Get it right and the audience will love the journey you've created, get it wrong and your film script will be consigned to the 'no idea what that's about' pile.
Some believe that a more convoluted or complex script is better than a simple one. Sure convoluted and complex can work. If complex and convoluted goes wrong however -which is easier the more complex or convoluted the story becomes- then you risk confusing rather than wowing your audience.
Creating ambiguity invites audience participation, if they have some work to do to understand what's going on then, in the right place and at the right time, this will create active audience engagement.
If they need to question, process, interpret or decode and the stakes are high enough for them to feel compelled to do so then congratulations you're nailing it, you're drawing your audience deeper into the experience of the film.
Confusion on the other hand can do precisely the opposite. It leads the audience to question the film in its entirety. They wonder if they’re in safe hands and this pulls the audience out of the suspension of disbelief that is necessary to transport the audience to believable but ‘in-credible’ situations. Bang! There it is you've blown a reality hole in your screenplay.
So how do we walk the tight-rope between ambiguity and confusion without falling headlong into the chasm of confusion? For me it starts with two important recognitions:
1. Every writer, is their own worst blindspot. By virtue of knowing the story from the inside we make assumptions -based on our own total understanding of the story- about what the audiences will and won't understand and those assumptions are often far off the mark.
2. Your audiences comprehension of your script, as you intended it, is a primary imperative, get that wrong and nothing else matters.
If you don't have narrative control of your story you can't just wing it and say that you want it to be 'open to interpretation'. D'you know why? If you don't know what your screenplay is about then who will? I guarantee you, you've just bought your audience a one-way-ticket to Confusionville, no one likes it there.
If you accept my two recognitions to be true, we can formulate a question.
How can I ensure I overcome my own blindspots to ensure the screenplay means what I intended it to?
The answer is mercifully simple. Pose comprehension questions to the right readers; 'what did you understand about this scene?', 'when the character did X, what did that mean to you?', 'can you tell me what happened in the story?’ ‘What was your takeaway?' etc.
And the acid test? A public rehearsed reading to your target audience with a structured feedback session or question sheets to follow.
Good luck keeping your balance!
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