Scenes that do nothing for the story.

I've filled in one of the gaps talked about in my last post with a montage that enforces one of the plot threads. I think with that montage, the sudden transition in time doesn't seem so harsh (I've never used a montage before and still need to check on the correct format).

What I was trying to avoid is what I saw in the third (and possibly the second - can't remember) matrix film. What I saw there was:

1) A bunch of scenes (mostly action aimed at showing off special effects).
2) The story then seemed to stop while there was a ton of dialog to explain what was going on.
3) A bunch of scenes (mostly action aimed at showing off special effects).
4) The story then seemed to stop while there was a ton of dialog to explain what was going on.
5) etc…

…repeated up to the end of the film. To learn the story we were told it verbally by the characters. I loved the first matrix film, but was appalled by the bad writing in the second and third. Anyone trying to break into this business could never get away with writing like that, so I have no idea why pro's should be able to (I have a soap box about that I'll save for another post).

I feel that every scene I write has to move the story along. As an analysis tool, I intend to look at every scene in the script and write down how it moves the story along. If I can't write anything about the scene, it will go.