When you posted the piece on how author Don Chaon uses color coded index cards for his first draft it made me wonder how? When I use color coded cards, I use them to identify either a theme or a particular character. How do you (or would you) use color coded index cards in outlining your script? BTW, thanks for the link to the Step Sheet for Chinatown. What a great resource!Remember how Stephen Bochco ruled the TV universe for a decade or more with series like "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law," and "NYPD Blue"? Years ago I read an interview with writer David Milch, who worked on "NYPD Blue" for many seasons, where he talked about the Bochco method: Each hour had several subplots. In the case of "NYPD Blue," each episode almost always had three storylines. As the writers would work out the beats in each subplot, Bochco would have those beats put onto color-coded 3x5 inch index cards - one color per subplot - then stripped out onto a board, where he and the others would shuffle them around to intercut each subplot per each act.
So let's say you have your main plot, what I call the Plotline. For now, designate that as blue, which means that all the beats and major plot points involving the Plotline are written out on blue index cards. Then let's say the Protagonist has a subplot with an Attractor character. How about green for that? And a subplot with the Protagonist and the Mentor. How about orange for that? Then the P's relationship with a Trickster. Let's dub that yellow. And so on per each subplot.
Now let's imagine that you've worked out all the beats per each subplot and all those beats have been summarized onto index cards. Like Bochco, you can play around with the best approach in cross-cutting this subplot with that one, then that one, weaving them together as you build the story around the Plotline.
That's one use for color coded index cards. I'll bet GITS readers have more ideas. Anyone?
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Thank you. That's what I thought might be happening and it makes sense to me; any other way and the subplots will become too diluted. By keeping each one separate, each one truly becomes its own story. Then by being able to move the cards around the different acts, you could play with several different major plot lines without having to completely rewrite a particular scene. I like it.
Plus it becomes very easy to see if you've got too many beats from a single storyline [or for one character, if you're colour-coding by character] clustered together.
I use one color for the main character of each plot line, since i'm writing a script with 1 protagonist and 3 sub-plots each with their own protagonists that intersect with the main characters' storyline. My plots overlap so much I find it more helpful to use white index cards and simply color in little bits of them (or use different color markers) to correspond with the characters in the scene. Then I make sure all the colors are pretty even.
Adds a little bit of kindergarden-style fun to the not-so-fun (for me) task of plotting/outlining!
I just used index cards for the first time on a script! I used white for the plotline, and different colors for each of the characters/subplots. I guess I think of other important characters and their subplots as being the same thing - for this exercise.
This visual trick can also help for genre films. For an action movie, use one color for action sequences. Then a glance at your wall tells you the rhythm of your piece -- where you need to give the audience a breather, where you've gone too long without adrenaline.
@Gaffney: That's a great use, visualize the pacing of the story between action scenes and those more driven by interaction, revelation, dialogue.
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