Bokeh

Bokeh is about short focus in photography. Strictly, bokeh means: ‘the blurred quality or effect seen in the out-of-focus portion of a photograph taken with a narrow depth of field’.

But most people use the word to mean or infer a short depth of photographic field. I do.

Bokeh can be achieved by opening up the camera aperture so that, because of the laws of optics, the depth of focus is reduced. If you close the aperture down and let less light in, you get a greater depth of field. Bokeh is wonderful for still life and portraits.

As a screenwriter, your mind has an aperture, too.  

Portraits, of course, are what you are creating as a screenwriter. You are sketching characters in detail by placing them in a larger context that changes them, and which they then change.

Good screenwriters can write in bokeh. They can focus minutely on characters as those characters deal with their problems and relationships. The rest of their fictional film world can be out of focus until it forces it's way into your short depth of character field, causing that character to take extreme action.

Those moments can be called screenwriting or film beats.

So … write in bokeh. It’s a powerful part of your screenwriting arsenal and skillset.

If you do, and your screenwriting instincts are sharp, the rest of the picture will snap into focus to create those wonderful beats. Beats are moments of deep focus that reveal wide character context. Keep your focus on your characters’ inner worlds, and you will know when and how beats will change them.

Happy screenwriting.