6 Tips for Writing a Successful Contained Screenplay

Hollywood is in uncertain times: film sets are starting to reopen but with increased restrictions like closed sets, and limited characters per scene. No one knows how long this ‘new normal’ will last, but chances are screenplays with limited locations and characters could be more attractive to producers than ever before.

What better time to learn how to write a contained screenplay. Contained screenplays are exactly what they sound like: a movie or TV episode that’s set in one or two locations, usually with a small cast. Even though a lot of contained screenplays are horrors or thrillers, you can write a contained screenplay in any genre (even comedy). Great movies like: Room, Ex Machina, Panic Room, Phone Booth, Cube, and Breakfast Club are all contained screenplays.

Don’t be fooled though, even though this subgenre has less characters and locations than your average screenplay, it can be a huge challenge to create an entertaining, meaningful story within a confined format. But if your script is great the payoff can be worth it: Hollywood loves contained screenplays because they can usually be filmed fast and on a tight budget.

Here are 6 tips for writing a great contained screenplay:

1. Location is everything

When you set the action of a story in one place it can get boring fast (limited locations can limit the action and visual excitement). So, if you have to choose one setting, do yourself a favor and make it as dynamic as possible. For example the movie Cube took place in a series of square rooms, the Hitchcock classic Rear Window took place in a single apartment but was visually dynamic because of the, you guessed it, rear window. Also the “limited locations rule” isn’t as strict as it sounds - it can literally mean one room, or it can mean a contained location with a bit more variety (like a hotel, or museum). They key is to get as innovative as possible with how you use your limitations: even something as seemingly straight forward as a dorm room (or even a coffin, proven by the movie Buried) can be an exciting location if used creatively. 

2. Create space within the space

It can help to keep your audience ‘visually invested’ in your story by making use of sub-locations within the location. Confused? Let’s say you’re writing a screenplay that takes place in the room you’re in right now, take a look around you, how many ‘sub-locations’ exist within the room? Maybe there’s a closet, a hallway, a bathroom, a view outside your window, even corners of big rooms can be treated as “additional locations” for your characters to exist in. There’s also the fun possibility that your single set literally changes as the story goes on - maybe your screenplay takes place in a room that’s flooding and the water’s rising; or in an old house that literally falls apart throughout the film. How can you make one location feel like seven? How might your set evolve?

3. Why don’t they just leave already?

Make sure you have a really solid reason your characters are in the location they’re in. If they’re trapped, why are they trapped? For example in the movie Room a woman and her 5-year-old son are being held captive in a shed, in Panic Room they’re stuck in a literal panic room due to intruders in their home. Your cast doesn’t need to be physically trapped, but they do need a good reason for staying in the same place. Whatever reason you choose, ‘containing’ characters in a way that makes it feel like they can’t leave can be a huge gift as a writer: it can help raise the stakes of the whole story. Which brings me to…

4. High Stakes!

You don’t have to have a large cast or ever-changing sets to keep your story interesting, which means the success (or failure) of your story heavily relies on a dynamite plot. Contained screenplays work when they keep the tension rising and the stakes high. Stakes like life or death, global destruction, or losing the person you love the most - you have a better shot at keeping your audience invested in your characters if they have something major to lose and we actually fear they might lose it. Which is at the heart of all successful dramatic conflict.

5. Make friends with Real-time

Part of the magic of contained scripts is they often take place in real time. If someone needs to figure out how to escape a locked cell we get to watch their every attempt, if they are forming a new relationship with a stranger in a broken elevator we get to see each moment of that evolve. It’s easier to buy into a story where people are stuck in the same place if they’re there for a few hours (or even a few days), but harder to believe if they’re there for a week or a month.

6. Surprise Us

If you can write a really tight, tense story that has few locations and few characters you should be proud. But if you can do all of that and surprise your audience with a plot twist, you will take your script to a whole new level. 

Contained scripts can sound daunting, but sometimes the greatest sparks of inspiration can happen when you’re working within a set of limitations - that applies to contained scripts, and also applies to the changing world we’re experiencing right now. Whatever you do, stay creative and motivated!

What contained screenplays inspire you? Let me know @CaroleKirsch!