TODAY'S NUGGET: Forget Paris (1995) - What is Voice?

[Quick Summary: The up-and-down love story of how Mickey and Ellen met, fell in love and separated, as told from the POV of their friends.]

What is "voice"?  For me, it is when I read a script and I know it is ___ writer.  There's a tempo, a style, a way of telling the story.

How do you get a distinctive voice?  I have no clue still. 

I suspect it is one of those things that is partly unconscious and partly from having rewritten many scripts so that it sounds like YOU and YOUR RHYTHMS.

Ganz and Mandel have a definite voice. There is a certain tempo. They probably cram more jokes than you can into a few lines.  Scenes end with a flourish.  There is always a wry sense of the ridiculous in the face of disaster.

In the example below:
- The airline has lost Mickey's father's coffin.  Mickey does not speak French.
- His friend Andy (V.O.) is telling Mickey's story to Liz.
- Notice how the frustrating last scene ends on a funny note.

ex. "INT. STOREROOM

Mickey is being shown around.  An official is pointing hopefully to various items.

MICKEY: No! No!  He wasn't a bicycle! We didn't sit on him and go for a ride.  No! Not a birdcage!
                                                                                                                      CUT TO:
INT. STOREROOM

SHOTS of Mickey talking to one official after another. He can't communicate well with any of them and none of them seem very concerned about his problem.

ANDY (V.O.): Mickey's going out of his mind. But he's trying not to go off on anyone. You know, he doesn't want to be the ugly American.

INT. STOREROOM

Mickey is with another official, who speaks rapid French and coolly tosses Mickey's paperwork back to him and shrugs, unconcerned.  By this time, Mickey is disheveled and tired.

MICKEY: Please - look - I know you people are still angry over Euro Disney, but, please, don't take it out on me. I'm on your side. I even said, "the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Country Bea Jamboree, it's not a good mix."

The official is ignoring him.

MICKEY (CONT): Whatever you do, I'm not gonna lose my temper.

ANDY (V.O.): But finally...

INT. STOREROOM

Mickey with another insolent OFFICIAL.

MICKEY: If I was Hitler you'd give me my father. You'd give me everything in your whole goddam country. (screams) Where is my father?! Ou est mon pere?! If you don't find him, I'm gonna bury you instead!

ANDY (V.O.): Two days!

LIZ (V.O.): Two days?

ANDY (V.O.) He was in that airport two days! But the airline was nice. They gave him triple advantage miles and free almonds."

WHAT I'VE LEARNED: Your voice distinguishes you from everyone else. 

I finally begin to grasp that it's a combination of things, especially how you tell the story: tempo, POV, etc.

Forget Paris (1995)(1st draft, 6/24/94)
by Billy Crystal & Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel