Aaron Sorkin’s promise

I have been watching Aaron Sorkin’s MasterClass on screenwriting (which I highly recommend).?

In one of the videos, he does a writer’s room with a group of film students.?

The assignment is to “break” the story for an episode of The West Wing (which he created and wrote for four seasons).?

He repeatedly says two things:

1. ?“The West Wing is at its best when ‘our people’ are talking to each other in the White House. And hopefully, they disagree”?
2. “What would actually happen in the real White House?”

In this case, “our people” means the characters President Bartlet, Toby, Leo, Josh, C.J., Charlie, etc. (they are not real people)

And what would “actually happen” is tethered to reality (he did tons of research talking to White House staffers, Secret Service agents, etc)

Those two constraints make it hard to write a show.?

~

The students all have different types of ideas for the fake episode.????

Bomb threats, kidnappings, etc.

In most TV shows, this would be solved on screen by the characters.

Fire? Somone runs into the burning building. Flood? Someone swims to save a little boy.?

But not The West Wing.??

?“The West Wing is at its best when our people are talking to each other in the White House”?

So if there is a bomb threat, the audience is not going to see a bomb disposal unit.?

The audience is going to see “our people” talking to each other about the bomb threat. And hopefully disagreeing about it.

The student writers get stuck when faced with this information (writing is hard!)?

What do people even talk about when there is a bomb threat? How do you create conflict??

Then he reminds them: “What would actually happen in the White House? What are the procedures?”??

They do some research.

And find a bunch of interesting facts about the White House procedures!

And information leads to a very authentic (albeit fake) West Wing episode that will never get aired.?

~

Aaron knows exactly what his audience wants.?

He knows that they want to see their favorite characters.?

And he knows that they want to learn the inner workings of the White House.?

Sure, he could send Toby to go dispose of a bomb.?

But that’s not what makes the show great.?

It is when Toby disagrees with Josh on how the President should respond to a bomb threat. And finding precedent for that type of event actually happening in the real White House.??

The best scenes give the people what they want.?

The best shows repeatedly give the people what they want.?

They make a promise to the audience and keep it.???

- Ian