Set Pieces, Part 1: Spin the plot

One of the most valuable pieces of brainstorming a screenwriter can do with regard to a story is conjure up some good set pieces.

Chariot Race set piece, “Ben Hur” (1925)

What’s a set piece, you ask? Believe it or not, I posted this about the subject all the way back in July 2008. Here is Wikipedia’s take on the subject:

In film production, a setpiece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires serious logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term setpiece is often used more broadly to describe any important dramatic or comedic highpoint in a film or story, particularly those that provide some kind of dramatic payoff, resolution, or transition. Thus the term is often used to describe any scenes that are so essential to a film that they cannot be edited out or skipped in the shooting schedule without seriously damaging the integrity of the finished product. Often, screenplays are written around a list of such setpieces, particularly in high-budget “event movies”.

It’s this last point that is particularly relevant to a screenwriter. If we expand the definition to include any big, significant scenes, then even writers working on a small indie drama can think in terms of set pieces around which they can construct a plot.

This is what John August has to say set pieces:

A scene or sequence with…