Jump to content

Script writing


Recommended Posts

  • Premium Member

Software can get the physical appearance of your script into industry approved shape. When I started, I was hacking out my drivel on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I spent so much time trying to make every letter fall in the right place that I wonder if I spent much time at all being creative.

 

Since successful scripts tend to follow known formulas it wouldn't hurt to plow through as many creative script writing books as you can get your mitts on. I'm not saying that script writing is devoid of genuine creativity... but.

 

Life experience is a constant in all forms of creative writing. The more you know about people, the better your stuff will be. You can hack out any old crap and be a good script writer. But, a meaningful work must come from the meaning you have found in your own life.

 

The more you learn from the fields of Psychology and Sociology the better your work can be. For example, in the first phase of a script, character development, your viewer must successfully transfer with the principle character. If you can't make that happen the rest of the story will never quite form up.

 

We write scripts in the universe of our own heads. Yet, they eventually manifest as people yammering at each other. Those are two different kinds of brain activity. Adjust, adjust, adjust.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I recently started to write a script for my first production but I don't know how to really write a script all I have so is stuff like

 

Mike: Hey

 

Jason: Sup

 

A dog walks over

 

... Yea so of you if could help me out

 

 

Chris,

 

I HIGHLY recommend these two resources:

 

http://www.wordplayer.com Read EVERY page. It's invaluable and too-little known to aspiring screenwriters.

 

and

 

Film Scriptwriting, Second Edition: A Practical Manual

by Dwight V Swain and JOYE R SWAIN http://www.amazon.com/Film-Scriptwriting-S...l_top_3_russss0 You'll hear a lot about some other very popular screenwriting books, but for someone just starting out, this one really breaks it all down into basics that the other books tend to assume you already know. I can't recommend it highly enough.

 

As for software to help format your work, it's easy enough to do on Microsoft Word if you already have it and don't want to spend any money right now. It just takes setting up your tabs and knowing when to bold and/or italicize or not. Otherwise, look at FINAL DRAFT as it is one of the standard formatting programs used and contains some very useful tools.

 

 

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

I'm taking a University screenwriting course that's using Genre Screenwriting. It's written from the point of view that mass market movies fall into specific genres. It goes through the various ones giving examples of how they're written.

 

There's a website http://www.simplyscripts.com/ that has links to thousands of produced screenplays, most in standard screenplay format.

 

I use Final Draft 7, one nice thing about it is they give you two activations for one purchase so you can run one copy on a desktop computer and the other on a laptop, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Mike: Hey

 

Jason: Sup

 

A dog walks over

Find this not too bad. Can continue like

 

Voice: I am thirsty.

 

CU of dog

 

MC of Mike and Jason, bewildered

Voice of dog: C'me on, fellows, let's find a bar!

 

Group strolls away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Find this not too bad. Can continue like

 

Voice: I am thirsty.

 

CU of dog

 

MC of Mike and Jason, bewildered

Voice of dog: C'me on, fellows, let's find a bar!

 

Group strolls away.

 

Group script? Hell yea. Everyone throw in ten lines and see where it twists!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Find this not too bad. Can continue like

 

Voice: I am thirsty.

 

CU of dog

 

MC of Mike and Jason, bewildered

Voice of dog: C'me on, fellows, let's find a bar!

 

Group strolls away.

 

EXT. STREETSCENE - DAY

 

Magic hour shot of Mike and Jason walking into the sun. They're seen

knees up. The Dog is unseen on the ground at the end of his leash.

 

...............................DOG (O.S.)

...................You guys hear the one about the dog and the nun?

 

...............................MIKE

...................Not another shaggy dog story

 

Camera opens up to wide shot including Dog.

 

...............................DOG

...................Naw, this one's about a dog that gets shagged.

 

...............................JASON

...................By a nun? I'm not sure I want to hear this story.

 

...............................MIKE

...................Why not? He's told worse

 

...............................DOG

...................Okay. This dog's washing the windows in a convent.

...................Mother Superior walks in and says...

 

INT. CONVENT CLASSROOM - DAY

 

ROVER has SQUEEGEE in mouth and is busily cleaning a tall window.

 

................................MOTHER SUPERIOR

...................You missed a spot.

 

................................ROVER

.............................(Through his teeth)

...................NO WAY! I did her last night.

 

© Hal Smith 2009

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Excellent, Hal. It's already got direction. Three character dynamic. One can choose between a sympathetic in the friend and challenger in the dog. This story can go from here into a variety of fine directions. An obvious but not essential direction: Throw a love interest in by page 18.

 

Can't wait to read the next ten lines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Excellent, Hal. It's already got direction. Three character dynamic. One can choose between a sympathetic in the friend and challenger in the dog. This story can go from here into a variety of fine directions. An obvious but not essential direction: Throw a love interest in by page 18.

 

Can't wait to read the next ten lines.

 

Just realized I can use Courier in Forum software. Stand by.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Before you go buying or reading books... read scripts. For free. on the Internet.

 

if you're gonna write a comedy... read Groundhog Day.

 

Action: read Die Hard.

 

Thriller: Chinatown

 

etc. etc. The script you have "written" is more like a transcription of real life, and not filmic. As a general thought, don't look to cinematographers for guidance on screenwriting, or sound, or tennis.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Western: "Stagecoach"

 

SF: "Galaxy Quest"

 

Drama: "The Lady Eve"

 

PS: "Real Life" = "Slice of Life", one of the more popular ways to tell a story. In the first act of "The Devil Wears Prada" MIRANDA's speech to ANDY about how ANDY's sweater was chosen by "The people in this room" is about as accurate to real life as possible. I've known people whose every day speech could have been written down and used verbatem as dialogue in a Woody Allen film.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

This speech? as close to real life as possible?

 

MIRANDA

You see that droopy sweater you're wearing? That blue was on a dress Cameron Diaz wore on the cover of Runway -- shredded chiffon by James Holt. The same blue quickly appeared in eight other designers' collections and eventually made its way to the secondary designers, the department store labels, and then to some lovely Gap Outlet, where you no doubt found it. That color is worth millions of dollars and many jobs. Your superior attitude is not acceptable at this magazine. In this industry. Or in my presence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
This speech? as close to real life as possible?

 

MIRANDA

You see that droopy sweater you're wearing? That blue was on a dress Cameron Diaz wore on the cover of Runway -- shredded chiffon by James Holt. The same blue quickly appeared in eight other designers' collections and eventually made its way to the secondary designers, the department store labels, and then to some lovely Gap Outlet, where you no doubt found it. That color is worth millions of dollars and many jobs. Your superior attitude is not acceptable at this magazine. In this industry. Or in my presence.

 

Top level fashion and design people are exquisitely aware of exactly how colors and styles work their way from haute couture to the racks at Target. If Anna Wintour hasn't said something very much like at least once a week I'll eat her hat...But not if it's Dior or Prada and she wants me to pay for the meal. That "stuff's" much too expensive for my taste...

 

PS: That's not the speech as it exists in the movie. In the movie the "Superior attitude" crack isn't there. MIRANDA finishes with "(that) sweater was chosen for you...by the people in this room".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Hello Alex,

 

Help us understand what are your concerns about the filmic aspects of the lines. The dialog is in Hal's voice and will need modification to match another type of character if that is his eventual intent. Is it because it centers around a conventional joke? While out of the ordinary it is still executable and not a bad way to introduce a movie carried by farce. Are you concerned that he has defied a direct investment in suspension of disbelief? He may be setting boundaries in absurdity with plenty of room remaining for investing inside those broad parameters. Do you prefer that the opening conform to conventional fare? Given the market peculiarities everyone finds themselves in these days, weird has a chance of getting noticed. It's not necessarily the kiss of death it was just a few years ago.

 

These are just some of the thoughts off the top of my head. I look forward to your elucidations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Hal-

 

drafts of scripts change. but i took the draft i found on the Internet and posted it. People do not speak exactly like that in real life -- the script purposely omits "well... um... so... because... " connector words. that is the advice i gave.

 

OR meryl streep, in her infinite actor wisdom, made the speech more 'actor friendly.'

 

As for hal's excerpt, it's more akin to a shooting script than a spec script and stylewise it would not be received well by an agent or a director. find me a script that sold for $$$ that says "Magic hour shot of."

 

Paul - your post is difficult to decipher. You say the characters are all his voice? well, that simply doesn't work. that's where you get movies with 2-dimensional, cardboard characters. Your post is way too far afield for me because the writing excerpt isn't very serious, so i can't give it the serious treatment you are, and besides, it has nothing to do with the original poster or teaching anything meaningful about screenwriting.

 

there are rules and generally accepted practices of screenwriting as they are to cinematography. it's not filmic in a major motion picture to watch two guys say "sup," nothing, "chilling," cool, how bout you?" we skip over all that. they don't do boring scenes of "okay then, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye" everyone in the group of 10 people hugs everyone, " goodbye, miss you," etc., because the EDITOR would kill it all. so don't put it on the page either.

 

in screenwriting, you enter the scene as late as possible, and leave as early as possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Magic hour = twilight with the sun in their eyes.

 

The current phobia about scripts not having camera direction?

 

Phooey!

 

Ever read the scripts of movies like "Rear Window"? The action elements have just about every possible camera direction save what film stock to use. I'm painfully aware that's not the current fashion but I'm a writer who sees action in my mind's eye while I'm writing. It's not real natural for me to leave out what I'm seeing. So I put what I see in, and then delete it.

 

And in my screenplay writing defense: I've got an SF script cooking that already has interest in it...and not from the local bookmaker either. I'm still chewing on my third act so I'm not going to get too excited yet. But in the world of six degrees of separation; I'm one away from a production company with a recent good feature and a series on HBO right now...and two away from a real business heavyweight on the coast. The kind of connections that avoid having to wade through a gaggle of readers to get something looked at.

 

But what do I know? I'm just a hick from Oklahoma...who happens to be a native southern Californian.

 

PS: Not an object lesson in screenwriting? You did notice I seduced the Forum software into displaying my little opus in standard screenplay format? In Courier no less? Nonetheless I still strongly recommend Final Draft, it makes it Sooooo much easier to write without having to spend half your time tricking the software you're using into formatting the text properly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Given the market peculiarities everyone finds themselves in these days, weird has a chance of getting noticed. It's not necessarily the kiss of death it was just a few years ago...............

 

No poop Sherlock. I'm dying to see "Men Who Stare At Goats" if only to see what the heck it's really about. Clooney, McGregor, Spacey, Bridges? Not a bad cast, no?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
And in my screenplay writing defense: I've got an SF script cooking that already has interest in it...and not from the local bookmaker either. I'm still chewing on my third act so I'm not going to get too excited yet. But in the world of six degrees of separation; I'm one away from a production company with a recent good feature and a series on HBO right now...and two away from a real business heavyweight on the coast. The kind of connections that avoid having to wade through a gaggle of readers to get something looked at.

 

Great to hear. Hope you knock it out of the park.

 

 

I'm looking forward to Men Who Stare at Goats as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Hal-

 

this "current phobia" about camera direction has been ongoing for years and years - it's not going anywhere. camera directions are for auteurs and shooting scripts and work for hire and people who don't know what they're doing...

 

it's easy enough to say 'rising over the shower current to find her naked body.' we don't need to say Medium shot to crane over shower curtain.

 

citing Alfred Hitchcock or Woody Allen as an example to follow doesn't work very well... the rules do not apply to them. the gatekeepers are looking for reasons to eliminate you to save them time from reading your 100 pages, and you do not want to give them any.

 

if you sell your work to someone or get them interested without having a 3rd act written, more power to you... but where i'm from, we call that prematurely using up a good contact, and it's generally not a good idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
Hal-

 

this "current phobia" about camera direction has been ongoing for years and years - it's not going anywhere. camera directions are for auteurs and shooting scripts and work for hire and people who don't know what they're doing...

 

it's easy enough to say 'rising over the shower current to find her naked body.' we don't need to say Medium shot to crane over shower curtain.

 

citing Alfred Hitchcock or Woody Allen as an example to follow doesn't work very well... the rules do not apply to them. the gatekeepers are looking for reasons to eliminate you to save them time from reading your 100 pages, and you do not want to give them any.

 

if you sell your work to someone or get them interested without having a 3rd act written, more power to you... but where i'm from, we call that prematurely using up a good contact, and it's generally not a good idea.

 

Hey! This time I'm in absolute ageement on all your points.

 

I do immensely admire Hitchcock and Woody and what they've accomplished. I think it's still possible to sell a high/low concept script but it wouldn't be easy. Currently it seems the only way is to sell it to a "name" who's powerful enough to produce their own projects. Much like Clooney's doing.

 

No, I'm not going to pester anyone until it's done. It'll first be read by someone I know and trust who's very knowledgeable in what a good script looks like. He likes what I've got so far, he describes it as a fresh, modern take on a classic SF theme.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

If you don't want to buy scriptwriting software, you can make hotkeyable styles in word. They can include attributes like all caps and the proper margins for each part. You can have it automatically number the pages, too. I did it when I had to write scripts in school and it's about as slick as it gets outside of purpose-written software.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Hi Chris,

 

I feel the software program is really irrelevant, the story is what matters. I write my scripts in Word because it gives me alot of flexibility with editing. Script programs are kind of a pain sometimes to move around and could slow you down.

 

Then after I write the script, edit it a few thousand times, then I just import it into a script program for the formatting and a clean look.

 

I would recommend read the actual script of braveheart, I saw it on the net a while back.

 

Rick

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...