SCRIPT WRITING Screenplay or script.

All movies need a script.  A screenplay includes the dialogue in a particular way, and descriptions of settings  with abbreviated action.

 SCRIPT EXAMPLE:Life of Pie

 Practice writing a short movie script

A plot of the story  include:

1 a short description of each scene.

2 where the action takes place.

3 what happens in the scene to make the story interesting.

 

 WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

 To write a good screenplay for film, you need to:

1 decide the story you want to tell.

2 develop interesting characters for that story.

3 create obstacles and interesting solutions to the problems that your characters face.

4 write your idea in outline form.

5 expand your outline into a screenplay.

Choose your best idea

 Re-read all your ideas. The idea that fits in all these categories

·        Two reasons for an idea:

• It will help us think about the story in a format that is easier to make into a movie.

Developing our Characters

We have to identify our characters and our plot, then  create details our character to make our characters more interesting.

The character sketch describing our character by the important information about his/her:

• childhood

• favorite foods  and  clothes

• relationships with friends and family

• major problems he faces in life

• things he loves

• music he listens to

•  Describe the home life of your main character. Does he or she live with parents, a roommate, a dog, brothers or sisters, alone?

·        Who are his or her best friends? What are they like?

 

Creating Obstacles and Interesting Solutions to the Problems Tht our Characters Face

• What kinds of problems occur because of the solutions your protagonist tries?
• How does everything end?  
• How does the main problem get solved?

4. Story Outline- Outline

Now We make an outline. An outline is easy to expand into a screenplay.

Movie: Thare Zameen Par, directed by Chris Columbus

The story idea is: A dyslexia affected boy who find problems in studies, relationship with his friends and friends at the same age.  He is low self-esteemed boy. It is social awareness oriented drama movie.

Mainly focused in, a boys lively hood with his his own home, parent, brother, with neighbors, and school. Who is the hero? Ishan, a creative dreaming, and smart boy -like 8-year old.

What does the protagonist want?

Ishan wants to regain his esteem, he need a appreciation.

Who are the other characters?

His parents, only one brother, his teachers, then newly arrived art Teacher. What exciting thing (the “hook”) happens at the beginning of the story?

What gets the audience interested?

Who or what gets in the hero’s way?

What problems stand in the way of your hero getting what he wants? •

What solutions does your hero come up with?

How does everything get resolved? 

1.      Where does the movie take place?

2.     Who is main character?

3.     What is the goal of your hero?

4.    Who are the other characters important to the story? Are they the protagonist’s (hero’s) friends or enemies?

Then try and pick only one location. We can  to spend your time shooting,. Keep it simple and realistic. 

This is the goal our main character will try to accomplish by the end of the movie.

WRITING YOUR SCREENPLAY, FINALLY!

 We  have an idea. 

1. We have a good sense of the characters in our story. 
2. We have an outline. 

So, you are just about ready to start writing your screenplay. But first, you’ll need to know the format, some special language, and abbreviations.

A short film screenplay is about nine or ten pages long. It will be written and re-written, because as we can  proceed in the film making process.

Try and break it into sections:

Page 1: The Set-up (where the audience learns what the hero wants). This is the beginning, with a good hook.

Pages 2-7:The Middle (who or what opposes the main character and why). The problems the hero has to overcome.

 Pages 8-9:The Ending (where the problems are resolved). The protagonist either wins or loses.

  

Scenes:  Screenplays are written scene by scene. A scene is a part of the story that happens in one place over one period of time.

For example, if a movie starts out with a boy getting ready for school in the morning, there might be three separate scenes:

Scene

1. brushing his teeth in the bathroom Scene

 2. getting dressed in his bedroom Scene

3. eating breakfast in the kitchen

 Every time the location or the time changes, it is considered a new scene.

 

Slug Line

 Slug Line The first part of a screenplay is called the slug line.

A slug line lets everyone know where and when the scene is supposed to take place. Every scene in your screenplay should start with a slug line.

EXT. DESERT CLEARING – NIGHT

 

This slug line means:

• EXT. is an abbreviation for EXTERIOR, which means outside.  If it were an inside shot, it would say INT., short for INTERIOR.

• The next part of the slug line gets more specific about the location of the scene; a well sophisticated home.

• The final part of the slug line tells you when the scene will take place— in this case, at Morning

 

Parts of a Screenplay

The elements that make up the screenplay are:

Action – what is happening •

Characters and Description – who is in the scene •

Dialogue – what the characters are saying • How the characters say their lines

This slug line means: • Slug Line – when and where the scene is taking place •

Tha lion King

Read More

Incident,inciting incident and key incident

What is character but the determination of incident? And what is incident but the illumination of character?" Incident define as "a specific event or occurrence that occurs in relation to something else.  A incident serves two important and necessary functions in the craft of story ­telling: (1), it sets the story in motion; and (2), it grabs the attention of the reader and audience. Seeing the relationship between this first incident and the story line is essential to an understanding of good screenwriting

The inciting incident, was a cinematic tool he used to set up the story from page one, word one. The opening  incident, is called the inciting incident, because it sets the story in mo­tion; it is the first visual representation of the key incident, what the story is about, and draws the main character into the story line

Distinguish  an inciting incident and key incident

An  inciting incident that opens the film. It sets the story in motion. That is its function.the inciting incident will either be action-driven or character-driven. It does not have to be a tense action or dramatic sequence—it can be a scene involving a situation. In kuttam kadithal  the inciting incident is the boy student Chezhian response about a kiss , and the key incident comes when the the student fainted on the   teacher slap. 

In kaka muttai the children wish to get a piza for eat. they plan to get the  piza and lead many incidents. The kids are get ride from the shop that they wore dirty dress that is a key incident the put forward the story. 

The inciting incident always leads us to the key incident; which is the hub of the story line, the engine that powers the story forward. 
The key incident reveals to us what the story is about. 

These two incidents are essential parts of the whole that must be established when you are setting up the screenplay. Many times the key incident and Plot Point I are the same. Sometimes the key incident will be something that has affected  character's life at an earlier time.

The dramatic premise could be said to be a conceptual description of what the story is about, while the key incident would be that specific scene or se­quence that is the dramatic visualization of what the story is about.

Read More

Screenplay page format and elements of Screen play

Sample Screenplay PageThere is no hard and fast rule for how to format montages in screenplays. As with all formatting, the goal is to express what’s happening on screen as clearly and simply as possible, without breaking up the flow of the screenplay or taking your reader out of the script.

A screenplay is a 90-120 page document written in Courier 12 pt font on 8 1/2" x 11" bright white three-hole punched paper. 

Why Courier font is used? 

It's a timing issue. One formatted script page in Courier font equals roughly one minute of screen time. That's why the average page count of a screenplay should come in between 90 and 120 pages. Comedies tend to be on the shorter side (90 pages, or 1 ½ hours) while Dramas run longer (120 pages, or 2 hours).

A screenplay can be an original piece, or based on a true story or previously written piece, like a novel, stage play or newspaper article. A screenplay is a blueprint for the film. 

Professionals on the set including the producer, director, set designer and actors all translate the screenwriter's vision using their individual talents. Since the creation of a film is ultimately a collaborative art, the screenwriter must be aware of each person's role and as such, the script should reflect the writer's knowledge.

The very nature of screenwriting is based on how to show a story on a screen, and pivotal moments can be conveyed through something as simple as a look on an actor's face. .

While screenplay formatting software such as Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, Movie Outline and Montage frees you from having to learn the nitty-gritty of margins and indents, it's good to have a grasp of the general spacing standards.

The top, bottom and right margins of a screenplay are 1". The left margin is 1.5". The extra half-inch of white space to the left of a script page allows for binding with brads. 

The entire document should be single-spaced.

FADE IN

The very first item on the first page should be the words FADE IN:. Note: the first page is never numbered. Subsequent page numbers appear in the upper right hand corner, 0.5" from the top of the page, flush right to the margin.

Ex: 

.

Scene Heading

Indent: Left: 0.0" Right: 0.0" Width: 6.0"

A scene heading is a one-line description of the location and time of day of a scene.   You can add additional details to the scene heading using a hyphen or [brackets]  after the time of day to designate things like [TRAVELING] for a car scene or [FLASHBACK] to denote it as a flashback.

Slug line

Another way to indicate a FLASHBACK is to place it on it’s own slug line before the Scene Heading. This is useful if the Flashback covers several scenes. Make sure to add an END FLASHBACK when coming out of it.

Other forms of slug lines exist that go inside your master scene. These slug lines act as special indicators and are useful for inserting special shots or for drawing out an important visuals. This is an example of using slug lines to indicate a text message received on a phone using the slugline 
“ON SCREEN” – we use the “JOHN” to come out of this screen shot.

INT

Subheader

When a new scene heading is not necessary, but some distinction needs to be made in the action, you can use a subheader. You would use the term INTERCUT and the scene locations.

Action

The narrative description of the events of a scene, written in the present tense. Also less commonly known as direction, visual exposition, blackstuff, description or scene direction.

Character

Indent: Left: 2.0" Right: 0.0" Width: 4.0"

When a character is introduced, his name should be capitalized within the action.

A character's name is CAPPED and always listed above his lines of dialogue. Minor characters may be listed without names, for example "TAXI DRIVER" or "CUSTOMER."

Dialogue

Lines of speech for each character. Dialogue format is used anytime a character is heard speaking, even for off-screen and voice-overs.

Parenthetical

A parenthetical is direction for the character, that is either attitude or action-oriented.  A parenthetical is a screenwriting technique of writing information about what a character is feeling or doing. For example, if a character should be feeling depressed, the screenwriter would write in the parenthetical . Screenwriters should be as descriptive as possible, but the information needs to be brief.

Ex of Parenthetical

To view an example of a parenthetical, see below:

                                                JOSEY
                                (crying and sleepy)
                Is it really time to leave?

                                                MARIA
                                (closely hugging Josey)
                I'm sorry, honey, but it is.

Again, the information needs to be as short as possible and used only sparingly.

source

Extension

An abbreviated technical note placed after the character's name to indicate how the voice will be heard onscreen, for example, if the character is speaking as a voice-over, it would appear as ANTONY (V.O.).

Transition

Transitions are film editing instructions, and generally only appear in a shooting script.  As a spec script writer, you should avoid using a transition unless there is no other way to indicate a story element.

Shot

 Like a transition, there's rarely a time when a spec screenwriter should insert shot directions, that's the director's job. 

Read More

Sequence

The screenplay is comprised of a series of elements that can be compared to a system, a number of individually related parts arranged to form a unity, or whole:  Like the solar system.  A screenplay is really a system of sorts, comprised of specific parts that are related and unified by action, character, and dramatic premise. 

The screenplay, as a system, is made up of specific elements:  end­ings, beginnings, scenes, Plot Points, shots, special effects, locations, music, and sequences.

The sequence is perhaps the most important element of the screenplay. 

A sequence:  A sequence is a series of scenes connected by one single idea with a definite beginning, middle, and end.

It is a unit, or block, of dramatic action unified by one single idea. It is the skeleton, or backbone, of your script and, like the nature of structure itself, holds everything together.  like a chase sequence, wedding sequence, party sequence, fight sequence, love sequence, storm sequence.

You begin writing your screenplay, you need to know four things:  the opening, the Plot Point at the end of Act I, the Plot Point at the end of Act II,    and the ending.
Sequences can be written any way you want; they are a creative, limitless ..context within which to paint your picture against the can­vas of action.  Writing an action sequence is a definite skill, and good action scripts are written with color, pacing, suspense, tension, and, in most cases, humor.

 source : Syd field Screen play -The foundations of screen writing

Read More

How to set up a story?

There's a law in physics called Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.' Which means, basically, that everything is related. We exist in relationship to each other, we exist in relationship to the Earth, we exist in relationship to all living things, and we exist in relation­ship to the universe.

A screenplay is a whole, and exists in direct relationship to its parts. 

How to set up a story?

A screenplay is a story told with pictures, so it's important to set up your story visually. Setting up a story by explaining things through dialogue, slows down the action and prevent(impedes/hinders ) the story progression. . The reader must know who the main character is, what the dramatic premise is, what the story is about, and the dramatic situation—the circumstances surrounding the action.  These elements must be introduced within the first ten pages,

 The first ten pages set up the entire screenplay.Act I is a unit of dramatic action that is approximately twenty or thirty pages long; it begins at the beginning of the screenplay and goes to the Plot Point at the end of Act I. It is held together with the dramatic context known as the setup.

 This unit of dramatic action sets up a story; it sets up the situation and the relation­ships between the characters, and establishes the necessary information so the reader knows what's happening and the story can unfold clearly. The first ten pages of  screenplay, as mentioned, establish three specific things. The main character is introduced so we know who the story is about. 

Read More

Define subject of a screen play.-Endings and Beginnings

The subject of a screenplay is defined as the action—what happens—and the character—whom it happens to. 

There are two kinds of action—

physical action : a car chase and emotional action; a crying.  

We can broke the concept of character  down into two components—interior and ex^­terior. 

Define of screenplay structure.

 The definition of screenplay structure is "a linear progression of related incidents, episodes, and events leading to a dramatic resolution. That means your story moves forward from beginning to end.  
We have got approximately ten pages (about ten minutes) to establish three things to your reader or audience: 
(1) who is your main char­acter? 
(2) what is the dramatic premise—that is, what's your story about? and 
(3) what is the dramatic situation—the circumstances surrounding our story?

What's the best way to open your screenplay? 

The first thing you have to know:  the resolution that is. the ending of our story?  
Resolution means solution; how is our story resolved? What is the solution? Does our character live or die? Get married or divorced? Win the race or not? The ending is the first thing we must know before we begin writing.  

Our story always moves forward—it follows a path, a direction, a line of progression from beginning to end. Direction is defined as a line of development, the path along which something lies.  

Resolution means "a solution or explanation'  When we are laying out our story line, building it, putting it together, scene by scene, act by act,  we must first determine the resolution. The resolution must be clear in our mind before we write one word on paper; it is context, it holds the ending in place. 
Our story is really a journey, the end its destination. It seems that one of the major difficulties screenwriters deal with is the problem of endings: how to end your screenplay so it work effectively, so it's satisfying and fulfilling, so it makes an emotional impact on the reader and audience, so it's not contrived or pre­dictable, so it's real, believable, not forced or fabricated; an ending that resolves all the main story points; an ending, in short, that works. The end of one thing is always the beginning of something else. 

In Kaka Muttai the kids got PIza how the piza seller solve the problem  . Like wise In IRUTHI SUTRU whether she got national award or not?whether the coach make her winner or looser 

The screenwriter's job is to keep the reader turning pages. The first ten pages of our screenplay are absolutely the most crucial. Within the first ten pages, a reader will know whether your story is working or not, whether it's been set up or not. 

An opening can be visually active and exciting, grabbing the au­dience immediately. Another kind of opening is expository, slower-paced in establishing character and situation: Our story determines the type of opening we choose. The opening of our screenplay has to be well thought out and visually designed to illustrate what our story is about. 

Before we write one shot, one word of dialogue on paper, we must know four things:  ending,  beginning, Plot Point I, and Plot Point II. In that order. these four elements, these four incidents, episodes, or events, are the cornerstones, the foundation, of our screenplay. 

The opening of our script will determine whether the reader continues reading our screenplay or not. The reader must know three things within these first few pages of the script:
 the character—who the story is about; 
the dramatic (or comedic) premise—what the story is about; and 
the situation—the circumstances surrounding the action. 
Within those first ten pages, the reader is going to make a decision about whether he/she likes or dislikes the material.

 what makes a good ending? 

First of all, by sat­isfying the story; audience want to feel full and satisfied.  The ending comes out of the beginning. Someone, or something, initiates an action, and how that action is resolved becomes the story line of the film. Endings and beginnings: two sides of the same coin.

 Source:Syd field Screen play -The foundations  of screen writing. page no 86-97

 

  

 

 

Read More