scriptwritingHow to teach the basics to anyone!

http://www.filmscripting.info

There are no secrets here…Don’t be mystified by the creative process and don’t be daunted if you haven’t done it before.Scripts are written in plain, concise, present-tense English. They describe the locations, action and dialogue that are to become the film.There’s no room for shades of meaning, metaphor or “symbolism” in the writing, let the images stack up to all that in the film!We’ve done it a thousand times…

It’s been done before…There’s a tried and true process here which television story departments exploit to the max & feature film writers utilise to their convenience.At ECU each semester I have 20 students writing feature film scene breakdowns and another 10-15 each adapting a short story.In Term Two here at TAFE I’ll have 25 students each writing a 3 minute short film and in Term Three they’ll write an 8 minute one.

The process in broad strokesBecome familiar with the form: have your students read some short scripts and make sure you read one out loud with them and explain it.Understand drama: go through the basic elements of story, structure and character.Start a 3 minute idea: your students can work an idea into a simple synopsis of 3-5 sentences.Develop it: first into a scene breakdown, then into a first draft script; then edit it with them and have them revise and polish it.

Why three minutes?It’s easy to get your head around as there’s only time enough for one plot and room for only one or two key characters.It’s easy to “get” the basics and it’s not too hard to control what’s happening.Start simple and grow complex; but simple doesn’t mean it’s uncomplicated or lacking in depth of meaning.Anyone can do it as it’s not too daunting and it allows an easy transition to 8 minutes and up…

Familiarise them with the formI have loads of 3 and 8 minute short films by former students freely available on my website: http://www.filmscripting.infoIf you want students to see where they might, possibly, go, have them read a feature film (try my website for my recommendations or go to http://www.script-o-rama.com)Have your students understand we are writing the MAP for production, the set of instructions for the crew to make the film…

The script core elementsBy reading a sample script out loud you can explain the core elements of:

scene headers,screen directions,character names and dialogue.

There’s not much more to understand initially as each student will each bring to it their own understanding of depth of meaning, comedy and drama; and the story they write will have its own demands which may need further explanation.

Scene HeadersINT BOB’S BEDROOM DAYThey can be confusing but INT means we are inside, EXT we are outside, INT/EXT is inside looking out, and EXT/INT outside looking in. The location needs to be explicit not broad (house is too broad, bedroom is definite)At the end of the header there are only 4 options DAY, NIGHT, DUSK or DAWN this is a lighting instruction to the gaffer not a scheduling aid for the production manager.

Screen directionsScreen Directions tell us what is happening or, rather, what the audience is to see.They run right across the page in plain, concise, present tense, English!!Tell us only what we see, there’s no room for:

what the character is thinking (we can’t see it),telling us the story (exposition kills the drama and we’re making a film to SHOW the story not TELL it!)repeating info (if the location says we’re in the kitchen don’t tell us the table is the kitchen table!!)

Character names and dialogue.The name of the character who is about to speak is usually centred and written in CAPS.Dialogue is what the actors say and it runs in a trunk down the centre of the page.There’s no room for:

hello’s and goodbye’s,howdy doody’s or introductions, andhow’s your father’s undies!!!

We have to stay on topic and be brief!!!

Understand film dramaCharacter in action: someone does something, usually to someone else.It has people at its centre in some “situation”.It usually involves a central character who gets what they want or at least get what they need.It’s a time art and a forensic science.It involves compression, cutting out the boring bits to make the jig sawing more exciting.

Further…It is concerned with the interplay with what someone wants and the obstacles they face attaining it.HOPE and FEAR are its primary emotions.Basically its CONFLICT and conflict ranges from interpersonal and internal tension through heated discussion, argument, fisticuffs, all out war, nuclear holocaust and…

KISSING!!

Story structure…In film we employ THREE ACT STRUCTURE which means the story has a BEGINNING, MIDDLE and an END; we call them SETUP, COMPLICATIONS and RESOLUTION.We SET UP the “world that is” then change that with a major TURNING POINTThen we force our central character, the PROTAGONIST, to try and fix what has gone wrong and make them undergo a series of taxing COMPLICATIONS in pursuit of that.

Then…When they’re almost spent they are faced with the last major CRISES which forces them to act and that brings on the CLIMAX of the film..And that leads them, and us, to the RESOLUTION…I recommend you let each student work out how “resolved” they want their film to be. Genre often determines resolution but individual writers will initially want to explore rather than let other determinants “tell” them!

Naturally…We all know there are different types of structure such as flashback, tandem, multiple protagonist etc…but it is important to underline that each of those more complicated structures utilise 3 act structure within each strand of their structure.And of course television is constantly utilising parallel construction, with two, three and often four or five stories running simultaneously in one episode. It hasn’t been the same since Hill Street Blues hit the box in the late seventies.

Now let’s kick start an idea…As you’ve been leading up to this it’s a good idea to inform your students what you’re hoping to do (i.e.: have them come up with some ideas).Some will come prepared, some not. Some will have different skills (writing and story wise), some will appeal creative inability, others an inability to choose from their many ideas.Remember they need to decide and we don’t want to rush that decision as they have to want to do it and it has to be theirs to succeed.

So…Don’t let them focus on one idea just yet, have them make up a several with a view to choosing.There are stories all around us…think

Births, deaths, marriages, their family, an interesting aunt, a generous uncle…Coming to school, going out, coming home…Loosing your best friend, meeting your worst enemy.

And then think of all the complications that can grow from there…

I usually pick one to do as a groupSo let’s look at what could happen coming to school and have them come up with the ideas…The advantage is it’s already got a structure: you get up in your house (or a pretend house) as Act 1, and you head off for school and things go awry, as Act 2, and you get to school as Act 3!

So you get up in the morning and…As you head out the door…or get on the bus…And finally you race into class…

Do it on the board, have them make notes…

There are characters everywhereHave them think of the people they saw on the train or the bus this morning or yesterday.Add their family, cousins, aunts, uncles… Add teachers, friends, the neighbours, the people at the deli, the checkout girl, the checkout guy, the guy at the movies, the girl at the movies…the ghost in you’re their mum’s handbag, the ghoul in the cupboard…Then play “Gimme a Name, Gimme a Number” and see where it takes you…

Then think locations…I don’t like to limit this as we are writing a film and there are endless possibilities here…Think bedrooms, bathrooms, toilets, kitchens, a large dining room, the bush or a park, maybe a camping ground, a tent, a gym perhaps!!!Take it wider to a hotel, a hospital, a waiting room, a prison, an office, a principal’s office, a warden’s office, a doctor’s office, a pilot’s office…ghost central or the Student Rehab…

Now settle on some stories…And the key here is that you already have the three key points of Coming To School…all they have to find is the first turning point…say they meet their ex on the bus in the only seat…and they sit with them…that’s two points in Act 1…In Act 2 the complications are endless…the bus hits a tree, the ex misses them, the kid in the next seat taunts them, the ex’s new partner gets on at the next stop…but we need a crises…In Act 3 we get to school and race off the bus…

But don’t let them settle on one…Have them do a couple of your choosing. Get them to write for 5 minutes at a time with you on the clock putting them under pressure…

Waiting in the hospital for real and unreal things..Coming or going to anywhere…Meeting a new friend who turns out to be…different…

Then let them settle on a couple of these and work for another five minutes on each of them…

Remember…this is only a 3 or 4 minute film, it has one central character and one core plot…They simply need to think of the beginning, middle and end of their film along with the major turning point that changes the world that is and the crises which allows things to resolve.BINGO: they’ve got three to five scenes…Now keep them writing, that’s the task and they need to get used to it and confident they are writing it for themselves (privately initially)…

Notes and more notes…Have them list:

where is it set,what their protagonist is up to,what changes the world that is they have set up,what stops the protagonist from fixing thingswhat forces them to act and fix itHow do they end up

Then expand on these and add some notes about the characters they want to include…

A cheap trick to move things alongOnce they have the information done from the previous slide have them force their story into this story sentence and see what happens…

“A protagonist faced with problems responds by a series of actions and finally deals with problem by climax.” (replace the italics)

Then get them to expand upon it by adding the other elements they know from their notes and see if they can extend it to three or four sentences or more…half a page is ideal…

Let’s DEVELOP it further…So your class now have their synopses done…I wouldn’t let the grass grow, I’d move on it quickly. Do the first stage to the synopsis over say three weeks. One for reading scripts, two for understanding drama and three for writing the synopsis…Now move quickly, have your students divide each of their ideas (don’t be surprised if they have more than one - or less than none)…

To DIVIDE it into scenes…The student simply needs to underline the suggestion of each scene. If they have written this up on a computer now get them to put a line break at each of these scene suggestions and decide on the location…They can do this using their synopsis document or start a new one all together…Thus they will end up with several scene headers running down the page…

And it looks like this…SC 1 INT DORM DAY

SC 2 EXT PARK: BBQ DAY

SC 3 INT TOILETS DAY

SC 4 INT MR K’S OFFICE DUSK

SC 5 MRS M’S KITCHEN DAWN

SC 6 EXT PARK: SWINGS DAY

SC 7 INT CASUALTY WARD DAY

Get on with it quickly slap dash…Have them insert the excerpts from their synopses that relate to each scene and then revise the description below each scene header.Next step is they turn the writing into proper screen directions with a bit of zing and ping, and Bob’s your Eyebrow!They’re laughing all they have to do is

WRITE THE SCRIPT…

And that isn’t all that hard…They’ll be wanting to see how it comes out…You could spend a week here revising what they have and discussing it individually but I assume you have put yourself about as things have progressed and my advice is to press on poste haste.At this point I suggest you look at using a format program called Simply Screenplay or the scriptwriting macro I have written called Script Setup to make formatting simple and painless.

Simply Screenplay & Film SetupSimply Screenplay works with Word 2003 but it has difficulty with Word 2007Film Setup works with Word 2003 and Word 2007, it’s basic (no fancy icons) but does the job.Both are Freeware and available on my website.There are other format programs (I have 2 more on my website) feel free to try them.I’ll demonstrate Film Setup.

Adding the dialogueIs a simple operation, you can spend a lot of time talking about it but the simple first rule of dialogue is “brevity is everything” so “come in late and get out early” on most scenes.Dialogue is NOT ordinary speech, it is a truncated form of it and there’s no room for:

hello’s and goodbye’s,howdy doody’s or introductions, andhow’s your father’s undies!!!

We have to stay on topic and be brief!!!

Simply ScreenplayFirst you move the cursor down until you see Scene Header in the Style Bar… so write the Scene Header and at the end of the line press RETURN or ENTER.The Style Bar now reads Action and the cursor is on the far Left Hand margin: write a line or two of Screen Directions then press RETURN again...In the Style Bar you will now see Character Name and notice the cursor is now centred waiting for you to write the Character’s Name, so do that now then press RETURN.

Simply Screenplay cont…The Style Bar now reads Dialogue, the cursor is indented waiting for you, so write some then press RETURN again.Your now back ready to write more ACTION…Simply Screenplay repeats this trio of events ad infinitum: Action, Character Name, Dialogue!If you want to vary it: press the appropriate icon; if you want a character to reply: press the character icon (the smiley face) and insert the name, then press return and write the dialogue.Alternatively to write a new scene header press the scene header icon (the house)

Of course there’s more…But this is only one lecture…and time is upon us.I trust you can add to this from your own inclinations and ideas about the technique.Feel free to “borrow” from my website you might want to read “A Short Script About Format” to clarify a few points…You can always have me out to take you through it the first time and then capitalise on that as you proceed to repeat the process...