Art & craft of screenwriting
- Thread starter Pik
- Start date
Some of the screenwriting rules I recently re-learned:
Always writing in present tense
Starting the scene with exterior or interior, location, and night or day, e.g.
1. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT
"JOHN (65) walks to..
First time the character appears in a scene e.g. JOHN (e.g. 30, and few traits, e.g. playful, quiet) does this and that. Then he walks to SARAH (28, nervous, charming) and gives her a hug.
(dialogue and character names in the middle of the page)
JOHN
Are we still friends?
SARAH
What do you mean?
Write CUT TO at the end of every scene in the right corner, write THE END in the middle of the page at the end of screenplay.
The most important thing is the structure: inciting incident, plot point 1 and 2, resolution; major dramatic question. Etc.
In a play the character could say "I want to be a screenwriter" in a screenplay it mostly becomes clear through action.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I love screenwriting but I've done a lot of things in between and probably forgot a lot of rules and there could be different rules around the world.
Screenwriting programs: CeltX, Fade In, Final Draft
Always writing in present tense
Starting the scene with exterior or interior, location, and night or day, e.g.
1. INT. HALLWAY. NIGHT
"JOHN (65) walks to..
First time the character appears in a scene e.g. JOHN (e.g. 30, and few traits, e.g. playful, quiet) does this and that. Then he walks to SARAH (28, nervous, charming) and gives her a hug.
(dialogue and character names in the middle of the page)
JOHN
Are we still friends?
SARAH
What do you mean?
Write CUT TO at the end of every scene in the right corner, write THE END in the middle of the page at the end of screenplay.
The most important thing is the structure: inciting incident, plot point 1 and 2, resolution; major dramatic question. Etc.
In a play the character could say "I want to be a screenwriter" in a screenplay it mostly becomes clear through action.
Correct me if I'm wrong. I love screenwriting but I've done a lot of things in between and probably forgot a lot of rules and there could be different rules around the world.
Screenwriting programs: CeltX, Fade In, Final Draft
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Would you like to expand on this?
Just gonna toss my thoughts in here. But I think the formatting is a little different (in America, maybe?)
EXT. DAY
I have never seen the character described in their first line of dialogue. From what I have seen, screenplays have a character list before the script begins. However, I could be wrong there as I have done work in indie films, not mainstream. Anyway, I am happy to discuss screenwriting with you, because I am interested in the medium as well. As for wanting feedback on work, you should post that in the Workshop here. You get 1 free post, then you need to critique 1:1.
One thing I have learned though from dipping my toe into screenwriting, there should be little description of the characters and scene. Because it's up to the director, actors, cinematographers, set designers to interpret what is written.
EXT. DAY
SCENE 1
(It is a sunny day. JOHN is mowing his yard. Sees neighbor, SARAH)
JOHN
(Cheerfully)
Good morning, Sarah!
SARAH
(Annoyed)
What do you want?
JOHN
Woah, you don't have to be so mean. It's a nice day out, isn't it?
SARAH
Yeah, whatever.
___(It is a sunny day. JOHN is mowing his yard. Sees neighbor, SARAH)
JOHN
(Cheerfully)
Good morning, Sarah!
SARAH
(Annoyed)
What do you want?
JOHN
Woah, you don't have to be so mean. It's a nice day out, isn't it?
SARAH
Yeah, whatever.
I have never seen the character described in their first line of dialogue. From what I have seen, screenplays have a character list before the script begins. However, I could be wrong there as I have done work in indie films, not mainstream. Anyway, I am happy to discuss screenwriting with you, because I am interested in the medium as well. As for wanting feedback on work, you should post that in the Workshop here. You get 1 free post, then you need to critique 1:1.
One thing I have learned though from dipping my toe into screenwriting, there should be little description of the characters and scene. Because it's up to the director, actors, cinematographers, set designers to interpret what is written.
When I was first learning about screenwriting I was told there are standard industry formatting rules such as Courier Font 12, specific margins (some of those rules I already mentioned in the previous post). When writing in Fade In or other screenwriting software most of those rules are done automatically (I first had to learn to write the screenplay manually in a Word file).
Thanks for the example scene, clear and atmospheric, you mention the location in the description though, it's how I'd write it in a play.
"character described in their first line of dialogue", I initially learned that the first time the character is mentioned their name should be written in caps lock with age in the brackets. Recently I was told there should be few personality or physical traits written in there too.
Big soft moose mentioned that the screenplays should be posted in workshop for feedback, I have no issue with that. It's a bit unusual for me to discuss screenwriting in terms of theory only so I suggest to include individual scenes here to make the point more clear (scenes we wrote or found online).
Fountain is a great initiative from John August et al for screenplay format, taking cue from Gruber's markdown spec. Put it simply, using the spec enables one to write screenplay anywhere including notepad. Most screenwriting app, if its worth its salt, capable of reading fountain spec.
I urge beginner (which includes mine) to learn fountain spec so that setting and formatting does not disrupt the flow when writing. And not to worry about spec and whatnot. Since obviously chance to make it big in industry is slim to none, one doesn't need any dedicated app for it. (One's is actually does--nothing can beat Final Draft on this--when the project is greenlit into production but that's as nebulous as finding UAP)
I urge beginner (which includes mine) to learn fountain spec so that setting and formatting does not disrupt the flow when writing. And not to worry about spec and whatnot. Since obviously chance to make it big in industry is slim to none, one doesn't need any dedicated app for it. (One's is actually does--nothing can beat Final Draft on this--when the project is greenlit into production but that's as nebulous as finding UAP)
I'll check out the fountain screenplay format, thanks. As for going big in the industry, I live in a small country and even if I achieve the regional success, I don't know if it could be compared to succeeding in Hollywood, as far as I know there are 50 states in the US and the film world's very competitive. I guess it's a bit like making it big in EU (don't know about the analogies in other parts of the world, e.g. in Bollywood).
Yes, original work needs to go into the Workshop for critique, please. These threads outside that board are for questions and discussion. You can do what was done upthread however to demonstrate formatting technique or whatever though. That is fine.
