Screenplay Writing

1. Screenplay Writing

2. Basics • Settings- Where is this story happening? • Character- Who’s the story about? • Plot- What’s happening? • Back Story- What happened before, to create this situation? • Detail- What specifically do we need to know?

3. Settings • Where • When • Sounds • Sight • Smells

4. Paris 1900 • Where? Paris, France • When? 1900’s • Sounds? What are the sounds of the city during this era? • Sights? What does the city look like at this time? Is there electricity? • Smells? As odd as it may seem to think about smells, you must, because your characters will react to that smell.

5. Settings • Settings can lead you to the idea of the plot ahead of time. • Cabin in the woods? • Las Vegas buried under a sand storm? • Small Village in Europe? • New York City?

6. Characters • Realistic - Flaws/contradictions/goals • Potential

7. Characters • Realistic Characters: • Rick: Walking Dead • Captain Jack Sparrow: Pirates of the Caribbean • Potential: • People who need to grow and change. • People who have the strength to change.

8. Characters • Appearance • Dialogue • Actions

9. Appearance • Manner of Dress • Hygiene • Props

10. Appearance • Manner of Dress, Hygiene, and props are also directly connected to the plot. • EX: • Spartacus - Spartacus • Rick – Walking Dead • Bilbo Baggins – The Hobbit

11. Dialogue • grammar: Does your character speak the Queen’s English? Or does he use more colloquial language? • vocabulary: Does your character have a large vocabulary, or small? Does she use a lot of slang or jargon? • humor: Does your character frequently make puns, jokes, or double entendres? • attitude: Does your character verbally attack others? Or react defensively, always insisting, "I didn’t do it!"? Or tend to get confused easily, often asking what’s going on? Or apologize a lot?

12. The Screenplay (Script) • A brief note about dialogue: • Read it out loud, it is meant to be heard, not read like a book. • Book dialogues is not often very good or convincing when read out loud…

13. Basically remember that you are working in a visual media so….. Show….Don’t….Tell • I usually write as much dialogue as I like then go through the script and try to lose about 1/3 immediately

14. Action • Choices • Behavior

15. Plot • Plot doesn't just tell what happened; it tell why it happened • Beginnings • Middles • Ends • This is also known as the 3 act structure

16. The Screenplay’s Core Story: Act 1 Beginnings Act 1 to the screenplay has these Critical Events: • The Opening Scene (or “Hook”) which should capture the reader’s interest & attention. • The Catalyst which should occur early on; it is intended to upset the initial balance of the Hero, giving him/her a new problem, need, goal or mission to accomplish. • And finally, the Big Event, which should close Act 1. The Big Event is something “that changes your character’s life in a monumentalway.”

17. The Screenplay’s Core Story:Act 2 Act 2 to the screenplay has these Critical Events: • The Escalating Conflict between your Hero and Villain. • The Pinch which occurs about half-way through Act 2; it is “the point of no return for the Hero, when his/her motivation becomes crystal clear.” • And the Crisis which ends Act 2. The Conflict has become so intense that it has reached life-or-death proportions for the Hero.

18. The Screenplay’s Core Story:Act 3 Act 3 to the screenplay has these Critical Events: • The Climax (or Showdown) between the Hero and the Villain. The Climax should follow directly “on the heels of the Crisis…and everything is on the line for the Hero”; it is the Biggest Event in the screenplay. • And immediately following the Climax, Self-Discovery (“psychic growth”) within the Hero. The central character has been through a crucible, has shown great courage, and should now be changed in some fashion.

19. The Screenplay’s Core Story:Act 3 • The resolution: The ending to your stories problem. Your story must end, this doesn’t mean that it has to be a happy ending. • Stories that just end must be left open ended where there are a plethora of possibilities to their future.

20. Plot - Complexities • reversals— Characters should find themselves going from good fortune to bad, and back again, etc. • discoveries— Aristotle said that characters should make discoveries, especially about themselves. These discoveries may be about their pasts, their flaws, or even their own motivations. • complications— Something should stand between the protagonist and his objective.

21. Plot - Complexities • catastrophe— It needn’t be an earthquake or a mass murder; it might be an emotional catastrophe, completely internal to your character’s psyche. But no plot will be interesting if things go too smoothly. Bad things should happen, even to good people. It’s how your characters deal with catastrophe that produces plot. • resolution— The plot should reach some satisfactory conclusion that continues logically from the events of the story.

22. 3 common plot structures • Hero’s Journey • Call to Adventure • Journey to Unfamiliar • Supreme ordeal • Reward • Return

23. 3 common plot structures • The Mountain Plot • Story Begins • Firs complication • Overcomes repeats • Climax • Conclusion

24. 3 common plot structures • The W plot • 1st Barrier • 1st Barrier Reversal • 2nd Barrier • 2nd Barrier Reversal • Resolution