An Introduction to Screenwriting

A script is akin to a set of instructions for a film

Question: What we do we actually include in the script?

Answer: The dramatic action.

We describe what the characters are doing, where they’re doing it, and under what
conditions. We’re limited to what we can see and what we can hear, and that’s it.

Dialogue is an indirect articulation of goals - talking around something than just saying it
outright - nailing individual voices and making them sound distinct

Developing a Five Finger Pitch:

- Genre
- Main Character
- Objective
- Obstacle
- What makes the story unique / important

This is a setup for the story

Example:

Genre: Comedy-Drama

Main Character: A young, urban male professional in his late 20s

Goal: To effectively convey his desire to end a relationship with someone and his belief that
they aren't a good match

Obstacle: Running into a childhood bully throws him of course and puts a dent into his
confidence

What's Important: A reversal of power as the woman he was going to break up with, steps
forward to be there for him in a way that makes him realise that he has underestimated her

Second hand:

Thumb: Beginning to have the break-up conversation

Index: Seeing his childhood bully in the bathroom

Middle: Returning to table visibly shaken, lacking the confidence that he had before
Ring: The bully confronts him, is waiting for him outside

Pinky: She protects him, he realizes how he needs her

Three act structure –

Beginning: Introduction to character and goal, establish who they are and the world they
are a part of - there needs to be a reason that the film is starting here
Middle: Journey to achieve goal
End: Resolution

The Three Act Structure will be the ‘scaffolding’ that John Irving mentions, but the story’s
dimensionality will flow from the character changes, subplots and revelations that are
produced by this story movement.

In a drama, it’s all about behaviour: characters are what they do. Full stop. Each character
will make different choices and act on them in a distinct way. The story will be driven by
the consequences of these choices. If the novel is concerned with the flow of thoughts and
feelings, then the screenplay will be concerned with the flow of dramatic action, of change
within characters.

In fact, each of us wants many things, and we’re not always aware of these desires. And
sometimes these desires are in conflict with each other, or represent opposing values. It’s
the mix of these desires that will create complexity in our characters. It doesn’t always
have to be clear what they want

The desire for protection / affection versus the desire for novelty - the dude doesn’t ever
have to be vulnerable if he doesn’t stick around for too long

Character Study: Clara in Aquarius

- Major Actions: Dancing, Listening to music, Walking, Swimming, Loving, Confronting

- Desire: To live life on her own terms, to age gracefully, to continue living the way she
always has
- Self-aware and confident, self-righteous, uncompromising
- Graceful, self-possessed, haughty, arrogant
- Beautiful black hair, missing breast
Steps to producing a screenplay:

- Develop a story idea

- Create the Five Finger pitch
- Give it structure – think about the three acts
- Build a full story, flesh out a one-page treatment
- Create a beat sheet or step outline - index cards, what is happening in each scene, lays
out the dramatic steps
- Write the script

When introducing a character, put their age in brackets

- Fade in: – Begin with Exterior and then CUT TO Interior

Cut to - as a transition to a different scene

Time stamp of later

Cont’d – when dialog cuts across directions / dramatic actions or is made by the same
character

Beat – is the equivalent of a dramatic pause

Directions from the character’s perspective

You can put expressions or actions or even feelings (suspicious) in brackets

When addressing someone else / or two people, it should be specified

You can’t have a fade in without a fade out / fade to black

When it’s a voiceover write V.O in parentheses

Can include run-on dialogue in the same paragraph

Can introduce a character in parentheses – don’t always have to include descriptions

When fast-forwarding into the future, you can specify

You can include character actions / expressions in the middle of a paragraph of dialogue
Actions / directions can lead directly to dialogue with an ellipsis

Montage beginning needs to be called out simply and include all the things that are
happening

When you’re cutting between two scenes

An awkward beat – beats can have a tone of their own

Multiple directions in one dialogue

To express shouting or anger

Calling out when something happens from a character’s perspective

When character is looking directly at camera, audience can be referred to as us

When two people speak at once -
Reverse angle flips the camera to show who someone is talking to or looking at

How to write good dialogue:

- Good dialogue is weighed down by exposition, don’t try and fit in information
- Exposition is not required when two characters are talking to one another, they know
each other and the circumstances
- Avoid on-the-nose dialogue: Characters rarely say precisely what they are thinking,
dialogue reveals personality, personality and motivation are in the sub-text
- A good conversation is an escalation, the dialogue is about something and builds
toward something
- An outsider is a good narrative device to have a character explain something to a
character who might otherwise not know what is going on
- Plot should feel character-motivated and that’s why dialogue should cut to the core of
the characters

How to write a scene:

- Ask – what needs to happen in this scene? What is the purpose of this scene? What is
the high moment of the scene? A scene should either advance the plot, reveal
character or both
- Ask – who needs to be in this scene?
- Ask – where could the scene take place? The most obvious setting for a scene is the
least interesting, always ask what could your characters be doing
- Ask – what’s the most surprising thing that could happen in this scene?
Ask – how long this scene should be?
- Brainstorm at least three different ways to start a scene, don’t go with the most
obvious one
- Play it on the screen in your head

When it’s part of home or someone’s home you can mention It after a comma

When you shift within the same space you can mention it like this

Camera / Editing Directions

Time change within a scene -

Subtext –