1- A clear setting : When and where does the story take place. the first thing after the title.
INT. CAFETERIA, SOUTH ESSEX COLLEGE - AFTERNOON
2 - Describe the setting : Short and sharp sentences. They people reading your script willn't know what the setting looks like.
Bustling, busy , full of fashionably dressed teenagers. chrome and glass surfaces, gossip fills the air as students talk and eat.
3 - Introducing characters: a couple of vivid details to help give a image in the readers head. ( only put what the people can see in the introducing character)
Kayla Forst, 19 - Stick-thin, looks like she might snap at any moment her Levis might be faded, but her eyes burn fiercely from under a gothic mop of hair.
4 - Naming your characters : Make sure each characters name is different and look different when written down. Give each character a surname. if you give your character only a first name it comes across as an incomplete identity.
5 - conflict, conflict, conflict : screenplay based on a wider conflict of some kind but each character should also have internal conflict that they are dealing with.
Doubts, unfinished business, insecurities. Non of us glide through life without stuff boiling away inside, and your characters shouldn't either.
6 - She's filled with secrets : giving your characters secrets big or small enables you to pick away layers and keep your viewers interested along the way.
7 - keep it consistent : make sure you keep your characters consistent in background and behaviour. if dave is an ex-con with a violent past, make sure he acts that way when confronted by trouble.
8 - Dialogue stuff: Sentences : People don't speak in full sentences, nor do people all speak a like. you need to let your characters dictate where the punctuation goes. gaps, pauses, unfinished sentences.
9 - stay away from the nose : The phase ' on the nose' refers to dialogue that states too clearly what a character is thinking without filtering it through their personality and agenda.
if dave tells his closes friend ' i want to be a policeman', chances are this won't play as well as having a application forms fall out of his gym bag.
10 - keep it unpredictable : when princess leia tells han solo ' i love you' in the empire strikes back, the scene is most memorable for his response;
' i know'
you want dialogue to flow, but you need to rethink predictable exchanges. throw away the first response you think of throw away the second and use the third.
11 - keep it varied : does a character even need to respond verbally to a statement?
if they someone says 'goodbye' to them, do they need to speak in return?
Couldn't they wink instead?
Once again, predictability is your enemy.
12 - First line : the first line your character speaks should sum up an aspect their personality.
If you're introducing a part animal like Stifler from the American Pie series, his first line would't be something mundane about being late from an appointment. Your characters only get one chance to make a first impression, so make sure to packs a punch.
13 - Languages = life : make sure your characters' dialogue reflects their life experiences. A 70 year old english professor won't speak the same war as a 25 year-old football player. A character born in 1960 will speak differently to one born in 1990. Make their dialogue reflect this.
14 - the double hyphen : has one character stepped on another's line? cutting them off before they finish speaking?
the traditional way to shoe this in a script is with a double hyphen.
WIFE
you know, i never told you --
HUSBAND
i don't want to hear it!
15 - Fresh slang : why not make up your own slang? using the latest words, phrases and cultural references will date tour script extremely quickly. Writers like Joss Whedon make up their own phrases and drop these into the scripts. Whats the switch? meaning whats going on? originated in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
An audience won't know the difference between a slang phrase you've made up and one they've never heard before but they'll certainly notice a dated turn of phrase. you dig man?
16 - mix dialogue and action : in life, stuff happens all at once. People don't stop talking because a bus is about to explode; the bus explodes whilst they're in mid-sentence. Don't be afraid to have action and dialogue crash into each other, because things in life don't happen in a neat order.
17 - Don't tell me what I've seen - if Debbie's head just exploded, the viewer doesn't need James to tell them;
' my God, Debbie's head just exploded'
They hd already noticed. Eliminate dialogue that narrates the action
18 - No place for closed questioned: If you've got a question which leads to a 'yes' or a 'no' response in your dialogue, get rid of it. They stop the dialogue dead, and the audience can anticipate the response.
Replace them with open questions, to let your characters personalities shine through.
19 - Misunderstandings : characters should misunderstand and misinterpret each other just as people do in real life. It gives you great opportunities for conflict and comedy, plus it makes the dialogue read as more authentic.
20 - style stuff present tense : always keep your action in the present tense.
Gaby chases Fred into the ice-cream shop
not Gaby has chased Fred into the ice-cream shop
You need to have action unfold in the present as it unfolds on the page.
21 - What not to include : the action descriptions in your screenplay should not include:
thoughts
hopes
back story
anything that can't be shown visually.
if you want to include these things, you need to show them through events or dialogue.
22 - Keep it clear
'the father of the bride who runs a pizza restaurant' is ambiguous
Who sells the pizzas?
the father or the bride?
compares it to ' the bride, whose father runs a pizza restaurant'
keep it clear. the less ambiguity, the better.
23 - OH MY GOD
using ALL CAPITALS in your actions descriptions signifies something important. its a way of making the important elements pop when someone reads the script. The whole building EXPLODES.
Don't get carried away and end up with half your action description in caps. use it sparingly.
24 - Keep it punchy : Break long sentences and keep your descriptions as vivid as you can. Jennie trying to keep her breathing under control as she walks across a tightrope? sometimes fewer words work better. Inhale, exhale. Jennie steps out.
25 - Write it first then edit it : This script won't be as punchy, exciting and engaging as possible on the first draft. Your mission on the first draft is just to get the thing written. Second, third, fourth, fifth crafts are the opportunity to make your screenplay everything it can be.
No comments:
Post a Comment