Video Production from a Christian Perspective - Writing a Screenplay - From the Zack Lawrence Christian Video Academy, Part 2

Mar. 24, 2006 - Writing a Screenplay - From the Zack Lawrence Christian Video Academy, Part 2

Do not include camera directions in your screenplay. By camera directions, I mean things like, “pan up to see the sun setting over the hills,” or, “zoom in on his eyes as he searches frantically.” A script goes through different forms throughout the production process: first is the screenplay, which should pretty much read like a novel, next is the shooting script, which is used by the director during production. This has all the camera moves and angles.

At the beginning of your script, you start with FADE IN and at the end you put FADE OUT. Always start a scene with scene description, never start with dialogue. Also make sure the character is mentioned in the scene description before you write his or her lines. Always double-space down from the scene heading to the scene description. The dialogue must be kept concise. Lengthy exposition bores an audience. When a character is first introduced, his or her name is capitalized. Also, sound effects are capitalized. And if you absolutely have to have camera angles, they need to be capitalized as well.

CHARACTER CUE is the character’s name and it is followed by the dialogue. Two techniques you might use are Voice Over and Off Screen. These are placed after the character cue and are abbreviated, capitalized, and put in parenthesis. The Voice over, (V.O.) is used when dialogue is placed over the scene, like if someone is narrating the story, or talking about something that happened to him during a flashback. Off screen, (O.S.), is used when someone is talking out of our view, like if he’s in another room.

Here’s a sample page of a script I wrote to show you how this all works out. I’ve used almost all of the elements we’ve just discussed.

FADE IN:

EXT – SWAMP HUT – DAY

Somewhere in the midst of England in the year 895, deep inside a swamp, is a small, turf hut standing on the top of a little knoll. It is surrounded by low, gnarled trees and past the trees herons and flocks of ducks feed in the swamp. At the door of the hut sits EDMUND, a fourteen-year-old boy clad in a tunic of animal skins that leaves his arms and legs bare. At his feet lays a large, gray wolfhound. Edmund looks at the sinking sun and SIGHS deeply.

EDMUND

Father is late, Wolf. I hope nothing has happened to him and Cousin Egbert.

Edmund’s hound WOLF lifts his head and gives a lazy wag of his tail. Edmund passes his hand across Wolf’s head.

EDMUND (O.S.)

(cont’d)

Don’t worry, old fellow. They’ll be home soon, and then we shall learn what has been happening since the Vikings attacked.

Edmund gets up and walks over to a small coracle tied up to a wooden stake. Wolf BARKS. Edmund turns to him.

EDMUND

(cont’d)

No, Wolf, you can’t come with me. I’ll be back in an hour.

Wolf watches as Edmund gets into the coracle and paddles off into the swamp. When he loses sight of Edmund, Wolf walks over to the door of the hut and flops down with a WHINE.

FADE OUT

You’ll notice that when I gave Edmund’s age, I spelled out “fourteen”. Always spell out two digit numbers, personal titles, and indications of time. Also, don’t hyphenate long words, and never break a sentence from one page to the next.

Most stories are broken down into separate “Acts.” The most common is the three-act structure. In the first act, we’re introduced to the protagonist, the good guy, the antagonist, the bad guy or some other obstacle, and the problem that the protagonist is trying to solve. In the second act we have rising action: there’s conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist, and where the protagonist has several obstacles thrown in the way of achieving the goal. In the third act, we have Climax, and then Resolution. This is where the final confrontation takes place: a duel; the protagonist faces his worst fear; the antagonist is about to succeed in world domination; and the hero overcomes and everyone lives happily ever after, basically.

One of the speakers at the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival was Mr. Geoff Botkin, a Christian filmmaker from New Zealand. He had a class about scriptwriting, and he gave a formula for a great story. That formula is: A flawed but sympathetic protagonist summons moral courage to face, and then overcome, increasingly difficult, seemingly insurmountable moral tests to achieve a compelling desire. He said that if you have this, you have a great story.

Probably the most important thing you can do to your script is, once you’ve got it all finished, rewrite it. And when you’ve finished rewriting it, rewrite it again. And when you’ve finished rewriting it, rewrite it again. And when you’ve finished rewriting it, rewrite it again. Most screenwriting classes and books say you should do at least 20 drafts of your script before you start shooting.

Also, I think I should add that when your script is completed, and before you begin shooting, you have to make a storyboard. Storyboards are basically taking the script, and turning it into a comic strip, showing all the camera angles, the progression of the action, and providing a blue-print for the production team to follow. If you don’t storyboard your movie, you’re going to run into a lot of problems. It’ll make things harder for the crew to be on the same page and work with the same vision and goal in mind.

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