Willis
07-26-2007, 03:36 PM
Under Construction.
-Willis 8/13/08
While at the moment I don't have my book of wisdom, and haven't done this in a while, I'll have to come back to edit this thread o' wisdom. But let's begin anyway.
1.) FADE IN <<<<<This should be at the beginning of every screenplay. In the end, these two words separates who knows what they are doing and who doesn't. As far as I know, these words don't ever appear again throughout the screenplay.
2.) INT. (short for interior- if scene is inside a building. If not, use EXT., short for Exterior.
Now that you have INT. the next acronym is what kind of ext. int. so let's say,
INT.DINING ROOM.
Now, there is one last piece of the puzzle. To differentiate whether it's night or day. Simple enough eh? So your finished product says:
INT.DINING ROOM.DAY
3.) The proper way to have dialouge placed in a screenplay script is such as:
ROB VAN DAM
I am the the reason these people watch the show! They tune in to see me...Rob...Van...Dam.
Now notice that his name is capitalized, and how the name is centered on the paper. The name is capitalized in order to introduce a new character. In other words, once it's introduced the first time, you may just print their first name, or they're intails (sp).
I.E. RVD
Tonight I'll prove once and for all that I deserve to be champion, and why they call me, Mr. Monday Night.
4.) Trust your dialouge. In script writing, there is no description, unless you also plan on being the director of the piece as well. You need to trust the words you wrote, your actors should be able to read just the dialouge and understand how thier character should feel.
____________________________________
Okay, I'm done for now, but I think this little thread might help some people. And yes, I do plan on expanding this, after vacation in the ATL.
____________________________________
Notes from Jon:
Typically slug lines are written as INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY or EXT. BARN - NIGHT or what have you. I've never seen the period used a second time in the line. Remember, the period after INT. or EXT. is because it's an abbreviation.
Also, CUT TO should be used extremely rarely. One, it's assumed that you need to cut between scenes, and two, it generally labels a writer as an amateur, because this sort of thing tends to be the province of the director.
Finally, in script writing, there ABSOLUTELY is description. In fact, the defining characteristic of screenwriting is that the story is told primarily in pictures. But even in stage, there is often a substantial stage direction component, as action is just as valuable a storytelling tool as dialogue.
It's been said that "great writers work in the specific," so the more specific your setting, the more specific your writing can be.
As for screenplays, I would strongly suggest taking a look at http://screenwriting.info, which has a very good introduction to screenwriting format and other good tips. It's offered by the folks who run Writers University, where I teach Introduction to Playwriting.
They have this to say on the subject of CUT TO, which is what's called a transition:
"The only time to use a Transition in a spec script is if it's integral to telling the story. For instance, you might use a TIME CUT: to indicate passage of time. More commonly, a DISSOLVE TO: indicates that time has passed. Or, you might need to use MATCH CUT: if you want to illustrate that there is some correlation between something we just saw and something in the new scene. The point is, unless you become quite skilled in screenwriting don't use these things unless absolutely necessary, because the director of the film will probably think of something different." In fact, they specifically mention that CUT TO will be left out of most spec scripts (in other words, scripts that writers write in the hope that someone will buy them, as opposed to shooting scripts, for work that's in production).
_____________________
If that doesn't make sense, it's because I lazily copied and pasted...sorry.
-Willis 8/13/08
While at the moment I don't have my book of wisdom, and haven't done this in a while, I'll have to come back to edit this thread o' wisdom. But let's begin anyway.
1.) FADE IN <<<<<This should be at the beginning of every screenplay. In the end, these two words separates who knows what they are doing and who doesn't. As far as I know, these words don't ever appear again throughout the screenplay.
2.) INT. (short for interior- if scene is inside a building. If not, use EXT., short for Exterior.
Now that you have INT. the next acronym is what kind of ext. int. so let's say,
INT.DINING ROOM.
Now, there is one last piece of the puzzle. To differentiate whether it's night or day. Simple enough eh? So your finished product says:
INT.DINING ROOM.DAY
3.) The proper way to have dialouge placed in a screenplay script is such as:
ROB VAN DAM
I am the the reason these people watch the show! They tune in to see me...Rob...Van...Dam.
Now notice that his name is capitalized, and how the name is centered on the paper. The name is capitalized in order to introduce a new character. In other words, once it's introduced the first time, you may just print their first name, or they're intails (sp).
I.E. RVD
Tonight I'll prove once and for all that I deserve to be champion, and why they call me, Mr. Monday Night.
4.) Trust your dialouge. In script writing, there is no description, unless you also plan on being the director of the piece as well. You need to trust the words you wrote, your actors should be able to read just the dialouge and understand how thier character should feel.
____________________________________
Okay, I'm done for now, but I think this little thread might help some people. And yes, I do plan on expanding this, after vacation in the ATL.
____________________________________
Notes from Jon:
Typically slug lines are written as INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY or EXT. BARN - NIGHT or what have you. I've never seen the period used a second time in the line. Remember, the period after INT. or EXT. is because it's an abbreviation.
Also, CUT TO should be used extremely rarely. One, it's assumed that you need to cut between scenes, and two, it generally labels a writer as an amateur, because this sort of thing tends to be the province of the director.
Finally, in script writing, there ABSOLUTELY is description. In fact, the defining characteristic of screenwriting is that the story is told primarily in pictures. But even in stage, there is often a substantial stage direction component, as action is just as valuable a storytelling tool as dialogue.
It's been said that "great writers work in the specific," so the more specific your setting, the more specific your writing can be.
As for screenplays, I would strongly suggest taking a look at http://screenwriting.info, which has a very good introduction to screenwriting format and other good tips. It's offered by the folks who run Writers University, where I teach Introduction to Playwriting.
They have this to say on the subject of CUT TO, which is what's called a transition:
"The only time to use a Transition in a spec script is if it's integral to telling the story. For instance, you might use a TIME CUT: to indicate passage of time. More commonly, a DISSOLVE TO: indicates that time has passed. Or, you might need to use MATCH CUT: if you want to illustrate that there is some correlation between something we just saw and something in the new scene. The point is, unless you become quite skilled in screenwriting don't use these things unless absolutely necessary, because the director of the film will probably think of something different." In fact, they specifically mention that CUT TO will be left out of most spec scripts (in other words, scripts that writers write in the hope that someone will buy them, as opposed to shooting scripts, for work that's in production).
_____________________
If that doesn't make sense, it's because I lazily copied and pasted...sorry.