Intro to Screenwriting

What is a Movie?

• Movie = A story told in images and sounds, story incites emotion, connection

• Movie = Doing/Seeing• Play = Talking• Novel = Thinking

• Construct of fiction, documentary, experimental

Externalizing Ideas

• Externalize: To take an idea that is internal and make it visual and action-oriented

• For example, to show love onscreen, we can hug, kiss, hold hands, ect.

Elements of Drama

• Dramatic conflict: Core question

• Characters: Protagonist, antagonist

• Setting: Locations, place

• Theme: What the audience learns

• Plot: Order of the story

Writing the Short Film

• Shorts films are anything under 45 minutes

• In this class, you will write films that are around 30 minutes in length

• Show a moment into a world--insight into some deeper truth, the world of characters, delve into emotion

Producing the Short Film

• Limit the number of locations• Keep the number of actors low• No animals and kids• No period pieces, science fiction,

adventure, fantasy• Minimum/simple special effects

Successful Short Films

• Emotional--Incites deeper feeling, makes us think, question something

• Unique concept, but still familiar

• Memorable characters

• A unique moment in the world/lives of the characters

• Visually stimulating/interesting

Developing Ideas

• Ideas start with something different for everyone--character, place, theme

• Basic premise for a short film is a character with a problem or a question

• Or, a character wants something, but there is an obstacle. Obstacle can be another person or something else. Must be externalized!

Writing the Short Screenplay

• Structure: How the idea is formulated

• Content: The characters and the connection the audience might have to their dilemmas and struggles

• Story structure is a question of plot--how do we put our events together to form the most cohesive, dramatic story?

• With screenwriting, structure is critical--it is stricter than novels, plays because time is compressed

• Screenplay is a document of dramatic structure

Story Structure

• Act I: Story setup

• Act II: Confrontation

• Act III: Climax and resolution

Three-Act Structure

Screenplay Structure, Syd Field

• Causality is key: One event must lead to another

• Should be told from one character’s POV

• Twist/reversal is when the audience expects one outcome by gets another

Developing Structure

Story Pitches

• Write a brief paragraph or two about a character is who is facing an obstacle or problem. Roughly use the three act structure to flesh out this idea. You will present each of these ideas in class, then we will discuss them.