Lights, Camera, Screenwriting!
So, you want to write a screenplay?

Click here for sample screenplays

CONCEPT
Is the concept striking and original?
Have similar ideas done well in the marketplace?
Does the concept have mass appeal?

STORY
Does the story hook me right away?
Might the story offend certain people?
Is there a strong emotional pull?

PLOT AND STRUCTURE
Is there a clear beginning, middle, and end?
Is there strong conflict that engages the audience?
Are the scenes logically connected?

CHARACTER
Is the main character identifiable?
Can the main character carry the weight of the role?
Are the characters revealed through action?

DIALOGUE
Is the dialogue believable, intelligent, and compelling?
Does each character have his or her own manner of speaking?

1.  Get an idea.

2.  Expand or contract the idea to fit the length you need.

3.  Start with your characters.

4.  Visualize the characters as the premise takes shape.  If you can't get a mental image of your characters, neither will the people judging your premise.

5.  Create a time and place for the action.

6.  Come up with a problem the main character has to solve.  The problem must engage the audience, usually through an emotional link.

7. Decide how the problem is solved.

8.  Check the characters' motivations to see that everything makes sense.

9.  Check your logic.  Make sure every action has a logical reason behind it.

10.  Proofread your premise, using this checklist:
    Does the premise have an interesting "hook" that grabs my attention from the very start?
    Do I want to find out more about this idea?
    Are the characters realistic and motivated?
    Is the central conflict clear and logical?
    Is the action intriguing?
    Is the ending emotionally satisfying?
    Is the overall premise interesting?
    Do all the events hang together?

    Most scriptwriters plan everything out in an outline called a treatment.  They go act by act, scene by scene, piece by piece.  Here is a basic outline for your treatment.  Expand or contract it to suit your needs.  Use your premise to build your treatment.

ACT ONE
-time and place

-Scene 1

-Scene 2

-Scene 3

-Scene 4

-Scene 5
 

ACT TWO
-time and place

-Scene 1

-Scene 2

-Scene 3

-Scene 4

-Scene 5
 

ACT THREE
-time and place

-Scene 1

-Scene 2

-Scene 3

-Scene 4

-Scene 5

    From the beginnings of movie making, filmmakers have often adapted material from novels and short stories.  Gone with the Wind, Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, The Godfather, Dances with Wolves, The Horse Whisperer, and many others were stories before they were screenplays.

    Alfred Hitchcock has based more than two dozen of his movies on short stories or novels.  He especially liked short stories.  The short story, he said, is "the nearest art form to the motion picture. . . It's the only form [in which] you ask the audience to sit down and read it in one sitting."

    Unlike stories, movies do not allow the audience to imagine characters, settings, and events.  Rather, the movie audience will actually see and hear the story they tell.

    Analyzing stories can enable us to see what it takes to write for the movies.  Below is an excerpt from Cornell Woolrich's short story, "Rear Window."  We will analyze this before viewing the film.

      I didn't know their names.  I'd never heard their voices.  I didn't even know them by sight, strictly speaking, for their faces were too small to fill in with identifiable features at that distance.  Yet, I could have constructed a timetable of their comings and goings, their daily habits and activities.  They were the rear window dwellers around me.

        Sure, I suppose it was a little bit like prying, could even have been mistaken for the fevered concentration of a Peeping Tom.  That wasn't my fault, that wasn't the idea.  The idea was my movements were strictly limited just around this time.  I could get from the window to the bed, and from the bed to the window, and that was all.

      While "Rear Window" is a good story, it is not a great work of literature.  Somehow, however, Hitchcock's film made the difference.  You will  keep a Hitchcock journal this week as you watch the film Rear Window.  You will attempt to analyze the plot, characters, camera angles, dialogue, music, visual effects, conflict, climax, change in character, point of view, etc.  to write your reflections of the film.  You will have time in class each day to write your reflections.  You should finish your reflections each night.  Your reflections should be at least a page in length for each day we watch the film.  Be sure to consider what makes the film over the short story a masterpiece.
 

1.  Use standard 8 1/2 by 11" paper.

2.  Start with the words FADE IN.  Every script starts this way; it's like "The Curtain Rises" in a stage play.

3.  Two spaces below FADE IN is the first image or shot.  Each shot is written in capital letters.  One or more shots make up a scene.  The first shot tells if the scene is inside (INT) or outside (EXT); whether it's day (DAY) or night (NIGHT).  You also give the location--(APARTMENT--KITCHEN).

4.  Two spaces below this is a description of the characters and scene, written in lowercase letters, margin to margin.

5.  Capitalize characters' names the first time they are listed.

6.  If you describe the characters, be brief.  Here's an example:  "LOU, a ruggedly handsome man in his early thirties."

7.  Write basic shot descriptions.  Specify a close shot, CLOSE ON, if you want something in sharp focus; use ANGLE ON if you want a different perspective.

8.  Center dialogue on the page.  It is written in lower-case letters, single spaced.

9.  Write the name of the character who is speaking in capital letters two spaces below the shot description.

10.  Include directions to tell the actors what to do in a scene.  If the descriptions are long, write them single-spaced in lowercase letters, margin to margin.  If they are short, write them in brackets within a speech.

11.  Write CUT TO:  or DISSOLVE TO:  at the end of a scene.  Place the words on the right side of the page.

12.  When a character's speech continues to the next page, write MORE on the line under the last sentence, indented to the same margins as the character's name.  Then write the character's name and CONTINUED on the top of the next page.

FADE IN:  the opening shot

ANGLE ON:  you want a different perspective

CLOSE ON:  you want something in sharp focus

CUT TO:  end of a scene

ESTABLISHING SHOT:  a wide-angle shot

TIGHT ON:  close-up shot

ANOTHER ANGLE:  a new viewpoint

CLOSER ANGLE:  closer perspective

POV:  point of view

CLOSE UP:  tight shot

REVERSE ANGLE:  opposite point of view; other person's view

BACK TO:  return to POV shot

DISSOLVE:  old scene fading out and new scene fading in

FADE OUT:  image fades to black

PAN:  camera moves from side to side

VOICE OVER:  spoken narration

BEGIN TITLES:  when credits start

END TITLES:  when main credits end

INT:  inside

EXT:  outside

Example:

FADE IN

(INT) (NIGHT) (AIRPORT BAR)

LOUISE and RITA, two attractive women in their late twenties, are sitting at the bar.  LOU, a ruggedly handsome man in his early thirties, walks in and takes a seat at a table a few yards away.  The room is illuminated only by a few lamps.  There is a long bar and a half a dozen small tables.  Soothing elevator music plays softly in the background.

ANGLE ON Louise's face
 
 

TIGHT ON Rita's face