Writing a script

[JaxRhapsody]

My nephew wants me to help write a script for a movie he wants to do, how do I go about this?

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My nephew wants me to help write a script for a movie he wants to do, how do I go about this?

Download Trelby - a scriptwriting tool and it's free.

http://www.trelby.org/download

It should help. There are other pieces of software out there, but they cost $s.

 

[SamScribble]

Movies are visual not verbal. So often it's best to start with a rough storyboard. What will the viewer see? If you focus on what the viewer will hear, it's easy to get bogged down. Funnily enough, even radio drama is more visual than verbal.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Movies are visual not verbal. So often it's best to start with a rough storyboard. What will the viewer see? If you focus on what the viewer will hear, it's easy to get bogged down. Funnily enough, even radio drama is more visual than verbal.

That sounds like a good idea. Pretty much what I do as I write, picture it like a movie.

 

[PennLady]

My nephew wants me to help write a script for a movie he wants to do, how do I go about this?

You can also just search for scripts for movies, there are a lot of sites out there with them. It may not be the final draft, but it would give you an idea of how they're written. I did this with my son a while ago.

Also, it wouldn't be quite the same, but you could look at plays as well.

 

[Hypoxia]

You can also just search for scripts for movies, there are a lot of sites out there with them. It may not be the final draft, but it would give you an idea of how they're written.

I went script-mad a few years ago, downloading zillions of them, first and final drafts and intermediates and rejects. I like reading scripts of both films or plays I had seen, and those I was unfamiliar with, so I could play them in my mind's eye at the pace I desired. Some films are much better than their sloppy scripts, and vice versa.

Sorry, I forget where I found them. Gargling for FILM SCRIPT FREE DOWNLOAD might uncover a few sources.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

oops!

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

There are three main elements of a movie script plus an extra bit that I will talk about last:

1. Dialogue

2. Action

3. Any Director's requirements

and fourthly, there is a list of the characters.

All you do to write the actual script is have a title at the top of the first page, then,

a list of all the speaking parts (usually on the same page), then,

each speaking role (identified at each spoken line beginning) has its own separate line/s for each sentence inside inverted commas, then,

there are two/three/four line spaces between each spoken line/paragraph of the same speaker, then,

there are action directions outside of inverted commas, then,

non-speaking parts go on a separate listing either after the speaking part list - or at the end of the script, then,

if it is a really long script, every line is numbered, every paged numbered too, then,

director's notes are usually just handwritten inside the empty line spacings, and,

a copy is made and given to each actor.

A set of illustrations (hand-drawings/line-drawings) are helpful and often are used - this is the 'storyboard.'

Under the main title there is usually a log-line, which is a simple sentence that encapsulates the whole movie (e.g. Titanic - log-line: 'big ship, lot's of people, ship sinks, people drown.) The End.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

The best scripts have interesting action or external-to-the-spoken-parts links in short explanations:

As the rain is seen running down the outside of the frosty pane of glass in the kitchen window, tears roll down the cheeks of ***. She is cold and frosty on the outside, but the hard rain erodes her previous show of resistance.

Woman * "I need a towel."

Man ** "You're wet."

Woman * "I'm cold." She insists.

Man ** "No you are hot."