Screenplay Format

[Seattle Zack]

Just wondering about anyone's experiences writing for or adapting their work to a scriptwriting format ...

Myself, I have several awful screenplays stuffed in a drawer somwhere. Although I've taken many screenwriting classes, it seems such an awkward medium ... all dialogue, in essence, with an instinsic faith in the director that he or she will somehow make it work.

Recently, I hooked up with a kid, an aspiring filmmaker, from a local university and he's interested in adapting a couple of my stories (non-erotic, mind you ... this ain't something you'll read about on CNN) for his film project.

Now, I'm quite familiar with the screenplay format, I've read a few hundred over the years. But I'm having difficulty translating my short story into something he can film ...

Anyone run into that? Maybe I should just tell him to fuck off. He's not really a writer, but he's pretty jazzed about the whole project. Suggestions or whatever would be appreciated.

 

[Liar]

Depends on the story, I guess. I've done it a couple of times for stageplays. Playwriting is the very essence of show-not-tell. If you can somehow get all the "Lance had a creeping suspicion that.." and decribe how that looks from the outside, you have done the job. Try rewriting it (if it not already is) as 3rd person not-omni-anything. Fly on the wall-perspective. Then the transition is pretty easy.

It's imo a very good indicator of how much your story holds its own when stripped of prose writing style. SOme stories fade away into the background when the wit and style of the narration is yanked away. Other stories become more clear.

Not really any deep well of advise over here, just make an attempt and see what happens.

#L

 

[Weird Harold]

Recently, I hooked up with a kid, an aspiring filmmaker, from a local university and he's interested in adapting a couple of my stories (non-erotic, mind you ... this ain't something you'll read about on CNN) for his film project.

Now, I'm quite familiar with the screenplay format, I've read a few hundred over the years. But I'm having difficulty translating my short story into something he can film ...

I'm not all that familiar with screenplays, but I think your problem may be that you're "too close" to your story to change your thinking about it.

Is there someone who can do a preliminary screenplay conversion for you? You might find it easier to edit someone else's adaptation than you are finding adapting it yourself.

 

[gypsywitch]

A screenplay is pretty sleek and trim. You'd have to be really creative at getting action and direction into the slugs and have the dialogue work its seperate magic.

Good luck with it all.

 

[Weird Harold]

Although I've taken many screenwriting classes, it seems such an awkward medium ... all dialogue, in essence, with an instinsic faith in the director that he or she will somehow make it work.

Anther thought that occurs to me: Don't screenplays have to be Present Tense? It would cause problemsfor me to do a simultaneous conversion in tense and format to perhaps doing a conversion to present tense first would help?

 

[scrtplsrs]

I write screenplays. I have several on the market now. They are written in present tense. There is a strict page amount of 120. There is a format to be engineered and adhered to.

There are several screenplay programs available. I can not afford them, so I use a little program called Rough Draft.

http://www.rsalsbury.co.uk/rd.htm

It is a shareware program. The other programs that you find are for "trying out" and will not give you a full download, until you pay for the program. The well known programs that I have tried, IMO, are filled with fluff items that are not needed. They are bulky and inappropriate for my needs and why I paid ten bucks, I think it was, for Rough Draft.

 

[Captain Midnight]

Extremely interesting

I'll have more to say once I get my thoughts organized, but I recently returned from acting in a movie. The star, a longtime friend of mine who also wrote the screenplay, gave me a seminar on what the screenplay is supposed to accomplish, for free (while we were transporting set pieces).

I want to write an essay on the screenwriting process, and what needs to be done to translate from the printed page to the screen.

 

[scrtplsrs]

Captain Midnight,

I hope you will post it here or please send me a copy of it, as I look forward to reading your essay.

 

[Captain Midnight]

Posting an essay on screenwriting

Be glad to send you the essay. Would also be very interested in seeing the story, or other screenwriting efforts you have made.

I work for LadyCibelle and have edited some stories. I also wrote my master of arts thesis on the writing of a teleplay for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a decade ago. The thesis was written on a Mac, so I can't give that to you at this point (I'm using a PC now).

The suggestions made by the above posters are very good. I can also add that if you have much exposition in your story, study that first. The screenwriter I chatted with (she's half of a team; the other member also directed the film) fired what seemed like hundreds of questions at me about the motivations of and backgrounds for the characters in a novel I am writing. She had a terrible time keeping them all straight.

I suggest you analyze the characters in your story and try to flesh them out as much as possible, giving full names, backgrounds, ages, personal interests -- as much as you can think of, then think some more. Then work on the settings where they all meet -- are they all strangers to one another at the outset, or do they know each other from events not depicted? Take all of that detail and begin paring it down to what can be depicted with a few quick conversations or, better yet, some striking visuals.

There is an excellent chance that you, the director, and the actors will all come up with details for the characters as you go along, details which are reflected in their manner of speaking and their physical habits. If you are like me, you will find more and more detail for your characters as you go along, details which will give them reason to do what they do. You can reasonably expect to be asked every question about each character that a human being can asked, followed by an order to "show me how" the character behaves when carrying out your answer.

Under a confidentiality agreement, I'm not allowed to give out my copy of the script (it only includes the scenes where I appear anyway, about 10 pages out of 109). The writer/producers have told me that several script ideas they had were plagiarized and turned into feature films without credit or compensation to them. (So you might want to hold off on sending me any material.) I can tell you that when I went onto the set and went through the lines, four people (the two directors, the leading actress -- also the co-writer and co-producer) and the leading male actor -- talked to me about my character and my interpretation of him, often contradicting each other. On occasion, they would say a speech aloud and tell me to mimic the reading (resulting in the same speech being said in confrontational, deathly calm, reasonable, and agitated tones) before the cameras rolled on the agreed-upon final speech. A few times, I just raised my hand and called on someone to make a definitive ruling on how a particular line should be spoken. And this was actually a very harmonious set!

This is meant to encourage you rather than otherwise. The feeling of pleasure at producing a good picture is incredible.

I would encourage you to start investigating the U.S. Copyright Office (www.copyright.gov) and the Writers Guild of America (www.wga.org) for getting legal protection against plagiarism. Then, when your work is safe, start on your screenplay and work with whomever has a legitimate interest in it.

You've read a substantial chunk of my essay composed right here in 30 minutes. I spend relatively little time keyboarding, but a lot pacing around and thinking over what I want/need to write (and to cut out later). Don't worry about writers' block, because it can often be overcome by the encouragement of others.

Captain Midnight

 

[NoJo]

Just wondering about anyone's experiences writing for or adapting their work to a scriptwriting format ...

Myself, I have several awful screenplays stuffed in a drawer somwhere. Although I've taken many screenwriting classes, it seems such an awkward medium ... all dialogue, in essence, with an instinsic faith in the director that he or she will somehow make it work.

Recently, I hooked up with a kid, an aspiring filmmaker, from a local university and he's interested in adapting a couple of my stories (non-erotic, mind you ... this ain't something you'll read about on CNN) for his film project.

Now, I'm quite familiar with the screenplay format, I've read a few hundred over the years. But I'm having difficulty translating my short story into something he can film ...

Anyone run into that? Maybe I should just tell him to fuck off. He's not really a writer, but he's pretty jazzed about the whole project. Suggestions or whatever would be appreciated.

I've adapted a short story to screenplay format (15 minutes).

You seem to know a fair bit about the basics, so I can tell you the particular problems I had in my adaptation and how I resolved them.

+Omniscience -- obviously, out.
+Cut the locations. May imply some major rewriting
+Break into scenes -- even if you have one loaction, 3 minute "logical" scenes are easier to work with, particularly if you're used to 100 page scripts.
+Write a treatment first! Even if the story's only 5 pages long.
+Cut the characters if necessary. 2-3 max, for lo budget.

If your story is short, I could take a look. I've a won national competition for one of my screenplays, but I can't call myself an old hack. Just another pair of eyes, really.

PM me if you want. I have Ms Word and Final Draft 6.

 

[scrtplsrs]

Thank you Captain Midnight for your insight.

You speak of a character bible. Mine is a work in progress. If I am good enough to get an interested party, I expect more discussions about the characters and look forward to the gritty insight of those involved.

There is a multitude of books available about screenwriting. The "guru" I follow is J. Michael Straczyski's book, "The Complete Book of Scriptwriting." There is also online venues to look at script formats, the one I tend to navigate toward is Drew's Script-O-Rama. There is a good selection of scripts posted in many genres.

 

[scrtplsrs]

I have Ms Word and Final Draft 6.

Final Draft, out of all the programs available, that's the one I want, please excuse my drool.

 

[Seattle Zack]

Well thank you for the suggestions, the best one I received (thank you hon) was for The Elements of Screenwriting by Blacker, highly suggested if anyone is interested in this format.

Find a screenwriter in your town, is my advice, and ask them what worked. Get a little insight.

 

[Captain Midnight]

Pleasure is all ours

Well thank you for the suggestions, the best one I received (thank you hon) was for The Elements of Screenwriting by Blacker, highly suggested if anyone is interested in this format.

Find a screenwriter in your town, is my advice, and ask them what worked. Get a little insight.

Good luck, sir.

Because of this thread, I have already started corresponding with scrtplsrs about screenwriting, finding an agent, selling stories, etc. Several writers have formed an informal chat room where we discuss these and other issues in greater detail.



A big thank you for starting this thread! And also a big thank you for the last posting about The Elements of Screenwriting, which I hadn't heard of.

The screenwriter's equivalent of "Break a leg" to you.

Captain Midnight

 

[gypsywitch]

arrr... budget

hate 'em

 

[scrtplsrs]

I Have a Question

Would anyone be interested in asking for a board dedicated to scripts, writing them, how to write them, and getting into the nitty gritty of script formats? As far as that goes this thread could become that as well. What say you?

It could be a place to practice writing scripts as well. Getting feedback and such on storyline ideas.


After Thought: It was brought to my attention that this idea would be cool, but, (hate those things don't you), what about theft of a persons script? Hmmm. Okay, theft could happen, but not usually by anyone that has "power" to do anything with a script. Trust in this business is a very big thing. Okay. So lets say we just make a place to practice writing scripts, and ask questions about the how to of script writing. No real scripts need to be posted.