Eg: INT. Cafeteria. South Essex college - Afternoon.
2) Describe the setting: Most people won't know the setting as they will not have seen it.
Eg: Busy, full of students as well as staff. Chat and gossip fill the air as the afternoon rush comes around.
3) Describe your characters: Throw in a few vivid details about your character.
Eg: Kayla Frost 19. Stick-thin, has a gothic stereotype look. Looks as if she could snap at any moment. Her eyes burn under a thick mop of gothic long hair.
4) Naming your characters: Make sure your character's names are different and look different when written down. Give each character a surname too. If they have one name, this comes across as an incomplete identity.
5) Conflict, conflict, conflict: Not only should you have a long term conflict for your screen play, but your characters should have internal conflicts of their own to deal with.
6) Secrets: Giving your characters secrets whether big or small, enable you to pick away layers and keep your viewers interested along the way.
7) Keep it consistent: Make sure you keep your characters consistent in both background and behaviour.
8) Dialogue stuff, sentences: People don't speak in complete sentances nor do they all speak alike.
9) Stay away from the nose: Don't state the obvious. This refers to the dialouge that states too clearly what a character is thinking without filtering through their personality or agenda.
10) Keep it unpredictable: When Princess Leia tells Han Solo 'i love you' in The Empire Strikes Back The scene is most memorable for his response 'I know'
11) Keep it Varied: does a character even need to respond verbally to a statment?
Again don't be predictable.
12) First line: The first line your character speaks should sum up an aspect of their personality.
13) Language=life: Make sure your character's language reflects their life experiences.
14) Double hyphen: Has one character stepped on another characters line? Cutting them off before they finish speaking.
15) Fresh Slang: Why nt make up your own slang? Using the latest words, phrases and cultural references will date your script extremely quickly.
16) Mix dialogue and action: In life stuff happens all at once. People don't stop talking because a bus is about to explode.
17) Don't tell me what i've seen: If Debbie's head just exploded The viewers don't need James to tell them.
18) No place for closed questions: If you have a question that leads to the answer yes or no then get rid of it.
19) Misunderstandings: Characters should misunderstand or misinterpret each other just as people do in real life.
20) Style stuff, Present tense: Always keep your action description s in the present tense.
21) What not to include: The action descriptions in your screenplay should nt include
- Thoughts
- Hopes
- Backstory
22) Keep it clear: "The father of the bride who runs a pizza restaurant" is not a good scentence.
Who sells the pizzas the father or the bride?
23) OH MY GOD: Using all capitals in your action description signifies something important. It's a way of making the important elements pop when someone reads the script.
24) Keep it punchy: Break long sentences and keep your descriptions as vivid as you can.
25) Write it first then edit: This script won't be as punchy, exciting or engaging as possible on the first draft.
No comments:
Post a Comment