For next week, please log onto the film script site (the link is also posted to your right) and select a film script you'd like to read. Pick something you like or have seen. It will make for an easier reading time for you. NOTE: Not all screenplays are written in the correct script format. Some are transcribed by fans. The more marginal the film, the more likely the formatting will be off. As you read this script, please complete the 2-sided handout: "Plot Structure Worksheet."
Use some of the day in today's class to find and begin reading this script. Also, find some time to create and flesh out an idea or two. Use the handouts appropriately to help with this. The other handouts are divided into character and plot worksheets. These are generally for your benefit, and not all of the character design needs to be written, but it's a good way for you to consider the full-lives of your protagonist. You should attempt to complete the complete plot handout. This one's important. You won't need the scene sheet until you complete the plot sheet.
NOTE: Tips abound below. Keep reading for some writing advice.
THEN: Spend at least a period or so studying for the test. It's a big one and there's a lot of material on the test. Go back and click on those links you've avoided until now. Study, study, study.
1. Most of writing a screenplay (about 65%) is done in planning and prewriting.
2. Writing a screenplay is a succession of breakdowns: moving from the general to the specific.
3. Don't write a script for a movie you yourself wouldn't go see.
4. Remember the goal of every writer is to get an "emotional" response from your audience. Scripts that are too bland or boring or cliche, only anger an audience (and don't usually get made in the first place).
Writers think in different ways:
Get ideas from:
1. Who, what, where, when, how, why?
2. Does it have "legs" - is it dramatic and interesting?
3. What's at stake for your character/protagonist?
4. Is the situation understandable or filmable?
5. Is the story too personal or vague?
Always play the devil's advocate when considering the validity of your writing/story/characters/plot, etc. What weaknesses are in your script? Try to fix them after writing a first draft or during the first draft, if you can.
HOMEWORK: Study. The unit test is next class. See posts below for test prep details. Select and read a script from the script site above or to the right of this page. Complete the plot point handout sheet for your chosen script.
Use some of the day in today's class to find and begin reading this script. Also, find some time to create and flesh out an idea or two. Use the handouts appropriately to help with this. The other handouts are divided into character and plot worksheets. These are generally for your benefit, and not all of the character design needs to be written, but it's a good way for you to consider the full-lives of your protagonist. You should attempt to complete the complete plot handout. This one's important. You won't need the scene sheet until you complete the plot sheet.
NOTE: Tips abound below. Keep reading for some writing advice.
THEN: Spend at least a period or so studying for the test. It's a big one and there's a lot of material on the test. Go back and click on those links you've avoided until now. Study, study, study.
1. Most of writing a screenplay (about 65%) is done in planning and prewriting.
2. Writing a screenplay is a succession of breakdowns: moving from the general to the specific.
3. Don't write a script for a movie you yourself wouldn't go see.
4. Remember the goal of every writer is to get an "emotional" response from your audience. Scripts that are too bland or boring or cliche, only anger an audience (and don't usually get made in the first place).
Writers think in different ways:
1. Inductively: from specific to the universalIt's okay to think in any of these ways. No one way is the right way. You, of course, can also combine these ways of thinking too.
2. Deductively: from the universal to the specific
3. Logically: How one thing causes another thing to happen
4. Non-logically: Absurdity or mere coincidence
5. Creatively: discovering hidden connections or relationships between two unrelated things (i.e. metaphorically)
Get ideas from:
1. Experience (personal or from those around you)After coming up with an idea, test its strength by asking:
2. What you overhear (conversation)
3. News/Advertising
4. Photographs, paintings, visual art
5. Mind-mapping on a specific subject
6. Speculative brainstorming: asking: What if...?
7. Dreams and/or visualization
8. Free association
9. Adaptation (novels, short stories, poems, memoirs, etc.)
10. Intertexuality (stealing similar ideas from other sources)
1. Who, what, where, when, how, why?
2. Does it have "legs" - is it dramatic and interesting?
3. What's at stake for your character/protagonist?
4. Is the situation understandable or filmable?
5. Is the story too personal or vague?
Always play the devil's advocate when considering the validity of your writing/story/characters/plot, etc. What weaknesses are in your script? Try to fix them after writing a first draft or during the first draft, if you can.
HOMEWORK: Study. The unit test is next class. See posts below for test prep details. Select and read a script from the script site above or to the right of this page. Complete the plot point handout sheet for your chosen script.
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