|
I've been writing fiction for about as long as I can remember and in the last year and a half I've made the transition into writing screenplays. So far I have two completed and one that I've just finished the first act of. I've tried several different methods for writing and I have found that for me, it is absolutely imperative that I start with an outline of every scene or conflict that I want to be in my script. So far I've encountered two different methods for doing this. The first is called "Boarding" and can be read about in Blake Snyder's screen writing tutorial, "Save the Cat." If you are just beginning to get into screen writing, I highly recommend this book. It's inexpensive and indispensable. It teaches you everything you've ever wanted to know about dramatic writing and three act structure. But for those who won't want to buy the book, here's the technique: 1) get a bulletin board and divide it into 4 rows. 2) get forty index cards 3) On each index card write a one sentence description of the conflict in the scene with respect to how it moves your plot forward. 4) fill in the bulletin board chronologically, ten cards per row. The benefit of this technique is that it lets you visualize the pacing of your film. In theory, the break between lines one and two is the beginning of the second act. Between two and three is your midpoint. Three and four is the beginning of your third act. The second technique is called a step outline, which is very similar to boarding, but far less visual and tactile. In a step outline, you write a one sentence description of each "step" of your script. The idea being that a step is more or less a scene/conflict/beat/setting. The words aren't completely interchangeable, but for the most part they are. Each step is a simple one sentence description, but it bears in mind the idea of "dramatic conflict." One thing that a lot of beginning screenwriters tend to do is read that they need conflict in every scene and end up writing a series of whiny arguments that don't accomplish anything. The idea of "dramatic conflict" is that a character must be trying to persuade another to *DO* something. An example might be "Bob persuades his boss to let him go home early." Once you have a list of ~30-40 steps that tell your story from open to close, you're ready to start writing. For me, a lot of writing is done before I even write "Fade In." I second the notion of just writing every day, regardless of what it is. Really, the craft that we are all trying to hone isn't screen writing, but story telling. Screen writing is just one medium of story telling with it's own set of rules and format. I also recommend reading every day. Yesterday I read the script to "Chinatown" and two days ago I was reading "Oedipus Rex." You can learn so much from reading other great works and watching great movies.
|
#
¿
Jan 13, 2011 11:20
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 6, 2024 02:48 |
|