An Introduction to Writing Screenplays for Film

An Introduction to Writing Screenplays for Film

Use the screenplay format to write at least a three page scene. (Scenes have one setting.) You can write more if you'd like.
You can adapt a story you've already written to film.
Or, you can create a new story. (Some students start something new and then finish the full screenplay as their final project during the second half of the class.)
This will be due November 10.

The screenplay format is a bit tricky and technical so pay attention to details.


Excerpts from “How to Format a Screenplay” by Elaine Radford
Keep in mind that a screenplay is visual and your characters' actions move the story forward from scene to scene. Actions show the audience what it needs to know. Your characters' dialogue supports the actions. Seeing a character do something is far more powerful than having him or her talk about it.
Think of a scene as a unit of action. In each scene, define who (character or characters), what (situation), when (time of day), where (place of action), and why (purpose of the action).
Scene Headings:

·          Each time your characters move to a different setting, a new scene heading is required.

·          Scene headings are typed on one line with some words abbreviated and all words capitalized.

·          Specifically, the location of a scene is listed before the time of day when the scene takes place.

·          Example: A scene set inside a hospital emergency room at night would have the following heading:

INT. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT

·         Interior is always abbreviated INT. and exterior is abbreviated EXT.

·         Hyphen separates the location of the scene from the time of day. 

·          Leave a two-line space following the scene heading before writing your scene description.

·         Scene descriptions are typed across the page from left margin to right margin.

Characters and Dialogue

·         Names of characters are displayed in all capital letters the first time they are used in a description, and these names always use all capital letters in a dialogue heading.

·         Example:

CATHY sits at the end of the first row of plastic chairs. Her head is bent over, and she stares intently at the floor.

·         The names of characters who have no dialogue are not capitalized when mentioned in scene descriptions.

·         Example:

A man moans softly as he presses a bloody gauze pad against his forehead. A woman cradles a listless infant in her arms.

·         Sounds the audience will hear are capitalized (eg, ROAR or WHISTLE).

·         Dialogue is centered on the page under the character's name, which is always in all capital letters when used as a dialogue heading.

·         Example:

                                                                 DOCTOR
                                            I'm sorry…

·         If you describe the way a character looks or speaks before the dialogue begins or as it begins, this is typed below the character's name in parentheses.

·         Example:

                                                                 DOCTOR
                                                        (apologetically)
                                            We did everything possible.
Here is an example of a complete scene in the screenplay format:

INT. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT

A crowded hospital emergency waiting room. Clean but cheerless. 

Sick and injured people sit in plastic chairs lined up in rows. A TV    mounted near the ceiling BLARES a sitcom. No one is watching.

A man moans softly as he presses a bloody gauze pad against his   forehead. A woman cradles a listless infant in her arms.

CATHY sits at the end of the first row of plastic chairs. Her head is bent over, and she stares intently at the floor.

She raises her head slowly, brushes her long, silky hair away from her face.

We see fear in her eyes as they focus on a clock that hangs above the front desk. She twists a tissue between her fingers and is unaware that bits of it are falling on the floor.

The door to the emergency treatment room opens, and a middle-aged    DOCTOR dressed in hospital green walks through the door toward Cathy, who bolts out of the chair and hurries toward him.

                                                                   DOCTOR
                                                        (apologetically)
                                            We did everything possible.
                                                                   CATHY
                                                         (gasps)
                                            What are you saying?
                                                                   DOCTOR
                                            I'm sorry…
                                                                   CATHY
                                                         (screaming)
                                            No!

All eyes in the waiting room are riveted on Cathy and the Doctor. Cathy lunges at the Doctor, beating her fists against his chest.

                                                                   CATHY  (CONT'D)
                                                         (shouting)
                                            You killed him!
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For more screenplay basics click here.



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Here's an example scene from a film I love.

excerpt from Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly

INT. HEALTH CLASS - AFTERNOON (THURSDAY, 1 P.M.)

Ms. Farmer stands next to the television where Jim Cunningham narrates the Lifeline tutorial.

                     JIM CUNNINGHAM

            And so, let us begin Lifeline Exercise

            No. 1.

"PLEASE PRESS STOP NOW" appears on the screen.

Ms. Farmer stops the tape and moves to the blackboard. On it, she has drawn a horizontal line book-ended by the words "Love" and "Fear".

                     MS. FARMER

            As you can see, the Lifeline is controlled

            by two polar extremes: "Fear" and "Love".

            Fear is in the negative energy spectrum.

            Love is in the positive energy spectrum.

                     SEAN

                   (to Donnie)

            No duh.

                     MS. FARMER

            Excuse me?

                   (defensive)

            "No duh" is a product of fear.

She stares them down for a moment... shaking her head.

                     MS. FARMER (cont'd)

                   (handing out cards)

            Now, on each card is a CHARACTER DILEMMA

            which applies to the Lifeline. Please read

            each character dilemma aloud... and place

            an X on the Lifeline in the appropriate

            place.

The students read their cards.

                     KITTY FARMER (cont'd)

            We'll start in the front.

Cherita Chen stands up and walks over to the blackboard. Ms. Farmer pulls up large white cards that have black-and-white animated cartoons on them.

                     CHERITA

            Juanita has an important maths test

            today. She has known about the test for

            several weeks, but has not studied. In

            order to keep from failing her class,

            Juanita decides that she will cheat on

            the maths test.

Cherita places an X near the "Fear" end of the lifeline.

                     MS. FARMER

            Good. Next.

Donnie watches as several more students interpret their

respective human dilemmas.

Finally... it is his turn.

                     DONNIE

            Ling Ling finds a wallet on the ground

            filled with money. She takes the wallet

            to the address on the driver's license

            but keeps the money inside the wallet.

Donnie looks at the blackboard.

                     DONNIE (cont'd)

            I'm sorry, Ms. Farmer, I just don't

            get this.

                     MS. FARMER

                   (impatient)

            Just place an X in the appropriate place

            on the Lifeline.

                     DONNIE

            I just don't get this. Everything can't be

            lumped into two categories. That's too

            simple.

                     MS. FARMER

            The Lifeline is divided that way.

                     DONNIE

            Well, life isn't that simple. So what if

            Ling Ling kept the cash and returned the

            wallet? That has nothing to do with either

            fear or love.

                     MS. FARMER

                   (impatient)

            Fear and love are the deepest of human

            emotions.

                     DONNIE

            Well, yeah... OK, but you're not listening

            to me. There are other things that need

            to be taken into account here. Like the

            whole spectrum of human emotion. You're

            just lumping everything into these two

            categories... and, like, denying

            everything else.

Ms. Farmer stares at Donnie vehemently. She can't believe what she's hearing.

                     DONNIE (cont'd)

            People aren't that simple.

                     MS. FARMER

                  (not knowing how to argue

                  with him)

            If you don't complete the assignment,

            you'll get a zero for the day.

Donnie thinks for a moment... and then raises his hand.

Creative Nonfiction

The assignment (except for the due date which is 11/6 for The Moth and 11/7 for This American Life)

Advice about This American Life-style creative nonfiction

Advice about The Moth-style creative nonfiction

Poetry Forms: One Traditional, One Innovative

Traditional Forms of Poetry

Write 39 or more lines of traditional formal poetry in your notebook or a Google Doc titled “Poetry in Traditional Forms”.

Sestina

Length: 39 lines (six six-line stanzas with a final stanza of three lines)

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: varied

Other: Give a number to the word that comes at the end of each line in the first stanza: 1 then 2 then 3 then 4 then 5 then 6. Then the words ending the second stanza's lines appear in the order 615243. (In other words the line that ended the sixth line in the first stanza now ends the first line in the second stanza, etc.) Then follow this line ending patter: 364125, then 532614, then 451362, and finally 246531. These six words then appear in the final tercet as well, with the tercet's first line usually containing 1 and 2, its second 3 and 4, and its third 5 and 6.

Italian Sonnet (in English)

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme: ABBAABBA CDECDE

Meter (rhythm): iambic pentameter

Other: volta (shift) at line nine

English Sonnet

Length: 14 lines

Rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Rhythm: iambic pentameter

Other: volta at line nine, couplet provides closure or resolution or twist.

Ballad

Length: varies

Rhyme scheme: usually ABCB

Rhythm: four-beat line followed by three-beat line, etc. (Beat=stressed syllable)

Other: ballads tell a story

Villanelle

Length: nineteen lines

Rhyme scheme: ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA

Rhythm: usually tetrameter or pentameter

Other: The first and third line in the first stanza are repeated in several places. The first line is repeated at the end of the second and forth stanzas and in the third line of the last stanza. The third line is repeated at the end of the third and fifth stanzas and in the very last line of the poem. Here’s the scheme: A1bA2  abA1  abA2  abA1 abA2 abA1A2.

Limerick

Length: five lines

Rhyme scheme: AABBA

Rhythm:

anapestic (unstressed, unstressed, stressed syllables: da, da, DUM)

or amphibrachic (unstressed, stressed, unstressed syllables trimeter: da, DUM, da)

with three stressed syllables in lines 1, 2, and 5; and

two stressed syllables in lines 3 and 4.

Other: Limerick’s are usually playful, often absurd.

Haiku

Length: three lines

Rhyme scheme: none

Rhythm: five syllable, seven syllables, five syllables

Other: traditional haiku refer to the seasons directly or indirectly (kigo), and include a “cutting word,” a break in the text (kireji).

Tanka is a variation with the following syllable pattern: 5-7-5-7-7.

Renga is linked “tanka” 5-7-5, 7-7; 5-7-5, 7-7; etc.; finishing with an additional 7-7.

***

In a new Google Doc--"A Form of My Own"--do the following:

Create your own form (with at least three constraints) and write a poem (of fourteen or more lines) using that form. Write down the constrains so I know what they are.

Here are some other poetic forms and ideas about poetic form that might help you create your own form.

Acrostic variations: end-acrostic, double acrostic, mesostic

Anaphora (repetition of line or sentence beginnings), epistrophe (repetition of line or sentence endings):

Jack Kerouac’s book of blues: "In my system, the form of blues choruses is limited by the small page of the breastpocket notebook in which they are written, like the form of a set number of bars in a jazz blues chorus, and so sometimes the word-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus into another, or not, just like the phrase-meaning can carry harmonically from one chorus to the other, or not, in jazz, so that, in these blues, as in jazz, the form is determined by Time, and by the musicians spontaneous phrasing & harmonizing with the beat of the time as it waves & waves on by in measured choruses. It’s all gotta be non stop ad libbing within each chorus, or the gig is shot."

Charles Olson’s projective verse & composition by field: think of each line as a unit of breath; treat the page like a musical score and/or artist’s canvas. (Olson lived in Gloucester at 28 Fort Square.)

e.e. cummings's typographic experiments like this one which is about loneliness and embodies loneliness

Apollinaire's calligramme's: inventive word pictures 

Oulipo Experiments:

N+7: where each substantive or noun in a given text, such as a poem, is systematically replaced by the noun to be found seven places away in a chosen dictionary.

George Perec’s La Disparition (A Void in English): no words in the work include the letter “e”