How to write and format screenplays like a pro! Script writing tips and tricks

hi everyone we're still in lockdown so we're in my home and it seems like a really good chance to talk to you about how to write a screenplay now the screenplay is so incredibly important because it's basically the first step that you can take in the filmmaking process it precedes storyboarding casting costume design you can't really do any of these things until you have the screenplay so in this video I'm going to show you how to actually format one and maybe give you a few tips on how to actually write one yourself so here's a quick bit of trivia for you if you've ever wondered why screenplays always look the same in terms of their formatting is because of the development of the Hollywood system in the 30s and the 40s big studios of the time like paramount and MGM we're streamlining and standardizing many of the filmmaking processes including screenplays so that it became standardized as talent was shared between various studios so now we have the screenplay that we will recognize and that we need to follow the format of if we want our work to look professional now the first thing you need to do is pick a piece of software to write with and there's a whole ton of pieces of software or even websites out there to help you with this in the past I've used studio binder which offers a free account but limits you to one project on a go at a time and write a duet which I'm going to be using today which also offers a premium version but provides you with more than enough functionality to start writing with the free version then again you could just use good old Microsoft Word or Google Docs which is obviously free but it require a bit more formatting on your part so the way we're going to do this is exactly the same as what we did in my storyboarding video which is to do the whole process in Reverse we're going to take a clip and try and turn it into a screenplay here's the clip that I've selected [Laughter] what's so funny [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] you want to tell it to me okay so we've got a clip or our vision if we were writing an original screenplay and the very very first thing you've got to do if you want to format this properly is set the font to the correct size and style now what you need to do if you're using Word or Google Docs is to set it to courier size 12 if you're using something like writer duet then that'll be taken care of for you but the reason this is important is one like I say it's an established convention it's how it should look but to the rule of thumb with the screenplay is that every page will equate to one minute of actual on screen time so you know give or take a 120 page script will be something like a two hour movie okay so let's get started the very first thing you're gonna put on your screenplay is a slug line a slug line tells you that a new scene has started and it basically establishes in a nutshell what the scene is where it's taking place so I'm going to go ahead and put in my stud line now this is all written in capital letters and it starts off always by saying whether its exterior or interior now mine is actually interior so we know that this takes place inside now we can actually say where it is and in our case this is an interview room and the last thing we have to put in is the time of day whether it's day night afternoon morning and from what I can see from the windows this one appears to be day so there we go that is our slug line it tells us there's a new scene and where it takes place now when we think of screenplay is probably the thing that we think of most frequently is dialogue but actually the majority of the screenplay is more likely going to be action this is where you describe what literally happens in the scene so let's take a look back at our clip and see what happens [Laughter] now action is always written in the present tense and in it we're going to describe what happens who does specific actions and there's a certain way that we're going to write it now I'm going to introduce the scene slightly first we are in a cold soulless interview room of a hospital barred windows and a two-way mirror are the only decoration so obviously the slugline didn't really provide us with a broad description of what the actual room looks like this is our chance to do that now I'm about to introduce some character actions now and the first time you mentioned a character in a scene you write their names in capitals just so really draws your attention to them so I'm going to write Joker is laughing uncontrollably he is smoking a cigarette but his hysteria is so uncontrollable that he ignores it he sounds in pain sat opposite is hospital worker she patiently waits for him to stop laughing and clearly doesn't share the joke okay so the two things to take from this action is when we first introduce characters we write them in capitals and we write everything in the present tense let's go on and see what happens next in the clip what's so funny okay we're gonna write our first piece of dialogue now and again there's a certain convention how we do this it's always centralized on the page and again whoever's speaking the line their names written capitals so our first line comes from hospital worker and the word that they say is slightly indented towards the margin and she says what's so funny I could go back to action now if it was a case of there's another action between lines but actually we go straight into the Joker's next line so gonna go into another character line this time it's Joker who replies and what I'm going to do this time which is slightly different is I'm going to be specific about how he says the line and I'm gonna put these in brackets so I've got Joker in terms of who actually says it and I'm gonna say very quietly under breath and then we can just carry on with the normal line and he says I was just thinking I was just thinking of a joke that's one option in terms of your screenplay writing is to actually give direction to the actors now they're obviously going to interpret their lines in their own way but there might be certain cues that you want to give them in terms of how a line is delivered so the next thing that happens in the clip is this [Music] [Laughter] now this should give us an opportunity to look at several new features of the screenplay first off we're cutting to a new scene but also the sound from the previous scene carries on so how do we actually show that we're going to show a transition now and this is always aligned on the right hand side of the page 99% of the time it's going to be cut to you cut between scenes sometimes it might be a dissolve it might be a dip to black broadly speaking you only really put this down between scenes the edits within a scene that's the job of the editor but in our case we are going to write cut too and since this is technically a new scene we're gonna go back to a slug line so unlike last time this time we are gonna go exterior alleyway night so we've got another slug line we've clearly changed to new into a new scene and there's no dialogue in this particular scene it's just action now that's absolutely fine sometimes there are scenes without any dialogue famously it was done brilliantly for the first 15 minutes of there will be blood in which case you just need to rely more on your description of the scene now to describe this scene I'm going to actually refer to a camera movement so I'm gonna say we track back which I've written in capital letters the show it's a very specific action you very very rarely refer to specific shot choices in the screenplay again that's the the job of the storyboard artist the director the cinematographer it's not really in the remit unless absolutely necessary in the screenplay so I'm going to say we track back from a grim scene in a dirty cluttered alleyway where a young Bruce Wayne stands over the recently murdered bodies of his parents now the joke is laughter actually does carry on throughout this clip so we are going to refer to it and again there's another way of showing this so we're gonna write down Joker as he's the person who's speaking and then on brackets in the next line we are going to say voiceover laughter continues now I've obviously put that in square brackets just to separate it from actually saying the words laughter continues his laughter is continuing and we can hear it from the previous scene now that's actually all there is to this clip we cut away and we see that shot while he carries on laughing and very often in film you do have scenes where there's quite a lot of cross-cutting between scenes and can you imagine it would get absolutely tiresome to continually having to write that slug line again and again and again once you've done it once it's a lot used to cut back so what we gonna do now is gonna write another transition which again goes on the right-hand side of the page and this time rather write and cut to we're going to write back to so this establishes we are going back to the previous scene before the one we just had so we've got a slug line we are going to say interior interview room and it's still day and the next thing to happen in the clip is you want to tell it to me [Music] so we've got more action and we're gonna write down Joker's laughter reaches new heights in stark contrast to the grim scene we just saw the hospital worker patiently waits for him to calm down then we cut to another one of her lines where she says do you want to share it now again we are immediately going to answer with the Joker's line I'm actually gonna go back to some action now this question seems to sober him and his expression becomes more vacant like she has just killed the whole joke so there we are we've kind of finished the whole scene there and we've actually covered all of the different things that you need to format in a certain way now that's pretty much the hardest thing there is to it once you get your head around the formatting it's simply a case of writing down your ideas so let's just recap quickly what we've done a scene starts with a slug line where you identify whether it's interior or exterior where it is and the time of day and it's always written in capital letters next up you might have some action which is written in present tense and certain actions and characters are written in capital letters next up if you have any dialogue that's written in the center of the page the character's name is written in bold and if you want to add any direction on how they say their lines that can be added in brackets you might want to transition to different scenes in which case that's written on the right-hand margin and it's your usual kind of media terminology cut to fade to dip to black that sort of thing now something you might have noticed that we've not really done is we haven't put in any mention of the music and this is intentional you very very rarely find this on a screenplay and that's just because that is the job of the composure if it's a soundtrack or a score that's something the director will have in mind and work on with the composer so again it's not really in the remit of of the screenplay except in certain circumstances where it's it's luck mode like where we have that line that's life at the end so that's pretty much everything guys I hope you found that useful where we are in lockdown the best thing I can advise you doing is to just have a go start writing a screenplay it's really fun check out write to G wet it's a free service and it will really really help you in your filmmaking career as always thanks very much for watching if you haven't already make sure you like and subscribe and if you're looking for where to go next I'd recommend maybe check out my video on how to storyboard if you've got a completed screenplay it's a logical next step in the filmmaking process see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Media Insider

Views: 359,770

Keywords: media studies, film studies, revision, analysis, gcse, a-level, culture studies, media, script, screenplay

Id: LRuITXncB5E

Length: 14min 24sec (864 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 25 2020