I don’t think I have the format correct on this last part, and am I not stepping on the director’s toes here? How about camera angles? I guess the screenwriter can put things in to describe a Camera angle, or shot–Close Up of John’s face. That, I imagine is for the set designer to decide. Forget about giving a lengthy description of the room, or setting. Or, Natalie moves in close, looking deeply into John’s eyes, a concerned look on her face (and even this might be considered too much description). Only a brief description can be presented: John walks across the room and picks up the broken vase. The screenwriter might, for instance, write the word (wryly) beneath a bit of dialogue, to give a clue to the actor as to how the writer means the dialogue to be spoken.
Oh sure, a screenwriter can add a word or two, to shade things. Dialogue and Action, that’s it! It is the actor’s job to, by way of dialogue and action, express the character’s inner world. Dialogue is the only thing that can be presented, along with action.
Let me rephrase that: A character’s thoughts cannot be presented in a screenplay. Thoughts cannot be described in a screenplay. There is no sliding in and out of a character’s mind. Therein lies the problem I have with screenwriting. I can slip into story mode at the drop of a hat, sliding in and out of a character’s mind and into his or her world, etc. In any case, now, writing a story is as easy as breathing. It could also be that I’ve simply forgotten all the hard work I put in coming up with the first few stories I ever wrote. Of course, it could just be from years of reading stories, loving stories, and intuitively getting a feel for the structure that makes up a story. I imagine that I intuitively bring that to the story-writing process, that the rigid structure lurks below the surface, somewhere in my subconscious. There is a very logical and regimented structure to computer languages. My main theory is that it has something to do with my having spent years learning and dabbling in coding simple computer programs. Somewhere, the structure is there and the story forms and drapes itself like an imaginary cloth over that structure. Somehow it all works out, forms into a story. I step into the imagination and let it flow. If you’ve read many of my posts (and if you haven’t, and are brand new to reading my posts or work, Welcome!), then you know I am very much a “seat of the pants” writer.
Big break final draft movie#
I just let it all unfold before my eyes (in my mind’s eye-very much like a movie screen).įor me it is the restrictions of the screenplay format. I actually think in scenes when it comes to the longer stories. The characters are very real to me as the story plays out. I could even practice by adapting my own stories into screenplays (though technically I’m not sure whether this would be considered an adapted or original screenplay, since both story and screenplay originate with me).Īfter all, I have to admit, I’m a visually oriented person as I write, so this should all be easy for me. I also have the novels and short stories that the screenplays were adapted from, for those that were adaptations. I have the movies that were made from the screenplays. I have quite a few screenplays to use as examples. It’s all just a matter of sitting down and starting. Will pondering this cause me to change my ways? Probably not, but we’ll see. By procrastinating you are taking it for granted that you will be walking this earth tomorrow.Īs we all know, nothing of the sort is certain. By procrastinating you have the audacity to presume that you have more time, future time. Procrastination is the ultimate form of conceit. She paraphrased, of course, which is all I can do now.
I want to say it was a Good Morning America host who said she saw it in a tweet. Just this week I heard someone mention something interesting about procrastination. I have five or six partial screenplays, ones I’ve started. Each year I tell myself that I’ll buckle down and write one and have it ready for the next year’s entry. I kick myself for not having a screenplay ready to submit.
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