Screenwriting - Learning and Advice
A friend asked me where I learned screenwriting from, and that he was interested in doing so himself, and my response got a bit carried away, so I will share it with the world.
I say that I effectively minored in screenwriting at college. I took 4-5 classes total, one of which was a workshop where I wrote a (bad) 120 page screenplay. We didn’t really have a screenwriting major or minor but I took enough classes in it to claim I did.
The best thing to do first is to use a word processing program that does the formatting for you. I posted about it previously but make an account on this site and fool around with it for a bit:
This is actually a good start for learning about proper formatting:
http://www.scriptologist.com/Magazine/Formatting/formatting.html
Keeping in mind that the only hard-and-fast ‘rules’ are what types of things go where, (i.e. actions, headings, character names, dialog, parentheticals). Once you get that down, you learn the all the tips for writing good screenplays.
Off the top of my head, there’s some basic rules to keep in mind. One of the most important ones drilled in my head is that when writing a screenplay, you need to remember what you AREN’T doing. You’re not directing actors, you’re not planning shots, you’re not pacing dramatic moments. A good way to learn this basically is reading actual scripts for ‘real’ plays, and then comparing them to screenplays written about the actual plays. (Top of my head, Glengarry and Glen Ross, in fact any of Mamets plays-turned-movies.)
It may be obvious but reminding yourself you’re writing a play that will end up on screen is sometimes important. Save the acting to the actors, the directing to the directors, and the cinematography for the cinematographer.
This manifests in many different ways, one of which being things like giving a character an accent. That is not your job, that is the actors job. Type the words in English and let them come up with the accents and pidgin words. The rare exception to this is if you have someone with a thick accent being misinterpreted, but then you usually explain that in the actions surrounding the incident. It’s sometimes acceptable to make a Note: within the script but it should be used sparingly.
And of course the last one is, if you’re writing a screenplay for your eyes only, for one of your own projects, you can break or bend any of these rules.
I’m more then happy to show you the basics and/or critique any work do, either formatting critique or content critique.