SCRIPTWRITING: THE MECHANICS
Contents:
Then we discover that she will fight an uncaring bureaucracy that wants to shut down a youth center to put in a shopping center.
Or we may learn that her marriage might break up because she has given birth to a learning-disabled child. The trick to making this opening work is not to let it get boring. Quickly give us a reason to root for the main character. Perhaps show them as an underdog in some way or introduce some conflict in their life.
It can be related to the main story or not, but quickly give the reader a reason to care. These are a few of the screenwriting techniques to get your movie off to a great start.
Consider using them when you begin your next screenplay or perhaps do a rewrite on an existing one to give it a better beginning. The Critical Elements of the First Act. The great writer and director Billy Wilder offers this piece of advice on screenwriting and movie making: This is what your first act, indeed, your first few pages must accomplish. The first act has several functions.
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It establishes who your main characters are, the setting, the time period, the theme, mood and the genre. It is in this act that we meet the protagonist and the antagonist. In some movies we may not meet the antagonist directly, but we are at least introduced to them, with hints at an ultimate revelation, such as is often the case in mysteries. Although we may not see them yet, we are made well aware of their presence and the negative, sometimes devastating impact they will have on other characters in the story.
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The first act establishes the premise of the story: A huge shark menaces a beach community at the opening of the summer tourist season: A young fighter pilot must rescue a kidnapped princess and destroy an evil empire: The first act must really grab the Hollywood Reader by the throat within 10 pages or they will stop reading and move on to the next script in their pile. The first act of a screenplay is usually longer than 10 pages, but that is all the time and space you have to convince someone to keep reading. The majority of screenwriting teachers believe that the first act should be about one-fourth of the screenplay.
But many first acts are much shorter. All first acts end with the inciting incident, which is an event that happens that either encourages or forces the protagonist to take his or her path in a new direction. The first act, coupled with the inciting incident, establishes the central question of the story: Use Archetypes For Compelling Stories.
Scriptwriting For Beginners: Learning The Basics Of Screenwriting
In your screenwriting efforts, be sure to make use of Archetypes. They are not to be confused with stereotypes , which are one-dimensional characters we've seen in too many movies. Archetypes represent elements of our personalities on a deep level -- the mother, father, artist, teacher, king, etc. They've appeared in countless stories for thousands of years. They reach us on a subconscious level, which is perhaps why they have endured and still have the power to touch our emotions.
About Danek S. Kaus
The archetype can be the skeleton upon which you build a fully-fleshed three dimensional character. Some of the common archetypes in movies and literature are: Avoid the temptation to turn an archetype into a stereotype by giving them only one, very obvious, characteristic. For example, the mentor is often portrayed as a wiser, older person, such as Gandolf, in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. But a mentor archetype can also be an older sibling who teaches a brother or sister how to tie their shoes, a boss on the job, a superior officer in the police department or military, a young boy on a tropical island who teaches the newcomer where to find the best fruit trees in the jungle or the customs of his people, and so on.
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Blame my inherent bias for only liking movies starring Jennifer Lopez, but I think most new movies are terrible. If you too are a person with impeccable taste who likes going to the movies, you probably find yourself plagued by this problem.
But most good movies that are interesting to watch usually have a strong sense of dramatic action and establish that there is something at stake for their characters. How To Begin A Screenplay. The reason is that one page of a screenplay is considered to translate into one minute of screen time. For example, if we are watching a track meet and John crosses the finish line first, it is unnecessary and boring to have a character say "John won the race. About Rookie Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. The first act establishes the premise of the story: The protagonist catches the hot alien making out with her best friend AND it turns out his evil overlords have come looking for him.
I could write a better movie than that! Unlike with an essay or a novel, a screenplay or script focuses solely on dialogue and actions. For me, the most intimidating aspect of learning to screenwrite was the format. Like, what do all these weird abbreviations—INT. They mean interior, exterior, and offscreen! Can I write a script in Microsoft Word?!
Technically, you can work on a script wherever you want and you should. You can write a note on your phone or in gel pen in the back of a Lisa Frank notebook! Jot down ideas and bits of dialogue whenever you feel like it. But you should probably download some sort of screenwriting software when it comes time to seriously drafting the script itself. The Mechanics , Meredith has committed his hard-earned writing wisdom to E-paper for all eternity. It's a relatively short book, coming in at just over pages, at a relatively high price for an 'e-book only' release.
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But as there's no filler and quite a few topics are examined which show up only rarely in most other screenwriting one-stop manuals, you don't have to worry about getting a bad deal. On the contrary, for new writers especially the information provided in here will allow you to make giant steps forward in your understanding of the art and craft of good and preferably great screenwriting. So, what does the book cover? Well, starting out with the age-old question 'what should I write about', it goes on to define the four story elements world, characters, plot and tone of the story.
This is followed by an extensive section on character, where special attention is paid to image - self-image, the image presented to others, and the image the character projects unconciously. The chapter about inner contradictions in your characters is also pure gold, as is the material about motive and motivation. Essential concepts which are all too often ignored or handled badly, sometimes even by professional writers. Structure is examined at length.
SCRIPTWRITING: THE MECHANICS - Kindle edition by Guy Meredith. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features. The impulse to be free as a screenwriter is one of the most self-destructive notions you can have. Screenwriting is a specialized trade that.