Planning for the script

As a group we worked on how to produce our script perfectly by including all key elements of script writing. It is really important that our script is concise as we have to produce a 5 minute film. In our group, we talked about how actions speak better than words, and we decided that we should keep our dialogue short and let actions speak rather than the character talking about how they feel. We are going to show the characters emotions through actions and this is really effective as the audience will be anxious to find out how a particular character is feeling, so this will mean they will have to focus and look at the actions of the character-creating flair and moving the story forward. When we write a narrative description, we have to make sure that the writing is visual. Our film is going to be 5 minutes long, so, this means that our script will need to 5 pages. If the actions in a particular scene that we include in our film last for a minute, then we will need to produce a page of script for that scene.

All the key elements of script writing include, the slug line-otherwise known as the heading which helps by giving a short brief of the details of the setting of the scene. This is composed into three parts, including exterior and interior, location and time of day.

An example will be – INTERIOR, DON’S LIVING ROOM- DAY

Special scene heading is a heading used when the script alternates between different time periods. – January 1966 or Spring 194.

We found out that when a character is speaking, you have to put the characters name in capital letters etc. An example will be:

- Character speaking: Johnny

- Johnny (Silently)

- Dialogue: …..

We came across many editing styles such as Montage which means, when there are short clips of the film which indicate a series of short related scenes. Continuous editing is when you use a sequence of scenes that have a clear connection; are linked to one another. An intercut is when scenes take place in more than one location-this is often used with telephone calls, one person may be talking from London; whilst the other person may be talking from New York. A split screen is also used to show the intercut between two scenes.