SCRIPT WRITING: THE BASICS

My latest project in my film class was to make a 2 minute film. This is my first time working in a group of more than 2 people, seven to be exact, and I have to admit so far it’s been really fun. All of my group members are really active and chatty. We’re still in the pre-production stages until next week when we start to film, that’s when the real magic happens, or the shouting and screaming whichever comes first. But before we could do anything we had to pitch ideas for the film and come up with a script.

Script writing is the first thing that needs to be done when making a film. Making a script has always been easy for me because most of my film projects are less than one or two minutes or they don’t require dialogue (silent films), but if you’re working in a large group and with a project that is longer than the usual 1 to 2 minutes this might not be the case and can prove to be a longer and difficult task but not impossible!

What is a script? A script is a document that contains and highlights all the dialogue among the characters (linguistic) the characters actions (visual), behaviours and  character synopsis (emotions- still visual) the scenes location, the narrative description of what’s happening in the current scene (the action) and directions or specific instructions for actor/character

N/B: When writing a script you should respect the roles of your team members, you are in charge of the script, nothing else so DO NOT put camera directions or instructions on how to edit each scene. First of all its rude you are basically disregarding the ability of your director/editor unless you have discussed I strongly suggest not to do this.

What you will need:

If this is more of a professional film project pen and paper won’t cut it! You’ll need script writing software. I have only used one script writing software called Trelby  but there are plenty of others out there that other film students in my school recommend e.g. celtx and final draft

If you don’t have a script writing software or don’t want to download its totally cool bruh, just open Microsoft word and change a couple of settings.

1-      change the font to courier size 12 

2-     Go to page layout and click on margins, then go to custom margins 

-          Change the margin for ‘top’ to 1 and then change the left margin line to 1.5 * do this only if you are planning to bind the screenplay/script

Change the orientation to landscape

  Characters names should be in block letters and at an indent of 2 on the left. Other headings or descriptions I usually write without an indent but it is fully up to you on whether you want to put them or not.Also page numbers should be located at the top right corner
Everything should be set once you’ve adjusted the settings. Now it’s time to write the flesh of your script.
Writing a script is not like writing a story, it is more of visualization. Write what people can see, remember film is visual representation of your creative thoughts so it is not exactly like creative writing.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you developed the characters therefore you know how the characters but not everybody else knows, so bring out their personalities in your script. If you have a comedic character put more jokes in their dialogue, make them do silly things! No matter what genre your film falls under it should at least have the following:

A.     Exposition – introduction to the main characters and main conflict

B.      Rising action – these are the minor problems that contribute to the main conflict

C.     Climax – this is when the major conflict is brought up

D.     Falling action – this is the on-going arrival to that happy ending

E.      Denouement – this is the ending of the film and the main conflict should have been dealt with by now. 
Conflict and obstacles are the backbone of a movie without them there is no movie. This was just slightly grazing the surface of making a script for a long film. Are there any other tips you would like to offer? Post it in the comments below and if you have any personal queries contact me through my email thanks.

Toodle loo!

Reference for script margin size click here

Disclaimer: This post has been tagged 'recycled" and is from my previous blog from 2014 and no longer emulates the current vision of Siku Mwema however I do hope that you enjoy reading this and note the progression I have made since then.