The Importance of the Script

The script is probably one of the most important aspects of the movie, if not the most important aspect of the movie that you are trying to make. Now I've been on crews where the script was either small or non existant, and somehow we made the movie, but it wasn't what it could have been.

There were long pauses between scenes that should have been filled with setting up or taring down for the next scene. Actors didn't know lines and what lines they made up on the spot had to be written down so that for additional takes they would be able to be consistant with those lines for editing. There was simply just general chaos around the set and discontentment.

Now the purpose of the script is not to just get the lines of what the actors say or the actions that those actors are supposed to do, but it also serves as time keeper, a scene breakdown, and a prop needing device. To get all of these things out of your script, there is a format that you are supposed to write a script in, and this is not only for your good, but also your cast and crew.

Now, I know the objection, what's the big deal about following a format, and I guess if you want to just shoot movies in your backyard with your friends than it's not a big deal, but if you want to make everything about your production look better you need to follow basic script writing formats and practices. Plus even if you don't want to get any better than your basic backyard films, this will still help you out.

First and formost you need to head over to www.Celtx.com and download their scriptwriting program. It's a free download and will not only help you with writing, but also most of preproduction including scheduling, script breakdown, and storyboarding. To be honest there are other script writing programs that some people might recommend to you, but they can cost an arm and a leg and some of them only do the script writing itself.

After you download the program and open it up, the formatting is fairly simple to deal with. There is a drop down menu, here is what all of the menu items mean.

SCENE HEADING: This is the scene, starts with a either writing INT./EXT. (interior or exterior), then you write where the location is. JIMMY'S HOUSE, THE HOSPITAL, A CAR. then you follow it up with what time of day it is.
ACTION: This is what's happening in the scene, and is pretty straight forward what is happening to your characters, what is the scene like.
CHARACTER: This is a title spot to say which character is going to be saying a line. That Character's name should always be capitalized.
DIALOGUE: These are the words that the character is saying.
PARENTHETICAL: This is when a short action while the character is talking.
TRANSITION: This is for the technical aspect of how you are going to transition from one scene to the next, that could be dissolve, wipe, attack of killer monkeys, whatever you want.
To start out with lets talk about the script as a time keeper,
SHOT: This would be a particular shot, that you need
TEXT: I'm not going to explain what text is, because I think you are pretty smart people.

So, now you can get to writing following these basic principals. I'll follow this post up with another one explaining why following all of these rules are so important, but for now, just get out there and get going.

Also if you like what I'm writing about click the follow button, leave a comment, let me know how I can do things better, because that's my goal.