The Importance of the Script Part 2 AKA Download Celtx Now

So now that you've written your script and you're ready to move on to the next steps of preproduction, figuring out how long your movie is going to be and breaking down the script.

So first, figuring out how long your movie is going to be; this part is easy. You simply take your script and see how many pages the script is and that is how many minutes your script should be. This is important, because if you have a ten page script you should be looking to make sure you have enough footage to cover those ten pages. This means that when you get into shooting and editing you should be looking to make your film ten minutes.

I've been on shoots where the scripts are around 10-12 pages and when you get done with shooting and editing the film ends up being about 20-30 minutes. Just think about that. When the person wrote the script there were envisioning the film to be about 10-12 minutes, the actors were envisioning the film to be about 10-12 minutes, the DP was envisioning 10-12 minutes, everyone was expecting the film to be 10-12 minutes until it got into editing, when either the editor or the director couldn't let their vision of the film die and just had all of the shots in the film.

So, If you write a ten page script make it a ten minute movie.

Next, what you are going to need to do is breakdown your script. If you used Celtx to write your script then breaking down your script is really easy, because there is a breakdown tab on the right hand side that allows you to easily add actors, characters, props, locations, etc. into their different respected groups, which then can be generated into a report to easily know who is required for each scene.

After breaking down your script, I'd recommend using the storyboard feature and calendar feature in Celtx to help schedule your film for shooting.

If you can't tell, I'm a huge fan of Celtx as a program, it's amazing considering it is free to download to your computer and a small fee to download it to your iphone, ipod touch, and ipad. You can download the program at www.celtx.com.

Also, below I have included a couple books that can help you understand all of the complexity of what celtx has to offer.

Mastering Celtx by Terry Borst
Celtx: Open Source Screenwriting by Ralph Roberts

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.

DSLRs Ups and Downs

DSLRs have become key to the film makers tool kit. They are cheap for what they do in comparison to other film cameras. You can get a decent DSLR for under a 1000 dollars. Now saying this though they do have clear ups and downs for what they do.

Ups
- Cost (Again you can get a decent DSLR for under a grand)
- Ability to take pictures (always a plus when on set)
- 24p and many have 60p options (high speed shooting always has a unique look to it and can be fun if done right)
- Interchangeable lenses (this is a great feature to be able to change lenses for whatever you need, fun fact you can even make that telescope a lens if you have the right adapter)

So with all of these great options what could be the negatives.

Downs
- Monitoring audio (Most DSLRs don't offer live audio levels as you record, which means two things you will not know how strong the audio levels are during recording and generally mean that you have to record separately. This is because a DSLR is just that a DSLR, it was created to be a photo camera and the video part was put in after the fact.)
- Rolling Shutter (because DSLRs record top to bottom in every frame instead of exposing a frame all at once like you would see in a traditional film camera, you have to deal with rolling shutter issues which happens when you pan across something to quickly.)
- Recording Times (Many DSLRs have restrictions on time that they can record per clip. An example is that the Canon line has a 12 minute limit as to the length of each clip.)

At the end of the day though each person has to make the choice if the DSLRs are worth it.

I personally think that they are, though I will admit that they have put me in sticky situations at times and to show this I've linked a clip from today that happened when my mic battery ran out of juice and because I wasn't able to see the levels I didn't realize that I missed it. Good thing the project I'm working on will be just fine.

The video is of the first place winner of the Monster Dash 5k coming across the finish line.

Also for those that are wondering, I use the Canon 7D, which you can check out here.