What a Script should look like

Writing a script is the most important part of a movie, if you don’t believe me think of the last great movie you saw. I bet it had a great story, and even though it might have had great effects and actors it is the story that really made it great.

If you read that first paragraph and don’t believe me then think of Star Wars or Indiana Jones. The original three of each of these films were great, they had good stories. Now think of the more recent Star Wars and Indiana Jones, they had great budgets and great actors, but they lacked the one thing that they needed a great story.

Now, don’t get me wrong they made it big at the box office, but who cares, they defiled their predecessors because they took these great movies and destroyed them. The point of a good movie is a good story.

The thing is though, it doesn’t really matter how great your story is if you can not put it into the right format, because as good as your story might be there are some rules that you should follow so that almost everyone in your production is on the right page.

Now I’ve talked about script writing programs in the past (click here and here for past posts), and I’m not going to force you download anything you do not want to, but I just thought you might like to know what a script should like with all of the elements in it.

Deadlines are a necessary evil

I am all for hard deadlines, on almost everything especially when it comes to film. And for those of you reading this and just getting into the film industry you should try to get on a hard deadline system too.

The reason I say that I am for hard deadlines is that it keeps me in check, when it comes to getting projects done on time, and it doesn’t matter whether it is for myself or for client. The project gets done. These deadlines force me to prioritize my time in such a way that I make sure that the earliest hard deadline item gets done first, and then the next earliest and so on.

Hard deadlines also often times keep me from screwing around on the Internet, when I know I have work to do. They keep me from checking out Facebook 27 times in an hour for no reason, or they keep me from checking out reddit and digg to often, because even though the fake news can change in an instant. The important news that I really care about I can get when I need it.

I also have noticed that when people give me projects and ask me to edit it and say it doesn’t matter when it gets done, often times it takes me three or four times longer, because either I do the things listed above, or more often then not. These projects get put to the end of the list that never ends, and it’s not that they get put there once, but they keep getting bumped back by the new projects that have hard deadlines.

So after talking so much about hard deadlines, and what they mean to me here are some examples of hard deadlines that the production company two other individuals and myself are starting in regards from when we sell a package to a client and when we want it done.

Please note that all of these days are set for a short 1 day shoot at the client’s place of business or off site location.

Day 1: Meet with client

Day 3: Have script written for client

Day 7-10: Shoot script for client

Day 14-17: Have video edited for client

Day 20: Project done at the latest.

What this means is that within three weeks of meeting with the client we would like the commercial/shoot completely edited at the latest.

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

Here's some of my Past work

So as I work on some current projects, with editing and building of props, I feel that I should upload some of my previous work starting with a copy of my current reel. It has selections from work I have done with such famous Minneapolis local actors including Trevor Rychly, Lawrence Levesque, Paul Cram, and Rachel Grub.

Also the animated piece in my real is a piece that I am currently still working on is a chunk from the film that I am getting ready to submit to MUFF.

And it's Live

As promised the wooddale senior high video that I shot and edited is now live on Wooddale's youtube, I've embedded the video in this post. Also on another note I have begun working on the mask for the tattoo commercial that I wrote for Lucky Linda's Tattoo in downtown Shakopee in Minnesota, we are basing the head off of an indy mogul episode, so if you want to give what they suggest the link is here

Tattoo Commercial

So, after my meeting yesterday and sending off three ideas with my business partners to our first client; he has decided on one of the commercials and it was mine. I'm pretty stoked, because it's always nice to get picked, but this means I'll have to come up with a muppet outfit for the commercial on the cheap and that's going to be the hardest part.

We're also going to have to come up with a storyboard, and get an actress to play one of the parts. So if anyone knows a good actress in the Twin Cities looking to expand a profile please comment below.

The hardest part about this commercial is that we are planning on using it as a springboard for a potential company and aren't charging the tattoo parlor anything for this. I hope in the end he might give us something to cover the costs otherwise I'll have to think through trying to get money elsewhere.