How to make your script awesome! (College Lesson)
Today we have been learning Techniques on how to write effective scripts.
It was a very interesting lesson and i enjoyed learning the tips from my lecture Pat Higgings. Pat him self has written, and still writes, screen plays so he was the best man for the job to tell my class and I the tricks of the trade.
We went through a slide show of 25 top tips on how to make your script awesome!
It was a good lesson I thoroughly
Make Your Screenplay Awesome
- Always have a clear setting (INT. CAFETERIA, CHELMSFORD COLLEGE - AFTERNOON)
- Descirbe the setting Give the reader a feel of the set. (Bustling, busy full of fashionably dressed teenagers. Chrome glass surfaces, gossip fills the airs as students talk and eat
- Introducing Characters Give a vivid idea. KAYLA FROST, 19 Stick thin, looks like she might snap at any moment. Her Levi's might
be faded, but her eyes burn fiercely from under a gothic mop of hair.
- Namign your characters Make sure each character's name is diffrent, and looks diffrent when written down. Give each character a surname as it gives them a better identity.
- Conflict Barrier Screenplay should be based on on a wider conflict of some kind, but each character should have an internal conflict so they can resolve. Doubts, insecurities and unfinished business all could be good from the story line.
- Give a character secrets Giving your character a secret, whether its big or small, enables you to pick away at it in layers.
- Keep it Consistent Make sure that you keep your character consistent in both background and behaviour. If Dave is an ex con hes not gonna be scared of a intruder.
- Dialogue Stuff: sentences People don't speak in complete sentences, nor do people speak alike. You need to let you character dictate where the punctuation goes. Gaps, Pauses and unfinshed sentences.
- Stay away from on the nose dialogue The phrase 'on the nose' refers to dialogue that states too clearly what a character is thinking with out filtering it through thier personaltiy and agenda. If Dave was to tell his closest friend "i want to be a policeman" is to easy.
- Keep it unpredictabel When Princess Leia tells Han Solo 'I Love You' in the Empire Strikes Back was gold and Han Solo says 'I Know'.
-Keep it Varied Does a character even respond verbally to a statement.
- First Line The first line your character speaks should sum up an aspect of their personality.
Your character only gets one chance to make a first impression , so make it work.
- Language = Life Make sure your charcter's dialogue reflects life expreience.
- Double Hyphen
Has one character stepped on another's line? Cuttign them off before they finish speaking.
- Fresh Slang Why not make up your own slang? Using the lastest words, phrases and cultura; references will date your script extremly quickly. Joss Whedon made up all the slang in his hit High School TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Mix Dialogue and Action If life, stuff happens all at once. people don't stop talking becasue a bus is about to explode keep them talking make it a suprise.
- Don't tell me what I've seen If Debbie's head exploded we don't need to hear "Debbies head exploded".
- No closed questions If you've got a closed question your just opening your screen play for boring dialouge its just going to be yes or no's
- Misunderstandings Characters should misunderstandings and misnterpret each other just as people do in real life.
- Style Stuff: Present tense Always have present tense
Gaby chases fred into the ice-cream shop (Correct)
Gaby Has chased Fred into the ice-cream shop (Wrong)
- What's not to include Thoughts Hopes Back story Anything that can't be shown visually
- Keep it clear "The father of the bride, who runs a pizza resturants" is ambiguous Who sells pizza? The father of the bride?
- OH MY GOD Using all CAPITALS tells the reader tahts tehre is something important. Its a ways for making something stand out EXAMPLE something exploding.
- Keep it punchy Break long sentences and keep your descriptions as vivid as you can Inhale. Exhale. Jennie steps out.
- Write it first, Then edit This script won't be as punchy, exciting and engaging as possible on the first draft.
