Four phases of drafting screenplay
The Four Phases of Drafting a Screenplay
Writing a screenplay seems a simple task but has much detail and depth to it. For someone who has grown up watching movies, it is understandable that writing screenplays, building characters, and developing a strong relationship between the story and audience is quite an art. You not only need excellent writing skills but also a powerful imagination. The in-depth process of drafting a screenplay requires you to be open about critique and improvise your piece over and over.
Screenplay writing is an iterative process, which continually moves towards betterment. Mostly the final version is a result of hundreds of iterations and drafts that have undergone numerous additions and subtractions. An essential aspect of writing a screenplay is to realise this piece of work is not going to read by someone; rather, it would be seen.
The translation of writing into visuals is unique and different, so you must understand how to write what you want to show and how to show what you have written. It is also advised to go through as many screenplays as you can to understand the transition and flow.
Before you start writing a screenplay, it is essential to understand and practice the following skills:
- Learn how to format your documents
- Idea formation
- Fleshing out
After you have learned and practiced your skills, it is time to get to work.
There are four phases of writing a screenplay, these are:
Research, Logline, and Character
To start your screenplay, it is essential to first do your research. What are you writing about? Conduct research regarding your storyline, characters, settings, genre, and tone to determine what your screenplay is going to be.
Once you have a concrete idea, develop a logline. Logline, a small and brief script to introduce your main idea in a summarized way. Logline should comprise the overall concept, as well as hint at the characters. The logline is often used by people to see if they want to invest in your story or not. Working on a logline is important as it is the first step to get your work started.
Next comes the character-building process, which requires a lot of effort and detail. Character development should co-exist with your storyline. The characters should have their backgrounds and backstories. Strong personas and personality traits should be identified, and the purpose of their character should be filled. Each character in your story must signify it’s important and conveys its meaning.
Formulate A Screenplay Treatment
Treatment is an elaborate summary that consists of a logline, character detail, the plot, and synopsis of the story. It is used to get an overall idea of the storyline and the details associated. The length is usually from 2-5 pages that a producer may read to understand the concept of the film. The length may vary depending upon the story type. Treatment is more detail-oriented, and this is where your story takes depth. After reading a treatment, the reader must know the detailed concept along with the storyline of the piece.
Moreover, treatment includes the climax and turning points of the story to build momentum and interest using the character’s roles. It should be stimulating enough for the reader to follow up with its details. It creates an impression of your storyline and helps you identify the areas that still need to be worked upon before diving into the detailed version.
Outlining
After writing treatment, it is time to break your story into scenes and develop each scene. Describing scenes can be a hard task as it requires immense detailing. People use various mediums to plan the scenes of their story. The story arc components will help you work better on the whole visual. Remember that your story is to be shown and not read, so focus on the actions. How do you want the scene to open, which characters come first, and which ones come last?
Notes are essential while outlining the scenes. The plot of the story should be laid with details, so it gets easier for later steps. Remember to keep the viewer in your mind and keep them engaged through your storytelling. There should be elements of anticipation and tension so that the viewers remain hooked. The outline defines definite detail and course of action in your storyline. After highlighting the significant events of your story, you should also focus on the supportive scenes and details that are less highlighted.
Draft, Revise, Finalize
Now that you have a logline, characters, and a detailed treatment along with the story’s plot, you can finally begin to write the script. It gets much easier and clear to write a screenplay after doing all the steps mentioned before. This draft should include all the dialogues and descriptive actions. Make sure to make the beginning of your screenplay enjoyable as it is going to decide the fate of your screenplay.
The first 10-15 pages should be able to grasp the attention of the reader, and he should find your script worth pursuing. The screenplay must have interesting characters and a well-put story. The screenplay must be written in the present tense. You should keep in mind that you are writing for something that is to be seen by people and not read. You can also use software or online platforms to format your documents. You need to follow the format that is acceptable by the professionals, and for that, you can use any software. After writing your first draft, go through it again like a critique, and rewrite it with improvements. You can repeat this process of re-reading and revising unless you believe you have come up with the best possible outcome.
Remember, this is a long and strenuous process that can also be heartbreaking at times, so be patient and open towards change and constructive criticism. You can also ask for help from someone who has the experience and get them to review your piece.
Conclusion
It may seem daunting to transfer an idea into a movie or a play, but it is not as challenging as it looks. If you follow the above steps, you can end up with a great script. Some people have great ideas, but their writing skills are not that great. If you are one of those people, don’t be discouraged. You can also opt for screenplay writing workshops or seminars to gain the necessary skills. Many companies offer online and offline classes. A close friend recently attended an online workshop facilitated by a Software development house in Pakistan that did wonders for her writing style.
Don’t give up and continue revising to get a play that’s worth watching.
Filmmaking is about Learning, Changing, Adapting and Evolving
Two days out of rehab, my head killing me and my lead actor banging the door down, I picked my self esteem up off the floor and let him in. we shot the short in five long arduous hours only to find that I needed to reshoot it with someone else. Such is life as a writer director. Truth is, I love guerrilla filming. It takes resources that can only really be learnt having made many mistakes, a bag filled with regrets and hard drives full of films I’d never show anyone is the mark of a solid film maker. It’s always ‘onward and upward’. Learning, changing, adapting and evolving.
This Friday I’m shooting a short sixty second piece to submit to the festival. It’s a comedy about suicide, but then that’s how I like to transmute my own experiences, by laughing at them, using them as material, then filming them using a knock out cast. Whilst a budget is nice, it’s not necessary to make cinematic magic.
Today we shot a scene for ‘A Sister, Greatly’. It’s the comedy scene wherein Selene (the imaginary sister of schizophrenic Lilly) is busily sawing a body to bits in the bath much to Lilly’s distaste. At first I wanted to present a nice Dutch Angle for this shot but it was just too tight. In order to even get a clean shot of actress Anna Witchin we had to affix the camera to the bathroom wall with a wide angle lens attached. This meant filming blind, then watching playback to get an idea of whether or not we’d hit the mark.
Meanwhile, Will the spark stood on the side of the bath and hand held tungsten aimed down at the tiles to reflect light back onto Anna as she saws, she was utterly knackered by the end of filming, her shoulder was killing her but she soldiered on like a pro. At the same time, Aimee, our production assistant lay in the bath squirting blood up onto Anna’s surgical gown. All this time, I’m desperately trying to balance on the back side of the bath facing Anna and hoping I don’t fall onto Aimee as she squirts fake blood via a pipette.
We lay two pillows on top of Aimee and covered the saw with gaffer tape (because as we all know, gaffer tape is the solution to all our problems) so that Anna could saw away happily without chopping any of Aimees body parts off. The scene rocked, it was funny, the soundtrack (That’s life) raised its status from comedic to ‘laugh out loud’ and all in all, it showed all the hallmarks of being a short film in itself which is one of my trademarks. I love to make scenes which stand alone in and of themselves no matter how short. Lou Reed said that a songs lyrics should stand up on their own without music. I think what he was saying was that they should be strong, poetic and emotive, a portrait of the time, the place and the subject. I believe that this is also true of film. It is ultimately the portrait of a story.
Stories are beings, they are entities with their own agendas, we are but instruments needed to make the physical manifestation of these entities. I wake up sometimes in the early hours having been harassed by one of these stories in dream form. I try to get back to sleep but it knocks again, the knocking turns into banging and finally I’m charged with getting out of bed and writing. The last thing I want to do is look at a screen but look I must as a story wishes to unfold itself and be born into the physical realm using my hands as a tool for its agenda.
The last occasion when this bullying happened was a last year when ‘Apotheosis’ wanted to be written, an AI story about a young woman who falls in love with a girl who turns out to be an AI prototype in her ‘fathers’ top secret research facility. As always, I write the novel first, then the screenplay and only then do I consider shooting no budget scenes test scenes to see how it’s going to look on film. This process from start to finish can take years and always ends up being a personal journey of learning about myself as well as techniques and more often than not, meeting new friends and colleagues who make my life feel richer. First however, I need to be an open channel to these rogue stories which want to come through and live in the world of people. Storytelling is as old as humanity.
Some animals, especially birds fly in formation displaying signs of psychic behaviours as if they share one consciousness and one direction, inner GPS systems which guide them as a tribe to their far flung destinations. In the absence of a mass consciousness, or at least the awareness of it, we humans have passed our knowledge down through he generations via speech verbalising our lives, our beginnings and our journeys, fortunes and misdemeanours. In later years, we used the performance, the show and the song. Now film is the storytelling medium of choice. We get to not only tell our own stories using fictitious characters but we also get to imagine or even reimagine our lives, trials and tribulations using tools which have now far exceeded the mediums of old with CGI, High resolution cameras and editing skills. Now we even have global marketing at our personal fingertips (well… thumbs).
Storytelling has become easy again as has getting our message out there to anyone who wants to see and hear it. My advice to any story teller is; get over yourself, ego is the enemy, pick up any camera, and record what your soul yearns to tell about yourself. There are no excuses for not making film these days. So if you have a story, tell it. If no one heard it but you, maybe you were the one who needed to hear it.
Filmmaking; Too Old to Start?
January 2020 was the day my dream came true. I made my first movie, and it was a short one. I was ecstatic and elated to be directing and calling out shots, contributing my quota in the creative process. No, I didn’t attend film school and haven’t worked on any movie set. Though I have been on a few, one as an observer since my apartment was used as a location. When did it all start for me? Writing.
My love for writing started way back to my childhood days. I love reading and listening to stories, and then weaving words to tell my own. Being a novice in the industry, everything was new and had to learn as I went along. First of all I learnt that for you to get your script optioned you should:
1) Get An Agent/Manager
There is a list of Hollywood managers and agents to download from Scriptreaderpro.com. To get an agent you must have at least 3 feature length scripts to prove that you’re not a one hit wonder. So I wrote 3 features and lots of short scripts. One frustration every writer feels is to have a lot of material and no way to get it out there. It’s like you’re pregnant forever. So following this advice,I did send query letters to some agents, got some replies but nothing concrete yet. Anyone who has gone this route knows that the wait is long and can be frustrating.
2) Script Competitions
There is a list of top script writing competitions you can enter on studiobinder.com. Competitions like ScreenCraft, Academy Nicholl fellowship, Austin Screenwriting Competition, Sundance Script lab. Most of these charge extra for feedback. Save the cat screenwriting contest does not charge extra for feedback.
3) Make A Short Movie
Script reader pro, a site I subscribe to, suggested that one of the best ways to get your foot in the door or get your voice out there is to shoot a short film. It can be a compelling scene from your feature script; lots of scripts have been bought through this method e.g. Whiplash. This can be used as proof of concept to draw the attention of the powers that be.
This I liked better. With the determination that my stories are good stories, I decided to find a way to make them and get them out there. So there in that moment was born a filmmaker, the only scary thing is that I was making this decision at age 46.
This is a business that people start at a very young age, the oldest I have heard started in their 30’s but late 40’s? With all the stories of the struggles involved, when will my day come? When will I be a force to be reckoned with? If it takes years and years of toil to get there, how old will I be? Am I having a mid life crisis or is it a phase that will pass just like other phases in my life. Who will want to invest in an old black female filmmaker with no film experience or tangible reel credit?
My background is Geology, my training and career path doesn’t actually say filmmaker in the making. If someone had told my younger self that you will end up as a filmmaker, she may have laughed so hard she would bust a gut. There was nothing in my past that suggested I was going to want to make movies. One thing I know is that the critic in me has seen me wishing I could show people how it’s done; how a good storyline or movie should be like.
I was content with writing and just being a writer, all I wanted was to write and sell scripts, plays and books. To churn out scripts both on demand and on desire; to be the go to person for comedy scripts with deep meaning or some serious scripts about life and supernatural beings. All I wanted to do was write, write and write some more so, write I did. Landing a book or script agents is no small feat neither is getting them optioned. Though they said script competitions are a sure way to get noticed I decided to explore other options, namely filmmaking and film festivals because I believe in the power of visuals. People may not get it while on paper, but a visual picture will give a better perspective.
My first film cost a stipend but since it was my hard earned money, it felt like a million. Got my cast from my Facebook group Atlanta Film Production . They were fun and I received validation on my script from their feedback. They loved it and one of them said my script was better than most, how’s that for feedback? Yay! The film is done and now in post-production.
To get it all, you have to give it all. You have to have laser focus without turning to the left or right. I remember the high I got when making my first film. It’s an exciting experience that only those who live it can truly grasp. I want to feel like that all the time and if filmmaking gives me that high then I’m willing to stake it all, I am willing to dream that even at my age it’s never too old to be a filmmaker. Watch out world, I’m coming out!
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