Step 5 - Reading litrature

Unfortuantly, I was only able to find a PDF file for only one publication - Raindance Writers' Lab: Write & Sell the Hot Screenplay by Elliot Grove. However, it did teach me a few things about how to write a good screenplay.

Firstly, it has taught me that there are 7 key points to think about when writing:
1) Entertainment - The primary reason the screenplay has been written/going to be wrote is to entertain your target audience. Although this may be seen by some as a job for the director, the editors and key roles during production, it is the writers role to control the original content of the script. The direct and editor etc are only responsible for how the content is presented.
2) Comerce - "Orson Welles said ‘A poet needs a pen, a painter needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs a whole army’." "Writers who forget the business side of the industry do so at their peril. The bankers and financiers, the marketing and public relations people, the owners and employees of the cinemas, the accountants with their complex procedures, the tax lawyers, the copyright and royalty collectors: these are a few of the silent faces who are employed by the business side of the film industry. Add in the more glamorous roles of the actors, the directors, the editors, make-up artists, scenic artists, lighting and sound specialists and you really do have an army of people involved in the making of a film. Each area is really a sub-industry and the people in each sub-industry tend to distrust, and sometimes even hate the people in other sub-industries. But money and collaboration govern the entire movie business. Therefore a writer who includes camera directions in a screenplay, or is too specific with stage directions, is precluding the possibility of collaboration with the cameraman and the actors – two very important categories of creatives. The trick is to write a screenplay that inspires each and every category of person likely to be involved in the making of the movie." http://escrituraavcontemporaneo.wikispaces.com/file/view/write+%2B+sell+the+hot+screenplay.pdf 

3) Contrivance - As screenwriters, we must learn to fill the void of the screen with images and voices that follow the contrivance in the cinemas. Remember too, that as children we all looked forward to the bedtime stories that our parents told us. Now that we are adults, we still love a good story and go to the cinema to get one. The fact that filmmakers use a series of contrivances to bring us the story is something that we expect and accept.
4) Peeping Tom - "The challenge for screenwriters is to write a script that is so compelling that the audience will find it very difficult to stop following. For screenwriters, the challenge is to create a world that people want to stare at, and to make the screen characters, dialogue, setting and action so compelling that they cannot wrench themselves away from the screen until the very last frame, the very last words in the script."
http://escrituraavcontemporaneo.wikispaces.com/file/view/write+%2B+sell+the+hot+screenplay.pdf
5) Maximise, in minimal circustances - Use every technique you can possible, but avoid using poet techniques such as similes, metaphors and alliterations etc. Also you can only write what is on the screen. For example, you can't say "it's very hot" because how would you show that? Handling your personal life around your script writing is very important too. It is very easy to get distract by the smallest things such as a noise from outside the room you are writing in.
6) Hollywood, love it or leave it? - This is all down to personal opinion. Do you like films that are filmed in major cities and also you special effects and grand camera movements or do you prefer original, independant films? Your own answer to this decides what you include in your own script.
7) Audience - Remember you are writing for only one audience, the reader! You have to impress the reader because they have the one thing you want - a cheque book. The people who are responsible for presenting the film to potentially millions are the film makers themselves.

Step 4 - Exisiting screenplays

http://www.awesomefilm.com/script/graduate.txt - Graduate by Buck Henry (Romance)
Just by reading the first couple of pages of this script, I can see that a lot a detail has been written about. It has taught me that not only does the script have to include stage directions, characters dialogue and location of the scene, but in depth detail about the camera shots too.
Reading further on into the script, I have learnt that when I write my own script, I am going to have to keep the audience entertained from the very beginning. To do this, I am going to have to create a scenario which many things could evolve from. By doing this, it keeps the audience entertained as they are sub-consciously trying to work out what is going to happen in the end.

http://www.zen134237.zen.co.uk/The_Sarah_Jane_Adventures/Sarah_Jane_Adventures_3x01_-_Prisoner_of_the_Judoon_pt1.pdf - Sarah Jane Adventures, episode 1 by Phil Ford (UK Drama)
Because 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' is a television drama, the script is different to a short film drama. This is because in each episode of the series, there is a small scenario which is solved, but the problem which needs to be solved is not very big. Although the problem is not very big, each of the problems in the series have to link which makes it difficult to write a television series. As well as this, most television series' have more than one writer so there are more people to suggest ideas and elaborate on them. By reading this script, it has made me more aware of how good script presentation makes it better as it is much easier to read because of the amount of characters and different locations.
Another difference of this being a T.V drama instead of a film drama is that it doesn't bring the audience is straight away unlike a film. This is because it is able to leave each series on a cliffhanger to make the audience want to watch the next episode, whereas films need to grip the audience from the beginning so that they watch all the way to the end.

http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/40_year_old_virgin.pdf - 40 Year Old Virgin by Judd Apetow & Steve Carell (Comedy, Romance)
Just by reading the script and knowing the general rule of 1 script page to every screen minute, I can understand that this film has around a minute and a half of non-dialogue action. This introduces the audience to a variety of characters early on and gives them a good understanding of what each character is about. The first pieces of dialogue give the audience some more information about their personality on top of what they already know about what they do as their day job. The opening dialogue scenes also set up the rest of the film with the mention of a simple scenario. Again, keeping the audience interested in what might happen in the scenario, in this case a game of poker at somebodys house.

after looking at these scripts, it has made it apparent to me that I need to introduce a simple scenario very early on into my own short film in which I intend to write. The key thing is that you keep the audience entertained from the very beginning!

Step 3 - Initial Research

The initial idea of my screenplay is based on a boy meeting a girl, but all is not as simple as it seems. This basic idea appears in many popular films including 'Shrek', where Shrek meets Princess Fiona and '500 days of summer', for example. With this idea, there are many different things that could happen to make the relationship complicated. How the problem is solved is what keeps the audience entertained whilst watching your short or feature length film. Although I have already developed my final idea, the article written by Christopher Fowler I have looked at elaborates on how a simple scenario can become a big idea.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwYYpg0My8Y - This link is for the trailer of 'Shrek'. The first 15 seconds of the trailer, informs the audience that Shrek is trying to save to princess, a simple fairytale idea of a princess being saved, but there is something preventing this from happening. In this case, the dragon.

http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/blog/how-to-write-a-short-story/2-the-idea/
This link is basically an explanation/advice on how to come up with a 'BIG' idea for a screen play. Christopher Fowler talks about how it is not an idea as such, but making a simple scenario interesting for the target audience.

Screenwriting reserach and ideas - Step 1 & 2

STEP 1:
IDEA 1:
My first idea is about a man who goes on the run from the police, after playing a key role in a large gang attack in major English city. The man's home has been located by the police so he is unable to go home, so his last resort is to swat in a derelict block of flats, along with a group of people who're either alcoholics or excessive drug users to disguise himself amongst other members of the public. Ironically, because of the fact that the man is not an excessive drug user or alcoholic, he doesn't fit in and there is a personality clash between a few of the residents. Ironically, this results in the man being the victim of a gang attack, made up of people how he clashed with, as well as other contacts they had who were in the same situation.

IDEA 2:
A poor boy meets a rich girl, whose parents aren't too keen on they boys appearance or personality.The parents try to encourage the girl not to get together with him, but her feelings overwhelm her parents opinion. It turns out that it is in fact the girl that has the problems as she is a frequent drug user and the boy is trying to get her to change her ways as he feels deep love for her. It ends with the girl dieing from a drugs overdose as her parents try to blame the boy as they think he was a bad influence on the girl.

IDEA 3:
A talented male musician is on the verge of making the "big-time", but unfotuantly becomes very ill and brings his career to an abrupt end. Well thats what he thinks anyway... Fortuantly for him, he is asked to be the guinea pig of a new medication to bring him back to full health and it works with great effect. He uses this story to restart his career not only to make a living, but to make sure that everyone else who is suffering what he was a victim of receives the medication to bring them back to full health.

The Idea I intend to progress further with is idea 2. This is because it has a basic structure and features which are very common, but also very effective. It features "boy meet girl, complications occur, something happens, everything is okay in the end" structure.

Step 2:
To complete my screenwriting research, I am going to have to look at a range of different sources to collect information from. These sources include:

• The BBC Writers Room - Reading articles, tips and tools etc
• Script Angle
• TV Scripts and Bibles
• Possible YouTube videos?
• Books: 'The foundation of screen writing', 'Rain dance writers lab' and 'Reading for a living'

Step1: Create either a survey or questionaire to find out what different social classes/categories to gain information about their personal preferences.
Step 2: Put findings into a table/graph - quantative data.
Step 3: Look at different sources to gain inspiration for my own screenplay

by using a wide range of different research material, it gives you the opportunity to find a method/style that suits your own style rather than look at one source and feeling like you have to adapt yourself to that particular style.
Whilst carrying out the research, I will be posting my findings on the blog regularly. Also, whilst completing my research, it may give me new influences which we encourage me to change my original screen play to improve it.

Ways in which a writer is employed.

In order for screenwriters to get work, they have to be very pro-active. By pro-active, they have to submit their work to agencies and then have their work commissioned.

The Writer’s Guild:

The writers guild is an organisation created to help all screenwriters break into the market and secure themselves a job. To join The Writers Guild, you have to pay a subscription which is the equivalent of 1.2% of their earnings from writing. To become a full member, you have to gain 8 membership points. You can do this by: [1]

·         For each single piece of written work of any description for which reasonable payment has been received under written contract, in terms not less favourable than those existing in current minimum terms agreements negotiated by the Guild (where such agreements exist) - 8 points

·         For each single piece of marketed written work produced or published other than under the terms of the previous paragraph - 4 points

·         For each completed year of Candidate membership (up to four years) - 1 point.

      Although the guild is able to help writers seek employment, they are unable to offer specific advice on how to gain funding for your production. However, on ‘The Writers Guild’ website, it does   offer you links to places which will be able to offer advice about funding such as the ‘UK Film Council’.

BBC Writers Room:

[2]“BBC writersroom is the first point of call for all unsolicited scripts and writers. All work is assessed primarily for the talent of the writer, and in addition for the scripts suitability for further development.”

The BBC offer many opportunities to amateur screenwriters. These opportunities include competitions (such as a current competition – [2] “Channel 4 Drama are looking for 12 talented writers who currently have no broadcast credit.”) and providing links to agencies such as the ‘Scottish Arts Council’ who offer bursaries to published playrights based in Scotland.

UK Film Council:

The ‘UK Film Council’ is a film delivery agency which is backed by the government and based in the UK. The UK Film Council have been behind more than 900 short and feature-length films which have made £700m at the box office. For every £1m which has been funded by The National Lottery, £5m has been made at the box office.

By working with many UK agencies such as Skillset, BFI and First Light the UK Film Council are able to offer advice and funding to many screenwriters in order to help them kick-start their career in the industry.

Bibliography:

[1] http://www.writersguild.org.uk/join-the-guild/full-membership

[2]http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writing/submissions.shtml