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Elements of aScreenplay
ScreenplaysScreenplays Have:Have:
LocationLocationActionActionCharactersCharactersDialogueDialogue
Let’s go find out more!
In between Fade In and Fade out:
• We have:
• Location - (Interior / Exterior) and time of day. INT or EXT
• Action – Describes setting, and people and what people or anything (animals, wind blowing…) are doing in the scene.
• Character - These are the people or animals that will move the story forward.
• Dialogue - This is what the characters say to one another.
• Hint – There should be a fairly equal balance between action and dialogue. If your script shows huge lumps of action there had better be something very interesting happening!
First:
• Let your audience know where they are.
• That’s the location and time. If the film is cutting continuously from one spot to another as someone runs from inside a house to outside, it will say – Continuous.
For example:
INT. = Interior
EXT. = Outside
– Mayberry Sheriff's office -
– Day / Night / Continuous /
EXT- Mayberry’s Sheriff's office -- Day
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Location&
Time of day
Action describes the house, what’s
going on.
Character’s name goes in the middle
of the page.
Dialogue goes after the character’s name.
Story
• Each story combines location, action, character, and dialogue to create a screenplay.
• These building blocks are used to make a movie screenplay, and each page of script using standard movie format is equal to one minute of screen time.
Building a story
• Decide genre / drama, comedy, western, mystery…
• Come up with “What if…” ideas. Example: What if a jogger found a puppy hiding in a dog food can?... Keep going until you get an idea you like.
• Don’t include scenes that don’t move the story forward.
Make Stakes and Conflict
• Make the audience care, make your characters care, keep the stakes as high as possible to create that anxiety. Example: A child escapes their care-giver and gets lost. That’s pretty darn high stakes, - the child may die.
• Make the main character/s resolve the conflict, if it resolves itself by magic the audience will be disappointed.
Dialogue
• Make each character have a clear and unique voice. Prissy people should speak in a prissy manner. Thugs should be gruff, rude…Mothers, (nice ones) concerned, and diligent.
• Have the dialogue move the story forward, don’t go off on tangents.
Ending
• Make sure all loose ends are tied together.
• Make an ending with a surprise punch.
• Don’t make a predictable ending, keep the audience guessing to the very end.
Good luck!
• Have a good time and be as crazy on paper as you want to be.
• Read your screenplays aloud to the class.
• Send the best ones off to screenplay contests for students!
• Write “shootable” scripts your school can complete!
Bye-Bye!!!
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