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!!!