Screenwriting for Filmmakers

In this course we're going to figure out the story, genre, hero, nemesis, how the characters talk, how to capture the attention of your audience, what events are going to happen and how your hero reacts and when, plus write several scenes that the marketing department can use in the movie trailer to sell your movie.

There was a great book written in the 1990s by Kenny Werner called Effortless Mastery. He wrote his book for musicians who were overwhelmed by the rehearsal process. But we can learn from what he teaches them; we're only going to write this script in little bits at a time.

Assignment: Take an index card and write down what you want to teach the world with this script. Write down in one sentence the message of the movie, the warning of the movie, the purpose of the movie. Whatever it is, write these words: The reason I am telling this story is because ________________________.

Take that index card and pin it in the middle of your bulletin board.

Assignment: Write on an index card:

This movie is about a _______________ who is in _____________________ and dreams about ______________________________ because _____________________.

Now fill in the blanks.

Assignment: Go for a five minute walk, ride a bike, play futbol,dance.

Did you go walk for five minutes? Did you do something for five minutes that got you moving around?

If you did, you're ready for this next step.

Assignment: Write on a piece of paper or on your computer a stream of consciousness of exactly everything you are thinking. This is something I learned from Natalie Goldberg's book Writing Down the Bones many many years ago. This frees your mind to simply think without judgment.

Naming the movie and coming up with a catchy little phrase called a logline that usually appears on the posters under the movie title is not about creating and telling a story.

The title and the logline are all about marketing.

Hold off on naming the movie right now – even if you thought of the best title in the world.

Title your film My Next Movie, with the logline “The story that must be told.”

Assignment: Write on an index card MY NEXT MOVIE, by (your name). Then add the logline 'The story that must be told.”

If you really love your current title write it on the bottom of the card.

Pin this on your bulletin board.

Let's make your life easier by not trying to please everyone. Instead let's write this movie to please two people. The movie has to please you and the person you are telling this story to.

Even though you are writing this screenplay for one specific person, your story will entertain thousands and thousands and maybe millions of people with similar interests. But you're not writing to entertain a generic mob of millions, you're writing to tell the story to one specific person the same way you tell a story differently to your mother versus to your best friend.

Who are you telling this story to you?

Assignment: Write on an index card: I am telling this story to ___________(and fill in the blank).

Put this index card on your bulletin board.

Assignment: Write all the ideas you have about this movie right now onto your index cards, including ideas about scenes, specific visuals, specific dialogue, phrases that people say, events that happen in the movie, and characters.

Use a new index card for every idea. Put these cards into your story box.

It will be tempting to write a lot of details on the index cards. Keep it short and to the point. It's got to be something you glance at quickly later on, so make these succinct.

TIP: Carry index cards and a pen with you at all times, everywhere you go from now on. Ideas are going to be springing out of nowhere when you least expect them and you want to grab them and jot them down as quickly as they show up, before they slip away.

Your screenplay, when it becomes your movie, is going to stream on dozens of online platforms all over the world. Each of these internet video streaming sites categorize their film library by genres.

Movies often fit into several genres. Each genre has some basic requirements to effectively tell the story.

Assignment: Watch all the following videos about genre to determine which genres your screenplay falls into and what is required by those genres. Then watch several films of those genres to see how other screenwriters fulfill those requirements.

In the action adventure genre, the hero used to be nearly invincible except for maybe one big weakness, but morally pure. Now action adventure heroes frequently are emotionally conflicted and that threatens their lives more than an external villain. In many ways action adventure movies match the mood of society at the time it is made.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

The premise of a comedy is based on a ridiculous situation.

Humor is culturally specific. What's funny to an American isn't funny to a person from France or Nigeria or Thailand. Comedy films are the most difficult genre to sell to foreign markets, and even movies with famous people don't do very well outside of their own culture.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

The thriller genre keeps the audience on the edge of their seat from the first minute of the movie to the last by putting your hero in danger at all times. Your story doesn't have to start with a death threat, but by the time you're reaching the climax of the film we have to be afraid the hero will be killed.

Thrillers are about facing what we most fear and overcoming it. They are cathartic. We get to live in danger from the comfort of our home.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

This is a broad category and probably the most popular genre for independent filmmakers because production values don't have to be very high, the acting doesn't have to win Academy Awards, and often the plots can feel contrived. These movies are easier to sell than dramas.

The kinds of horror film – blood and guts, zombie, alien, psychological, dystopian future- rotate in popularity according to the mood and what's happening in your culture. Some horror films are allegories for real people, real governments, real disasters. Unfortunately when a certain type of horror film falls out of popularity – such as zombie films – the audiences will be less interested in seeing it.

Assignment: Look at what kinds of horror films are being released right now and listen to your friends talk about those movies to determine what is most popular right now.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

Drama the hardest to sell to film distributors because 'drama' sounds bland and uninteresting. But most of our stories are dramas. And these stories can be very emotionally engaging.

Your challenge with this is to tell a unique story.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

Usually your hero in a romantic comedy is a woman, who has never found love or who had a bad relationship breakup, is reluctant to fall in love again, and is ultimately swept off her feet by someone she resists till the end of the film. It serves as a teaching tool for the men to show them how to romance their partners. It fulfills a fantasy for women to be wooed by someone who is madly in love with them, despite all his shortcomings. Your hero doesn't have to be a woman, but this is the standard template.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

A romance, not to be confused with a romantic comedy, is the story of the greatest love there ever was. Of love so pure nothing could compare. They are a match made in heaven.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

The general template for the musical story is the same as a drama, except the movie must start with a song within the first few minutes. You have to set the tone quickly so the audience will be prepared to watch and enjoy your film. Show the audience what this world is like and then they will accept this behavior for the rest of the movie.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

The science fiction (sci-fi) and fantasy genre is extremely broad and covers all kinds of movies, but distributors often lump them together in this category.

Most of these films are dramas but take place in an alien world, a dystopian world, or a fantastical vision of what this world could be like. These movies generally conform to the basic guidelines of dramas.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

If your movie is a mystery we need to do some preplanning. You must write a mystery backwards to plot your clues.

Assignment: Write the crime (who is killed or whatever) on an index card. Write who committed the crime and why on an index card. Pin those cards to the bulletin board.

Assignment: Write all the possible clues that might reveal who committed the crime. Put these cards in your story box.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

The most common element of a Western is that it takes place in the American West and rugged scenery serves as a backdrop for multiple scenes in the film --- whether that's jagged mountains or arid deserts.

The hero of a Western usually is a person who is following their own moral code about what is right and what is wrong. This is usually the core of the story – it is a morality tale about what is right and what is wrong.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

Road movies are a reflection and commentary on the social condition of the current culture you live in. They take place in today's world. They are introspective. Your main character, your hero, is searching to find himself or herself, and learns more about who they are by who they meet and what they experience on the road.

Road movies are philosophical, not driven by action. Even though things are happening and your hero is traveling, we the audience are watching what the actor thinks and learns. Road movies are philosophical.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

Nearly every time someone watches a film that was adapted from their favorite novel they conclude the book was better than the movie. As we read novels we imagine the characters look a certain way, talk a certain way, the scenery and costumes and lighting are vivid in our imagination.

When you film a novel you take away all the reader's imagination because you determine who plays the parts, what they wear, how they talk, and so forth. It's for this reason that adapting a novel can be treacherous.

Experienced screenwriters know they can't take the words in the book and simply copy them into a screenplay. They rewrite the story, reformatting it to fit into one of the film genres I described in previous videos.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre.

Fan films could be any genre using characters and situations that were already created by another movie. Often fan films are sequels to popular movies.

The author and or film studio of the original story owns the characters, their likenesses, and can claim ownership of the film title. If you write a fan film screenplay you cannot legally distribute the movie or make money from distribution.

This is a film script that does not have scripted dialogue. The actors are improvising the dialogue in each scene. The screenwriter has written the structure of the film by establishing the time, place, characters, and actions.

Assignment: Watch several movies from this genre to learn how the screenwriters fulfilled the needs of this genre, such as BLAIR WITCH PROJECT or PUFFY CHAIR.

Assignment: Write down on index cards all the ideas you have while thinking about the different film genres and how they relate to your screenplay.

Put these cards in your story box.

When you don't know what to write you play a game.

Assignment: Ask these questions about your story.

What if this happened?

What if this was different?

What if this didn't happen.

What if the story took place in a different time period?

What if the main character was older or younger.

What is the worst event that could happen to the hero (except death)?

For comedies, what if is the most outrageous thing that could happen?

For action adventure, what if this person or this place was threatened with annihilation.

For romance, what are all the things that keep the two lovers apart?

Write these ideas down on your index cards. Put the cards in your story box.

Assignment: When your idea for the story is a little bit more clear, write out the story in a new document on your computer or on paper.

In the Hollywood film industry movies are defined as either High Concept or Low Concept. A high concept film is a movie that you barely have to describe to someone before they instantly understand the plot. A low concept movie requires explaining the plot.

Assignment: Determine if your film is High Concept or Low Concept.

As you're preparing to write your screenplay you want to make sure that you know everything about the location, the time, the kind of people that you're going to be writing about.

Assignment: If this is not a story that takes place in present time and a place where you currently live or have lived, research what life is like where the story takes place. Find as many videos as you possibly can about the location or the people or the environment.

If this is a story from the past 300 years, go to archival sections at colleges and universities to read old newspapers.

Get the facts correct about geography and time zones as well.

Writers ruin their momentum by telling other people the story before it's landed on the page.

Tell people your screenplay is about a (man, woman, child, animal) who wants (what does your hero dream about) and succeeds (or fails). I'm writing this script because (briefly state what you want to teach the world with the script and why). This is the same information you wrote on an index card in Lesson 4.

Flesh out the character's personality, behavior and speech.

Be specific about who your main hero is because this will help you write the script.

Through your entire movie your main character, your hero, is either being chased or is chasing. Every scene is either a come here or go away situation, and sometimes can flip back and forth during the scene.

Assignment: Write the name of your hero on an index card. Write what your character wants and needs. Write the character's biggest fault or shortcoming. Write what makes your character unique.

Put this index card on your bulletin board.

Assignment: Write on individual index cards as many situations as possible that will be hard for your character to handle because of their shortcoming.

Put these cards in your story box.

Astrologers have come up with 12 basic personality types that each have unique qualities which are great for creating your characters! You have 12 different types of characters already prepared for you.

Assignment: Research personality types affiliated with astrological signs. As you create your characters in the movie, designate their astrological sign.

Assignment: Write down on index cards phrases that your hero says in their everyday conversation.

Assignment: Watch and listen to interviews of real people who live in the area you are making your movie about. Listen to how they talk and phrases they use. Write those down.

Put these cards in your story box.

Does your hero have a pet? It's scientifically proven that humans get happy fuzzy feelings when we see a puppy or a kitten or a bunny rabbit. And when one of those animals likes our hero, then we know our hero must be a good and honorable person – or creature.

Assignment: If your hero or nemesis has a pet, write on an index card what kind of pet they have and name it.

Put this index card on your bulletin board.

Your enemy is the personification of what your hero secretly believes about their own failings.

Your enemy succeeds when your hero fails.

Their strength is the hero's weakness.

Assignment: Look at an astrological chart and assign the nemesis with a zodiac sign that is in total conflict with the hero's zodiac --- or give them the same sign and they will be in competition with each other.

Assignment: Write the name of the nemesis on an index card. Write their astrological sign. Write what the nemesis wants.

Put that card on your bulletin board, opposite the card you have for your hero. They are now opposed to each other.

Assignment: Write on individual cards all the ways the nemesis can accomplish their goal that will hurt your hero.

Put these cards in your story box.

Assignment: Write on an index card what your nemesis needs. This is the emotional need.

Put this card on the bulletin board under your nemesis' index card.

We're going to decide what events happen in your movie in two ways: First we will decide what actually happens in the story in chronological order. Then we will decide how we're going to reveal the story to your audience.

Assignment: Write each chapter description on a separate index card and write the answers:

Chapter 1. Your hero is living their normal life. Describe that.

Chapter 2. Your hero decides to do something about their life to make it better. Describe that.

Chapter 3. Something very unexpected happens to your hero. Describe that.

Chapter 4. Your hero wants to still do things the way they always did things before.

Chapter 5. Something bad happens to your hero or to your hero's world or your hero's friends. What happened?

Chapter 6. Your hero tries to make things better. Instead things get worse.

Chapter 7. Now that things are even worse, what is your hero going to do to try to fix it?

Chapter 8. Your hero fails to make things better. Things are really bad.

Chapter 9. This is the big plot twist. Look at what your hero dreamed about in chapter 1. What could they achieve instead that would be better? If this story is a tragedy, what would be even worse for your hero than they every imagined could possibly happen to them?

Those nine chapters are the overview of your story.

Put those cards on your bulletin board. Study them.

Movies can be told with many different story structures.

Fabula/Syuzhet Structure - Show the end first, and the show the audience how they got there. Examples of this story structure are Fight Club, Casino, American Beauty, Goodfellas, Forrest Gump, Interview with the Vampire, and Citizen Kane.

Reverse Chronological Structure - Start at the end and tell the story backward.

Rashomon Structure - Tell the same story but multiple times from different viewpoints of the different characters. Example is Akira Kurosawa movie—Rashomon.

Circular Structure – The story ends where it started. Examples are Back to the Future, Primer, 12 Monkeys, and Looper .

Non Linear Structure – Stories jump backward and forward to tell a single story. Examples are Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Annie Hall, and Dunkirk.

Oneiric Structure - Story is told as though a dream, memory, hallucination or inner workings of the mind. using dream-like visuals, exploring the structure of dreams, memories, and human consciousness. Example is Vanilla Sky.

Assignment: Decide the most effective way to tell this story. Would it be better if the audience sees how the story ends first? Is it better to tell the story in chronological order as it actually happened? Is it better to start in the middle of the story where the hero is in the greatest danger?

Take the chapter index cards off the bulletin board and sort them into a different order. Decide how you want to tell this story to your audience.

Put the index cards back on the bulletin board in the order you want to show the audience.

Assignment: Use Open Office or MS Word software to create and format a new document.

• Choose the font Courier or Times New Roman.

• Set line spacing to single spacing.

• Format tabs on your document. Put a tab at .5, and at 3.5. and at 5.5. Ideally the tab at 3.5 you want to be a centering tab so that whatever you type at this tab it will automatically center it on the page. You'll be typing your character names on this tab.

• Format a footer to put today's date on the left, the name of your script in the middle, and the page number on the right.

Save this document.

Save the document frequently while you are working on your script.

The example script is available to download.

Assignment: Open your screenplay document. Go to tab 3.5 and type either MY SCREENPLAY in all caps, or the title you want to use for your script right now.

Drop down two lines and go to tab 3.5 and write your name.

Take those 9 chapter index cards, put them in the order you want to tell your story, and then type those things IN BOLD onto this page.

I'm telling my story chronologically. It looks like this:

Normal life

Hero decides to do something about their life to make it better.

Something very unexpected happens to your hero.

Hero tries to get things back to normal.

Something bad happens.

Hero reacts. Things get worse.

Hero tries to fix it.

Hero fails.

Plot twist. Hero could get something better.

Add page numbers to those items above to give you mileposts for when you want these things to happen in your script. It looks like this:

Page 1 Normal life

Page 10 Hero decides to do something about their life to make it better.

Page 30 Something very unexpected happens to your hero.

Page 35 Hero tries to get things back to normal.

Page 45 Something bad happens.

Page 50 Hero reacts. Things get worse.

Page 55 Hero tries to fix it.

Page 75 Hero fails.

Page 90 Plot twist. Hero could get something better.

Do not space these notes out to their page numbers. You will be filling in information/script/dialogue/scenes between these notes. As you write, these notes will tell you how many pages (how many minutes) you need in your movie before you get to the next crucial plot point. Each script page is approximately one minute of movie.

Leave these page notes in your script IN BOLD until you have finished your rough draft.

Save your document.

Always remember to save your document frequently while you work.

People love watching crises.

If you break down a movie into its basic story it's usually

• boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, or

• the battle of David vs. Goliath (little guy against powerful evil), or

• a resurrection story – someone falls to the lowest point but overcomes all odds, or

• a prodigal child story – someone who was once unacceptable now belongs.

We often come up with story ideas that are really just situations, but not actual stories. You can take those situations and then develop a story around those characters based on the plot points and conflicts that I'll talk about in the next lesson.

Here's an analogy comparing the shape of your script to driving down the road:

milepost 1 - You have your car packed

milepost 3 - You have just left home and you're settling in

milepost 10 - You leave the area you've known all your life and start seeing new things

milepost 30 Massive road closure forces a detour.

milepost 45 Road gets very rough.

milepost 56 Rest area. Take a breath Look at the beautiful scenery.

milepost 60 Forced to leave the rest area and the road ahead is up a mountain pass.

milepost 75 You are at a highway intersection. You must choose which way to go.

milepost 90 You are cresting the mountain pass.

milepost 110 You are blasting into the city limits of your new destination.

milepost 120. You pull up to your final destination and let out a big breath. You made it.

I'm going to tell you a real story that actually happened to me and I'm going to break it down in terms of where the story would fit in a screenplay structure. This makes screenwriting less hypothetical and shows how real life would be told in a script.

You don't have to know all the answers at this point. All you have to do is write down what you do know and then we'll fill in the blanks as we go on.

Assignment: Write the page number and details for the following points on index cards.

Page 1: We need to know where we are, what the time period is, and at least get foreshadowing of what the main question of the movie will be.

Page 3: If you haven't met the hero before, be sure to meet them by now in most cases.

Page 10: The question this movie answers.

Page 30: Big detour.

Assignment: Write down six different things on index cards that are totally different from what hero wants.

Assignment: Write escalating roadblocks on index cards for pages 45, 60 and 75.

Between pages 45 and 56 your hero debates whether to change their life and behavior to adapt to new circumstances or whether to go back to their previous life.

Assignment: Write on index cards six ideas of how the hero struggles with change on pages 45 through 56.

If you are stuck, this video is for you.

Assignment: List your five favorite movies. List your five favorite novels. List what you read most.

The similar themes in these movies, novels and reading material informs your script.

Pretend you are scrolling through your social media, or you are sitting in a movie theater: Suddenly an ad pops up on the screen which is a movie trailer for your movie. What do you see?

Assignment:  Write on an index card any images that pop into your mind right now. Any dialogue?

Put that card on your bulletin board.

Assignment: As you write your script, add camera directions and describe specific ideas you have for filming the scene.  Do not do this if you are writing a script to sell to a producer. Presumably you are filming this movie and will benefit by notes you make while writing.

Your hero needs a best friend.

Assignment: On an index card, write the name of the best friend, choose a compatible zodiac sign for their character – a sign that gets along well with your hero – and list what the hero does that scares their best friend.

Assignment: Write a new index card for all the characters in the script and their relationship to the hero (such as boss, parent, daughter, next door neighbor). Then write one or two adjectives that describe that character as they relate to your hero.

Put all these character index cards on the bulletin board in a row below the best friend and worst friend.

If you are still unclear about who your hero, villain and supporting characters are, you can refer to classic European literature for more character concepts. Classic literature basically had archetypal characters that were repeated often in stories. You may want to incorporate some or many of these characters in your movie.

Assignment: If you want the characters in your script to conform to archetype, designate each character role and write this on the character index cards.

Assignment: Find a small token - it can be a button or a rock a coin - that signifies what this movie is about or the feeling you get thinking about the story. Carry it with you through your day, so when you touch it in your pocket it triggers your subconscious to think of more details of the screenplay. When you sit down to write, put it on your desktop or table top.

Assignment: Play music that suggests the feeling, the mood of the scene you are writing.