笔记

SCREENWRITING FORMAT GUIDELINES

-- Typeface and Paper

The correct font is Courier, the correct font size is 12 point (A point is 1/72 of an inch). Paper is 8 & 1/2 by 11, good quality white (20 pound bond).

A SLUG LINE in full caps tells us where and when:

INT. THE ROOM -- NIGHT

It's preferable to stick to either DAY or NIGHT as the last word in your slug line, as opposed to words like LATE AFTERNOON or EARLY MORNING, which may not be evident on screen. LATER or CONTINUOUS are acceptable.

(Am I cheating? Am I saying something only on the page? )

-- Action / Description

A screenplay is the blueprint for a film. Many details will be filled in by the people who make the film, so you should be as concise as possible. In 'setting the scene' try to present just a few details that say the most, that 'evoke the image' in the mind of the reader.

Garbage on the floor, peeling paint on the walls, a stinking pigsty.

Enough. Don't describe the garbage, or the colour of the paint. The Director and Art Director will decide that. you get on with who is there and what they're doing.

Unless you are simply intercutting two scenes already clearly established, always open a scene with some brief bit of action / description.

Action in a script is always happening right now, in the present, not the past tense. Beware wording like 'is playing' or 'begins to move'. Instead use 'plays' or 'moves'.

To introduce a character, capitalize his/her name when he/she first appears 'on screen'. Do not capitalize the name again. Follow this by a brief physical description, that is what we can see about the character. (It is difficult, for instance, to know, just by looking at a character, that she is "Ryan's wife.")

Break up paragraphs. Short paragraphs, with lots of white space, make for an easy read. Try for more than four sentences per paragraph. If you're good at this you will break on camera angles, without ever saying so.

-- Parenthetical Directions

These appear directly below the character name, on a tab slightly to the left, and should be used sparingly. They are most appropriate to clarify a speech which might otherwise be misunderstood, as with sarcasm, or to clarify to whom a character is speaking in a scene where there are numerous characters present.

Parenthetical directions in the body of a single speech, like (beat), should also be set off on their own line, on the parenthetical tab.

(O.S.) for Off Screen, and (V.O.) for Voice Over also appear directly to the right of the character name, in parentheses. An audible voice on the phone is usually indicated similarly: (PHONE VOICE)

-- DIALOGUE

Avoid long speeches where characters say two or three different things, or simply repeat themselves, saying the same thing in two or three different ways.

A dash (--) following a speech usually indicates that the speech has been interrupted. An ellipses (...) usually indicates the speaker has trailed off. Beware too many ellipses; it amounts to 'the naive and futile attempt to direct from the keyboard.'

If Character A speaks, followed by a bit of action/description, then Character A speaks again, repeat the Character's name, then either follow the name by (Cont'd) or use (continuing) as a parenthetical direction. If a single speech is broken by a page break, the same should be done at the top of the next page.

-- TRANSITIONS

Fully capitalized, toward the right margin, followed by a colon. All transitions between scenes are assumed to be cuts unless otherwise specified, and therefore CUT TO: at the end of a scene is optional. All other transitions (DISSOLVE TO:, FADE TO BLACK: etc.) should be included.

-- OTHER NOTES

In a 'submission script', (i.e. to a producer or agent), do not number your scenes.

The CONTINUED's which screenwriting software will place as footers and headers at the bottom and top of successive pages are, in consideration of those of you who don't possess such software, optional.

Screenwriting format is derived from the days of typewriters, and everything is therefore done with tabs, not the centering function of a word processor.

Only the left side of all you write should be evenly flush to the margin (left 'justified' in computerese). The right-hand side of everything you write should always appear ragged, that is do not do 'right and left justified' on your word processor.

COURSE OUTLINE -- SESSIONS LIST

Each class will be made up of the same basic two elements:

1. Group critique of a screened film(s)/Lecture/Instruction;

2. Group critique of student work;

The lecture topics:

-- The nature of short (vs. long) script;

-- Tradition story structure;

-- Documentary structure;

-- Alternative story structure/formats;

-- Script formatting;

-- Identifiability, exposition, dialogue;

CREATIVE WRITING PROCESS:

1> A STORY STATEMENT

Take your story idea and write it out in two or three sentences which provide:

-- a clear sense of your central character;

-- the conflict;

-- the resolution;

You may first wish to write several pages in defining the story. Then reduce your several pages to a few paragraphs. Then reduce your few paragraphs to two or three sentences at the most. Say it out loud. Read it out loud. Polish it unitl you are perfectly clear about these core elements of your story.

2> THE TREATMENT

In prose form, lay out your story scene by scene. Begin each scene with a proper slug line (scene heading), just as you will your final screenplay. Then briefly describe only what we will see happenning and hear spoken in the scene. No detail or dialogue is necessary. It should be clear from what you have written what justifies each scene -- a plot point, character introduction, etc.

You should be able to complete your treatment in two or three pages at the most.