Disclaimer: The next week and a half will be about the technique of film Making. If you are not interested in how a film is made or the painstaking hours it takes to make one, you might want to stop reading now. This, I think it is safe to say, might bore you.
With that being said, who ever else is still here, welcome. It is my prayer that you Will be able to get insight on a fascinating medium.
Recently I was watching a documentary on a film called 'Animal House' The classic 1978 John Belushi comedy that set the standard for the genre known as 'frat house comedy's'. In it, one of the screen writer's Harold Ramis was making reference to being at the premiere of the movie and being told he was not important because he was just one of the writer's.
The screenwriter is the most important ingredient to a movie. Now, granted, their are documentary film makers who don't work by a script and I might cover that with in the next week, but for now, I do want to cover screen writing.
Basically, with out the screenplay, you have no movie. The screenplay IS THE MOVIE. All of the action from what the character is doing to what they are saying, down to lets say for example walking down a side walk. The screen writer is creating all of that by his or her own imagination.
Even though the screen writer is one the most important people in film making, they are some times never treated that way.
I'll give you and example:
Screen Writer's name: Steve Kloves
Now, with out cheating, by staying off of goggle, wikipedia and other search engines, what scripts for major motion pictures has he written
Is It:
A:Jaws (1975)
B:Most of the Harry Potter series
C: Bring On The Dancing Horses (2012-13?)
If you know the answer than you are on the right track and you know a little or alot of what I am talking about
I'll give you one hint, and one hint only.
It is not C
I will say (write) it again. THE SCREENPLAY IS THE MOVIE
One more example
excerpt from the 2012-13 release, Bring On The Dancing Horses
(initial scene)
The Radcliffe House 8
BRANDON, a black twenty something college student is in the kitchen of his parents making jokes to wards his younger brother, JP
Brandon:
Yeah, mom and dad paid for your adoption so technically they own you.
BRANDON pauses and looks right to Barbara (Brandon's and JP's mother)
Brandon (continues)
The roles have been reveresed. We own you, white....
Barbara interrupts BRANDON by smacking him on the arm
Barbara:
Knock it off!
There as you have just read is both the direction and the dialog that the character make. It is also what you see in the movie. So, the screen writer is basically creating just about or if not EVERYTHING in just about any scripted movie you, my dear reader's have seen
I hope I do not have to repeat my self.
Now, included with that comes alot of rewriting. Alot of the time a 2nd or even in some cases a third draft of a script is needed. The reason for that is, simply your first draft is all your ideas written down. Second draft is a more polished version, with either scenes left out written differently.
I can only speak for my self and my experience with writing my screenplay, which is entitled "Bring On The Dancing Horses" and the things I personally went through when writing it.
First of all, the story
To make it brief it is loosely based on my freshmen and sophomore years in high school. It is by no means a true story, because to have a true story you have to get all of the names right, or at least some of them. When writing a true story you can create character's that can be a real person, to protect any one that may not feel comfortable with having their name in a movie.
Second:
Once you have the out line for your story, you than start thinking of Character names. As I hope you have just read, you noticed a character by the name of JP. JP is a freshmen/sophomore cross country/track runner who is the adopted white son of a black woman.
The idea for JP came to me when I remembered 2 people I used to go to school with one. One of them was a cross country/track runner named Dan
Another character, I refer to him as being the central character is named Micheal. To a degree, Micheal is me, but with a little bit of other people I remember knowing while I was growing up sort of make the character.
Another important thing to remember is if your screenplay is a period piece ie set in the past, you MUST always stick with the time that your script is set in. For instance, a script set in lets say 1985/86 can not use anything that may have invented after that time. Example, the dvd player didn't exist in '85 or '86 so it is VERY important you stick with things from that time.
Now, there have have been excuses, if you will for that topic. The 1985 classic film "Back To The Future", where a scene set in the 1950's where Marty Mcfly makes reference to seeing an episode of The Honeymooner's forgetting for a second that he has been transported to the decade and his meeting his Grandparents and aunts & uncles. It worked only because it was written that way as a teen who travels back in time by mistake.
One more thing I think I would like to add is when you are writing a script you can also choose what music you want. But, once again if you are writing a period piece, keep to the music of the time. There is nothing too much wrong with a song that has been covered by a current artist, but it is not the artist that did the song in what ever year you have set your time period.
D....out.
Thursday's lesson: The Green Light.
