WRITING A SCREENPLAY

FOUR STAGES OF ANY SCREENPLAY

1. THE STORY CONCEPT - A single sentence telling who the hero of the story is and what he/she wants to accomplish
2. THE CHARACTERS - The people who populate the story
3. PLOT STRUCTURE - The events of the story and the relationship of the characters; determines what happens in the story and when it happens
4. THE INDIVIDUAL SCENES - The way the words are laid out on the page - the format, and how one writes action, description and dialogue to increase emotional involvement.

ELEMENTS FOR A SUCCESSFUL SCREENPLAY

1) Marketability
2) Creativity
3) Script structure


STORY ALWAYS BEGINS WITH A WHAT IF? QUESTION
What if this happened?
What if that happened

Every movie needs ENTERTAIN AND DRAW EMOTIONS FROM the reader, laughter, tears, sadness, anger, joy etc...

QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ANSWER BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO WRITE

Who is your main character?
What is he/she trying to accomplish?
Who is trying to stop him/her?
What happens if he/she fails?
Whose story is it?
Who do I care about, identify with, follow in this film?
To what extent do I see the story through a specific person's point of view?
Where do I start the scene/end the scene?
What is the point of the scene?
Why include the scene at all?
What's the most important information the audience needs to get from the scene?
What is the scene's focus?
Where is the scene heading?
Does the scene move the story further?
Does the scene have a direction? A sense of going somewhere? A point to make?
Do I get out of the scene after the point is made?
Have I remembered that scenes are about images?
Have I remembered to play the image, to play the conflict, to play the emotions, rather than simply play the information?
Is the relationship of my scenes interesting?
Are my scenes repetitive? Flat? Boring? Or is there something dramatic and fascinating happening?
Will the audience be entertained?