ScriptWriting Learning Aim B

 

A person who is learning how to write a script, also needs to understand the differences between the various format of scripting; they should know how their role in the scriptwriting business, they need to be able to know how to work with different techniques and they also have to develop different kind of scripts, the three common formats of scripting are: Master Scene Script, Shooting Script, and Radio Script.

MASTER SCENE SCRIPT

Master scene script is the standard and accepted format for film production, this because it’s designed to present a format that it’s accessible and clear for producers to show to investors, it’s the easiest and clearest way to mix description and dialogue to allow the reader to understand the story, which is the most important part as in this format the technical information is very limited. The format is split into SCENE HEADINGS, NARRATIV DESCRIPTION, and DIALOGUE BLOCKS.

As many movies nowadays, also Inglorious Basterds, written by Quentin Tarantino is format in Master Scene Script, in this extract, the first thing we see is the scene heading, also known as a SLUGLINE, and it’s composed of three parts: interior vs exterior, location, and time of day. The three parts need to be written on one line and capitalized, interior and exterior, are always abbreviate as INT., and EXT. Time of day is limited to DAY and NIGHT, and in some occasions also DAWN and DUSK are used. In this case the heading is INT—LA LOUISIANE (BASEMENT TAVERN)—NIGHT.

Then we have the narrative description, which is the telling of the story as it evolves on screen, and it always begins directly below the heading of the scene. Every time the narrative description it is written, it must be lean and visual, and it has to be focused on action that move the story forward. This because the screenwriter usually does not direct the movie, so they have to be as clear and concise as possible, it should help the readers to engage with the story and to visualise how it is going to develop. Quentin Tarantino in this case describes perfectly how is the place where the scene is set and how the characters are behaving in that exact moment, giving us the sensation of who we are going to see and having a clear image of their actions.

It’s fundamental to write only what can be seen and heard, only the picture and the sound are what we’re going to see written in a screenplay, unlike a novel, a narrative description should not include anything that cannot be seen or heard, a screen writer must not describe a character’s feeling, thoughts and memories this because it cannot be recorded. A screen writer should suggest the reader those feeling through action, dialogues, or flashback scenes. The Mis-En-Scene is what is told visually, so it doesn't include dialogues and internal thoughts, but they can be clothing, lighting, sounds, charcters actions, props, etc.

Quentin Tarantino, just like he must do, writes a minute of screen in a page of Master Scene Script, the timing is fundamental, in the movie industry 1 minute of a page of screenplay equals 1 minute of time on screen, which is convenient for planning purpose, as the average feature is 120 minutes, the average script should be about 120 pages in length. This convention must be a rule to be followed from a screen writer, as an action that will take a minute of screen time, it should be written to cover 1 page, rather than 1 line.

The dialogues, also called “speeches”, are composed of three parts: character name, wryly, and dialogue. The character name is written in upper case, wrylies are written in lower case inside parenthesis, and dialogues are written in normal sentence case. A wryly indicates how a line should be said, it should only be used if the subtext of the dialogue is not completely clear, and it should be kept to a bare minimum.

The font is always courier and the size is always 12, which is conventional to follow the 1 minute:1 page pattern, the SLUGLINE and the character names I dialogues are in capital letters, just as we see in the extract. The voiceover and offscreen are used as V.O. and O.S. if a scene moves from one page to another, at the bottom right of the first page should say CONTINUED, while the next page should have CONT. on the top left.

Some of the things that should never be done while writing in Master Scene Script are the scene numbers, camera angles, caps for sound effects or character names in narrative description and the third person use of “we”, so it should not be “We see the dog eating the food”, but “the dog eats the food”.

In this extract from Inglorious Basterds, written by Quentin Tarantino, the scene starts off inside a basement called La Lousiane, the slugline also tells us that it's an indoor location at night, the wrier also perfecty describes how this basement looks like, it describes the lighting, the props, how it looks like, and it also says that it has two large tables, this because the writer knows that those two table are important for the plot.

Then in capital letters, the writer introduces five nazis, and he also gives a brief description of who they are, they're military rank and what they're doing there. After the presentation the writer starts again with some description of the action that are doing the characters that Tarantino just presented.

Tarantino also describes the rules and how he game that the characters are playing works so he can use the names that they give each other to name the un-named characters.

After a big presentation and description, only then the dialogue blocks begin, and they all follow the Master Scene Script  typical codes and conventions.

SHOOTING SCRIPTS

Shooting scripts are different from the Master Scene Script, this because have different purposes, they’re used during production to shoot the movie and they are written with much more detail than spec scripts and may include scene numbers, editing transitions, camera angles and movements. Spec scripts are made for a storytelling purpose, so they can be sold, while shooting scripts are used as references by directors or cinematographers to understand how the certain scenes are going to be shot, that’s why they are formatted to include any helpful information that the director may request. The screenplay is a selling tool, while the shooting script is a production tool, that is why the approach is used when the script is going directly into production.

The similarity between the shooting script and the spec script are that they both use slug lines, the same 12 courier font and 1 page toughly equating to 1 minute of footage. Shooting scripts are also used to explain how the characters thoughts are portrayed into actions, in this reference we have the shot numbers, where we understand how many shots are going to be in  a minute on the screen, then the shot description that explains which kind of camera angle it’s going to represent a certain element on the screen, the time needs to show how long every shot needs to last, the audio helps to understand what kind of sound a certain sound is accompanied by, while the lighting needs to be specified shot per shot because if the director is shooting in single camera then the lighting position is changed for every shot.

The crew will then follow every instruction written in the shooting script, this because it includes very specific camera shots types, how the shots are going to be framed and how the sound will fit in the shot, this will help the crew on how to work on each scene while filming, which will also save time and money out of the budget. As the screenplay already established the storyline, how the characters act and are, this format is only useful to the camera crew when filming, as the only thing they need to work on is how they are going to frame a certain element on the scene and which equipment they will need.

The scene numbers are crucially important in a shooting script, the Master Scene Script must not have a number, while the in the format of shooting scripting it is absolutely necessary to present this feature. This helps the scene to be organised and concise into a shooting script and also because this scripts are hundred of pages long, so by numbering each scene, the crew can keep track of what they need to film or what is already filmed. It’s a matter of efficiency and time management, because there are some scenes that might be confusing to shoot, especially if the editing will be non-continue, so to keep count, the crew member can use the number references to make the production of the movie easier and smoother.

This extract is divided in 4 columns: Shot Number, Shot description, Time, Audio and Lighting.

The shot number helps to understand how many shots are going to be in a minute, and just because every minute should equal to 1 page, the sum of the time should be 60 seconds, this means that in this extract the convienence is not being followed, while the Audio and the Shot description sections describe how those shot are going to be produced and post-produced, during the production thr Lighting is one of the most important thing as it needs to be thought through and organised before the actual production.

When a scriptwriter wants a script to be commissioned, he will think about handing a screenplay and not a shooting script, most of the times the scriptwriter does not even write the shooting script. That is why a scriptwriter must use the Master Scene Script to ell narrative, this because the shooting script focuses less on the narration and more on the technique of how to produce it. A commissioner might not have the technical knowledge of the aspects of a shooting script, so all that additional details would only complicate his understanding of the narrative that needs pitching. Even if both of these are scripts used for movies, they still describe two different aspects of movie making. In the role of creative process, they have different functions so the shooting script will always be written after a script and probably will be based on it.

RADIO SCRIPTS

When it comes to write for a radio script, the story cannot be told visually, this is the difference from a screenplay of a film production, because there will be no screen. The only bonus is that there is much more dialogue.

(OFF) Indicates when the actor is supposed to speak away from the microphone. The audio equivalent of “off screen”.

(V.O.) Voiceover indicates a character who is narrating over sound, music or dialogue.

(D) Distort indicates a character who is speaking via mechanical device like a telephone or a radio.

(LOW) Indicates that the actor should speak quietly, almost in a whisper.

(CLOSE) Indicates that the actor should be in close proximity to their individual microphone giving an intimate feel to the dialogue.

These indications are helpful during production because it gives them quick explanations on what to do for each line. Not only does the actor get told what feeling to include during their performance, they get told how to actually do the line.

In the reference below we have an example of how radio scripts are formatted, and we can also see how it is different from the to examples before. The formatting makes the codes and conventions to be different from the other kind of scripts. Because of the fact that a radio script is entirely audio based with no visual content, this formatting is more concentrated on the dialogue blocks other than the paragraphs of narrative description. It mixes of some elements of both Master Scene Script and shooting scripts, but there are no details written about how the characters should act or appear, because the radio does not need to have that in their formatting.

As we see in the reference below, radio scripts do not need to have narrative description boxes to support the dialogue. The radio format uses more conventionally short lines that describes what happens with the help of music or sound effects that are added in post-production or are planned with a soundboard. In this example we have a specific name of each individual sound effect that appears in this script, to achieve those, they need to be planned and they need to be added during or after the production. The scriptwriter helps a lot the people who work with the script by adding  the sounds that need to be in the scene, which also helps the production crew to save time, budget money, and makes their job easier. Instead of describing an action, sound effects will help the actor’s performance, so the audience or the reader of the script can imagine the situation that is told and acted by the actor and the writer.

This scene is a conversation between two people, and if we compare this script to the past 2 scripts, the structure is completely different, the radio script doesn't show any narrative description, and this is because through radio we don't need write about any visual content because it won't be shown. 

We can also notice feautures like OFF which means that the actor is away from the microphone or is maybe using an audio efffect to communicate that he's off screen, meaning that he is not in the current scene location.

Just like the Master Scene Script, this reference here has the use of wrylies, they have the purpose of telling us how a certain line needs to be delivered and which kind of tone or attitude the actor needs to use while delivering it.

Just because the narrative description paragraphs are not present, in radio formatting the dialogue blocks are doing most part of the job. A convention in this sector is the speech of the characters, the radio script gives much importance on how an actor can transmit feelings through their voice or performance. The audience cannot see the character, that is why by using visual indications the audience can imagine what is happening, in fact a writer needs to be as a descriptive as possible. Wrylies are way more used here than in the Master Scene Script. These are short indicators on how an actor should deliver a certain line, if there are any timing needs for it and what they should do to backing it like a sigh or a cough.

Radio scripts usually number the lines of dialogue instead of the scenes, this because voice actors need to deliver most of the lines out of chronological order, so it’s easier to call a line by number so it gets the work done in an easier and quicker way.

VIDEO GAME SCRIPTS

Compared to the previous scripts, the video game script has a big difference to take into consideration, which is that video games don't have linear narrative, because the story can take multiple narratives divisions, so unlike a movie script, videogames can change their plot as the player can interract with different elements in the game that will chose different continuiation of the story.

So the writers have to follow a really difficult process to be able to createa consistent script for any occasion that the videogame presents, expecially when video games are really detailed and have got a lot of interraction going on, the writrs need to note these changes while writing the script, that gets longer an longer for any occasion of interraction.

A script for a videogame comes in two parts:

The Flowchart: which is a document with every major decision of the player faces, and the results of the decision he makes. It should consist of text boxes with arrows, and the arrows indicate what happens when an action is performed. If there are multiple choices during the gameplay that a player needs to face, “yes” and “no”, “left” and “right”, etc. can be used to indicate where the chart branches. Script for videogames are different to both film and radio scripts because they often exist within interactive worlds where multiple option lead to different storyline. Scripts are often branching, which means that some of the elements to interact with are optional, and they may or may not have impact on the gameplay, depending on prior decision or cause total script split into two or more entirely different realities.

The Script: As soon as all choices have been defined, writers must write scripts to take into account the variables their world has created, by preparing lines for any kind of situation. Which can be extremely detailed and time consuming depending on the depth and complexity of the interactive world. They often follow similar formats to film scripts; however, the variety gameplay means that there is no one set format as there is within the movie industry. Games may often employ simple dialogues sheets that instruct a voice actor of exact phrases to say, and how to project them.  

As we can see, a major success game like GTA V follows a format that is pretty similar to a Master Scene Script, as even in this one, in a cutscene, 1 minute on the screen equals to 1 page on the script, as the font size and character are the same of a Master Scene Script.

But some dialogues are also said during a normal gameplay, and those aren’t recorded in a chronological order, there are so many extra lines like those in a big video game like this, that’s why a script for a videogame comes close to be thousands of pages long, instead of the hundreds that we usually see in the movies.