  Drama
This week: Edited by: Elisa: Snowman Stik  
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| Scriptwriting of any type requires a different perspective on how you write, from how you develop your plot and characters to how you polish the piece in the event you seek publication. Previous issues addressed the species of script known as the stage play. This issue takes on visual media (better known as screenplays and teleplays). |
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During my freshman year in college, I took an introductory course for screenwriting. At the time, I wanted to go into the movie business, but this class played a role in my decision to run far, far away from the temptation of Hollywood. Even so, I gained a strong appreciation for a very demanding form of writing (especially if you write for television). Both movie scripts and TV scripts endure plenty of manipulation, but that manipulation arrives in the form of directors.
Such editing and rewriting tends to take place when the director(s) and screenwriter(s) sit and construct storyboards.
(from http://www.m-w.com)
storyboard (noun and verb)- a panel or series of panels on which a set of sketches is arranged depicting consecutively the important changes of scene and action in a series of shots (as for a film, television show, or commercial)
So when you hear of someone storyboarding an episode of CSI, this is what they mean. I have never seen the storyboarding process in person, but I am aware of some movie and that show clips from their storyboarding process in the extras on DVD releases. The one DVD that comes to my mind is the collector's edition of Finding Nemo. The storyboarding process takes up a fair amount of the director's time, so when they're sitting around, they're not just holding a megaphone and shouting 'CUT!' on a whim. A good director will devote adequate time to ironing out the script through storyboarding. After that, further rewriting can occur on the set. In spite of the horror stories some actors may tell about neverending rewrites of lines, most directors won't badger their screenwriters into this since it wastes time and money, causing the project to go over budget.
Of course, these edits take place after a script has been edited several times prior to reaching the studio. In some cases, a studio may accept an incomplete script if the screenwriter can create a logline that he or she can pitch to the studio executives.
(from http://www.scriptologist.com)
logline (noun)-a one-sentence summary of your script; the short blurb in TV guides that tells you what a movie is about and helps you decide if you're interested in seeing it.
During my creative writing class this past semester, my professor had us create loglines for short stories. Loglines are helpful for not only selling a script to a studio but to clarify the main conflict of prose pieces as well. That said, even in the case of unfinished scripts, the script writer should have the conclusion at least partially developed in a rough draft form. If need be, the writer and the director can work out the conclusion during storyboarding.
Once the movie, television show or other visual media concludes the principal photography (the technical term for filming), further editing is done, but that manipulation is out of the writer's hands. As a result, the finished product sometimes appears much different from the intended script. The material changes hands so many times that if the writer just writes, he or she will have little control over how his or her script is developed on screen. I personally found it a deterrent to enter the field of scriptwriting for a living, but if you're willing to relinquish control in the development stages, writing scripts can put some good money in your pocket.
Until next time,
(sig courtesy of panthera |
I looked for scripts that would be workable for visual media scripts, even if the original intent is for the stage. Enjoy!
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| |  | Love Actually (18+)
A basketball player gets more than what he bargined for when he signs up for a play.
#1061283 by Gigi3456  |
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Though quiet, the mailbox still holds some good comments on scripts.  It's not an easy form to get into, and I appreciate your feedback on it!
From merlin  : Dear Elisa,
Useful tips again, very timely as there is a local contest over here. I would like to know for your next newsletter if there is a simple way of remembering camera shots, so that the right instructions are given.
Best Wishes, Wyvernz
Hey, Merlin! Good to hear from you again! Since screenplays provide me with plenty of newsletter fodder, I'm going to cover that in my next issue (as I do not have either of my screenplay books on hand at the moment). Truth is, writers could sit and obsess over camera shots for days only to have them completely scrapped in storyboarding. So for now, I recommend not worrying about camera shots until the revision process. If you write them in the rough draft, you'll never finish your script.
From scribbler : yep, plays kill trees.
You bring up a very good point with your comment, scribbler. I now understand why people tend to write one act plays in the first place. Just one act can take twenty pages front side only.  Having encountered scripts for musicals firsthand, I have seen how much paper they use. Though much of the cost for buying or renting a script covers author royalties, I'm sure the paper they use to print out each script book doesn't come cheap given how much is used. Likewise, many contests still require paper submissions for scripts of any kind (stage or screen), and screen scripts even require a particular type of paper (which I will also address in my next issue of the drama newsletter).
And while not from the mailbox, I'd like to post a few words from Ms Kimmie on the subject of adapting a published story to script form, something you can think about in anticipation of the next newsletter.
If you've never done one before, getting the rights will be difficult and costly. You could try approaching the publisher with a query. A lot of publishers have as many rights as possible and you need to find out if the author or the publisher owns those rights. You could try to get a consult with a script agent (an agent won't take on an unknown without a product [i.e., manuscript/script]) who might be able to advise you. You can also write to the author care of the publisher.
For the next newsletter, bring on your technical questions! I know there's plenty of information on screen writing, and I need help narrowing it down. I already plan on addressing the issues of submitting scripts and technical terminology. However, since this newsletter is for the readers, I want to know what you want to know about screenwriting.
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Drama: May 24, 2006 Issue [#1059]
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