by Scott D. Morrow

Created on: August 03, 2008

Learning Screenwriting at the Movies

A screenplay is a blueprint for creating a visual presentation. Watching movies is a good way to see the results of other writers' directions so you can get a better idea of which methods work and which are not as effective. A scriptwriter can learn as much from watching a bad movie as from watching a great movie.

Basic screenplay formats are comprised of Settings, Action, and Dialogue. Each scene in the script begins with setting information: location, time of day, and whether the scene takes place indoors ("Interior") or outdoors ("Exterior"). The rest of each scene is made up of Action Lines that describe what we see and Dialogue that indicates what is said (and by whom).

Many new screenwriters have trouble grasping the concept that movies are primarily a visual medium, that most of the writer's job is to describe what the audience is seeing. The beginning of a movie is a great place to practice what I call the Transcription Exercise: how to write the directions for what you see into your script.

The opening of most movies is generally designed to give a visual setting to the story. You can practice your writing skills by mentally "reverse transcribing" what you see on the screen to script format. If the film opens with a shot of a sinister house on a hill during a thunderstorm, imagine the script reading:

EXT. SCARY HOUSE NIGHT
It is raining. A large, dilapidated house sits alone on a desolate hill, occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning.

If the camera moves inside, imagine the next scene:

INT. SCARY HOUSE, ENTRY HALL NIGHT
The interior is dark. Flashes of lightning from outside reveal a sweeping staircase and eerie portraits on the walls.

Does a character enter? Imagine the script notation:

We hear slow, steady, footsteps descending the stairs, and a flash of lightning reveals FROTHMORE, an ancient butler.

This exercise helps develop your visualization skills, enabling you to better "write in pictures."

It is also helpful to observe how the protagonist and antagonist are introduced in movies, and how the writer manipulates our feelings about them. Very little time is available at the beginning of a movie for character development, so we usually have to put the characters into a situation that will show us immediately what type of people they are. What method does the screenwriter of the movie you're watching use? Does it seem natural or forced? Do you feel the writer is showing you the character or just telling you about

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