Year 3 - Screenwriter research

A screenplay, which more often that not, is a blueprint and guide for the making of a film, which can an also "...be referred to as making the screenwriter a film’s most valuable—and often underappreciated—player" (Richards, 2010)

As a writer, it isn't as simple as just sitting down and writing just once. You will constantly be revising your work, editing drafts and more. After all, if you want a producer or studio to take on your script, then it will need to look to the industry standard.

In 'Writing Screenplays that Sell', the author, Michael Hauge explains that "The screenwriter must elicit emotion in the person who reads the screenplay..." (Hauge, 2011). The phrase of 'show not tell' comes to mind, as you want to convey the characters, not just in words, but also in their actions and tones, that you, as a writer, give them in order to bring them to life. That way, your audience may be more invested in your characters, and it may help you as a writer to be able to flesh out and develop your characters and story together

Most inportant of all for my research, is looking at screenwriters. For my research, I looked at Ray Morton and an article from 2016 where he gave several pointers of advice to "crafting better cinefantastique".

1. Be original
"There have been a lot of sci-fi and fantasy movies made in the last forty years and even more sci-fi and fantasy spec scripts written and most of them have recycled a lot (a lot) of the same elements... if you are going to write a sci-fi or fantasy piece these days and you want it received positively, then you really need to bring something new to the party – an entirely fresh and new concept or a fresh and new spin on an old trope..."

2. Don't make your fantasy too fantastic.
"...Cinema is essentially a realistic medium and viewers will always approach a movie using the real world as a frame of reference. Any move away from the real world... there will be nothing real for the audience to connect with and so they will not become properly engaged and invested in your narrative. You also have to be careful not to overwhelm your readers and viewers with fantasy..."

3. Be sure to include some humanity.
"People like to watch movies about people because they are people themselves and so are able to understand other people and emotionally invest in their plights..."

4. Build better worlds.
"Every screen story takes place in its own unique world... Whatever world your story takes place in, it must be clearly established in your script... Too many writers of sci-fi or fantasy specs don’t put enough effort into their world building and as a result the worlds in their stories are not particularly interesting or believable."

5. Solid storytelling is still a must.
Writing about imaginary people in imaginary worlds does not absolve you from following the basic principles of dramatic writing.... The narratives progression still has to make sense, the operating rules of the story’s world must remain consistent..."

6. Be practical.
"Fantasy and SF movies are incredibly expensive to make – since you can’t go on location to shoot imaginary worlds, everything in these film has to be manufactured and that costs a lot of money to do. So you have to be practical in conceiving and telling your stories... So when writing SF and fantasy, keep your ambitions in check..."

7. Explain well.
"When presenting your fantastic characters and worlds to the audience, never assume the audience will understand a single thing about those characters and worlds unless you have clearly explained them in the body of your script... dramatize your exposition in appropriate imagery, action, or dialogue (but not too heavy on the dialogue)."

8. Go easy on the description.
"...Your job is to tell the story. It’s important to give a general impression of what you envision on screen, but leave the details to the production and costume designers and the VFX folk."

9. Dialogue.
"Your characters need to speak in ways that are specific to the imaginary world and culture of your story, but that are also clear and understandable to the audience. In other words, you have to strike a fine balance between the alien and the familiar."

https://scriptmag.com/.amp/features/meet-reader-sci-fi-fantasy-films-writing-script-fantastic

Bibliography:

Hauge, M., 2011. Writing screenplays that sell. A&C Black, p.3

Richards, B., 2010. The Significance Of The Screenplay. [online] Inquiries Journal. Available at: <https://www.google.com/amp/www.inquiriesjournal.com/amp/172/the-significance-of-the-screenplay> [Accessed 29 January 2021].