The Screenplay Format, Substance Or Form?
January 9th, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized — Movie Critic
It is important to note that an idea, a novel, a story is an inert piece of writing on paper or computer screen. We give it life when we read either aloud or silently. Whether we read to ourselves or we do for others as well, words, sentences, paragraphs go equally to all ears, but at the time of entering into our brains begin to form different images depending on the attention given, age, gender, mood, life experiences, training, etc., that have each and every one of the listeners. The people retells themselves the story being read in their own way. In this sense the work or the author of a book ends with the writing, not going beyond the interpretation. The writer does not recreate his own work. Leave the reader that freedom, that possibility, but that responsibility also.
The filmmaker should recreate his own or others works. However, How do you make an interesting work is spread among more people than just who are in the close contact of someone who reads or tells a story aloud? What to do when a work can be very long to be read or told, to other people in one sitting? How could be presented the same interpretation of a story to people from different social, cultural, economic and religious, to take an interest on it, at the same way?. These and many other questions are what motivates a writer to transform an idea or a work written in a screenplay. So, the tasks of a screenwriter through a good screenplay format are:
1. Synthesize the work.
2. Outline that work in phases easily identifiable and understandable like the three acts structure: approach, development and outcome as proposed by Syd Field.
3. Delineate and define the nature and scope of each of the characters.
4. Make a clear dissection of the work in units of time, location and interaction of the characters and environments (scenes).
5. Establish a rhythm and speed of development of the plot based on usage, sequence, exchange, interleaving, etc., of scenes.
6. Addition of different directions to give the text, diverse shades of movement, sound, color, intensity, etc.
Moreover, screenplay format allows a filmmaker, a producer or a studio executive, quickly and effectively review the work in both general and specific elements for making decisions in the following points:
- The feasibility of film
- Requirements for personnel, equipment, infrastructure
- The locations
- The time it would take the various activities
- The required budget
Therefore, a format should not be taken only as a mandatory sequence of instructions about margins and spacing, to be followed as requisite to send the screenplay to film industry, but more than that as an integral part of the language used by the filmmaker to tell a story to:
1. The production/direction team to prepare an agenda of activities.
2. The staff for legal and administrative issues and funds.
3. The critics for their considerations.
4. And the most important part, to be able to communicate with a large audience.
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