Script Writing

Dramatize

• If you’re writing a dramatic scene, then dramatize it. If two

principals are in a fistfight, don’t just write They fight;
describe the action.
• You don’t need to choreograph every move, but you do
need to describe the action. EXAMPLE
• The two men almost fly across the rocky terrain, never
losing balance, never stumbling. The battle rages with
incredible finesse, first one and then the other gaining the
advantage.
Be choosy on your details

• Unless important to the plot, incidental actions—such as he lights her

cigarette, she moves to the table, she stands up—should be
avoided.
• The actions in the above baseball example—tapping the plate,
spitting—would be incidental if this weren’t the bottom of the ninth, two
outs, score tied, and a three-two count.
• If your character raises her cup of coffee to her lips, that
may not important enough to describe . . . unless there is
poison in the cup.
Describe only what we see and hear

• It is easy to slip and include information that cannot appear

on the movie screen.
• For example, the following cannot appear on the movie
screen, and, thus, should not be included in narrative
description:
• When she saw him, it reminded her of two years ago when
they first met.
• Memories, thoughts, and realizations cannot visually appear
on the movie screen, but you can describe actions, facial
expressions, or gestures that suggest them.
Use specific words and action verbs

• Because a screenplay is written in present tense, it’s easy

to find yourself writing like this:
John is looking at Mary. Suzy is walking past the cafe. Snake
Koslowsky is seated on the couch.
Replace those passive expressions with sentences written in
present-tense active voice:
John looks at Mary. Suzy walks past the cafe. Snake sits on
the couch.
Action should comment on
character

• As you can see from the above section, your narrative description should
reveal something about character and about the story. For example, don’t
write:
Charlie enters.
• Instead, ask yourself how Charlie enters. Make it a character
thing by being more specific. Let every action tell the reader
(and the eventual audience) something about the character
and/or the story. Here are two examples:
Charlie silently slithers in.
Charlie limps in and, on his third try, kicks the door shut.
Avoid redundancies

• Steer clear of repetition in your narrative descriptions.

Redundant:
INT. CLASSROOM - DAY
Calcutta enters the classroom.
Correct:
INT. CLASSROOM - DAY
Calcutta tiptoes in.
Redundant:
EXT. OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL - DAY
Correct:
EXT. SCHOOL - DAY
Avoid redundancies

• Redundant:
He glares at her with anger.
STEVE
(angrily)
I feel like breaking your nose!!!!!
• Lose the exclamation points; you’re not writing a want ad. The following is
better:
He glares at her.
STEVE
I feel like breaking your nose.
• . . . And you might not need the glaring.
CHARACTER FIRST APPEARANCES

• The name DR. FORMAT is in CAPS because this is his first appearance in
the screenplay. CHARLIE also appears in CAPS because it’s the first time
he appears in the story.
• So why wasn’t “twenty students” capitalized? Because they are a group
and weren’t important enough to warrant drawing the reader’s attention to
them. In fact, as a general guideline, do not CAP groups of people, just
individuals.
• You can break this rule without any consequences; it’s not a burning issue.
CHARACTER FIRST APPEARANCES

• When a character who is identified only by function or

characteristic— BURLY MAN, BELLY DANCER, MUTANT—first
appears in a script, then place that nomenclature in CAPS.
When a character is mentioned for the first time in a speech,
don’t CAP the name.
• CAP the name only when that character actually appears in
the story.
• When a name in CAPS is followed by a possessive, the S is placed in
lowercase:
• PENELOPE’s scream shatters the silence.
CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS

• When a character first appears in the script, you have an opportunity to

suggest something of his/her nature.
• In most cases we do not need to know the character’s height, weight, hair
color, or the fact that she looks exactly like Cher.
• Describe these specific physical characteristics only if they are critical to
the plot.
• For example, the lead in Legally Blonde must wear blond hair. Do not give
a driver’s license description of your character, and do not pin the name
of a famous actor or actress on your character, because it limits who can
star in your screenplay.
• Your characters should not derive from other movies; they should be
original.
CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS

• Here is how one client describes his contemporary teenage

protagonist:
Max, 17, is a pirate in ripped jeans. That tells us a lot about Max with just
a few words. Notice that Max not only wears certain clothes that
comment on his personality or nature or attitude, but he’s been
somewhere before he got here—he’s a human with emotions and a past.
• Usually, it’s important to include the character’s age. Here is a
description of a character in My Best Friend’s Wedding:
This is DIGGER DOWNES, 36, kind eyes, an intellectual’s mouth, Savile
Row’s most unobtrusive and conservative chalk-stripe suit. He’s gay, but
you wouldn’t guess it. Loyal and wise, and you might.
CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS

• Notice that the physical description of Digger is qualitative.

It characterizes him without forcing an actor to have a
certain color hair, eyes, and build.
• How about the following from The Social Network?
• MARK ZUCKERBERG is a sweet looking 19-year-old whose
lack of any physically intimidating attributes masks a
complicated and dangerous anger.
Setting descriptions

• As with your character descriptions, describe settings briefly to set

mood or tone. Do you recall the description of the boxing ring from
Rocky I provided a few pages back? Here’s another example, this
one from one of my clients:
The room reeks of discount Tiparillos and stale pizza, as four sleazy-
looking Godfather wannabes play poker.
STANLEY BENENATI, 42 and looking about as good as you can in a
mauve polyester leisure suit, throws down his cards.
• Do we really need any more detail than that to get the picture? And
notice that any physical descriptions of the character or clothing
serve to comment on the character (or nature) of the character.
VISUAL CHARACTERIZATION

• It is often effective to give your character a visual identification, such as

Charlie’s chocolate-covered face and associated buzzing flies on the
sample script.
• Where would the Men in Black (or The Matrix’s Neo) be without their
sunglasses? And don’t Napoleon Dynamite’s moon boots and half-
opened eyes help make him unique?
CHARACTER NAMES

• All of your major characters deserve names, as do your important minor

characters.
• Characters with only one or two lines of dialogue may be given names, but
usually aren’t given names so that the reader knows not to focus on them.
• When you give a character a name, especially in the first 20 or so pages,
the reader believes that that character is important enough to remember. If
you present too many characters too fast, the reader can be overwhelmed.
• For that reason, some minor characters and all characters with no speaking
parts should be referred to in terms of their function or characteristics or
both.
• For example, if you have three technicians who only appear in one scene,
refer to them as GRUFF TECH, SEXY TECH, SHY GEEK, and so on.
CHARACTER NAMES

• Suppose you have six police officers speaking in a scene. You may
choose to refer to them as OFFICER 1, OFFICER 2, OFFICER 3, and
so on; but I don’t recommend it.
• First, limit the number of speaking officers to one or two. If any of
those six officers is an important character, try to give him most
of the lines.
• If these officers are not important (have no lines, or just have one
line, or only appear in one or two scenes), distinguish them in
some visual way: MACHO COP, TOOTHPICK, CHUBBY COP.
• This makes them easier to visualize while signaling to the reader
that they are not of major importance.
What about unseen characters?

• In the excerpt below, I use sound to communicate audibly

that there is an unseen character lurking nearby.
• The audience will know he or she is in the scene by the
sound of the camera.
EXT. PUBLIC BUILDING - DAY
James Connors hurries up the cement stairs.
An unseen person clicks the shutter of a 35mm camera.
Another click. And again as James rushes into the building.
SIGNS, NEWS HEADLINES, BOOK TITLES, NOTES,
AND LETTERS

• I chose to write the words “CINEMA DEPT.” in CAPS and to enclose

them in quotation marks.
• I could have as easily not used CAPS while still using the quotation marks.
That would also be proper.
• However, I wouldn’t use italics or bold to set apart anything.
SOUNDS

• It is not necessary to place sounds in CAPS. However, if you wish, you

may do so. Some writers place only important sounds in CAPS.
• I may use CAPS or not, since both styles are correct. Do not use the
archaic SFX. BUZZING FLIES.
• In the scene above, which takes place in a “public
building,” I did not place any sounds in CAPS. Of course, I
could have, and that would be perfectly fine and may be
preferred in this particular instance to emphasize the
photographs being taken. Here’s an example:
SOUNDS

EXT. PUBLIC BUILDING - DAY

James Connors hurries up the cement stairs.
An unseen person CLICKS the shutter of a 35mm camera. Another CLICK.
And AGAIN as James rushes into the building.
• My personal preference is to put only important sounds in CAPS to make
them pop out. If you CAP all sounds, the reader may not notice any of
them in particular.
• Besides, CAPS are hard on the eyes.