Visualising the Script

I have started converting an idea for a story into a script. After drafting the character bible and scenes, it was time for visual verification to check that those words can be told in pictures.

I am not formally trained beyond those basic art lessons in school, which was decades ago; and I haven't been sketching for a long time too.

My first difficulty and probably the toughest one, was to determine the perspective - that is, the position of observation. Inherently, this corresponds to camera positions and angles during production, though this is early days yet to dwell on them.

After fixing the perspective, the next struggle was to find enough space to represent what I want within the frame - objects that are symbolic of what I want to tell in the story!

I am terrible at drawing human bodies.  A consistent trouble to draw them in the correct proportions and perspective. Sigh!

The next challenge would be to put the facial and body expressions in the characters - very much like directing the characters to perform on paper.

After that, the shading and details are easier.

Through sketch, I get to understand the characters better. Some characteristics previously left nebulous, became evident once the picture was drawn. This in turn inspired new ideas and plots to the script.

In this particular picture, I am depicting an Indian family where the father and the son are often busy watching football on TV. The  young and attractive daughter, though educated to be an engineer chooses to be a fashion model. She also spends too much time hanging out with friends and clubbing till late nights, to the dismay of the mother. The mother spends most of the time cleaning the house and taking care of the husband and two kids and lets her frustration off  through her persistent nags.

Sketching is fun! It is quite therepeutic, letting the logical mind rest for a while, while the visuals take over. However, it is time consuming, so I may resort to getting some friends to role play and test out some of the scenes instead. That is, if I can gather enough friends.  :)

Stay tune for more sketches in this blog.

This is the 40th post in this blog, which was started 1 year and 10 days ago. Which approximates to about 1 post every 9 days. They have taken quite of lot of my time during my off-days and time in between takes on set.

At the time of writing, there are about 11,472 hits: which approximates to about 1,000 hits a month or 30 a day or 1 an hour.

I have also noticed that the popular posts are those that are longer and are richer and deeper in content. The online statistics probably explains, as it shows that about one-third of readers are production professionals; one-third are actors, aspiring actors or people who aspires to act; and one-third just movie buffs or laypeople.

Finally, thank you for visiting the blog and keep your comments and suggestions coming. You may also like to subscribe to this blog at the bottom right hand side of the page.

Script Writing with Dov Simens

The following is an extract from Dov Simens Newsletter. I found it useful and so am sharing it here:

Own something…Write a 3-Page Treatment! …First, always remember “Nothing is written, it’s re-written” so stop putting pressure on yourself that the first attempt or first draft of your Treatment must be great… That is an impossible task and you have just succeeded in creating Writers Block when you start off with too much pressure.

Now, let’s start moving your fingers. First a little structure.

Everyone in Hollywood states that storytelling or screenwriting or movies are a “3-ACT STRUCTURE”… Huh? I go to a lot of movies. I’ve read 1,000s of scripts and on the Opening Page I never see ACT I (Beginning)… Then about 25-40 minutes into the movie or script I see ACT II (Middle)… Then about 30-45 minutes later or pages later I see ACT III (End)…

So what the f*ck are these alleged pros talking about?

Their response to me would be “Dov, everything has to have a Beginning (aka: Act I), a Middle (aka: Act II) and an Ending (aka: Act III)…and my response would be after I say, “Duh”…I’d pause and say, “You know you’re right”. Everything needs to (A) Start, (B) End and (C) have a Middle.

So start off writing a Treatment by taking out 3 pieces (8.5 x 11) of white paper and we are going to think of Page-1, as the Beginning (Act I) and Page 2, as the Middle (Act II) and the Ending (Act III).

Next, the Beginning and the End do not take as much time (pages typed) as the Middle. Therefore, we are going to allocate only the Top Half of Page-1 for the BEGINNING and the Bottom Half of Page-3 for the ENDING, with the Bottom Half of Page-1, all of Page-2, and the Top Half of Page-3 for the Middle.

By-the-By: while writing this 3-Page Treatment if it becomes 4-pages that’s fine, 5-pages that’s fine, 10-pages that’s fine…but don’t just bulk it up for bulking purposes alone. Don’t be excited to be able say you have written a 60-page Treatment for a Development Executive when reading it is he/she is ever bored (more chance in 60-pages than in 3-pages) then he/she will literally and figuratively “Throw It away”… Thus, let’s try to keep it to 3-5 Pages.

ACT I: Take the Top Half of Page-1 and in 3-4 long, run-on, grammatically incorrect sentences type the “5 Ws & H”… WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, WHY & HOW.

EXAMPLE: Los Angeles, 1986, South Central, a ghetto area where hubcaps have a 3-day life, JOEY GARRAGIOLA, 15, an anchor child of an illegal family with dreams of riches, …

For ACT I, Type the 5 Ws & H and each time you type a new character, type him/her in all UPPERCASE letters (this helps the reader to identify that a new character just came into story), thereafter, if you type his/her name again type it in Upper-Lower case letters. Then after you type the new character in all UPPER CASE LETTERS, type (A) his/her age and (B) a 10-15 word physical or emotional description of the character.

Type ACT I: 3-4 lines, double spaced typing and introduce the 5 Ws & H, with each new character having (1) UPPER CASE LETTERS, (2) Age and (3) Description-Visualization.

Now, let’s go to ACT III; the Bottom Half of Page-3 and in 3-4 sentences describe the 3 B-Stories and how they resolved themselves in a way that they come together and make the primary A-Story resolve itself.

Write ACT I (Beginning). Write ACT II (Ending).

Now, let’s write ACT II (The Middle).

Remember, if you ever write a piece-of-crap and send it to someone in the industry who actually reads it and you can then (I doubt it) get the reader to tell you why they didn’t like it their answer will always be some variation of “ACT II… Was A Little Weak”

ACT II is the key, combined with great dialogue, to great writing and having a Great script.

Again: The key to the Great Script and, its first step, the Great Treatment is writing a Great ACT II. The Beginning (Act I) and the Ending (Act III) are easy to write. Its’ the Middle (Act II) which is tough and, in essence, Act II…is the story.

More than likely you have a Great Idea but no real story.. Therefore, it is imperative to flesh out Act II (The Story, sometimes called Structure)…

Tomorrow’s Hot Tip will be how to (A) Create a Great Story and (B) how to Write a Great Story (aka: Act II) within your Treatment.

"From Dov Simens, founder of The Movie Cloud, and creator of the "2-DAY FILM SCHOOL" (www.DovSimensfilmSchool.com) 

 copyright (c) 2013, DOV SIMENS