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Screen Writing Exercise

This page of my blog shows a script writing exercise I decided to repeat. This task involves taking a passage from a book and then changing the writing to fit the format of a script. 

To remind myself of the different sections that can be included in a script, I looked back at the resources that were provided during the previous project that was about script writing. These resources were taken from the book 'Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting' by Syd Field (2005).

The resources that I looked back into (for an example) are shown below:
 

Screenplay example.png

Notes received during a lesson:

 

SCRIPT WRITING: TOP TIPS FROM SYD FIELD

 

LINE 1: The Slug Line or Scene Heading

  • States the general or specific locale

  • We are outside, EXT, somewhere in the ARIZONA DESERT; the time is DAY

 

LINE 2: Text and/ or Action

  • This is an Action

  • Single spaced

  • Description of people, places or action

  • From margin to margin

  • No longer than a few lines

  • Descriptive paragraphs, describing the action, should be no longer than 4 sentences

  • The more ‘white space’ on the page the better

 

LINE 3: Shot or Camera Movement

  • Specifies a change in camera focus or frame

  • It is a suggestion from the writer not an instruction

 

LINE 4: Minor Location Change (same scene)

  • Change from outside to inside the jeep

  • Focus is on the character Joe – he is the subject of the shot

 

LINE 5: New Character

  • New characters are always introduced in capital letters

 

 

LINE 6: Speaking Character

  • The name of the character speaking is always capitalised

  • The name of the character speaking is always centred

 

LINE 7: Stage Directions

  • Written in parentheses

  • Directly under the name of the character – single spaced

  • Only use when necessary

 

LINE 8: Dialogue

  • Placed in the centre of the page

  • Several lines of dialogue are always single spaced

 

LINE 9: Stage Directions (again)

  • Also include:

  • What characters do

  • How they react – facial and body language

  • Silent or otherwise

 

LINE 10: Sound Effects/ Music Effects

  • Always capitalised

  • So sound designers can skim the script quickly to identify the music and effect ques 

 

LINE 11: Scene End

  • Indicate the end of a scene with a transition

State the type of transition e.g. Cut to, dissolve, wipe etc.

However, to make it so I'm not just carrying out the exact same task, I have decided to change the passage that I'm changing the format of (so I decided to use another book I had on hand, this being the novel for Mortal Engines).

For this task, I took a random passage from the book to then carry out the task. The original passage from the novel Mortal Engines (Reeve, 2015) is shown below:

​

As usual, Katherine felt a rising thrill at the thought of that vessel lifting Father up into the sky – and a sadness too, that he was leaving her; and a fear that he might not return. “Oh, I wish I could go with you!” she said.
“Not this time, Kate,” her father told her. “One day, perhaps.”
“Is it because I’m a girl?” she asked. “But that doesn’t matter. I mean, in Ancient times women were allowed to do all the same things men did, and anyway, the air-trade Is full of women pilots. You had one yourself, on the American trip, I remember seeing pictures of her…”
“It’s not that, Kate,” he said, hugging her. “It’s just that it may be dangerous. Anyway, I don’t want you to start turning into an old ragamuffin adventurer like me; I want you to stay here and finish school and become a fine, beautiful High London lady. And most of all I want you to stop Dog peeing over all my crates of soup…”
When Dog had been dragged away and scolded they sat down together in the shadow of the hangar and Katherine said, “So will you tell me where you are going, that is so important and dangerous?”

“I am not supposed to say,” said Valentine, glancing down at her out of the corner of his eye.

“Oh come on!” she laughed. “We’re best friends, aren’t we? You know I’d never tell anybody else. And I’m desperate to know where London is going to! Everyone at the school keeps asking. We’ve been travelling east at top speed for days and days. We didn’t even stop when we ate Salthook…”

Edited version/Script format:
 

Exercise task 1.PNG
Exercise task 2.PNG


Notes
There are some additional sections that I have left out of the script above. One of the main sections is indications/suggestions for camera actions/positions. But since this is a script for a novel I have left this out (but if this was to be developed this would likely be carried out.
However, as stated in the 'Screenplay' book, "Don't worry about the camera angles!" (Field, 2005), "Your job is to write the script, scene by scene, shot by shot." (Field, 2005).
So at least for my own script, I shouldn't worry about camera angles, but maybe at least the type of shot being used (?). 
 

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