Writing a Screenplay - Main Task

noun

noun: screenplay; plural noun: screenplays

1. the script of a film, including acting instructions and scene directions.

Screenplay example:

Notting Hill (1999) movie script

by Richard Curtis.

EXT. VARIOUS DAYS

'She' plays through the credits.

Exquisite footage of Anna Scott -- the great movie star of our

time -- an ideal -- the perfect star and woman -- her life full of

glamour and sophistication and mystery.

EXT. STREET - DAY

Mix through to William, 35, relaxed, pleasant, informal.  We

follow him as he walks down Portobello Road, carrying a load of

bread.  It is spring.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 Of course, I've seen her films and

 always thought she was, well,

 fabulous -- but, you know,

 million miles from the world I live

 in.  Which is here -- Notting Hill

 -- not a bad place to be...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

It's a full fruit market day.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 There's the market on weekdays,

 selling every fruit and vegetable

 known to man...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

A man in denims exits the tattoo studio.

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 The tattoo parlour -- with a guy

 outside who got drunk and now can't

 remember why he chose 'I Love Ken'...

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - DAY

WILLIAM (V.O.)

 The racial hair-dressers where

 everyone comes out looking like the

 Cookie Monster, whether they like

 it or not...

Sure enough, a girl exits with a huge threaded blue bouffant.

EXT. PORTOBELLO ROAD - SATURDAY

 

The purpose of a screenplay is to adapt them from original works or for a new piece. In them, there is a description of the movement, expressions, actions and dialogues of the characters.

The challenge with our screenplay was that it was perhaps hard for us to come up with a script without any dialogue. However, it was a little easier since we had a novel of which we could base our adaptation of, it was a rather daunting fact of being able to turn a novel into a moving image. In this way, we had to come up with movements to compensate for the lack of dialogue, and make sure the narrative made sense. We also had to make sure that the setting would be appropriate for a relevant teenage bedroom. In terms of coming up with the screenplay we found it hard to perhaps pick the right part of the novel to start the film for our opening since the book initially starts with a letter about perhaps why events occur later in the book. In this way, we decided that this would be a good place to start and adapt into a piece of moving image. Visualising the character in his surrounding was actually not that difficult but we did have to think carefully about what his room would be like and how this would apply to the character, in order to portray him in the right way, as well as not giving away too much about the rest of the film.

However, in the end it was produced:

Nineteen Minutes

INT. BEDROOM –

MID-DAY

A typical messy

teenage bedroom in Sterling, New Hampshire. It’s around 1pm in the afternoon.

The room is very messy, with a bowl of half eaten cereal on the bedside table,

and dirty socks on the floor.

There is a young man

sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, whom is named PETER. He is typing

on a laptop, and the audience can see the screen of his computer, as he clicks

on an album on his screen, and music begins to play.

At this point, PETER

continues to type away on his screen, as the audience realises that he  is in

fact typing a letter.

PETER

(typing on screen) By the time you read this,

I hope to be dead.

PETER continues to type on his keyboard as we

see other areas of his room.

PETER

(typing on screen) Don’t blame yourself

The typing continues as we see more of his

room.

PETER

(typing on screen) That would be a lie.

The typing continues as we see his cupboards.

PETER

(typing on screen) You’ll cry at my funeral.

The typing continues as we see a clock, and

hear it ticking.

PETER

(typing on screen) Will you miss me?

The typing continues, and we see a shot of a

gun in the reflection of PETER’S glasses