With the Writes Guild Strike still marching on I thought about how I can get back into writing a screenplay for a film. Not to take anyones job, but more to get myself out of the technical cramming of information. Back in school I loved my screen-writing class. We all gathered around and read our scripts out loud. I miss that. It was more the technique than the creativity. I also miss the intimate criticism that was handed out. I’ve been having a difficult time writing a script. So I put these steps together to help me get back into writing a script. Here is how you can do it too…
- Think of a concept or story you want to tell.
- Watch a film that you think is flawless. I chose Blade Runner.
- Search the internet for a script on that film.
- Copy the script word for word… typing it out! No copy and paste, you’ll miss the point.
- After you finish copying the script find someone you can read the script with and listen to the dialog and settings.
- Watch the film again and enjoy it.
- Now write your script as soon as you can and knock it out with a refreshed sense of style.
Pretty soon you’ll see the rewards of my hard work and hopefully it will pay off.
9 responses so far ↓
1 stephen v2 // Dec 28, 2007 at 2:12 am
I can’t say I’ve ever tried that method, but I’m a huge believer in screenwriting groups. We meet once a week – yeah, that’s once a week, every week except major holidays. If you can’t commit to that you probably won’t finish a feature script, so it works right up front to get people in the group who really want to do it.
Then, we rotate. Two people a week bring in at least 10 pages which you get to hear read out loud to the writer followed by constructive, thoughtful feedback. 6-8 people in group. At worst, within a year you have a finished draft that you have already heard read out loud and received support and feedback on.
It may not work for everybody, but it does work for me.
2 Andy Coon // Dec 28, 2007 at 9:41 am
Steven,
That sounds great… Where do you guys meetup? Is there room for others?
3 stephen v2 // Dec 28, 2007 at 11:58 am
We meet Wednesday’s at 7 at one of our groups home. I can bring the group and see if they want to add one more if you are interested.
4 Ajayi oluwaseun // Jun 7, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Explain it more clearly
5 rania // Jun 24, 2009 at 7:48 pm
wasn’t helpfull at all,i want to write my own script not copy a script from a movie!
6 Egwu Godwin O // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:29 am
You are helpful to human life.
Am happy for you.
Please, what are the formats a good script should possess.
Thanks, reply via email
7 Venkatesh Rao // Jan 31, 2010 at 10:12 pm
Hi,
My name is Venkat. I have got an interest recent days. when i was kid. i used to watch some sector of movies. then i used put comments for those movie.
finally one day i thought something like that.
i would want to become a director and Direct a good entertain movie based with good message.
Thanks
+Venkat+
+Bhappy4ever+
8 Itoro // Feb 4, 2010 at 5:13 am
i dont know how to start. i like to invovle in script writing how do i go about it. thanks
9 Egwu Godwin // Feb 5, 2010 at 10:57 am
which site will i get written scripts for free and where can i get stage rules in trems of stage drama.
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