Screenplay

YOUR SCRIPT IS MORE LIKELY TO BE PRODUCED if it requires

  • fewer than three actors.
  • fewer than three locations.
  • few specialized period or historical costumes or props.
  • minimal visual effects.
  • no specific copyrighted properties (e.g., a girl thinks of her boyfriend every time she hears a Beatles song)

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

  • Can you identify potential audiences, competitions, and venues for screening?  What are hot topics trending among FilmFreeway festivals?
  • Student schedules make it difficult to coordinate crew calendars.  Running times under ten minutes better accommodate their available time.
  • See your story through the eyes of technique.  Have you written a scene that will be especially difficult to light (nighttime exteriors?)?  What are the challenges of recording audio in the scenes you’ve written (on the beach? near the highway?)?
  • Hold loosely to your story.  Chances are that someone other than yourself will be directing.  Actors who don’t look as you imagine will deliver lines in ways you haven’t intended.
  • It’s possible your script may be produced in a different semester or year by students you haven’t even met.  It should be written such that it doesn’t require your explanation in person.

WRITING TECHNIQUE

  • Writing the scene’s most emotionally intense moment first tends to reduce unnecessary exposition.  As a matter of dramatic shape, that moment should probably be 1/2 to 2/3 the way through the story.
  • Improve your ear for natural-sounding dialogue by regularly transcribing overheard conversations.