How to Write a Screenplay

Hey, there's a formula to writing screemplays. Seriously. And it's pretty simple. Yeah, even you could follow it...

Have a look at this educational video. It was made using Powtoon, which is free. But before you make your own amazing Powtoon presentation, have a look at this amazing presentation. With thanks to D. Bogut (@GodBlessAchoo).

The history of CinemaScope

If you have any interest at all in cinematography, even if you're only wondering about alternative ways to frame a particular shot, you'll find this helpful.

Some terms you'll come across include:

anamorphic
The word "anamorphic" and its derivatives stem from the Greek words meaning formed again.

anamorphic widescreen process
The film is essentially shot "squeezed", so that the actors appear vertically elongated on the actual film. A special lens inside the projector unsqueezes the image so that it will appear normal.

CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967.

David Bordwell is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in film from the University of Iowa and has written thirteen books on the subject of film. What follows is a fascinating lecture on the history of CinemaScope.

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ReadThrough

ReadThrough is an online program which provides voices for your screenplay characters. The program was created by Guy Goldstein, a software engineer based in Austin, Texas, who wants to be a screenwriter. He also wanted to hear the screenplays he wrote read aloud by appropriate voices. No existing software would allow him to do all the things he wanted to do. So he wrote his own program.

And gave it away for free. Here. (Same as with WriterDuet. The dude keeps busy.)

I had played with Speech Control in Final Draft, and Speak Text in Movie Magic Screenwriter previously. Neither appealed to me. American accents on voices that were too young or too old for the Australian characters I had imagined... No thanks. I'd stick to my imagination, or live reads.

ReadThrough is different, though. It allows for voice actors from across the world to volunteer their voice skills. Screenwriters can listen to voice samples of hundreds of people and select ones that would suit the characters in their scripts. Professional actors looking for work have signed up, as well as many amateurs.

I listened to all those who claimed to be able to do an Australian accent. All the usual half-baked cockney sounds emerged, but zero genuine Australian accents. That's a problem that can be solved over time, especially once Australian actors hear about this opportunity.

I decided to test ReadThrough by uploading a screenplay I had written for a short film. At the same time I would volunteer my reading skills and select myself as one of the readers. How hard could it be?

Once I'd worked my way through the registration process, and selected some other people (and myself) as readers, I attempted to record my role in the screenplay. The script opened on page nine, even though my character had lines on page one. Nothing I tried would get me back to page one. Very frustrating. In the finish I gave up.

A few days later I received a flurry of e-mails informing me of the progress of one of the readers I had invited to participate. When she had completed the process I went to have a listen, but discovered that the entire screenplay had been recorded, mostly by computer voices. I had a quick chat with my reader by e-mail and she reported that she'd taken part in several recordings and never had a problem, so we can assume that I made a blunder somewhere.

Funny thing is, even though I didn't like the voices, I learned a few things. Like, I have a lousy voice for radio; and I speak too slowly for movies; and I had left one of my characters with but a single line of dialogue. That line consisted of just one word, which was butchered by the computer reading.

Anyway, give ReadThrough a go, you might be surprised by what you learn.
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P.S.  One of the nice things about ReadThrough and WriterDuet is that the creator of these programs is both accessible and helpful. After this post appeared, Guy Goldstein responded with the following explanation of my difficulties in using ReadThrough.

About it opening at page 9 - I suspect the issue is that ReadThrough opens up to the most recent page you were on, regardless of what role you're recording (though if you've never visited before, it'll start you on the first page you have dialogue). You should definitely be able to get to other pages, though - were the slider and arrow icons not working? In the recording box you can quickly arrow through all your lines, and in the main script you should be able to get to any page.

As for most of the roles being recorded by computers, I can understand how that's confusing/not good, but I'll explain what we do. Since actors don't perform the script instantly, we always fill in roles by computer voices to start you off. As actors finish and you select them (plus click the button to perform the read-through), the computer voices are replaced.

'Breaking Bad' POV shots

Kogonada is a largely anonymous Korean filmmaker. He knows plenty about filmmaking, and is willing to share his insights via the occasional video essay.

This is a compilation of POV shots from the TV show Breaking Bad. (And thanks to Michael Zeitz for turning me on to that show way back when.)

Breaking Bad is one of the best television dramas ever, and it showcases some effective POV shots, with the camera looking at the characters through a grill, refrigerator, gas mask, etc.

Watch this:

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"Escape My Life"

Okay, TV ads for cars don't work any more, what should Ford do? How about a cute commercial, disguised as a webseries?

Finding herself in need of a new car, wardrobe designer Skylar Browning learns from a friend about a Ford marketing program in which high-profile entertainment peeps can try out brand-new cars for free. Skylar meets the head of the program, John Vernon, who seems eager to help out, but when she gets home with her new 2013 Ford Escape, Skylar is shocked to find that it comes with its own babysitter—a strange man named Barry.

The show stars Natasha Leggero and Joe Lo Truglio.

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Neorealism vs Mainstream (American) filmmaking

Kogonada is a largely anonymous filmmaker. We know he was born in Seoul, Korea, that he knows plenty about filmmaking, and that's about it.

His offering today is a practical examination of the differences between mainstream (American) filmmaking and neorealism.

In 1953, Vittorio De Sica (director of Bicycle Thieves) made a film in Rome called Stazione Termini (known in the US as Terminal Station). The film starred Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Clift. 

Prior to leaving by train for Paris, a married American woman tries to break off her affair with a young Italian in Rome's Stazione Termini.

At the time, Jones was married to David O. Selznick (producer of Gone With The Wind). Selznick was the executive producer of the film. He took control of US distribution, but first he recut the movie and renamed it Indiscretion of an American Wife.
 

What follows is an examination of the two approaches to filmmaking, sometimes employing a side-by-side display.

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How to Get Your Script Read

Back in March, ScreenCraft presented its panel discussion, “Trailbrazers in Independent Film: Screenwriting and Producing Outside the Studio System,” featuring Cassian Elwes (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, former head of William Morris Independent for 15 years), screenwriter Adam Simon (The American Nightmare), Matt Miller, producer Sean Covel (Napolean Dynamite) and Chris "Doc" Wyatt. Inevitably, an audience member asked the age-old question about how to get a referral in the industry, i.e. How do I get my screenplay read?

Check out the video for their responses:

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