It’s up to the Production Designer to find the details that will create your intended impression. Your job is the convey the impression or feeling the location evokes. But if you want your screenplay to evoke a sense of menace, you might describe the house as ‘sinister’. An old house could be described in many ways rickety, run-down, fragile, dilapidated. They can be used to create atmosphere, for example, through location or the use of natural elements.įor this we want to describe not how something looks but how it should make us feel. Create atmosphereĪction lines are also where the tone, pace, visual and visceral experiences of your screenplay are established. Why waste a sentence describing a static scene when we could sneak a description into our action? “Joanne rushes in and frantically searches through the scattered clothes”. We want people and objects moving, not a still life picture – describe not things but things happening. The best way to describe a location is through action. You can do that by adding a detail that implies lots of other details “Clothes litter the floor”, or by describing the character of the room “Uptight and immaculate.” That simple scene header implies lots of details that I’m already picturing a bed, wardrobe, etc.īut that’s probably too generic and you’ll want to create a more vivid picture of this particular bedroom. Your slugline is the first element that creates a visual image of our location, and sometimes it’s enough. The most visceral action lines use the absolute present tense ‘Sarah runs down the street’. The action is happening now, not in the past. Screenplays always take place in the present tense ‘Sarah is running down the street’. Your thesaurus will likely be well-used! Make it immediate You’re searching for evocative verbs.įor example, ‘walk’ is too generic so it’s time to search for the perfect synonym saunters, strides, struts, strolls, marches, bounces, tiptoes. Brevity alone is not enough if the few words you use are too bland and generic. Some scripts suffer from being under-written, making it hard for the reader to clearly visualise the scene playing out. A good rule of thumb is no more than 4 lines in a paragraph of action lines. If you do find yourself with a lot of action lines and no dialogue to break it up, try to make the script an easier read by breaking the action up into smaller discrete chunks. In the first draft you may spend a paragraph describing your location but while rewriting you are trying to find the exact word to match the situation. Screenwriting is distilled writing using the fewest number of words to create the greatest possible impact. This is why some screenwriters use ALL CAPS to draw the reader’s attention to an action that, on screen, would have a strong impact, like the BANG of a gunshot. As long as it’s used sparingly this can be a very effective tool, particularly when writing in genres like Horror where visual/audio shocks are a significant part of the dramatic viewing experience. The aim is to give the reader the experience that the viewer will have. Many scripts suffer from having huge swathes of over-written action lines, making the reading experience frustratingly slow and laborious.Ī good rule of thumb is to aim for the reading experience to closely match the viewing experience, so the length of time it takes to read your description should match the length of time that action will last on screen.Ī novelist may spend a whole page describing a room but a screenwriter cannot take this long, unless you want the viewer to spend a whole minute looking at a static shot of your room with nothing happening at all! The second and third of these lack the action element that gives the read its pace and fluidity, so one of your jobs is to make these descriptions as active as possible. A screenplay needs to be a compelling read before it can become a great film or tv show. Well written action lines are vital to the success of your screenplay it’s where the action takes place and it’s your chance to tell the reader everything (bar dialogue) that they will see or hear on screen.Īction lines are sometimes referred to as scene description but this is a rather unhelpful term and it tends to make us think our job is to describe a static scene or tableau.ġ) Describe the actions happening in the sceneģ) Describe characters when we first meet them
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |