SCRIPTWRITING: A STUDENT GUIDE

Now you’re stumped. You’ve skimmed through the books and articles and words of wisdom from wiser people, but all the theories are stretching you askew, pulling you away from the budding idea and towards the daunting prospect of narrative structure, character arcs and dramatic tension. In a fit of determined procrastination, you begin scraping the mold off the walls of your festering student kitchen, and lobotomizing the clock that taunts you with its self-assured ticking. The foreboding, guttural, and now rather ghostly, rhythm continues nonetheless. You proceed to scratch at the mold with the clock edge. Clearly your own narrative verges on ridiculous.

Settling at a desk, you ready yourself with a duvet cape and a teetering stack of snacks. You lament - in a Russian accent, to no one in particular - that this scriptwriting palaver is static and restrictive, and imagining the larger structure only makes your ideas feel smaller. As you are lingering uncertainty in the transitional state between child and adult, it seems irresponsible to expect yourself to be certain about structure, or anything, or to be able to apply order to the raging chaos of your thoughts.

So you don’t.

Lizards knit sofa cushions and nibble brunch on stone balconies, watching, as Swallows catapult golf balls across waterfalls and boastful clocks are dragged into obscure depths, whilst a couple in a Kayak battle over the ore and the navigation, and the last Oreo. Nonsensical scenarios accumulate and overlap, until a plausible tale emerges. Just by writing, you learn how to write. You forget the restraints and remember how to imagine. Structure becomes instinctual.
Perhaps you’re lazy and naïve. Perhaps you can’t think of any sound advice to post on your blog about the key to good scriptwriting. But you’re a student; you’re not supposed to know anything yet. At least until you’re a fully-fledged adult, you doubt you ever will.

Words of Wisdom from Wiser People:

‘You may go the long way round to get something good, but as long as you get something good it doesn’t matter - don’t be too harsh on yourself if it doesn’t come naturally and quickly’ - Jamie Thraves

‘If dialogue doesn’t have natural human patterns, then the freeness and openness of the acting immediately changes’ - Jamie Thraves

‘Forget the three act structure - All the manuals insist on a three act- structure. I think this is a useless model. It’s static’ - Frank Cottrell Boyce http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/jun/30/news.culture1

A book I would recommend for scriptwriters-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Film-making-Alexander-Mackendrick/dp/0571211259

Tips from a scriptwriting workshop:

·      To build a basic plot, remember GOATS (Goal, Obstacle, Action, Tactics, Stakes)
·      Part of what we respond to in a film is its intelligence about human nature and behavior - if there is an artificial obstacle such as a bomb, the interest lies in how humans react.
·      From the start of a screenplay, rules should be set (about the genre of the film, it’s tone etc.) through the establishing description and dialogue, so that the viewer has expectations and these expectations can be broken.
·      Thinking firstly without dialogue is a good way to get a sense of the character before dialogue gets in the way.