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SCREENWRITING A Beginners Guide (Extended) Printable Stany Fernando 16th May 2018 V.1.0 about.me/stany 1 INTRODUCTION 4 CHAPTER 1: STARTING OUT 5 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO 5 CHAPTER 2: CONCEPT AND RESEARCH 6 COMING UP WITH A CONCEPT 6 YOUR HEAD SPEAKS A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE ONLY YOU CAN UNDERSTAND 6 WRITE...

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SCREENWRITING A Beginners Guide (Extended) Printable

Stany Fernando 16th May 2018 V.1.0

about.me/stany

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INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER 1: STARTING OUT

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THINGS YOU NEED TO DO

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CHAPTER 2: CONCEPT AND RESEARCH

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COMING UP WITH A CONCEPT YOUR HEAD SPEAKS A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE ONLY YOU CAN UNDERSTAND WRITE DOWN YOUR THOUGHTS THROUGH POINTS FORM READ AGAIN AND RE-ORDER FINALISING AND FIXING ON YOUR CONCEPT TRY TO PREVENT DISCUSSING YOUR CONCEPT WITH YOUR FRIENDS OR FAMILY RESEARCH WHY DO YOU NEED TO RESEARCH? COMPARE YOUR RESEARCH NOTES WITH A PERSON YOU TRUST USE BINDERS AND FILES FOR YOUR RESEARCH MATERIALS KEEP IT PHYSICAL FINALISING AND THE TIME SPAN

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CHAPTER 3: THE STORY

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INTENTION & OBSTACLE INTRODUCING INTENTION & OBSTACLE DON’T OVER EXPLAIN THINGS FINDING THE CONFLICT YOU CAN START YOUR STORY WITHOUT IDEAS PUSH YOUR STORY FORWARD NOT BACKWARDS RULES ARE WHAT MAKES ART BEAUTIFUL LEARN THE RULES READ SCREENPLAYS THE THREE-ACT STRUCTURE THE SETUP (ACT 1) THE CONFRONTATION (ACT 2) THE RESOLUTION (ACT 3)

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CHAPTER 4: DEVELOPING CHARACTERS

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DON’T WRITE BIOGRAPHIES PREVENT CREATING TRAITS YOUR CHARACTER DOESN’T HAVE TO BE HUMAN THINK TACTICAL DON’T WRITE CHARACTERS LIKE YOURSELF

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CHAPTER 5: THE AUDIENCE

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MAKE THEM PARTICIPATE TREAT THEM SMART A CHARACTER THAT KNOWS LITTLE LESS THAN THE AUDIENCE. AVOID CONFUSION DON’T COMMIT THE WORST CRIME MOST OUT OF THEM ALL

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CHAPTER 6: CRAFTING YOUR OWN SCREENPLAY

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FINDING THE RIGHT TOOL FINAL DRAFT CELTX KIT SCENARIST ADOBE STORY BE CONFIDENT WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING FIRST AND LAST 15 PAGES ARE IMPORTANT FEW ELEMENTS OF A SCREENPLAY SCENE TITLE CHARACTER NAME TRANSITION STRUCTURE OF A SCREENPLAY

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CHAPTER 7: DEVELOPING SCENES

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MAINTAIN MOTION REWARD PATIENCE LAYOUT THE THEME

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CHAPTER 8: WRITING DIALOGUES

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IMPROVISE KEEP IT NEUTRAL

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CHAPTER 9: FIRST DRAFT

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GET TO THE END PAGE COUNT AND TIME SPAN KILL YOUR DARLINGS

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CHAPTER 10: CLOSING

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© Stany Fernando 2018

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FAILURE IS GUIDANCE ALWAYS EXPERIMENT BEWARE ABOUT WHO YOU TRUST ALWAYS KEEP A BACKUP RE-READ AND RE-WRITES ARE MANDATORY KEEP WRITING WRITER’S BLOCK TAKE A BREAK

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ARISTOTLE’S POETICS CHEAT SHEET

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RULES OF DRAMA STRUCTURE CHARACTER

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NOTES

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Scan the QR Code and Download the Digital Version

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INTRODUCTION My Name is Stany Fernando; I’m a Photographer and a Journalist. Apart from that for the past couple of years I’ve developed a keen interest in the field of Filmmaking. Since I couldn’t afford to spend $90,000 for Film School but that didn’t stop me from learning it. Using internet and various sources I’ve been learning to write, produce and direct. But I’m so far in time to achieve my goal. All these years I’ve gained somewhat a drop of knowledge on Filmmaking. After taking the Aaron Sorkin’s (The Social Network) Masterclass; a new door was opened up to. I thought what if I could put together all the notes and the knowledge together and share it fellow enthusiasts and inspire them. Thus I created this book. It’s not much; there so many rights and wrongs here; but hey everyone’s learning forever right? When it comes to writing people tend to have their own unique style; so please don’t consider this as a rule book; I’ve combined how I use writing with the Fundamentals of screenwriting. I hope this book inspires you and make you do something far beyond great. Feel free to share it with others and contact me to share you tips and thoughts about it. I hope we can learn something through this.

It's part of my ritual to watch a new film every day, no matter what. It's important to me. Hideo Kojima (Creator, Metal Gear Saga)

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“For me, the cinema is not a slice of life, but a piece of cake.” Alfred Hitchcock

Chapter 1: Starting Out Starting out as a writer isn’t hard as you think; but complicated for sure, you can guess why… more like what’s the reason? Personally from my experience I think we limit ourselves. Limiting ourselves can be a bad obstacle as same as building a solid impenetrable rock wall surrounding ourselves; my point being you cannot get out or neither others cannot get you out unless you surround yourself with the things that are relevant to the field you’re passionate about. Personally I hate reading books and watching hour long tutorials and conference about filmmaking where professionals blabber about how they started out. Doesn’t matter who you are; where you’re from, unless if you have the potential and the fire to make the change you can break though the industry. Everybody has their own style when it comes to filmmaking; some manage to replicate one another and find it comfortable and at the same time some invent their own unique style. I’d recommend creating your unique style will open up new doors; but it’s not come easy as you may think. Everything you’re about to read here isn’t perfect or correct to the core; these are just basic fundamentals and my thoughts on the theory of writing I’ve come across through the journey. Please don’t try to go by this book; but taking the advice from this, is highly recommended.

Things you need to do Watch many movies and tele dramas or anything that falls in the Film category much as possible This is the most vital thing you have to consider if you want to be a Screenwriter. You have to watch films, tele and other categories of films across the globe; this will somehow at some point will expand your mind and open up doors to new concept and things Collect Screenplays and Read Them This part may be very hard for you to do. As myself I think reading through a screenplay of a movie you found interesting is an agony; but believe me; if you passed around 10 to 15 pages you’ll loose track of time Do not consider yourself an Intellectual As I said in the introduction; it’s ok to have the fire inside you; but it can also be a pitfall whenever someone rejects your work. (Rejection is vital part of the success)

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Start writing right now Don’t think of others or what they will think; as long as you take that fear of judgements out you’ll break through. Be your own critique This is kind of advanced yet complicated. But it won’t stay complicated once you do all the things mentioned above. Being a critique of your own work can be really challenging; to do that, the vital thing is to be Realistic; to gain realism toward the field of film making you need to compare various works from different artists to learn their ways; and in a way it’ll expand your mind as well.

Chapter 2: Concept and Research You have an idea for a story; just before you start writing or typing it you need to understand the fact that people as in audience have been advanced throughout all the knowledge and new concepts that all filmmakers provided through the history of cinema. Because of those advancements; people really adore facts rather than fantasy; but even fantasy requires logic from time to time. To Create Logic we need to set our facts straight; to do that Research plays the most ambiguous part throughout the process.

Coming Up With a Concept We can’t exactly predict the birth of a Concept; it can be either from a movie you’ve watched; a tele you’ve seen or it can be a story you’ve read or heard. Just because you find the story interesting doesn’t mean the audience are going to like it. Also a Concept can be created through a single scene, dialogue or a moment you’ve planned for your film. Always keep a little notebook with a pen wherever you travel; because you never know when a concept’s going to hit you.

Your Head Speaks a different language only you can understand Things that pop up in your head can be messy; if you think you can sort it through your brain you must be Sherlock Holmes; heck he isn’t even real.

Write down your thoughts through points form Segregating your thoughts through bullet forms helps you re-order everything popped into your head. Don’t even hesitate to leave even one word in your pad. WRITING DOWN I MEANT REALLY DO IT PHYSICALLY RATHER THAN TYPING IT VIA A DIGITAL DEVICE UNLESS YOU LACK A PEN OR PAPER.

Read again and Re-Order Your points doesn’t have to be in order; the end can be beginning; the beginning can be middle and the middle can be either end or the beginning; but this is where you will re-order all your thoughts in order to create a concept aka an outline for your screenplay.

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Finalising and Fixing on your concept Personally I hate this part; because whenever I start working on the Script I’ll be forced to alter the core concept sometimes it would flip all the effort I’d put in. This happens usually to any kind of artists. To prevent that you need to polish and make up your mind and learn to fix on things in general. It’s impossible but try harder.

Try to prevent discussing your concept with your Friends or Family I’ve learned it through hard way; usually when I discuss my concept before writing it down, it would change the vision I had for my project and that my friend is a huge obstacle.

Research Okay, now you’ve passed the Dark Souls of Research and Development. Sorry if you’re not a gamer. You have everything jotted down; now using the latest technology of World Wide Web try to make sense out of the stuffs you’ve marked down; or even Books will do the trick too. Comparing your notes are the most vital part; this is where you’re going to determine how you’re going to lead your development in the upcoming days.

Why do you need to Research? Well to be precise; you need to make things more sensible and more logical to do that you need research about the notes you’ve gathered. Assignment: RESEARCH ABOUT A REAL LIFE PERSON.

Compare your research notes with a person you trust The reason I’ve included the word trust is that; anyone can steal your concept and create something over it and claim it their own. So in my own experience I’d recommend you to find a most trustworthy individual for you to share your thoughts and stuffs about your progress. But beware this person’s critiques might flip your progress. Ask him/ her to provide guidance than critiquing

Use Binders and Files for your Research Materials Rather than storing it digitally, unless you use any cloud services; which I wouldn’t recommend from personal experience. Use Folders and Binders using all the data you’ve gathered. This can be healthy and easy for you to keep track on things. Sometimes while gathering required materials you’ll collect tons of irrelevant things ahead. But remember; NOTHING IS IRRELEVANT. Even the tiniest bit might help expand your development further.

Keep it Physical Keep everything physical; write notes; print out the data you’ve gathered and segregate them down into sections.

Finalising and the Time Span During a life of a Writer or a Screenwriter or an Artist in General; the time period for Research could take months or years depending on the weight of the project. But my point being is that, sometimes you’ll feel like giving up, you’ll feel hopeless but it’s just mind kicking off things due to the elevated stress levels, take a break; don’t schedule yourself; © Stany Fernando 2018

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unless you work for money under an organisation. Whatever you do, don’t give and loose hope.

Chapter 3: The Story Most people tend to jump to this part without any sort of Research and incomplete concept and think to themselves “This is Hard”. Once you have your CONCEPT and THE DATA you’ve gathered solid as a concrete you can move on to creating a story for your project.

Intention & Obstacle Let me tell you a simple story that happened to me few days ago. My mum asked me to buy a bag of chips and grab a few drinks off the nearest supermarket for the relatives who visited us after a decade. So I hoped into my car to drive for the Supermarket but while on the way there was a Parade. I couldn’t honk at them or ask them to move a bunch of crowd so I could drive ahead. If I take the other route it’ll burn my fuel and my time as well. With limited options available I decided to take that specific route and bought the Items required home. By the way you might’ve realised that story’s fake. I don’t own a car on my own and no relatives ever visit me or my family. But my point being is that Intention and Obstacle is what makes a Story a Story. Without it, it’s just a Documentary showing what exactly as it is. If you take any Movie, Tele or a Play you see the main protagonist overcoming certain Obstacle and later he ends up finding a solution on how to overcoming that certain obstacle and makes i as his Intention.

Introducing Intention & Obstacle Many professional writers recommend that we introduce the Intention and Obstacle at early on. Then grab the audience by showing a solution how the protagonist overcomes the obstacle. But that’s just their own opinions. Try experimenting.

Don’t Over Explain Things Oh this can be a major disaster. Also it can lead to irrelevant plot holes where you’ll end up fixing those plot holes further more. "Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire" is much longer than the first three books because JK Rowling unintentionally created a giant plot hole and had to spend the rest of the book trying to fix it. Also plot holes can be created by anything not only while you’re over explaining things

Finding the Conflict Conflict plays a vital part in a story whether if it’s a Kids targeted or baby shows or children rhymes. Finding the conflict interesting for yourself doesn’t do much; rather than saying why you found the conflict interesting to the audience, try to tweak it up. But remember don’t over explain it. © Stany Fernando 2018

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You can start your story without Ideas As a writer I really adore this part of the Process. Because as for myself; I become very curious to see how the story goes this helps us to expand our creativity even further.

Push your Story Forward Not Backwards Each lines or Paragraph or even a sentence should move the story forward; whether it contains Flashbacks or past events that’s relevant to the core plot, must move forward to make the story go further. The best element to keep the story moving is CURIOSITY. Keep asking audience the questions that you already have the answer for; because they don’t have the answer for it; in that way the you’ll build a bridge between the audience through curiosity.

Rules are what makes art beautiful Learn the rules All the things you’ve read so far won’t matter until you start watching Movies, Tele, Documentaries, Plays, etc.

Read Screenplays Head out to the Internet; download Screenplay; either you can just read it or watch the movie scene by scene with the related screenplay; see if it follows exactly as the text says in the visual.

Be a Diagnostician

Don’t change the fundamental part if the story is based on real life; the truth is vital if it’s real, that’s what makes it logical.

The Three-Act Structure “People have forgotten how to tell a story; stories don’t have a middle or an end anymore. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning” – Steven Spielberg

Since the Ancient Times of Arts and Culture the Three-Act Structure played a vital part. It’s known as the valuable weapon in the arsenal of any Writers in General.

To be precise the Three-Act structure labelled as   

ACT 1: Setup (Beginning) ACT 2: Confrontation (Middle) ACT 3: Resolution (End)

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The Setup (ACT 1) As a Writer; this where you colour on your blank canvas. Introduction of the Major/ Main Characters of the Story. The world or the Universe they’re in. Also the writer has the freedom to create any setting or character even reality as they wish. It’s the first pages of the script that defines reason and logic of the story. This early on, anything is possible. The story may happen in the distant future or long time ago in a galaxy far far away. It may take place in downtown New York or in an African jungle. The first act also establishes genre. It may be a drama about a widow that struggles to re-encounter love, or a suspense about a young trainee summoned out of the FBI academy in a special assignment to interview a dangerous psychopath. (Source: Gabe Moura, Elements of Cinema) The writer may even distort reality or create his own. Toy Story (1995) opens with a young boy, Andy, playing with his toys. As soon as Andy exits the bedroom, leaving the place unsupervised, his toys promptly gain life. Yet we don’t frown or disapprove of it. At the movie’s very beginning, the audience has their mind open for practically anything. As the movie progresses, the viewer unconsciously forms a frame for the story, and their suspension of disbelief narrows, limiting what they will accept as plausible and congruent. (Source: Gabe Moura, Elements of Cinema)

The Confrontation (ACT 2) The confrontation is the hardest one to press on as the Writer. Since it’s by far the longest one between Act 1 and 2, writers face challenges creating further plot elements by establishing the story and the characters yet so many blank pages away to keep the story forward. At this point the writer must’ve created a solid frame for the narrative. As epitomized in Witness, the second act may be a moment in which the hero leaves his comfort zone, which fuels the writer with another set of possibilities. In The Lion King (1994), after Mufasa dies, Simba runs away. Timon and Pumbaa save him from the desert, and Simba has to live in the Jungle, eating bugs and beetles! During Act II in Toy Story, while Andy’s mom’s fills up her vehicle, Woody leaps out of the car in order to rescue Buzz. But before Woody can convince Buzz to climb back in the car, Andy and his mom take off, leaving Buzz and Woody stranded in the gas station. Before the movie’s resolution, the two toys find themselves into an even worse setting – Sid’s creepy bedroom. (Source: Gabe Moura, Elements of Cinema) Example: If the Protagonist shoots the Antagonist with a Gun during the Confrontation. Rather than explaining it in the Final Act now is your Chance to maybe add a Scene where he picks up a Gun

The Resolution (ACT 3) This is where the as the writer you should establish the Conclusion and the answer to the questions you threw at the audience. Mainly in movies the Pro...