Screenwriting Process -A complete guide to the screen writing process
Every successfully produced movie, cartoon, short film, etc. was all inspired by an idea whether originally fabricated or adapted from a good book, the hobbit, lord of the rings, lord of the flies, etc.
Now, these processes involved in making a successful movie script all depend on if you are willing to kick off, remember the first step to every complete project is the manuscript, blueprint, and the foundation of the project in mind. Your willingness to write becomes your first step to the successful creation of a script.
This guide would direct you on how to
• Build Worlds
• Determine and construct your protagonist(main character) as well as other characters
• Forge the main conflict
• Structure story points.
1. Building Worlds
This is a very important factor that envelops events and episodes. Just like how your reality is situated in a locale so should the reality in your script be, especially if it happens that the central theme is pivoted on a different reality one that supports the existence of dragons and knights, aliens, and monsters the likes of the Hobbit, Passenger, etc. However, you have planned it just note that every film requires a world, and this world is expected to be structured to fit the desired events in the script
What is world creation and how does one do it?
Creating worlds is often easy that is if you have been licensed with free entry into unmatched creativity but even if you aren’t hinged on daydreaming designing your world can be less hectic, you can always employ your very own environment to serve as one. World creation as the name implies is structuring a pocket reality and fitting it into the required environment, this is very much likened to fantasizing.
Recommended: Literature Fiction
Building a world starts with recognizing the theme and plot, take for instance you want to propagate a script that brings to light the medieval era you should understand that the most advanced edifice present should be a castle at least 265ft above sea level situated in an arid land or you can run with a sci-fi futuristic cyberpunk reality with a mirage of a retrogressive dystopian society with scraps of metal and shards of techno parts lying in different places. After making that decision put the following into thought
-Mode of communication- through telepathy? Magic? Town crier? Bird? Horse? Sign language
-Climate
-political and economic fabric
-Setting- religious ground? Narcissistic Auto-utopia? eternalized utopia?
-Date, most prevalent culture, clothing, most common food, etc.
Now importantly as a writer never forget to jot down all these ideas and every other that would come running through your mind.
Engage yourself with the assignment of creating a world of your own, do this without exceeding a couple of paragraphs. Note world creation isn’t only reserved for fantasy and sci-fi in fact they are required in novellas, alternate history, historical fiction, fiction, etc. After doing so,
2. Imagine your character in this world
Create a character biography: Who is he? What kind of creature? How old is he? Would he have parents? What’s his back story? What does he know? What would he be wearing? Would he change clothes or stick to wearing only one? His attitude and behavioural traits; would it be Saucy? Arrogant? Optimistic? Candid? Implausibly dumb and gullible? Enraged? Etc. what are his requirements, his wants, and needs, and what objective would he be struggling to accomplish in his world? Upon doing that,
2.1 CULTIVATE OTHER CHARACTERS, AND RELATIONSHIPS AND FORGE MAIN CONFLICT
Getting to this stage can only be as an effect of the successfully created character in the origin society, following that should be to bringing up more character ideas from your mind to populate your world start by making self-inquiry
-who should be the protagonist?
-will he/she be bad or good?
– What would he/she want?
-which given obstacle would impede him/her?
Provided they are answers to this question, those answers become your compass guiding and paving your way to formulating your plot and what obstacle should antagonize the characters. Aside from that the answers to such would help build dialogue, and help make choices when characters become puzzled by a dilemma.
This part can’t be skipped this is one of the core foundations of a delectable script
note; while writing a script, the protagonist shouldn’t be reserved for a singular character, depending on your choice they can be “protagonists” counting up to four in a case like this the focal point should centre on one character momentarily, take the money heist series, for instance, it is consenting that there are a total of 8-9 plus protagonist or in lane man language ‘good guys’ but the central focus rests upon Tokyo for a while, before shifting to others, this is done strictly for character build-up and relationship.
Also Read: Catchy Book Introduction -3 important steps to Writing a Catchy Introduction for your Book
Her character role is narrated and brought to relevance, through the in-depth revelation of her background story she becomes easily linked up with the team of other protagonists whose characters later become the central focal point with that, much comprehension is delivered likewise such should be adopted in the case of multiple protagonists, before taking a move towards that angle, ask yourself once more
-What would they require from the main character? We see in the money heist series that the professor required Tokyo’s adeptness and experience, untamed character, and brisk determination in pulling off successful robberies and pilferages in order to make his planned heist a success as well
– What does the main character want from them? we find out that in the former part of the movie Tokyo comes crawling back to the professor requesting he aids her by banding together with their calibre of misfits and outlaws in other to retrieve Rio.
By answering the above questions, you’d breathe life into conflict, conflict is drama, dialogues are formed, and a direction is created. Once the establishment of this is completed writing the screenplay becomes feasible.
Writing the screenplay
Before you begin writing your scripts forge a synopsis and pen it down.
What is A Synopsis you might ask a synopsis is a condensed outline of a screenplay, the plot arranged in the order in which the movie, short film, cartoon, drama play, etc. would be perceived, your synopsis should consist of the following ;
• Beginning
• Motion: the beginning of the cliff-hanger, the first instance of excitement
• Turning point
• Climax
• Resolution
• End.
Dialogue: dialogue is a written composition involving two or more characters conversing, writing a dialogue you’d need to consider certain factors like, what event would lead to such, in the case of Dawn of Justice you’d discover that Bruce and Clark while in their alter ego first had a dialogue, with one asking the other do you bleed? now ask yourself what led to such? Simple, it was what brought them to the same environment and what brought them there was what they wanted.
Their character trait reflects such one being paranoid and xenophobic, opposing any foreign object while the other being agitated repels every attack, one wants peace of mind, while the other wants all supposed threats neutralized which includes foreign objects.
Likewise, your characters’ traits should be utilized while building dialogue, the manner and tone in which they’d address their surrounding. Bilbo Baggins in the hobbit have an outstanding trait of cowardice this means whoever he approaches whether large or minute he would address in a friendly tone in order to abate the horrible incident of physical combat.
He would try to be rational and settle disagreements before they even begin so he employs the use of queens English and magic words which includes, please, excuse me, sorry, thank you and pardon me as opposed to Thorin who though brief in structure is well recognized for his confidence and courage even in the face of danger, with that being his most popular virtue we see him challenge whoever can be challenged, the manner at which he speaks and converse reflects utter disregard and lack of respect.
If you discover you are tongue-tied and can’t make out a dialogue, try living as the character and pay attention to how you relate with similar examples that encompass your character.
Avoid adopting already used lines, it’s plagiarism and it attracts lawsuits.
Always write in format, this is part of industry requirements, nobody reads a script that isn’t written in format.
How to format a screenplay
You can always pay someone with broad knowledge to do it for you. Or you can invest your money in script software the likes of Celtx
Proofread and appropriate all errors
Most times some writers feel this is the easiest part, you probably think so, but rolling down 50,000 words over and over again to make necessary corrections won’t be an amazing experience even if machines are involved you won’t still be laughing at the end.
Engage your friends to assess your piece with constructive criticism and pinpoint where corrections would be needed.
