![]() ![]() In addition to frustrating people, camera and editing instruction make a screenplay more difficult to read. Just as camera instructions will annoy the director, editing instructions such as SMASH CUT TO or JUMP CUT TO will perturb both the director and the editor. It is not the screenwriter’s decision to make. If the director feels that a certain transition needs to be a fade as opposed to a cut, they will make this determination. OFFICE – DAY.” But aside from the slug line and CUT TO, avoid indicating anything else. or EXT., the location, and a hyphen separate the location and time. While many screenwriting programs (such as Final Cut Pro) include default scene transitions such as CUT TO, DISSOLVE TO, or FADE TO, try to avoid doing much else besides the conventional CUT TO, as well as the “slug line.” The slug line is the scene heading that simply indicates whether the scene takes place inside (interior/INT.) or outside (exterior/EXT.), the location of the scene, and the time of the scene. Remember, the studio will not be very anxious to increase the budget by purchasing the rights to songs just because the writer calls for them. In fact, even when writers try to include popular songs in their scenes, there are often copyright issues involved in acquiring them. Don’t, for example, describe certain scenes as being shot low-key, having deep focus, or including music. ![]() Screenwriters Don’t Play Other Roles, EitherĮqually important to remember is that the screenwriter is not also the director of photography, the sound editor, or the composer. A screenwriter may find this fact disappointing, but they need to understand that they are the writer of the story but not necessarily of the finished film. And in most cases the screenwriter is left out of this process. The shooting script is essentially the blueprint for the production of the film. Even though the screenwriter may have visualized many of the scenes while writing them, a screenwriter must understand that once their script is in a director’s hands, it is now the director’s film.Īfter that point, the shooting script, which has a scene-by-scene breakdown with notes about camera placement, cinematography, and staging, is drafted. The director will then re-write the script, or insert notes in the margins along with camera instructions for themselves. Very often this will involve developing storyboards and composing notes for the production crew. When a studio buys or options a screenplay, the studio will hire a director who will read it several times and figure out how to shoot each scene. The ideal screenplay simply tells the story elements-the actions and dialogue that occur from beginning to end. It’s important to note that a screenplay and a shooting script are two entirely different things. ![]() When this happened, he’d throw the screenplay away and move to the next one. In fact Ken Russell, in his book Directing Film: From Pitch to Premiere, discusses how he uses his “five-page test” when it comes to considering screenplays: “One of my rules is that if there are more than five directorial instructions in the first five pages then the writer is trying to do my job” (33). Though there might be some exceptions, directors generally despise this. At various points, they have included directions to ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT, ANGLE ON, PAN TO, TRACK, EXTREME CLOSE UP, or TILT, or have even tried to dictate where the camera should be placed. Many beginning screenwriters (or even experienced ones, for that matter) have made the mistake of inserting camera instructions in their scripts. ![]()
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