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This blog is assembled and contributed to by writers who are interested in developing the craft of screenwriting. We've created a number of exercises that will aid you as a writer. Use it by selecting an exercise and following the instructions listed within. For a more detailed and organized list of exercises, visit the category pages. If you'd like to contribute an exercise, email basil@beingmedia.com.

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The Scene List Challenge

Category: Outline/Structure

A scene list is an outline of one-sentence descriptions for each scene in your movie-to-be. It’s a great way of seeing every scene and working out the outline of your story. Writing teachers such as Syd Field teach scene lists as a pre-cursor to writing the entire screenplay. Your Task: Make a scene list for someone else’s film. Here are the steps:
1. Download a screenplay for a movie you’d like to watch.
2. Get a copy of the movie as well.
3. Get a pen and a pack of notecards.
4. Watch the movie and outline. Every time a new scene happens, pause the movie and write a one-sentence description of the scene on a notecard.
5. When the movie is finished, put your notecards aside.
6. Now, get the screenplay that you’ve downloaded. Make a scene list of the screenplay by writing out all of the scene headers onto a sheet (or two) of paper.
7. Lastly, compare your notecards outline to the paper outline from the screenplay.
8. Freewrite: What have I learned?