screenwriters toolkit

This exercise was submitted by Marilyn Horowitz, screenwriting instructor for NYU’s Graduate Film program. Visit her online at:
http://www.marilynhorowitz.blogspot.com

THE CHINESE RESTAURANT

As a fun exercise this month, with a group, visit a Chinese Restaurant (or get take-out) and record everyone’s fortune cookie message. Then, a week later, contact the people from the group, remind them of their fortune, and find out how closely it resembles what actually happened to them over the previous week. It’s a fun exercise to see how serendipity manifests itself in people’s lives and can later add texture and subtext to a scene.

One of the best ways to learn is to practice! Your Task: Read Screenwriter John August’s blog entry, “How To Write A Scene.” Following the instructions (minus step 11), grab an article from today’s news and write it into a movie scene.

Let’s use the ending of a film to practice creating scenes. Your Task: Pick a movie - any movie. After watching it, jot down 4 alternate possibilities for an ending. Now, pick one of your 4 new finales and use standard screenplay format to write out one of these endings.

How do movies influence, change or effect us? How can 1 scene have so much staying power in our lives? I’ve seen it many times. Friends will refer to a specific scene from a movie to relate experiences in their lives. They’ll use scenes in movies to justify a decision. It goes on. Your Task: Watch your favorite scene of a movie. Freewrite for 20 minutes on anything that comes up.

What changes in your scenes when you reduce or expand them? Screenwriting books almost unanimously call for an economy of words — choosing your words wisely and using less to say more. Practice this. Your Task: Come up with a scene from a movie and write 3 versions of the same scene. Write the first one using a 1/2 page; the second one with 1 1/2 pages; and the third one using 3 pages.

Here’s another practice exercise for creating a scene. Your Task: Think of an incident that happened in your life where you were unsatisfied with the end result. Now, write a scene that goes through this incident. Change the scene to reflect the way you’d rather have this incident turn out.

Written/Contributed by Hal Ackerman

Two people are in bed. A siren or alarm is heard. Or the phone rings. Or a doorbell. WRITE THE SCENE.

You will have to ask yourself: Who are these people? Who are they to each other? What are the immediate circumstances? How does the alarm affect them? What do they do? Are they at cross-purposes? How so?

Place ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances.

It’s time to practice writing beginnings. Your Task: Take this story idea: 2 Teenagers with stockings on their faces and a handgun enter their neighbors house. Brainstorm 5 possible ways this story could begin. Write your favorite one as a properly formatted scene.

A good ending leaves a lasting impression. It also leaves the last impression your viewer will get of your movie. Writing good endings can be a challenging task. Your Task: Watch the endings of 10 movies. Now, answer the following questions: 1. How did you feel after the movie ended? 2. What would you change? 3. Were there any loose ends? 4. Are there any similarities between the ending scenes in the movies you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ve watched?

Your Task: Read a newspaper or tabloid article. Pick one story that interests you and write a 1-page scene with the major points of the story.