screenwriters toolkit

It’s time to listen. Your Task: Poll 10 people with the following questions:

- What’s your favorite action movie?
- What are 2 specific things you like about this movie?
- What’s your favorite scene or scenes in that movie?
- What’s your least favorite action movie?
- What are 2 specific things you disliked about this movie?
- What scene or scenes made the movie so bad?

Now, find and watch at least 4 of these movies. Pay close attention to the specific scenes mentioned.

Lastly, freewrite about your impressions of each movie; about whether your opinion is in line or differs from the people polled; and, about what you can learn from these movies about how to write action in a script.

Learning how we get ideas out of our head can give us a better understanding of how we write action sequences. If the screenplay is merely a map for actors, directors, producers and other crew, then action is really creative instruction. Your Task: Get a partner. In pairs, partner B is to instruct partner A how to put on a shoe (preferrably one with laces). To do this, parter A must start by taking off one of their shoes. They are also to pretend that they have never seen a shoe, don’t know what it is and don’t know what it’s various parts are or do. Now, partner B needs to explain the process of putting on a shoe. Partner B should do this verbally and without pointing at the parts of the shoe. Every part of the explanation should try to be clear, verbal and effective enough to get partner A to get that shoe on. Lastly, partner B can freewrite for 10 minutes, answering the question: How was it to give clear instructions?

Screenwriting teacher Hal Ackerman states, “In describing action, don’t let it take longer to read then it would to do it on screen.” Keeping this in mind, let’s practice some action writing. Your Task: Watch an action movie of your choice. Pick one scene to focus on and write out the action (using screenplay format). Use as few words as possible.

Have you ever used a Mind Map? Read this selection about mind maps from matchware.com:

A Mind Map is a highly effective way of getting information in and out of your brain - it is a creative and logical means of note-taking and note-making that literally “maps out” your ideas.

One simple way to understand a Mind Map is comparing it to a map of a city. The city center represents the main idea; the main roads leading from the center represent the key thoughts in your thinking process; the secondary roads or branches represent your secondary thoughts, and so on. Special images or shapes can represent landmarks of interest or particularly relevant ideas.

The five essential characteristics of a Mind Map:

The main idea, subject or focus is crystallized in a central image.

The main themes radiate from the central image as ‘branches’.

The branches comprise a key image or word drawn or printed on its associated line.

Topics of lesser importance are represented as ‘twigs’ of the relevant branch.

The branches form a connected nodal structure.

Your Task: Create a mind map to help you brainstorm the structure of an idea. Place your story idea in the center of the mind map, and use the instructions above to see what comes out.

What’s getting between us and our goals? What’s in the way of our characters’ reaching their goals? I attended a theatre workshop once that put participant A on one side of the room, representing themself. On the other side of the room stood another participant, representing participant A ’s goal. Then a number of other participants stood in between participant A and their goal. Each person in between representing an obstacle for participant A. One person represented fear. Another represented the lack of money. Another represented self-doubt. And on, and on. Finally, participant A was told to walk toward their goal, having a conversation with each obstacle in the way. This was a great visual representation of our many internal and external obstacles and can be used as a tool to understanding our characters’ path through our movie. Your Task: Flip a piece of paper horizontally. On one side put your character. On the other side put your character’s goal. Now, in the middle, write each of the obstacles you can think of that prevent your character from reaching this goal. On another piece of paper, write out some of the conversations your character has with these individual obstacles (ie. what would your character say to their fear?). Finally, freewrite for 10 minutes on: How can the structure of my screenplay be defined by my character’s path through their obstacles?

Try this! Your Task: Grab a novel. Flip to a random page. For context, read one page before and after your randomly selected page. Pluck the main character you’ve just read about from this novel. Turn on your TV. What location do you see? What’s happening? Turn off your TV. Now, write an action scene with your character from the novel in the location from the TV. Address these two questions: How did they get here? What happens next!

Because we’re working in a visual medium, it’s important to show what we’re talking about with our characters’ actions. Your Task: Re-write these 5 sentences as short action scenarios.

1. I love you.
2. I hate you.
3. I’m hungry
4. I’m scared
5. We need to get out of here

How does action grab us? Your Task: Watch a movie - any movie. Now, look back at your movie watching experience. Answer these questions: When did you feel the first sense of excitement (and starting to get drawn in)? What captivated you? What actions did you take when responding to the movie (did you move forward in your seat?)? Now, describe in detail what happened when you first got pulled into the movie. Try to write this as an action sequence.

Taking a look at others’ work can help us get an understanding of the process of structuring a screenplay. Your Task: Find a movie whose screenplay is also readily available. Get them both. Now, watch the movie. Take a series of (at least 3) scenes and transcribe them using screenplay format. Do this without looking at the screenplay first. Now, compare your transcription to the original screenplay and notice what’s different. Finally, do a 10-minute freewrite on what you’ve learned.

There are two kinds of movie dialogue: Expository Dialogue & Action. Expository dialogue says something about your characters, and the who, what, why, how and where of the movie you’re writing. Action dialogue is what moves the plot forward. Your Task: Combine the two. Write a page of dialogue between two characters that exposes them and moves them to the next scene.