P1 Analysing scripts

Scripts follow a certain design and format to be used as a screenplay. They must follow certain rules to be acknowledged commercially.

Format

All screenplays are written in the font Courier New at size 12 pt. The first page will contain the title and the writer underneath. To introduce a scene, you must start with FADE IN if the scene fades in, FROM BLACK if the scene starts from black or COLD OPEN if the scene just starts. In the case of the cold open, it is more likely a camera angle will be described instead (e.g. CLOSE-UP). Underneath this is the slugline, a line which describes where the scene takes place. This starts with INT. for the interior of a location, EXT. for the exterior or can be INT./EXT. if it changes during the scene. After the full stop you must write the location, such as JOHN’S ROOM, then a hyphen and finally the time of day. If DAY is written the scene will be shot at midday; if NIGHT is written then the scene will be shot at midnight. Other times can be written, such as DAWN or DUSK. The next line will be describing the scene – the action line.

There will be many action lines describing what happens in the scene, as well as dialogue. Centred in the page is the character’s name, possibly followed by (V.O.) for voice over or (O.S.) for off-screen. There may also be instructions for how the dialogue is supposed to be delivered or actions during dialogue.

Language

Dialogue isn’t just about writing what the characters are going to say. You need to change dialogue to fit the context of the screenplay. This means changing the dialect or vernacular. For example, an African-American character may speak in vernacular, colloquially known as ebonics, whereas an Irish character may speak in Irish vernacular. Characters who speak English as a secondary language may insert mother tongue words into dialogue, or speak differently, to a format similar to their mother tongue. Dialogue can also be subjective to the time of the screenplay. For example, someone in the 1960s probably wouldn’t use the word “hater”, as it only came to popularity in the 21st century and was only added to the Oxford Dictionary recently. Location also changes the way people speak – you probably wouldn’t have a character say “po-po” when referring to police in suburban America. The main point is that you must consider the context of the character, setting and time before writing dialogue in a screenplay.

Style

In terms of the style of a screenplay, it can fit different types of story and narrative structures. There are different act structures, the most popular being the three-act structure which has a beginning, middle and end. The first act sets up the story. The second act builds action until the end of the second act, where the protagonist is at their lowest. They then redeem themselves at the climax of the film in the third act. Then, the world goes back to normal. This also fits Todorov’s idea of narrative structure: the world is normal, but then changes and must be fixed by our hero. By the end of the story, the hero has changed the world back to normal. Obviously, not every story follows this structure. A more detailed act structure is the five-act structure, which acknowledges the conflict building to the end of act 2 as well as a denouncement which shows the world back to normal in the final act.

As well as story structure there is narrative structure. A linear narrative follows the story chronologically from start to finish. As soon as the screenplay involves a flashback or some time manipulation, the film becomes non-linear. Probably the most famous non-linear screenplay is ‘Pulp Fiction’, written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary. The events of the opening scene are stopped for the rest of the film to play out, non-linear itself, for us to revisit the opening scene again at the end of the film from a different perspective.

Another aspect of style is whether your screenplay will be single-stranded or multi-stranded. A single-stranded story follows the journey of one person throughout – a literal example of this is ‘Birdman’ (2014), which literally follows the protagonist for the entire film, portrayed in a ‘one-shot’ technique which makes it seem that the film is one flowing shot with no cuts. While there are other characters in the film, they are just minor and all their actions affect the protagonist.

A multi-stranded story follows multiple protagonists; these films are usually large scale and run for a long time. A good recent example is ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018), which has no real protagonist as it follows multiple characters in different worlds, all culminating into a final act of two different settings with different events, loosely connected.

Type

The most common type of film and definitely the most common type of script is non-fiction. A non-fiction film is referred to as a documentary and therefore is never entirely scripted otherwise it wouldn’t be non-fiction. To script a scene is to remove the realism, because what happens is planned. Reality TV shows are often a blend of non-fiction and fiction as while the characters and events are real and caused by the cast, they usually have hyperbolised characteristics and are given prompts by producers/writers to cause an event. A script for a wholly non-fiction product will not plan dialogue or action, but will describe the setting, who is speaking and what they are talking about.

Angle of Article

This is the political or biased direction of a script, apparent in the dialogue or personalities of the characters. A script could be written by someone with a particularly left-wing political opinion, meaning the protagonist(s) is likely to be left-wing or reflective of their ideology and the antagonist(s) will oppose that ideology. For example, ‘American Sniper’ (2014), written for the screen by Jason Hall, promotes a pro-American and pro-military sentiment, whereas, for example, ‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987), written by Stanley Kubrick, Michael Hurr and Gustav Hasford, which is also about war and the military, promotes an anti-American sentiment, and as like many Vietnam films of the ’70s and ’80s, criticises the Vietnam war and American involvement in international conflicts. It shows the psychological effects of the soldiers involved for a futile effort, whereas ‘American Sniper’ gives a more positive outlook on American involvement.