If this picture here was taken from a particular scene of a blockbuster movie, frozen, as the leading actor turns back, reaching out, hoping for his dear sweetheart to take his hand so he won't have to take that long journey back home alone defeated, gazing her deep as to say I need you and I can't do this without you, come with me..., in one slow continuous motion while big city lights light up the night from its otherwise cold stillness to help set the stage for this grand finale of fate; how would you write such drama into a script so that it is inspiring enough for a director to shoot a scene with at least the same dramatic intensity as the scriptwriter/author has envisioned? Scriptwriting/screenwriting is the art of doing just that, taking an original story and making it stronger visually for it to be shot into a movie/tv/whatever.That's one of the main points I got from attending Prof. Richard Krevolin's class "Scriptwriting - Hollywood Style" at @america on Saturday. That day, which was the second part of the class, The Screenwriting Professor gave just enough reasons for me to regret missing part one the week before. He made the effort to keep the class lively with light humor, casually encouraging participation and successfully doing so that the impression made was he's pretty fly for a professor. I was even tempted to volunteer and did play an acting role on stage from one of the scripts sent in by participants last week! Not really something I would normally do, haha, but it's ok.
A movie needs movement, a catch phrase I caught the professor saying to sum up in my opinion what's needed to write a good script. It needs to visually describe where a character is at and where it is going to, from a deep-shit problem to the state where it is finally flushed away. Let's say of course after safely going through a series of beyond die hard, non stop, over the roof thrills of fights and gun shots, if you're writing an action movie. But pretty much the same with any other kind. The main idea to keep in mind is how to convey the message (of the story) without really saying it, but rather to visually show it (visual story telling).
To follow up on that main idea, what's also important is to visually tell the story in the most interesting way. You're telling a story, visually, to an audience who can be very impatient most of the time. You'll know it's not interesting when you can't really see the importance in spending an additional hour just to know where the story goes when the first half an hour of the story telling is just dull. Keep the audience interested in knowing how the story goes and how it eventually ends.
In general, there are three main acts of a story: Act one, the introduction of a problem. Act two, trying to solve the problem. Act three, the problem finally solved (or not). The order of the acts can vary depends on the artistic taste of the screenwriter or director (or even producer). You might have seen movies that actually starts with the ending scenes (the problem solved) then moves to show how it all started (problem introduction) then the suspense scenes of an adventure (trying to solve the problem). And even ones that jumps back and forth between scenes that intertwines to form a storyline. Whatever it is, the key here is to make the audience think the problem is important, and care enough for it to be solved. Ask yourself this, do you care about the story?
Finally, the professor gives these tips on how to be a good scriptwriter:
1. Glue yourself to a chair and write.
2. Share your work with people who writes and get constructive feedbacks.
3. Keep writing.
4. Watch more movies.
Oh, there's also an app you should go and check out: final draft. It'll make your scriptwriting a whole lot easier.
W. S.