How to Write a Script

Hey everyone, I am Steve Nelson and you are watching the 4-Minute Film School. Now you might be saying, hey, where is weekend extra? Well it's gone and it's never ever except maybe one day going to come back. The whole point of this show is to teach film making lessons in four minute and hopefully you guys learn something or else we fail; if you do learned something we pass.

So let's start the clock. Writing your script can be extremely difficult. From all the technical mumbo jumbo that you have to memorize to well coming up with an idea, but don't hang yourself just yet because Indy Mogul is here to will help; but you can hang yourself after we get your precious YouTube views. We will even give you the noose. It's probably really inappropriate, isn't it?

Everyday your finger makes countless selfish clicks. How about a couple for your friends? Share Indy Mogul, it's as easy as one, two and three and then you can get back to whatever else it was you were doing.

Now to get things off the ground you are going to need a script writing program. Celtx is an awesome program that makes it easy to format, write, and share your script with all of your friends or business associates.

Now there are a ton of rules when it comes to script writing and most of them contradict one another. So what we are going to do on the show for you today is give you the most basic information that you need to know. To make a script that you and your friends can make a movie out of because, f**k Hollywood.

Here are the primary parts that make up a script. First we have the scene heading, telling us where the characters are; followed by the action and then the character and his or her dialog, and the parenthetical basically tells the actor how to say his lines because actors went to school to learn how to read the scripts not to think for themselves. So let's tell him what to do and how to do it and finally an extension is used to indicate whether the character speaking is present or not. If it says VO next to the character's it means voice over and they are not present they are just narrating like I am right now. Where am I?

Now that you know how to write a script you need to come out with an idea and if you have trouble coming up with ideas all you really need to do is start getting your brain running and creative juices flowing and the easiest way to do that is by watching other movies like silent films and musicals. You know movies you might never actually give a chance or listen to different styles of music, read books, learn about other cultures. You need to get concepts and ideas flowing through your mind to be able to come up with your own original ideas and concepts.

Now because Indy Mogul is all about film making, I came up with the list of movies whether it's their look or the dialogue; something about it that really inspired me and got my creative juices flowing. These movies are "The Night of the Hunter", "A Pure Formality", "Rushmore", "Metropolis", "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," and "Cinema Paradiso".

When working on your project remember that you are writing for an audience and you can maintain their interest with good plot structure or go testaments (ph) of nudity, violence, and cursing; but if you want good plot structure, I would also recommend picking up the book "Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters" and now here are some tips on scriptwriting from the members of the Indy Mogul forum.

BigBoyRaul (ph) says make sure you always draft at least three times. Make a first draft read it, give it to a few core people and get them to read it and take pointers and then a week later read it again with your new outlook and repeat the entire process.

HoneyBunchFilms wrote, before I read a script I usually bringstorm and write an entire page for each character. Once I flush them out and they feel real then I can write something that I feel is good. To which BlackDiamond adds even information that would never come up in the film, it helps make them a real person. Juranamo says, definitely mention the one minute a page thing, that's usually the purpose of formatted scriptwriting other than being a format everyone should be able to understand.

Now you are fully prepared to write your great script. Here is a dramatization of what will happen if you send it to a Hollywood studio.

I can't believe these people actually think we are going to read these scrips. I recommend making your movies yourself. That will wrap up the very first episode in the 4-Minute Film School. I hope you guys enjoyed it and in the future we cannot wait to see your 4-Minute lessons and see if you can teach us something in that time. Have a good day.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services