Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

Abhijit Deshpande, the dialogue writer for Shaitan is of the opinion that dialogue-writing process in any film begins with a good thought first. In the absence of thought, a writer writes just for compulsion and the results are never great. He also feels that a dialogue writer must exercise the word play in such a manner that the dialogue sounds beautiful.

Abhijeet expresses his opinion about the expectations of his producer and director. They do not want the scenes to be too long. What can be said in four lines, say it in one. What you can say in one line, say it in a word. Abhijeet feels then why to have dialogues at all. There are films like Pulp Fiction which are verbose and yet intersting. The dialogue delivery too matters a lot. The delivery and timing take the dialogue to another level.

The bedrock of the screenplay  is the Acts in which it is divided.In all there are three acts, and each has the capability to stand on its own. Collectively, they form the full span of the story.

• Act One : It is an introductory act.It introduces the world of the story and its characters. You get to know the characters and their personalities.You also get to know where they live and the things they do.You come to know how they reason and how their mind works.A protagonist of the story is introduced. What drives the story is the conflict.It is initiated here. The protagonist moves towards the objective and that makes the beginning of Act Two.Act One covers 30 pages for dramas and 24 for comedies.
• Act Two : This is the main portion of the story. Here the sub-plots are introduced.New character who challenges the main character is introduced. The protagonist comes face-to-face with the obstructions and tries to resolve the conflict. Something happens to the main character. In this Act, the protagonist shows signs of change. This Act covers 60 pages for dramas and 48 for comedies.
• Act Three : Here the story reaches its logical conclusion.It is wrapped up. The conflict is resolved. At time a story is given a twist.In Act Two, the story is established. Therefore, Act Three is fast-paced and abridged.It covers 30 pages for drama and 24 for comedies.

The title page is the first page.It has an author byline in the center of the page. This page should have no embellishments.The contact details are mentioned at either the lower left or right hand corner.One can put words such as Registered or Copyright, though this may not be necessary. The papers are three-hole punched. The cover is linen or standard card stock. There are brass fasteners in the first and third holes. There is no fastener in the middle hole

Software facilitates the generation of industry standard script. There are programmes like Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter which put the words into an appropriate screenplay format while we type. It spares the wrter the hassle of margin requirements and he/she can concentrate on basic story-telling.There are development software to let you marshal your thoughts before you commence writing, e.g Dramatica Pro. Charater-based structuring is possible with Contour. Some programmes combine story development and formatting —  Movie Outline and Montage.

A page on which screenplay is typed must have 1 inch margin at the top and bottom and to the right. As the left has to factor in the binding, the margin is wider — it is 1.5 inch. the document is typed in single space. To begin with, the words FADE IN appear. The first is not number marked. The numbers appear second page onward. The number figures are written in the upper right hand corner.

Elements

The following elements constitute the format of the screenplay.

Screen Heading

It is one line description of the location of the scene.Even time too is indicated. It is also called slugline and is capitalised.

It is indented left 0.0, right 0.0 and has width of 6.0 inches.

Though location may not change, there can be a phone conversation in the same scene and therefore some distinction is necessary.Here a sub-heading can be used. As it distracts, it is not encouraged. If there are quick cuts between two locations, say a restaurant table and someone rushing to the reception counter to attend a phone call, the term INTERCUT can be used.

Action

The scene is described in the present tense.It is the visual exposition of the scene. It narrates what is visible and heard. It is indented left 0.0″, o.o” right and with width 6.0″.

Character

As soon as the character is introduced, the name is put in capitals within the action. When the dialogue starts, the name of the character appears in capitals above the lines of the dialogue.It is indented left 2.0″, right 0.0″ and with width 4.0″.

Dialogue

These record what is spoken by each character. Dialogues are used even for VO or voice over and off-screen talk.It is indented 1.0″ left, 1.5″ right and with width 3.5″.

Parenthetical

It shows either the attitude or action orientation of the character. These days parenthetical is not much in use. A director instructs the character about the delivery nuances and a writer has to pass such instructions rarely. It is indented 1.5″ left, 2.0″ right and width being 2.5″.

Extension

It is bracketed after a character’s name. It has some technical abbreviation, e. g.a character using VO.

Transition

Transitions represent film editing instructions, and are a part of the shooting script. The usual terminology is :

• CUT TO
• DISSOLVE TO
• QUICK CUT
• FADE TO

It is indented 4.0″ left, 0.0″ right and with width 2.0″.

Shot

It informs the reader that the point of focus within a scene has changed. It is a part of shot directions. A spec script rarely carries such instructions. Some illustrations of shots are :

• PAN TO
• ANGLE ON
• ECU or EXTREME CLOSE UP

It is indented 0.0″ left. 0.0″ right, width 6.0″.

 

 

 

A film’s story is converted into a screenplay. Screenplay writing should not be an intimidating task. Of course, there are rules, formatting and binding. All these elements need not make you scary.Screenplay writing is a craft which is to be mastered.Half the battle is won, once you understand the basics of this craft.

A screenplay consists of 90-120 pages. It is a  document that is typed on 8.5″ x 11″ white paper where three holes are punched. The font used is 12 point Courier. The idea behind using this font on this particular size of paper is that a page typed in this font corresponds to one minute of screen time. That means that these 90-120 pages will translate into 1.5 hour to 2.00 hours of screen time. A screenplay can be original or it could be based on some novel or play that has been adapted for screen.A screenplay is a blueprint for a movie. Those who translate this document into a movie are the director, set designer and actors. A writer must be aware of the roles of these persons.

As a film is a visual medium, a screenwriter must think in terms of images. He has to narrate what is happening. What works in a novel, say a long monologue, may not suit a film script. Some crucial moments could be shown just by facial expressions, shrug of shoulders or twitch of an eye.

There are unknown and sometimes known screen writers who write a script on their own, without anybody commissioning it so as to approach the prospective buyers like the producers, actors or studios later to sell it off.Such unsolicited script is called speculative script or in short spec script. Such a script can also be used as a sample script to prove a writer’s credentials.

Vast majority of scripts written are spec scripts. These are written even for television serials.Mostly they are written sans the technical terminology of film making such as camera angles etc. because the director on accepting such script gets it reworked according to his vision either through the same writer or another writer or may rewrite it himself. Speculative scripts can be original scripts or adaptation.

When a director gets it rewritten with technical instruction, it becomes a shooting script or production script. A spec script writer avoids all technical instructions unless he himself wants to direct it.

Some scripts of Hindi films can be repurposed for Hollywood and international markets. Vidhu Vinod Chopra sold the rights of his popular Munnabhai  films to Hollywood studios, with a right to clear the repurposed script. While repurposing the script, the sensibilities of Hollywood must be kept in mind. If the script writers from the Writers Guild of America are employed, they would have to be paid at least $70,000 to $80,000 on each script. Repurposing considerably lowers the cost.