Scriptwriting: How to Write Your First Feature-Length Screenplay

1. Intro: Today we're going to talk about how to write your own feature length screenplay. If you've ever written a short before, you're in a good place as feature-length screenplays simply build on that format. Throughout this course, I'll be giving you all you need to know to get started writing your own screenplay, including how to format it, which software to use, and how to structure your scripts so that you can make the biggest impact. Hi, my name is Zoe. I'm a cinematographer and a Professor of Film. I've been shooting films for many years now. And the projects I've worked on have gone on to be shown at festivals like Sundance and Caribbean tastes. As you may know, one of the courses I love to teach his script writing. I've written scripts for everything from class projects to award-winning short films to Skillshare courses like this one. By the end of this course, you should be able to write the first draft of your own feature length screenplay in no time. Let's get started. 2. Class Project: Class project. Our project for this class will be to write the first act of your own feature length screenplay. Throughout the lessons, we're going to cover how to format your texts correctly, which software you can use to help you do that and how to structure your story. For this class, it will be really helpful to have access to a phone or computer with a notes or a Docs app for you to start jotting down your ideas and writing the beginnings of your screenplay in our brainstorming session. Additionally, if you'd like to follow along with the textbook, see if you can get your hands on a copy of sub-fields book, screenplay, the foundations of screenwriting. Also, it's a good idea to approach writing with patients as a first draft of your screenplay might not be perfect. Writing is rewriting. So be kind to yourself as you write and review your work. Let's jump into formatting. 3. Formatting: Formatting. Let's start by talking about screenplay format. If you're already familiar with format or you're comfortable with the program like Final Draft, feel free to skip ahead. But we'll be using subfields book screenplay as a guide. There are several technical rules that all screenplays must fall in order to be considered properly format. Here's a list of them all. The reason that screenplays follow this specific format is not just to all look the same for the sake of it. It actually has a lot to do with producing. It's commonly understood in the film industry that a single-page of a screenplay equals about one minute of on-screen time in the final cut of the film. So if a producer gets handed a 120 page script, they can quickly figure out that the film will probably be about two hours long. This will allow them to start making their plans and creating the film's budget based on that number. If a script isn't properly formatted, that timing will be much harder for them to estimate. Okay? Once you have your pages properly formatted, it's time to begin reading, right? Almost. Another part of formatting is ensuring that the text itself follows a certain structure. Let's go through an example so I can show you what I mean. In this example, you'll notice that each line has enough. Line. One is called the slug line or the Scene Heading. This line will specify either the general or specific locale, and it's always capitalised. In this case, the scene is set outside, which is specified by EXT for external. The opposite of this would be INT for internal. The general location of the scene is somewhere in the Arizona desert and the scene is set during the day as opposed to at night. This line tells everyone who's reading the script a lot of important information that will help them visualize the scene. It's also extremely useful for cinematographers and gaffers as knowing that it's an external day seen will help us plan for the type of lighting setup will need. And if we're shooting on film, the type of film stock we should have ready for use. Line two is called the action lines. This is a single-space description of the people, places, and action taking place as you're seeing begins with the action line. It's important to write only the essential details. Descriptions of characters are placed. There should only be a few lines long. And when you start describing the action, you should try to contain those thoughts to four lines or less. Line three is an optional element with the word moving, the writer suggesting a shift in camera focus. When writing, you can choose to include these elements for more details, or you can admit them. Just know that the ultimate choice as to how the scene is shot will fall on the director and the cinematographer. Line for another solid line. It's important to note that whenever we change location in a film, we need to include a solid line. And this is a perfect example. Even though we were just outside the vehicle in lines before, we've now switched our perspective and have gone inside the vehicle. A totally different setup. Sometimes seems like these are actually shot inside the studio with a green screen rather than out in the elements were things like audio and lighting are hard to control. This is something a producer would make note of and schedule into the shoot. Additionally, this line gives us instruction as to who the shot should be focusing on. This potentially suggest to the director to reveal the character so the audience in a certain order. In line five, we see that the name Andy is capitalize. When new characters introduced, their names are always capitalize. This is to help the reader know that this person is entering the script for the first time. And for producers, this helps a lot with scheduling. If they know that they can shoot up to line five without the actor who plays. And then they can save money by only calling that actor to set when necessary. Depending on how long it takes the production to get to this point, they may even save a day's worth of pay. A producer's job is to always think about the bottom line and the financial impact of their choices. A well-formatted script can make their jobs much easier. Blind six, the beginning of our first line of dialogue. When you're formatting dialog, the name of the characters that speaking is always capitalize, and it's always in the center of the page. In line seven, we have a stage direction written in parentheses. These are stage directions for the actor that give them a bit of direction with their dialogue. Now it's best practice to only use these in the script when absolutely necessary for the tone of the scene. As actor should usually be left to interpret their characters for themselves and also to follow the director's vision. Line eight is where the dialogue actually begins. You'll notice that the dialog stays in the middle of the page with a very specific 1.5 inch gap from the left margin. This is again to ensure that the length of the film is easy to estimate because it's also easy to get carried away with something like dialogue. As a general rule in script writing, you should show not tell. Line nine is another example of stage direction. In this case, this is a physical direction that takes the place of a potential line of dialogue. Using a physical rather than a verbal response is encouraged to avoid the entire film just being a bunch of talking heads. In line ten, we see that the word sputters is capitalize. This is true for all sound or music effects, as it helps us sound designers quickly identify where they may need to source a song or record a sound, like stage directions, It's important to note that these are only suggestions. Sometimes an exact sound or song might not be possible to get due to budgetary constraints, but a good sound designer will do their best to get a comparable option. Finally, in line 11, you can optionally choose to indicate the end of the scene. This is not a necessary step, but if it makes you feel that the writing flows better, feel free to add it. You can use phrases like cut to dissolve two or fade out as suggestions for the director and the editor. And that's it. Now you're ready to start typing. So let's go ahead and talk about what software we can use to make our jobs easier. 4. Software: Software. When you're writing a feature length screenplay, you'll be typing anywhere from 40 to 120 pages or more. Considering the amount of writing you'll have to do, the software that you choose to type in is even more important and impactful to your productivity as a writer. Keeping this in mind, I'd strongly recommend using a software specifically designed for writing screenplays such as Celtics or final draft pro. Celtics is an online screenplay formatting program with a free tier. If you have a solid internet connection while you're writing and a small budget, I definitely recommend checking it out. Many of my students swear by it. However, if you have a reliable computer and around a $100 to invest in software, I'd highly recommend purchasing a copy of final draft. Final draft is the industry standard screenplay formatting software that will do all of the formatting for you. Currently, it's not subscription-based. So once you pay for it the first time, you'll have it for life. Additionally, if you're a student, you typically get it at a discounted price and with a longer free trial. If you ask nicely. In my opinion, final draft is the best option to use. If you're serious about getting started with screenplay writing. 5. Conflict & Character: Conflict and character. When writing a screenplay, if you forget everything else, there's one really important rules to try and remember. Conflict. To make something dramatically interesting to an audience, there needs to be some level of conflict within every scene. Conflict, no matter how small is what keeps the audience engaged and watching to the next scene. If as you're writing, you find that your script isn't as motivating as you'd expect. Try introducing more conflict. It's also important to remember that our stories are driven by our characters or subjects and their deep wants or desires. If your character desire something strongly enough, it will carry through in the writing. Films are generally about a character who wants something but can't have it, and their journey to get it, as well as the obstacles that they encounter along the way. It's the journey that we as the audience become invested in. 6. Story Structure: Story structure. Now it's time to start writing. But how do we actually make our stories interesting? What elements are necessary to make a screenplay engaging for readers and ultimately viewers? Let's talk about narrative structure. Narrative structure is typically how most screenplays are written and how most movies are structured. And this structure is based on something called Freytag's Pyramid. Freytag's Pyramid is a structure laid out by 19th century writer Gustaf for a tag in this pyramid, there are five main parts. The exposition, the rise, the climax, the fall, and the resolution. We're going to explore this pyramid within the context of the three-act structure, which is built around. 7. Three Act Structure: Three-act structure. The three-act structure is a way of dividing up a story into three parts based off afraid to experiment. This structure was first popularized by sub-field in 1979, the writer of the text we referenced in the lesson on formatting before and certainly since then, the vast majority of Hollywood films have been written following the structure or some derivative of it. One of our goals today is to become experts of the three-act structure. So let's dive in. 8. Act I: Act one. Act one, we start off with our character in their normal state. We watched them in their regular day-to-day life and gain knowledge about who they are and how they interact with the world that they live in. This is the exposition and the first part of Freytag's Pyramid. Nothing particularly remarkable happens in the beginning of act one. Its main goal is to just let us become familiar with the elements that make up the journey were going on. In a feature length film of two hours after one usually takes up about 20 minutes or so. It's just at the end of act one that the story really begins to start. Justice Act One is about to end. The character is faced with what we call the inciting incident. This is a moment that completely changes the trajectory of the journey that the main character has been on up until this point. Think about the moment in Black Panther went to Charlie's father dies and he is forced to become king. That is the inciting incident of the film as up until that point to trolleys journey was going on one path and then was instantaneously shifted down another path. Within minutes, he is forced to defend his claim to the throne, and once he wins, he becomes the King of Wakanda. Usually when a film is being advertised, the details of Act One are in the log lines. In the case of Black Panther, it's logline on IMDB is to Allah, air to the hidden but advanced kingdom of Wakanda must step forward to lead his people into a new future and must confront a challenger from his country's past. 9. Act II: Act to the inciting incident of act one shouldn't be compelling enough to catapult us into the longest act of your screenplay, act two. Act two is typically around 60 pages long, and it's where the meat of the story lives. This is the act in which your main character is faced with a challenge. After challenge, this build is what Freytag called the rise. Typically enact to the main character is faced with at least three challenges or crises, with the final one of them being the largest of them all the climax. Each of these points of crises or challenges for your main character either overcome or get around in order to reach the climax. How your character response to these challenges allows us as the audience to get to know them much more deeply. It's usually enact to where the audience becomes invested in a story and really begins to root for the main characters to succeed. Again, using black panther as an example, there are many points at which the main character two trolley, is challenged with an ACK tube and being at a runtime of more than two hours, it definitely needs them to keep the pace of the film. Let's talk about a few of them. One is when two cello discovers that cloud is trading by brain him on the black market in an effort to stop him, he travels to South Korea where cloud is intending to make his trade in order to stop the trade. However, at the last minute, Cloud manages to evade the child has grasp while simultaneously injury and agent That's the child who was working with in the moment to Tala is faced with a choice of continuing to pursue Cloud or to take the dyeing agent back to a condo. So that is life maybe saved. Ultimately, he makes it difficult but morally sound choice of returning home. There are many things the audience learns about to China in this scene. Not only is he of sound moral character, choosing the life of a friend over the potential admiration from his subjects and respect from his friends back home and Wakanda. But he's also not afraid of failure, which is how his morally sound act as seen when he returns home without Cloud. This example just talks about the first of many crises that take place, enact two, each one arguably rising in conflict and important as the act continues until the story reaches its climax. The tip of freight tags pyramid. The climax is arguably the most important part of the story. This is where the audience finally gets an answer to the question of whether or not all the buildup was worth it. In action film, this usually involves some sort of major battle scene in a romantic comedy. This could be the moment that the main character professors their love for their crush in Black Panther. This moment is an epic battle in which the audience watches to find out whether or not the child remains king or if his antagonists, Eric Stevens, overthrows him. 10. Act III: At three, the result of the climax is what is known as the fall or the fourth part of Freytag's Pyramid. These are the moments after the climax in which the story begins to wrap up. In the case of the result of a battle, each side would begin to come to terms with their newfound faith. At three can be the shortest act in a screenplay, depending on how it's written. And it usually runs at a similar length to act one at around 20 or 30 pages. In the final part of Freytag's Pyramid, the dentin wall, the story comes to a conclusion of some sort. This doesn't necessarily mean the story is over for our character. Rather, it's a natural stopping point for this part of the story. Oftentimes in a series or a story that's looking to become one, there won't be a clean ending S entice viewers into watching the next film. It's important to remember that in Act three, it's considered bad form to introduce completely new topics. As this act is really meant to tie up any loose ends that the story already has. 11. Connecting the Dots: Connecting the dots. So we have everything we need to go in and write excellent award winning screenplays. Now, it's just about doing it. As I've said before, the most important thing with anything is to just get started and to go easy on yourself. Try to set a small achievable goals like writing a single scene a day and going from there. If you set out like this, you'll have your first draft finished sooner than you think. Just remember that writing is rewriting and don't be too hard on yourself if you're not in love with every sentence, the most important thing is to put something on the page. Even if it's terrible, at least you can make that better. But it's hard to make something better if there's nothing on the page. As a final exercise for this course, let's take a couple of minutes and brainstorm a few ideas for your screenplay. Pick an idea you want to write about. Set a timer for one minute and write down everything you want to happen in that story. It doesn't matter if they all don't make sense. We'll sort them later, write down characters, their desires, locations, plot points, anything you can think of. There are no strict rules or restrictions except to write and keep writing until that minute is up. Feel free to pause the video. Next, let's sort through what we have to choose at least one character with at least one desire and at least one location and a few plot points to focus on. Set the timer again. And with those in mind, flesh out what your AKS 123 could possibly look like. Write down what you come up with. Finally, set the timer one last time. This time for two minutes and start writing the first scene. It doesn't have to be perfect, just get started. You can always change it later. Aim for it to be at least a page long, if not two or three. Hopefully that Brainstorm was helpful for you. Feel free to do it again with a different combination of characters, locations, and plot points until you find something that inspires you. 12. Conclusion: We've talked about a lot in this video, from screenplay formatting to the three-act structure, to the different software to use. I hope that some, if not all of it, will be useful to you as you start writing your feature length screenplays. I have a few other videos on how to work with camera equipment and lighting. So be sure to check those out. As always, let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns about anything I shared today and I'd be more than happy to address them.