Screenplays
Screenplays are structured documents that serve as blueprints for film and television productions, as well as interactive digital storytelling. They provide detailed instructions beyond mere dialogue, outlining scene settings, character actions, and transitions, which guide production teams throughout the filmmaking process. A well-formatted screenplay includes elements such as scene headings, action lines, character names, dialogue, and performance notes, ensuring all participants understand the production's intent and flow. The evolution of screenplays can be traced back to the early days of cinema, with significant contributions from filmmakers like Georges Méliès and Edwin Porter, who established the foundational format still in use today. Over the decades, screenplays have transformed in response to industry changes, including the introduction of sound and the shift from studio monopolies to more independent filmmaking. This adaptability has allowed screenwriters to present their work in ways that appeal to producers, fostering a more collaborative creative environment. Ultimately, screenplays are vital tools that not only help in visualizing the final product but also in managing budgets and schedules, making them essential for successful production in the film and television industries.
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Screenplays
Screenplays are blueprints primarily used for film and television productions but also for new media such as interactive digital storytelling. These blueprints are more detailed than most scripts, which contain dialogue and basic information. Screenplays are written, finalized outlines that help production teams prepare for shooting and guide the cast and crew throughout production. They are formatted with character tags for dialogue, time and place, movement, instructions for how scenes should progress, transitions between scenes, and any other information pertinent to acting, technical considerations during shooting, and post-production tasks such as effects and editing.
Screenplays are essential tools used to determine production schedules, budgets, and other considerations. By using a screenplay, individuals involved in a production know the intent of the work and each scene. Actors, directors, and others may suggest new ideas as production progresses, but having a screenplay can help ensure that any changes do not deviate from the work’s intent.
Background
Screenplays developed along with the motion picture industry, which began in the closing years of the nineteenth century. As this new medium advanced, individuals were trying to work out the best ways to create and present films. Early films were very short, just a few minutes in most cases, and usually had just one scene, so filmmakers initially just jotted down their ideas in a few sentences. They called these guidelines “scenarios.”
Filmmaker Georges Méliès was an innovative figure in the early film industry. He began producing films with multiple scenes that required more-detailed instructions. Méliès wrote what is regarded in film history as the first screenplay for his 1902 movie A Trip to the Moon when he wrote brief descriptions for each scene, offering directions for the cast and camera. The fourteen-minute science fiction film, which has textual narration but no dialogue, includes about thirty scenes with titles including “The Astronomers-Scientists Enter the Shell” and “Landing Right in the Moon’s Eye!” The following year, Edwin Porter created an increasingly detailed screenplay, with longer descriptions of his scenes, for The Great Train Robbery. His formatting style became known as the master scene script.
Filmmaking continued to advance, but in its early decades, making movies was not profitable. The industry, taking cues from the efficiency of manufacturing, developed film studios that adopted an assembly-line approach. These studios needed to keep a tight rein on filmmaking so they could control expenses. A detailed blueprint helped studio executives estimate costs and production schedules and allowed them to know generally what the film would look like when completed. These documents included much more information than earlier film blueprints, enabling crews to more efficiently set up and conduct filming and explaining how the film should be edited. When sound was introduced to films in 1927, dialogue was added to the documents. This format was called the continuity script.
Movie studios were extremely powerful in the first half of the twentieth century. They owned the whole industry, from preproduction to the theaters that showed their films. They controlled actors’ careers by keeping them under contract. The studio system began to falter after the US Supreme Court declared the studios were monopolies in 1948. As studios weakened, producers were able to develop projects by choosing screenplays, directors, and actors. This development offered more opportunities for filmmakers, who previously had to answer to studio heads. Filmmakers—and, starting in the 1950s, television producers—could develop a vision and bring it to fruition. Screenwriters changed how they presented scripts so they were more marketable. The result was the master scene script, the basic format still used in the early twenty-first century.
Overview
Screenplays must contain proper formatting so that all people involved in the production understand what is needed. They explain what will be seen and heard on the screen, including the sounds, visuals, and actions. The director, cast, and crew can bring new ideas to the production, but the details of the screenplay ensure the production does not deviate from its original intent.
The format of a screenplay includes scene headings, also known as slug lines, and subheads; action lines; character names; dialogue; and parentheticals, which are directions such as tone. The first element, the slug line, describes the location and time of the scene in uppercase letters. The notation INT. is used for interior and EXT. denotes the location as exterior. INT./EXT. indicates the scene is both indoors and outside—for example, if a character is on the stoop of a house speaking to someone inside. Slug lines can include specific information, such as OFFICE. The time of the scene can be general—NIGHT, for example—or indicate it is occurring immediately after the previous scene with the direction CONTINUOUS. Further descriptions of the time can also be used as needed. A slug line at the top of a scene might be INT. OFFICE—MORNING, followed further along in the scene by the subhead BREAK ROOM—LATER, for example.
Action lines contain activity as well as descriptions of the set and characters. This information, which is written in present-tense, third-person point of view, should be brief and only include visual information, although occasionally information that may influence the shooting of the scene may be necessary. For example, if a character has a revelation at a moment, this indicates to the director and actor that the moment should receive special attention. Information such as the character’s name and details such as props, sound effects, and specific shots should be in uppercase.
The character name, also called a character cue, should be in all capitals the first time it appears in the action. The name is written using upper and lower case after the character has been introduced. The dialogue appears under the character cue. More information may be included in parentheses next to the name. For example, O.S. denotes the character is off-screen and V.O. shows that audio is a voiceover.
Parentheticals, which appear under a character’s name, are performance notes. Sometimes how dialogue should be delivered is obvious, but at times notes may be needed, for example, if a line is meant sarcastically. Parentheticals are used to clarify where a character’s line should be directed (to Susan), if the actor should hesitate (Pause) while delivering dialogue, or to provide any other notes to ensure the dialogue is delivered accurately and effectively.
Transitions usually occur when a new scene begins, and a note to indicate a transition is often unnecessary. However, at times, a transition within a scene may be required. A commonly used comic technique might involve a character saying something like “I’ll die before I...” followed by an abrupt transition—CUT TO:—showing the character doing exactly that.
Bibliography
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Dooley, Kath. “Scripting the Virtual: Formats and Development Paths for Recent Australian Narrative 360-Degree Virtual Reality Projects.” Journal of Screenwriting, vol. 9, no. 2, 2018, pp. 175–189. DOI: 10.1386/josc.9.2.175‗1. Accessed 15 Nov. 2023.
Millard, Kathryn. “After the Typewriter: The Screenplay in a Digital Era.” Journal of Screenwriting, vol. 1, no. 1, 2010, pp. 11 – 25. DOI: 10.1386/josc.1.1.11/1. Accessed 15 Nov. 2023.
Miyamoto, Ken. “How to Write a Screenplay: A 10-Step Guide.” ScreenCraft, 9 May 2023, screencraft.org/blog/how-to-write-a-screenplay-a-10-step-guide/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.
Ogle, Gwendolyn. “Screenwriting for New Film Mediums: Conceptualizing Visual Modesl for Interactive Storytelling.” Journal of Screenwriting, vol. 10, no. 1, 2019, pp. 3 – 27. DOI: 10.1386/josc.10.1.3‗1. Accessed 15 Nov. 2023.
Provost, Rex. “What Is a Screenplay—The Ultimate Guide for Screenwriters.” StudioBinder, 16 July 2023, www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-screenplay-definition/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.
Vierra, Erin. “Screenplay vs. Script: What’s the Difference?” Videomaker, 29 Mar. 2022, www.videomaker.com/how-to/planning/writing/screenplay-vs-script-whats-the-difference/. Accessed 14 Nov. 2023.