8. Choosing the Right Script for You - SCREENPLAYS

YOU WILL BE PRACTICING

ALL FOUR TYPES OF SCRIPTS.

THE FIRST ONE IS:

***THE SCREENPLAY***

READ THE FOLLOWING LESSON ABOUT SCREENPLAYS.

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO SEE HOW TO FORMAT ONE.

NOW, WRITE A SHORT SCREENPLAY.

REMEMBER TO USE THE HANDOUTS

YOU COMPLETED AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS CLASS !!!

ARE YOU BASING YOUR SCREENPLAY OFF OF YOUR NOVEL???

THAT IS A GREAT IDEA !

NOW, TURN IN THIS ASSIGNMENT FOR A GRADE

IN SCREENPLAY WRITING !!!

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Screenplays

The screenplay is wonderful because you can do all kinds of fantastic things in movies that are very hard to do on the stage. You can cover great distances in a second. You can jump through time and space. You can create a scene that takes place in a stadium with 10,000 roaring fans or on a battlefield with 2,000 soldiers. The sky's the limit.

However, there are some unique challenges to the screenplay. In a screenplay, because you have so many options, things can get overwhelming. You'll likely have a ton of scenes, which can mean a lot of settings, scene changes, and characters to keep track of.

Plus, like stage plays and graphic novels, you'll have to develop a plot that involves your protagonist going up against various challenges in order reach his or her goals. By the end of the journey, your character has to change, whether or not he or she gets exactly what he or she wanted. Coming up with a good plot with a character arc is necessary if you want the audience to walk away feeling satisfied.

The biggest challenge for screenplays comes up when you start thinking about bringing your script to life. Producing a screenplay requires you or someone you know to track down a camera and computer editing software. Movie making is not easy, and getting your script from your computer to Hollywood isn't easy either.

If you love movies, don't let this scare you off! Writing a movie, even if it never gets made, is still a great creative adventure. Besides, as you've no doubt seen on recent visits to YouTube, anyone with a video camera can make a movie and put it out there for the world to see (and post sarcastic comments about).

FORMATTING A SCREEN PLAY ---- http://ywp.scriptfrenzy.org/howtoformatascreenplay

To read more about writing a screenplay, check out Intro to Screenwriting in our Writer’s Resources section.