Hi
Your next project is to create an original screenplay for a short film. As you follow these instructions you will begin developing your ideas from a synopsis to a fully realized screenplay. The film should be based around a problem (something that you can easily see or can easily be visualized).
- Begin by choosing a problem or issue to base your film around. You should choose something that would be easy to represent while shooting at school. Real world simple problems might be best. Examples could include "There is a surprise math test tomorrow, one friend studies, the other doesn't", "A person drinks way too much water and cannot find a bathroom", or "Two friends are curious about the school staff room and decide to try to sneak in". Write this problem down in one or two sentences. This is your synopsis.
- Come up with a beginning, middle, and end for your film. The beginning is where the problem is set up, the middle is when our protagonists face obstacles as they try to solve the problem, the end is when the story is resolved. One sentence for each. Example:
- Beginning: The teacher announces a math test tomorrow.
- Middle: The protagonist studies in the library, the antagonist is there watching loud annoying cat videos
- End: The protagonist does excellent, the antagonist is caught for cheating.
- Create a scene list.
- Your film should have 3-5 scenes. You will need to write a scene number, a location, and one sentence explaining what happens in each scene.
- The scenes should contain the characters doing things that we can see on screen.
- It should look like this.
- Scene 1 School Hallway: SARAH walks through the hallway and gets bumped into by MICHELLE the school bully.
- Scene 2 Classroom: Sarah sits down at her desk in the first row of class. The teachers announces that there is a math test tomorrow
- Scene 3 Library: Sarah is studying in the library by working on some practice math questions. Michelle is on a library computer watching cat videos.
- Etc
- Write the screenplay using CELT X which you should be able to find on our iMacs under dashboard or applications. Every scene must have a scene heading before the action is written. For this project try to avoid dialogue and write your screenplay using specific actions that characters can do on screen. For example rather than writing "Tom is angry", write "Tom, frustrated elbows a locker and shakes his head in anger".
- In Celt X you create a scene heading by selecting from the top drop down box. This is where you tell the program what you are writing.
- Every scene should have a scene heading and then action.
Your screenplay should be around a page long. Remember to save your work.
There is a great guide for writing screenplays at
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/screenplay.pdf