I know when you write a script, it's important to write it from the viewers point of view. All you really need to show is action and dialogue.
However, is it okay to write it from a first person perspective? I haven't seen this style yet on scripts I read on simplyscripts.com, but I tend to naturally write in first person and describe a lot of action and scene details.
Is that okay?
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When the script involves narrators. Lots of programs include narration.
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Hi Genevieve,
Of course it's okay to write a story with a first person narrator in the dialogue - as long as it's effective and entertaining. But when writing the action, the writer would refer to all of the characters in the third person.
Some of the stories that do that tend to also incorporate viewpoints and camera POV's that aren't always from that first-person POV - but the story can still maintain that first-person POV in the dialogue throughout it. Sometimes there are even more than one narrator, too.
A few of my favorite scripts that have a first-person narrator and many first-person camera shots: American Psycho; A Christmas Story; Goodfellas; Apocalypse Now; Ferris Bueller's Day Off; The Wolf of Wall Street; The Diary of a Teenage Girl; The Big Short; Hi Fidelity; and About a Boy. Those are all great films, and great scripts.
Best fortunes in your creative endeavors, Genevieve!
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What would that look like? I am encouraged by any thing that pushes the art form forward. But I can’t see how this would be done.
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No. "First person" doesn't normally work with a script. Screenplays are always in third person. Usually first person implies the "person" is in every scene, which is normally not the case in movies.
There has been a switch in the fiction world with many novels now being written in the first person.
That being said, has a script ever been accepted that was written in first person? Yes.
Playing It Cool (formerly known as A Many Splintered Thing) and written by Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair was on the Blacklist and written in first person. It was released in 2014 and starred Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Anthony Mackie, Aubrey Plaza, Patrick Warburton, Ashley Tisdale, Ioan Gruffudd, and Topher Grace.
Thanks to everyone who responded. I appreciate it. I guess I was also looking for a way to write my script much like Sex and The City....how Carrie is a know-it-all character telling us a story as each scene opens up.
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Ahhh. That’s not first person. If you google any of the scripts, the description is 3rd person. The voice of Carrie is just the standard voice over (V.O.). Https://Www.imsdb.com/scripts/sex-and-the-city.html
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Maybe a clarification is called for here. I doubt you're asking because you want to write action blocks in first person. Your example of Sex And The City is a good one, because if I recall, Carrie's voiceovers were also the text of the column she was writing, making those scenes and some surrounding ones in her POV. So in the way that I think you mean, yes, you can write it in her POV that way. Just do regular voiceovers.
There are lots of films where there is intermittent voiceover in the voice and POV of the protagonist. In that sense, the film is in "first person," at least in those scenes where the VO is happening. But POV often shifts between characters in movies at different times.
A.C. Patterson, thank you so much! I thought it was voice overs, but she does it so much that I wasn't sure if there was a different style of writing. And, I've never found a SATC script online either.
So, Christopher Phillips, thank you so much for sending the link! I will read the script carefully a few times!!!