Hi everyone,
I wrote a script and gave it to some friend in order to have a second opinion. I came back telling me that I shouldn't be putting too much detailing my script in order to give a director a chance to do his job. This made me confused. I asked myself, what should and what shouldn't I write in my script when it comes to detailing?
Please, someone should give some advice.
Thanks
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Hi, It should be detailed enough that you can imagine the scene. Something that is good practice, is to watch a movie or tv show and write what you see on the screen. Also, imagine it as if you were telling someone about a scene in a tv show or movie.
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Faruku Sayyadi cheers man, I think this is a great question!
Why?
Because only you are the one with the answer!
You get to choose this aspect of literary cinematic craft and enjoyment and flavor all the time. In my opinion, then if you write one script and you feel like it is too detailed, perhaps write a different one in a more spare and lean style so that you can develop a wide range of tone and type of story.
It is really quite an artistic set of choices for you as the writer.
If you search online some of the terms of art for screenwriting, what is a first draft, what is a "rewrite," what is a punch-up (as I recently learned), what is "polishing" and of course proofreading is an important one, and editing too!
Learning these things is accessible and will help you make choices that serve your chosen story and characters.
When you write and complete a script, YOU are the director on the page.
However, the screenform at its best can be very concise and even minimalist, so perhaps that is the cinematic style that your friend might think is standard,
it's always good to experiment with trying a style like maybe you would see in some famous scripts that were actually made into your favorite movies?
You can find them online and read them to discover artistic influences of style from writers you might like. Search for "screenplay X-Men 2 PDF" or something like that, or hey one my all-time favorites if you really want to see the example;
BADLANDS by Terrence Malick !!! 75 pages !! beautiful and straight to the story, an excellent example I first read as a student more than ten years ago and I still remember what an inspiration it was to see that I do not need 110 pages or even 100 to create a feature film, in a sense the shorter the better as it will keep you in focus (no pun intended haha).
Forge ahead and create your own power of expression, the blank page is an undiscovered adventure for you.
ヽ༼ ຈل͜ຈ༼ ▀̿̿Ĺ̯̿̿▀̿ ̿༽Ɵ͆ل͜Ɵ͆ ༽ﾉ
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Faruku, the reason you don’t put “too much” detail into your script is because it slows the read or disrupts the pace.
A director will ignore everything. Not in bad way. But you have told your version of the story. They will now tell their version. If you have done a good job, it will be really close to your story.
I wrote a crime drama. A director (that was eventually sacked) wanted to make it like SAW. Turn a crime film into a slasher, because that was what he knew.
Your job is to tell the best story you can. Yours is the hardest job. You must know the eventual audience for the film, writer to excite the reader, yet make it descriptive enough to get your images across (as suggestions) to the producer. A director will do whatever they want to make the film they want in the budget they have. No matter what you write, they do what they want.
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Some opinions count, some opinion's must...get used to accept any feedback, but only make hard revisions upon involved parties comments (director, producer, etc..)