Screenwriting : Calling all screenwriters out there. Help me define a script by Doug Nelson

A screenplay is a document written by a screenwriter that tries to convey the story of a movie using only words. Without using actors, sets, props, pictures, lighting, music, sound, or special effects, a screenplay tells readers everything they see and hear on the screen. While you read a screenplay, you imagine all the scenery, dialog, and actions described in the text and hopefully share the emotions the characters experience as the story progresses. With a well-written screenplay, you should see the movie in your mind as you read each page of the script. In contrast , when you watch the movie, instead of reading and imagining the story, you actually see the imagery and hear the soundtrack as if you were physically there in person.

A screenplay is a guiding document that actors and staff use to create a television program or motion picture.

A screenplay is a 2 dimensional blueprint of an event in a 3 dimensional world imagined by the writer. Others use the writer's clues to bring the extra sensations to the screen.

A film script is an Audio/visual extrapolation of a screenwriter's imagination that can be accessed without Telepathy. SJJ

ok i will write it...20,000 what can i say...im cheap. That you would post this...iss an anathama to me....learn to do something for yourself have some pride in the process...or lose it...to alzimmers coca dola perspi colar etc etc BECAUSE THE SPELL CHEK IN HERE SUXXXXXXXXXXX AT least the edit tool works...can i be born again god as an editing moron...[sorry Guru.]

I believe that God created everybody with the ability to contribute something call Teamwork or giving a helping hand....We all have one body with different skill like arms,legs and etc...So I am willing to offer my help and what I have learned and obtain over these 2 years...Just explain to me again what you need Help with

Say if you like 10 000 if I write one for you

Well... I guess that didn't work so good... now did it?

what do you want to do this for? Create another site just like STAGE 32?

Ye Er – I teach screenwriting and film production, so I’m looking for a concise definition that the screenwriter, director and everyone else on the production team understand what a script is, and its importance in the overall production process. Creating yet another site is way outside the bounds of my consideration, interest or knowledge. This one’s fine, thank you.

"A screenplay is a view in written form of a vision of a picture in motion first in the mind". I don't know sounds eloquent though.

A screenplay is the execution of beats within a story, utilizing locations, action and dialog to express individual variables, such as atmosphere, plot, characters and themes, in a cohesive manner that creates the logical sum of the story, from beginning to end.

It's a movie in written words divided in scenes of coherent time and setting.

A screenplay is a guide for making a movie.

Simply, a screenplay is the blueprint for a story that will be shown on a screen.

You just wrote it: It is a scene by scene outline of the action, dialogue and delivery needed to present a compelling story.

A screenplay only has one scene is still "devided" in "scenes" of coherent time and setting. It's in the one and only slug line ;-) Btw you can narrate all the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters by using a microphone without any written word or standart or "blue print" form. You could give the tape to a screenwriter and s/he could write a screenplay for you. Yes, the first sold tape to a production company would change everything.

"Firstly "Blue Print" is the uniformity of the readability of all screen plays. So don't use it as a term to describe "a screenplay" it's a term to describe "all screen plays" consistently. You can't have a "blue print" for a horror that will be the same "blue print" for a romance. The format of the page is the blue print. The building described within it is the screen play." Sorry but I can't agree with this. A screenplay details all the elements of the story that will be used to depict it on screen. Everything from start to finish in order to get your complete story across to the viewer. What's wrong with using the term "blueprint"? A blueprint is not the format of a screenplay. The format is the format of the screenplay whereas a blueprint contains all the detail you require. A blueprint is for each individual story and has nothing to do with genre. The points you make about a blueprint for a horror not being applicable to a romance contradicts your previous statement that it's a term to describe all screenplays

Michael, you have a true game changer where you bring up a taped sell. There are already online pitch-fests. What if a screenwriter Audio taped a Title/ log-line/synopsis/outline/treatment (possibly narrated by a VO Actor, sends it to an interested: Producer/Director/Development, etc. as a computer audio file. They love it, buy it or option it, and the writer and the Studio or Production Company staff never even have to meet? How long would it take before this might become the New Industry Standard for submissions by screenwriters?

A film script is a blueprint I think more than just a document.

Hi Stephen, maybe you can get the attention by such a taped "pitch" like actors have do video castings today. In the next step you have to "re-write", to polish, to re-structure, to change a word... Otherwise the set designer wants to mark all the probs, the AD has to organize the shooting by day/night by setting by INT. or EXT., the actor XY just want the pages with the lines he has to say... and the next revision comes in pink or green pages. It's an industry. They LOL if handover a tape. Yes, it's a blue print for all kinds of different jobs that have to be done by lots of different people of different departements. And it's grown since the very beginning of moving images.

Alle I like your definition from a technical aspect. I still however think that the movement, actions, expressions and dialogue are a in effect a view of what a writer has first in their mind even if it is narration of such. If a writer or reader doesn't have some kind of view in mind first how will a project be set to motion in pictures? Perhaps I'm just not understanding to the process. Or perhaps I put too much passion and emotion into things forgoing the technical practicality at times or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing. LOL!

Dang you Alle I would so love to eloquently argue that I'm right. As a writer I guess I have to realize that you are right and it is an interpreted view. Perhaps admitting that will help me down the road in whatever creative process I become part of. In effect by pointing this out you may have given me some golden advice. I guess in collaborative efforts there are times a writer needs to learn to let go hopefully with compromise with and from others as well as self. Still easier said than done dang ya. LOL!

Alle – after thinking carefully, I have to say that I (as the writer), do indeed have the full movie in view as I write/rewrite the script. When wearing my producer’s or director’s hat; that view morphs to something else – similar or not to the original view. I’ve written scripts that others have produced and it amazes me when I see the end product. Sometimes they’re better, sometimes, not so much. I teach that filmmaking is a team sport. Every player is necessary and important. My original question relates to defining a script in such a way so as every member of the team understands what it is and isn’t.

Doug, the way you put the definition is excellent. Are you trying to make your version smaller?

Kimberly, not necessarily smaller – just more concise - something that a newly minted Producer, Director or Filmmaker can write on the palm of their hand to reference when they’re out there on their first shoot. Oh, Alle, I think I forgot to answer your question about how long I’ve actively participated in the film industry. My first experience dates back to 1967/8 as a flunky on True Grit. I’ve been in and out of the film/TV industry as everything from a basic Gofer to Line Producer. I started shooting on a clock-work 16mm Bolex on Ski Free and Steamboat Winter Carnival. I’ve spent many a long night at the KEM table (they wouldn’t let me play on the Movieola.) I’ve worked in writer’s rooms on TV sit-coms. And during all that time, I maintained a well paying business career that now allows me the economic privilege of dedicating myself to working with various young Film Industry wannabes. Hopefully that satisfies your question. If not…oh well.