Katherine VanderLinden's Lounge Discussions

Joseph Rhea
Writing action scenes in a spec script.

Anyone with advice or experience writing action scenes in a spec script? I've read several dozen shooting script with detailed action scenes but never a spec script, and the audience is obviously quite different. My "action" involves small submarines and robotic vehicles and torpedoes in a confined...

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Pat Alexander

Be direct and clear. Don't overdo it with the details. Make it really entertaining. And make sure you cut the action with dialogue. Even a short "All clear!" or "It's on!" can help buoy the flow so you don't get bogged down in action lines.

CJ Walley

Bit late to the party but writing action is something I'm confident enough to say I'm strong in.

The best tip I can give is listen to music while you picture your action scenes, then translate those ti...

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Joseph Rhea

Aided by everyone's feedback (thank you all!) I am pretty happy with my three main action scenes, especially the climactic one. I will need some unbiased feedback but the final one makes makes my hold my breath while reading it, even though I wrote it.

Dan MaxXx

Here's how Lucas did it on the page for the Death Star attack and he wrote Star Wars 50-years ago. Lots of intercutting from exterior spaceship battle, interior death star, interior of Luke's cockpit, interior of Princess Leia at rebel base, interior M Falcon.

Joseph Rhea

Dan, as I read that page of Lucas' script, I see a lot of structural similarities to my action scenes, and now think maybe I leaned more towards a "shooting" script vibe than a spec script. No one who has read it has complained yet, so maybe I'll leave it as is.

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