Screenplay essentials

1. Story and Character A screenplay starts from a High Concept idea, from the development of an unforgettable character, or in the best case from both.
2. Outline Before Writing Know at least how the story ends, begins, as well as the screenplay’s five major plot points before writing the script.
3. Three-Act Structure The experts can debate sequences, but all agree the story is told in three acts, with a turning-point to end Act I and II.
4. Original Voice Clear and concise writing is key, keeping action description at four lines or less, but the action should still sound original.
5. Screenplay Form Professional screenplay format is a must as well as correct page appearance: lots of white space, no “I” pages, and block pages.
6. “What happens next?” All scenes must move the story forward, reveal character, or both. Any scene that does neither are not necessary and should be cut.
7. Short Scenes A screenplay must move fast, so three pages should be the absolute maximum before you cut to a new location. Half a page is typical.
8. Brief Dialogue Remember, film is a visual medium. You show the story. Never tell it through verbal storytelling. Keep lines of dialogue short.
9. Under 120 pages One script page equals one film minute, so a drama is about two hours (120 pages); a comedy is closer to 90 minutes (90 pages).
10. Know the Logline In one sentence, you must be able to pitch “what the story is about,” and make a comparison to other successful Hollywood films.
Source: http://thescriptlab.com/screenwriting-101/screenplay/what-is-a-screenplay/636-top-ten-screenplay-essentials

Se7en Textual Analysis

A Se7en textual analysis. The music used in the sequence starts off spooky and slow paced. As the title scene carries on, the music picks up pace and becomes more intense. This increases suspense and makes the scene seem sinister. Something being scratched is heard over the music which sound a lot like screams. This adds to the suspense of the opening. The individual scenes are cut together using a variety of transitions. Some of the clips are nicer transitions such as fades but then some are flickering and jumpy. This represents the unpredictability which could reflect on the characters. The majority of the camera angles are close ups and extreme close ups, this is used to show the attention to detail that the killer in the films puts into everything. It also shows his dedication, by shaving off his finger prints he is leaving less evidence at all his crime scenes. We see him doing this through an extreme close up. The whole opening scene is dark and eerie, this is used to create an area of discomfort for the viewer. It also emphasizes the character that the killer is that he is comfortable in the areas that are designed to put us in an uncomfortable demeanor

Short textual analysis on a thriller opening (The Marksman)

This is one of the better AS media thriller openers I have found in my research. I specifically like the cyclical nature where it starts at the end, loops back around then continues once it has caught up. I think this technique is really useful and I would like to adopt this technique for my own thriller opening. I also like the use of a ticking down clock before the start of the flashback, this is to make the viewer have a real sense of the time between the clips.

Textual analysis the widow maker from JamieHawkins99999

Editing attempt 1.

This is mine and Lindens first attempt at a thriller title opening for our final task

The Pick Up - A Raw Media Production

Evaluation

1.What have you learned during the making of your preliminary task?

During the making of my preliminary task i have learned a plethora of skills I think will be useful in the future, not only in this subject but when I finish the course and move onto different things. For example i have learned how to use a camera to make films and clips. Prior to this course i had never used a camera for this purpose so the making of this film was all new to me so even the smallest of things like learning how to focus a camera was a new skill acquired for me. Also i learned a few things about editing, even though i didn't do much of the editing i think the bits i did were effective and correctly executed.

2.Areas of success

I think our main area of success was the time it took for us to complete our filming. With the knowledge of how long the editing and organisation of the clips would take we prioritized finishing filming ASAP. We all stopped behind school one day and finished our filming in little over an hour. This then gave us around 3 weeks to finalize the editing of the piece and put it all together. This made the task a lot less stressful as we were under much more flexible deadlines.

3. Areas for development.

The area in which i think our group would be leadership. In our group we all had ideas that we thought were good and it was hard to decide between us whose idea were the best or right ones. I think that with the right hierarchy this would of been so much simpler.

4. How well did you meet the brief?