Order of screenwriting.

[aus screenwriter]

What is the order in which you write a screenplay example.

Idea
Intro
How many deaths
Where will it be located etc.

And please i do not want any crap msg replies like Oh have u checked any screenwritng books because i have checked books and web pages and a forum is for others to talk and help so the question again is.

What is the order in which you write a screenplay example.

Idea
Intro
How many deaths
Where will it be located etc.

Thankyou all.

[Baby Niblet]

Do all your stories have deaths? ;)

My usual order:

Idea (in my head)
Create my hero (in my head)
Opening scene (in my head)
Final scene (in my head)
Opening scene single line description (beat sheet)
Final scene single line
Act I final scene single line
Act II first scene single line
Act II last scene single line
Act III first scene single line
Fill in key scenes that drive the action on beat sheet
Create mini character bios for the key players
Revise the story adding/deleting scenes
Repeat last step until happy
Type the words FADE IN
Go from there

Good luck

Julio
aka Baby Niblet

[Bill Marquardt]

Julio -

You're new. Tomorrow, Aus will be asking how much percentage his agent should get on the screenplay he just finished. Then on Monday he will want to know how to write a drama. He is truly from a different world, but we like him. :)

[Baby Niblet]

Thanks Bill! I don't mind. As my coworkers tell me, I like to hear myself talk.

[Meltdown]

Idea comes first.

Idea usually spurns an handful of scenes in the old grey matter (slighlty molten red when overloaded).

I make a couple character sketches (simple 1/2 page jobbies, but make sure to get the quirks)

!/2 of basic time line scenes.

Write like a madman and make it up as I go. (watch my agent's blood pressure go up as she askes me for a treatment and I say - "after I finish the script!)

[Couchguy]

My brain spun this one off about 7 years ago, and I'm still working on it. Man, am I slow. (Though I have finished 5 screenplays, this one isn't one of them.)

I want to write a story about a heroic redheaded chick.
With a sword.
And she uses magic.
She's also a princess. (Three older brothers. Dead mother. Younger sister.--these details came later.)
But magic is banned by the church.
So she disappeared one night.
She's been gone ten years.
Her name is still whispered by the people, who fear/revere the "lost princess".
One day, her father and older brothers are all killed, leaving the throne up for grabs.
The country is near civil war, threatened also with invasion by two longtime enemies.
And she returns to claim the throne.
Obstacles...the church, a fearful populace, various dukes who believe they should be king, assassins, invading forces, all the usual suspects.


Well, when I sat down to write this, I found that "she returns to claim the throne" puts us at about page 28, and I've introduced every major conflict, several minor conflicts, a love interest, and it STILL doesn't resemble "Xena:Warrior Princess" in any way! :)

So on this one, I started at the beginning, and worked toward the end. On another of my scripts, my thought process started at the TITLE, shortly after I moved to Dana Point, CA.

"Hey, Street of the Golden Lantern. That'd make a good title for a murder mystery..."and off I went.

I haven't lived in Dana Point for 8 years, but now there's a screenplay called "Street of the Golden Lantern" collecting dust somewhere.

Your pal,
Couchguy

[steeves]

come up with a story... typically (and with no sarcasm intended) that means a beginning, a middle and an end.

then tell the story.

but don't just dive into it. chew it, mull it over, consider and reconsider it.

i tried and liked do the lew hunter "two minute movie" thingee... a page and a half or two, double spaced, that tells the high points of the story that i have chewed, mulled, considered and reconsidered. not the same as a synposis, or a treatment... just a two minute movie

if you then want to do a detailed step outline do so.. if you don't want to then don't.. same (and even more so) for the character portraits... that is not my way but may be yours

personally, i think if you just dive into writing whatever it is you are going to write, without like, weeks and/or months of mulling it over and kicking it around, well, then you are likely to fall short, or screw the middle, or just run out of steam in general and/or end up with a script that belongs at zoetrope and never gets any further

i will say it again - think about .. a lot.. then just write the bloody thing in whatever manner works for you

[PteranoDon]

I usually start with a dynamite ending and work forward. I guess that's just the engineer in me.

[BADOWION]

Naturally, you start with an idea. From there, I think of an ending. Then I do something that I think is unusual since I've never heard of anyone else doing it... I start the screenplay with a COMPANY LOGO (It's good to dream) and then a specific song. For Example:

COMPANY LOGO

The first melancholy notes of Garth Brooks' "Wolves" play.


FADE IN

It was a dark and stormy night...


Whenever I feel like I'm getting lost or confused in the story, I just refer back to the tone set by whatever original song I chose and it refocuses my attention. If I change my tone, I change the song. In theory, at the end of the screenplay, I can remove the material prior to FADE IN because apparently, we as writers don't get to pick the music. But then again, "Wolves" is an awesome track.

BADOWION!!!

[Daughter of Lir]

Couchguy, I *so* appreciate reading your posts! Thank you, truly.

As for where to start/end/etc, I usually come up with characters first. "There's this girl, see, and she's tetched, if you know what I mean, and she lives in the bayous outside New Orleans with her grandmother," etc etc etc.I describe her hair, her eyes, that scar on her cheek, what she does, what she wants, what her quirks are. The character will come up outta nowhere and say, "Oi! I need a story!" and immediately thereafter comes the, "hey, what if she went and did such-and-such, and then he/she/it comes along and..." I, too, do the indepth character sketch-scribble. Then the lil' seed is planted and begins to germinate. I write out the outline as you said, Couch, and see where I go with it... And I, too, have seen a phrase and said, "that'd make a damn good story/title..." ;)

We all have our different ways of doing it, so the best is to look over the various examples put out here and see which one rocks yer chakras, you know? Which one strikes the chord and makes you say, "oh, yeah, THAT'S what I meant, thats how I'd do it..."

[wcmartell]

I always begin with How Many Deaths. If I were writing SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, I would start with the death of Tom Hank's wife. I mean, that's why he's lonely, right? Then I would...

I think on Thursday my Tip Of The Day will be about outlinning your rewrite, and much of that info will work for your first outline.

It's impossible to tell where I start, because it's always different. I was once in a video store with friends and they were showing a Dirty Harry movie, and I zinged a bunch of funny response lines for Eastwood... and thought it would be interesting to do a funny version of a maverick cop. This script actually began with those funny lines in the video store.

Then I started thinking about maverick cops. They break the rules and are punished by authority figure... they're big kids! So my maverick cop would be forced to finally grow up. I would put him in a situation where he would die if he didn't mature.

I needed contrast to SHOW he was a big kid, so I gave him a mom for a partner. A smart, competent, single mom who gets partnered with this guy because the department thinks she'll mother him to maturity... but she's already got one kid and doesn't particularly want another who's 40 years old and carries a gun.

In the standard buddy cop film the partners each learn a lesson from each other's strengths. I have a big kid and a mom. The kid will become an adult by the end of the script, and the mom will get in touch with her less-serious inner-kid. But I love breaking the rules, so I came up with a different scenario... The mom gets killed and the big kid has to raise her child. The big kid is suddenly FORCED into the adult role. There's my story.

Now I brainstorm up a bunch of scenes that show the characters and the change in the characters. Then I put those scenes in order and write the script.

- Bill

PS: Twist end: the mom is still alive and the now-mature cop must rescue her. The roles HAVE been reversed and the mom is now the one who needs help. I'm not killing anyone's mom in a comedy action script!