Thanks everyone for all your past comments. I would like to be as controversial as ever by continuing the argument over too much on the page. I have a script that an actor/producer friend of mine insisted he took to the US with him on his last visit, because he felt it had great potential. Re-reading a copy, with a view to another re-write, I guess it could do with trimming by at least ten pages overall (it now stands at 129 pages). The problem with this is: 1.) The opening scenes are of a very dramatic 'wrecking' operation along the South coast of England in 1784, and as this lasts for about five minutes of screen time, it is five pages long of description. Wrecking, for those who are unsure, is a deliberate drawing of a ship onto rocks in order to plunder its cargo. 2.) The nature of the film requires some descriptions that, if not included, might be overlooked by the reader, thus diminishing his or her excitement of the read and therefore, must be included for the sake of continuity.
A film script, and in my view one that has the definitive description for all writers of love scenes, is Lawrence Kasdans Body Heat. I notice the scenes between Matty and Rancine are extremely well described and after a very prosy fashion.
I know this is not the way that teachers of screenplay writing see it. Keep it short is the motto here. But when we see films like Body Heat, Karate Kid, Citizen Kane etc, we realise that these films have something special on the screen because there was something special on the page.
I'm not saying that we should write a screenplay in the same way as a novel. What I am trying to say is, after the slug-line there should be action and action should be as interesting and exciting as we can make it for the reader. I quote: 'A dusty old underwood is on the desk' is far more interesting than 'An old fashioned typewriter is on the desk.
My script in America is about an ex smuggler wrongly imprisoned for the wrecking of the trade ship, Cecilia. He is given the opportunity to save himself from the hangman's noose by helping the King's men bring another notorious smuggler to justice. The film is a kind of 18th century 'Sting'
Keith
A film script, and in my view one that has the definitive description for all writers of love scenes, is Lawrence Kasdans Body Heat. I notice the scenes between Matty and Rancine are extremely well described and after a very prosy fashion.
I know this is not the way that teachers of screenplay writing see it. Keep it short is the motto here. But when we see films like Body Heat, Karate Kid, Citizen Kane etc, we realise that these films have something special on the screen because there was something special on the page.
I'm not saying that we should write a screenplay in the same way as a novel. What I am trying to say is, after the slug-line there should be action and action should be as interesting and exciting as we can make it for the reader. I quote: 'A dusty old underwood is on the desk' is far more interesting than 'An old fashioned typewriter is on the desk.
My script in America is about an ex smuggler wrongly imprisoned for the wrecking of the trade ship, Cecilia. He is given the opportunity to save himself from the hangman's noose by helping the King's men bring another notorious smuggler to justice. The film is a kind of 18th century 'Sting'
Keith
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