History of scriptwriting SCRIPT

Intro
(Plays Disney intro or Blu-ray intro)

Narrator:

“When you think of cinema, you think of the big explosions;

(joker hospital explosion)

the heartbreaks,

(the notebook)

the journeys taken by animals and people alike;

(the fox and the hound or jungle book)

and the heart-warming endings that bring everyone together…

(lady and the tramp ending scene)

…or mourn those lost…

(Logan death scene)

And we feel connected to these stories, these characters…

friends.

(show an audience in a cinema)

(pause and rewind) But what about what goes on behind the
scenes?

(“Cut!”) (A clapperboard closes over the view of the camera to

reveal narrator*)

(*Cuts to narrator in real life recording the voiceover at a

radio booth. She stands up and walks through a studio as she
delivers her lines. An assistant hands her a coffee as she
goes)

But, not just the lights… camera… action- but the stuff that
builds up to the big screen. - I’m talking about
scriptwriting”

Camera swipes away and cuts to-)

 (-(slow motion to sped up) person writing on paper)
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Narrator:
“Let’s go through a brief history of screenwriting.
(pause)
Scripts today, are recognised as being the written form of
film and tv- with descriptions of actions, sound and dialogue.
Here’s a look at the script from Pulp Fiction;

(play by screen vid)

-This is what a modern screenplay looks like.

Screenwriting started around the same sort of time as movies

themselves- to help the directors, camera operators and others
working on the moving pictures, know what they are doing and
how they would want the end product to look.
The differences between today’s scripts for cinema and when
they first started are crazy. The level of detail, the added
information; it all adds to create amazing cinema.

(Say hello to my little friend clip)

If we look way back as early as 1897 (photo reel of 1897) – we

would find 40 second clips called ‘scenarios’. The reason that
these are different to 21st century scripts, is the fact that
they would literally only have 2 or so sentences describing
what’s happening onscreen.
Take a look at this.
‘Four young ladies, in their night gowns, are having a romp.
One of the pillows gets torn, and feathers fly all over the
room.’
How simple is that?

(pause)

If we use our time machine to jump ahead to 1902-

(show reel of 1902)

-We can look at a motion picture called “A trip to the moon”

(brief clip)

Which was created by George Melies.

(Photo of Melies)
Its scenario was 30 lines long and included directions like
“loading the gun” and “splashing out into the open sea” which
is a lot more descriptive than “four girls having a romp”.
But still- today’s scripts reach 100 pages and over!

The beginning of the 1900s showed a lot of progress in movies

and scripts. ‘A Trip to the Moon’ was the first to have more
than one scenario- and just a year later this turned into
something called master scene format.”

(Break for visuals and music)

Narrator:
“Master scene format was different, because it depicted
multiple scenes for the same production. It included scene
headings and more descriptions of actions. This was used
behind the scenes of “The great train robbery”.

(short clip from TGTR)

However, this didn’t stick around for long either, as Thomas

Ince came along shortly after in 1911 and revolutionized the
industry!

(Picture of Thomas Ince)

He had approached the New York Picture Company for a job,

filming westerns on the west coast.
Ince introduced continuity scripts, which changed the world of
film forever. These scripts contained a description of scenes,
props and internal or external settings. Even things
like predicting cost and keeping it within budget were
included. Shooting schedules also helped organise time. Shots
and cuts were put in to help directors and camera-workers know
what order it's going to be filmed in. This kind of
screenwriting resembles today's a lot more, and you can really
see the change over time, leading up to this point.”

(A quiet place, Beau’s death scene)

Narrator:
“Sound.
Sound plays a huge role in the development of cinema and
scripts. In 1912, just after continuity scripts took off and
were used in mainstream media, sound was introduced and
created so many more opportunities for storytelling in film
and television. Things like accents and emotions could now be
considered and elaborated on.

(Someone pulling different faces showing different emotions)

Stories could now be told through music, dialogue and sound
effects

(clip of dancing from la la land)

Screenplays were becoming even more detailed and interesting.

This made for a better viewing both at home, and in theatres.
The first non-silent film was finally released in 1927; once
it took off, everybody was using screenplays to make their
movies. The world of media became much more creative, and
scenes could be pieced together to make longer, more intricate
feature films with music, dialogue, sound effects. Imagine
your favourite movie with no sound.

(The shining ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene with no sound)

Not as great, right?”

(Fades to black and then reveals a reel of glitz, glamour,

Hollywood casinos and other American eccentricities)

Narrator:

“The golden era of Hollywood film was the 1950s and 60s.
Directors and screenwriters looked into the glitz and glam of
the upper class- and everything was big and spectacular.
Everyone on the big screen was rich, dressed in ball gowns and
top hats, wore a full-faces of makeup and were always camera
ready.

This came as a breath of fresh air: as America had just come

out of one of the greatest tragedies that the United states
would ever have to face.

(music slows and saddens and we slowly cut between

devastations caused by combat and bombs. The narration pauses
thoughtfully)

(Softly) The Vietnam war.

But scriptwriters wanted to step away from the darkness and

depression of the war. Dialogue was sculpted to be even
wittier, and more sophisticated and the characters were
brighter, sharper and more exuberant than ever before.

(His girl Friday clip)

The writers themselves were well educated and were able to

transfer that into their work. We can look at Tennessee
Williams as an example, who wrote the screenplay for the
award-winning 'A Streetcar Named Desire'.

(Clips and pictures of the movie are shown and photos of

Williams in the background)

Williams had attended the University of Missouri, studying

journalism and moved on to poetry and screenwriting. A
Streetcar Named `desire was immensely successful and has
memorable and witty lines like;

("What is straight? A line can be straight, or. street, but

the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through
the mountains. Clip)

Writers used dialogue that wasn't really how people spoke in

real life, as they wanted to make film really glamorous and
bright. This time frame was referred to as 'The Golden age of
cinema' because of the amazing scripts behind the work.
Censorship was also relaxed and subjects like sex, death and
violence were more normalised, giving scriptwriters more
freedom.”

(Rear window 1954 kiss)

Narrator:

“What better example of sex, death and violence is there- than

Pulp Fiction??
If you’re familiar with the 1994 hit ‘Pulp Fiction’, you might
be surprised to know that the script is actually incredibly
short, for such a long and detailed movie- and a lot of
dialogue is adlibbed. Although, the success is definitely
still down to the screenwriters behind the scenes. Both
Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary had won Oscars for their
work.

(video of both writers)

Looking at the ‘apartment scene’ in particular- we can see how

the writing creates literal visible building tension. The
control Jules has over the situation and characters, and his
calm yet fiery attitude in this part is incredible. This is an
example of amazing scriptwriting.
The dialogue with its quick, witty delivery with dry humour
and abruptness really gets the viewer on the edge of their
seat. The rising tensions and outbursts really work together
to make a beautiful bit of cinema.

(Jenga block tower falling to symbolise release of tension)

Even the most trivial of scenes, like travelling in the car,
are full of embedded information about what’s going on, and
the characters’ personal lives. Jules and Vincent are forever
chatting and bickering and seem to get on well, as both
friends and business partners.
Their interactions are full of sarcasm, teasing and lack of
seriousness- that shows they know how to have fun, but are
able to maintain boundaries and keep their professionalism.

(you’re starting to really piss me off scene)

The pair's chatting and casual disagreements about stupid

things like burgers;

(“Royale with cheese!”)

heavily conflict with the outbursts that could come only

moments later when they're blowing off the head of Marvin in
the backseat of the car- or both threatening and killing Brett
and his friends in the apartment.

(Marvin’s death scene and the famous shot of Jules and Vincent
shooting the bathroom guy)

That ability to easily go from 0-100 in a split-second shows

the effect of good scriptwriting, in the sense that Tarantino
and Avary have so much control over what we see and hear
onscreen and know exactly how to get the reaction from the
audience that they want. They have great power as the minds
behind the famous flick.

So many things can be conveyed in screenplays without having

to spell it out, which is truly an art. In Pulp Fiction, every
word and sentence is packed full of information, but it flows
so well, and doesn't feel like you're being flooded with info.
It’s done really subtly and inventively. Even just with how
Vincent Vega talks about his time in France and Amsterdam,
shows that he is well-travelled with some money behind him and
he has an interest in the world and pays attention to cultural
differences.
Subtext is super important and I think is also a main
character in this movie.”

OUTRO
Narrator:

“Having looked over the development of scriptwriting all the

way from the start to modern times- we can only be interested
in how screenwriting is going to develop in the future.
 (futuristic world concept)

Films are able to be made much, much more cheaply. Also, about
80% of people in both the UK and US have a smartphone with a
camera which can be used to record.

(clips of smartphones and people using them)

(clips of DLSR cameras being used by home photographers)

DLSR cameras also retail at an affordable price. It’s no

longer only reserved for big companies and no longer requires
a huge budget. Films can be made cheaply, at home, by anyone.
In fact, I’m sure you have some embarrassing home movies
somewhere…

(‘You’ve Been Framed’ type clips)

(slower) This opens up countless possibilities for a new

generation of filmmakers, who will take more risks and work in
different ways. I wonder where movies will go next?”

Word count 1889.