Screenplay

Story Design

 Story design. What part of the huge story do you want to tell?
 Choosing the part of the thousands of hours of a character’s life that you want to portray.
 A Star is Born is not about Jack’s entire life. Its about how he overcomes his lowest point in life.
 Doesn’t mean we don’t care about the backstory. All that is significant to his life is revealed to us.
 A film is about a slice of life. Not about life itself.
Structure
 A film is not just a collection of scenes, activities, dialogues.
 It is a series of events that happen in the specific order to incite the emotion or the feeling that the
writer wants the audience to experience.

 Events are changes that occur to the status quo in the story.
Act 1

 World/Setting
 Character introductions
 Backstory
 Major Conflict – Inciting Incident

Inciting Incident Act – 2 begins

Turning Point

Act – 1
Act 2

 The journey of the character begins.

 This is what the film is about.
 Conflict/Obstacles – Characters caught off guard due to events. Learning the new world they have entered.
 Find the midpoint of your story – A major change. Learning ends. Characters a step ahead
 A turning point at the end of Act – 2: Characters lose something, at a low point, calm before the storm, learn
something about themselves, etc.
2nd Turning
Mid-point Point
Reacting Acting

ACT -3
begins
Act - 2
Act 3

 Characters try to go back to the comfort zone.

 The journey now has changed the character. Therefore can’t retreat.
 The final push to reach the goal intended in the beginning.
 Climax: the culmination of the journey. Does the character succeed in their goal.
 Aftermath: Introspecting of the character. Looking back at what has changed due to the journey. External and
Internal.
Conflicts

 Character vs. Self – Backstory of the character

 Character vs. Character – Antagonist
 Character vs. Society – neighbors, school, family, friends
 Character vs. Technology – mobile, internet
 Character vs. Nature – terrain, tsunami, earthquake…..
 Character vs. Supernatural – ghostsz…
 Internal vs. External Conflict

 Meaningful conflict necessary: Not a coincidence.

 Protagonist vs. Antagonist – Antagonist doesn’t always have to be evil.
Conflict
Tension and Suspense

 Bomb under the table – share the secret and tease.

 Moral Ambiguity
 Character in adversity
 Stretch the conflict as much as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvtOY0YrF-g
Exercise

 Build a short story with a character of your own.

 Structure it in the right way
 Have meaningful conflicts
Mise en Scène
Mise en Scène

 Setting
 Props
 Set Design
 Lighting
 Color
 Costumes
 Actor movement
Mise en Scène vs. Montage

 You can either tell your visual story through one frame or through combination of frames.
 Mise en Scène can be used to tell the entire story through one long shot with minimal editing.
 Montage style uses editing to put across the message of a scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQPy88-E2zo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6bZzFlj35s
Mise en Scène

 Set the time period, location and the style of the film.
 Science fiction uses props to build its own world.
 It makes the far off and imaginary, comprehensible to the viewer.
 Sets the atmosphere for the film. The misty, smoky NY in Taxi Driver. The clean futuristic city in Her.
 The kind of lighting and color can define the mood of the film.
 The costumes of the characters can add layers to the character (Girl with a Dragon Tattoo)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbvWoruvf5c