Film preperation begins

Preparation of the first film, based on the Shoes script
•This post provides recommendations of books for the budding script writer, a free, ten minute film school by Rob Rodriquez and a commentary on the first stages of the film development.

The PMF module has begun and so has the first project of 'Planning and Making a Film.'

In my opinion, the module is designed to enrich the student's scriptwriting skills and understanding of film production through providing opportunities and resources to experience the making of a film.

My first task then, is to take hold of a script that has already been written and redevelop it. The Shoes script is based upon society's weakness for materialism and so I wanted to keep my re-draft to a similar theme. 

After many years of ideas floating through my mind, this would be my first professionally formatted script, and so it was it was obviously a necessity to read into how scripts are formatted and told.  For the re-draft of the script I used the Final Draft programme, but you can also download Celtx from the internet without any fees.

The first attempt of the script was handed in with the feedback pointing towards a real need to improve formatting and content. As I read further into script development, I learnt that writing a script is more about description and less about telling the actors how to act. Naturally, as a Creative Writer who specialises in Journalism writing, I found the skill of composing a script quite hard to grasp at first. My first ambition was to tell the actors how to act and really tell the story- obviously this doesn't form the grounds for a successful script.

After studying some scriptwriting help books, the skill of creating a script correctly formatted and with the right portion of description began to sink in. I would definitely recommend reading scriptwriting books before trying to write because scripts demand a very distinctive ability to tell the story as it appears on-screen. The good books are so efficient in providing ideas of how to make your script 'work', but also mentor you to make it stand out from the rest of competition. There are so many different ways of writing a script; some are written with short sentences of description, others are laced with description in long paragraphs.

Please see the recommendations of useful resources for the budding scriptwriter:

How Not to Write a Screenplay: A 101 Mistakes Most Screenwriters Make, by Denny Martin Flynn.
Buy it here: www.amazon.co.uk/How-Not-Write-Screenplay-Screenwriters/dp/1580650155

I also found this website really useful in providing advice and facts with examples of scripts as well:

www.filmscriptwriting.com/scriptformatting.html   

To see a good example of a script click on the link to see the Pulp Fiction version:

www.weeklyscript.com/Pulp%20Fiction.txt 

This is an excellent, 10 minute film school with Rob Rodriguez. This will enlighten you to some handy tricks and cheats that the charismatic Rodriguez used himself: