Facility 4 - Lesson. 13 “How to turn a manuscript into a script. Expert - Aksinya Borisova (Category Writing)

Interesting lesson about creating scripts. Here, an expert, a practicing screenwriter, talks about the peculiarities of the profession, as well as the differences between the book and the script for the film / cartoon / series. The main ideas that I took from this lesson are the following:

1. Interesting stories can be told not only in writing, but also in movies:) But the difference is that for a story on screen, it’s important for the writer to be able to manipulate the viewer’s attention.
2. The purpose of a big movie is to make it as clear as possible and evoke emotions.
3. The story can be checked by three questions: who is the hero, what does he want, what hinders him. You can take your favorite movies and try to answer these questions. If the movie isn’t an arthouse, you’ll probably answer these questions with ease.
4. It is important that the main character is interesting and causes empathy. To do this, the story must be set out in a certain sequence for an emotional impact on viewers.
5. If everything is done correctly, then there is a connection to the hero. It happens through his goals and problems, which should be more acute in other characters.
6. The plot moves when the hero acts on the screen. Heroes have arches that reveal hero changes that can be for the better or for the worse. (ascending-arch)
7. “Connection” to the hero may be through his helping others, through his social attitude, or through the injustice he wants to correct. Often, viewers root for underdogs who are as far from achieving their goal as possible. There are classic structures and principles for story creation: causality, closed ending, linear time, external conflict, and protagonist. These principles help to create a clear and emotional story for viewers.
8. Structure is important when making a film - if all the classical principles are followed, then we have an archetype. Some of these principles may not be respected, but then the commercial success of the film is at risk.
9. The classic structure of the film consists of three parts: the first act, the second act and the third act.

• First act takes place. 25The movie starts with the original event. The second act begins with the first turn, when the hero makes a choice and starts the story. The third act is the climax and denouement. There must be several twists and turns in the film that affect the hero’s goal. The second turn can change the hero’s goal or make it more difficult.

11. It is interesting to try to disassemble different films according to this scheme to catch its applicability.
12. There must be conflict in every scene so that the dialogue is interesting and keeps the viewer’s attention. Dialogues should be interesting and characters should differ in their speech.
13. There is a special format for writing a script and special software

Previous posts about this writing course are available here

1. Anyone can see their name on the cover.
2. Target audience and their book creation needs
3. Genres and styles. How to find a topic for non-fiction books
4. How to organize work
5. How to overcome writing blocks. Practical exercise
6. I'm waiting for the muse, and she's not coming.
7. Book by shelf n
8. MS Word for working with large and complex texts
9. Telling Stories: Storytelling in a Book
10. Self-editing: work with text, abbreviations, fact-checking
11. The Rules of a Strong Book of Exciting Text
12. Author's style

#SelfDevelopment #PublicSpeaking #Storytelling #Writing