Story-telling | Contextual Research: Screenwriting

As well as our workshops with Steve Coombes, I have had a look at ‘The Hollywood Standard’ by Christopher Riley to get some more direction as to how I should write my screenplay.  Christopher Riley is a veteran screenwriter, having worked for the likes of Touchstone, Paramount and Mandalay, and works alongside his wife, Kathleen, in Hollywood.

The guide as a whole was an interesting read, but for this project, I mainly paid attention to the dialogue and directions chapters, and I picked up some key things to make my script look more professional:

• Breaking up directions allows for better readability.
• This helps to increase the sense of pace and can be used to allow the reader to divulge in the action with greater ease.
• Skillful use of paragraphs allows the writer to “direct the reader’s visual imagination” without resorting to overuse of shot headings.
• This can, however, use up more space, but a good balance between splitting directions and detail can be effective.
• Capitalisation is typically used for:

1. Introducing a speaking character
2. Describing sound effects and off-screen sounds
3. Describing camera directions

• Each speaking character’s name should be capitalised once and only once; if a character has no lines, you should not capitalise their name.
• Underlining may be used to add emphasis to dialogue or a particular action.
• Unnamed/grouped characters may be numbered, but only as long as the numbering is consistent, for example, both ‘Youth 1’ and ‘First Youth’ are acceptable, but only if you stick to the same numbering format.
• Groups should be capitalised.
• Colloquialisms, such as “ain’t”, can be used to highlight an accent and how a word is spoken by the actor.

In this interview for writeonline.com, Riley describes reading a script out of format can be like listening to a song that is out of tune, highlighting the importance of formatting in screenwriting.  He also describes filmmaking as a “team sport”, as everybody involved has to be working together, and the screenwriter is at the centre of this: what they write will be used to direct everybody else, and thus it is important for a script to be coherent so that what the writer is conveying is accurately communicated to the final product.  In the interview, he also states the three biggest mistakes made by screenwriters:

1. Failing to proofread their work.
2. Misusing and overusing format conventions so that they get in the way of the movie.
3. Too many words.

When it comes to finalising my script, I will ensure I bare these notes in mind.  Christopher Riley, and his guide to script format and style have emphasised the importance of formatting a script correctly.  If I go down the route of screenwriting later on in life, I will need to ensure my scripts are visually appealing, and I do not simply rely on story to convince producers to take on my work, so along with what I have learnt from Steve Coombes, this guide has pointed me in the right direction.

Bibliography:

Riley, C. (2009) The Hollywood Standard: The complete and authoritative guide to script format and style. 2^nd edn. New York, NY, United States: Michael Wiese Productions.

(2010) Author Q&A: Christopher Riley, ‘The Hollywood Standard’. Available at: http://writeononline.com/2010/07/13/author-qa-christopher-riley-the-hollywood-standard/ (Accessed: 28th October 2016).