SCREENWRITING & SCRIPT WRITINGBy Maddy & Wilhelmina

• “The golden rule in writing for the theatre or the screen is that there is no golden rule.”

• Any rules that have been made have been broken again and again to create new, innovative scripts which shatter guidelines in order to create a dynamic new piece.

THEATRE

• The Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle had a strict guide on script writing that was followed for nearly a thousand years:

• Unity of Action: a play must have one plot and no sub plots

• Unity of Place: the events should unfold in one physical space and there should be no attempt to show more than one place on the stage

• Unity of Time: the play should take place over a 24-hour period

THEATRE

It was Shakespeare who really helped to change the strict structure of script writing. In Henry V he announced a revolutionary dramatic concept. "Suppose within the girdle of these walls," the chorus prompts, "Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies", preparing the audience for a change in the play’s setting. Later he warns the audience that it is their imagination that must carry the characters "here and there; jumping o'er times, / Turning the accomplishment of many years / Into an hour glass". Also full of elaborate sub-plots, Shakespeare made the classical unities redundant.

SCREEN

Scriptwriting can’t really be taught, the only things that can be given are tips and advice which may or may not be followed in creating something. But writers do have to be aware of the difference between writing for stage and writing for screen; theatre is all about the words being said, whereas cinema is mostly imagery: words take second place.

One of the main differences with screenwriting is that you have to underestimate the audience’s intelligence. With this in mind, it is necessary to take shots of an exterior and interior environment to set the scene. Furthermore, where you might find theatre demands clarity in the actors’ expression of emotions, thoughts and ideas, film requires careful thought to the use of shots to convey meaning, as well as conveying the plot. You’ll notice that CU shot-reverse-shot between two characters conveys a relationship more deeply than a set of dialogue.

SCREEN

Both stage and screen scripts have to be readable. This is slightly easier for a theatre script because it requires less technical work during it, but a screenplay has to include hundreds of minutiae details and instructions to construct the story.

This includes choice of camera angles (high angle, low angle, bird’s eye, CU, LS etc.), camera movements (Panning? Tracking? Is a dolly required? Crane?), etc.

However this may all change once the director gets involved. A significant difference between stage and screenwriting is that in writing for the screen the script acts as a guide for telling the story in the right order but it isn’t a fixed thing; the director takes charge for the script and will often alter how everything runs.