ScriptsSept. 22nd

Writing for Machinima

Movie Scripts

•Movie scripts follow a general form.•Has a beginning, middle and an end

(what a novel idea)•This layout is called the setup, confrontation, and resolution

•Syd Field’s Book Screenplay

Setup

• You have only a short time to introduce:– The Scene– The Characters– The Story / Questions or Conflicts

• Can judge a movie in 10 minutes– A Machinima in about 1 minute

– (Since many are under 10 minutes)

Confrontation

• Where most of the story takes place:– Characters are developed– Dramatic effect continually rises– Obstacles are thrown into the story

• Here the characters are striving for something.

Resolution

• This does not mean the END.• This is where questions and conflicts

are answered and rapped up.• NO, the answer don’t need to be

explicit• YES, the answer can be, there is none

• A big fight at the end of the movie is part of the resolution.

Plot Points

• To get from one section to the other.

• Plot Points are epiphanies, the “HUH?” and “OH” during a film.

• After the setup throws the first questions at the audience.

• After the confrontation it gives the audience key pieces of information.

A form not a guarantee

• So that’s the layout, the Great movies use it.

• But it’s not a formula:– You can’t put in your pieces and get

out a great movie.

• The audience needs a beginning, drama to occur, and an ending.– Otherwise you are just stating facts and not a story.

Now what?

• So you have a layout, but what to actually write about?

• You need:– A subject– Characters– Scenes– Direction

• This is as much design as it is writing.

Subject

• The universal problem:WHAT IS IT ABOUT

?• What do YOU want your machinima to be about?

Subject

• Brainstorm– Look through games that you like to

play.– Think about songs, shows, movies you

would want to parody.– What story genres interest you?

• When you get something expand on it– Write a short description.– Write some notes about it.

Research It

• Research the subject.– In the past, machinimas would make

fun of the game they were made in.• This meant they had to know the game.• It also meant that they had to understand comedy.

– For a serious topic make sure you know the facts.

• Military drama’s are a lot better when the creator paid attention to detail. Rankings, slang, uniforms, environments, etc.

A Completed Subject

• Don’t have a story that is only the setup.– Conflict needs to be brought in.– And resolution needs to occur.

• And what characters will you need?

Create a Character

• Subject?• Age?• Parents? Who are they?• Married?• Friends?• Important Past Experiences?

Know thy Characters

• Know your Subject, KNOW your Characters.

• Characters make the story, you need to understand them inside and out.

• You need to figure out you’re main character from the start.

Bios

• Hidden information:– Character’s past

• Relationships, experiences, behaviors

– This info may be used in the story but is for the benefit of the writer.

• Exposed information:– What is shown to the audience.

• And needs to be expressed visually!

Showing the character

• Show the characters personality, emotions, needs, wants.

• The main character interacts with another character for the first time:– What’s their relationship towards one

another?– What from their pasts make them act this

way towards one another?– And what of the characters emotional state?

• You don’t need to say the make/year/model of their first car.

Show it

• So show their needs and wants– It’s easier to show a jackass than a

nice guy.– How do they deal with their demons

inside?– Separate their

public/private/professional lives.– Dialog should come easy if you know

these qualities of your characters.

Dialog

• Study how you and your friends talk.– Less about the subject but about the

structure of conversations you have.

• Using Voice actors in machinimas means it’s harder to get good dialog.

• Dialog must move the story forward, be informative, and reveal conflict, emotions, personality.

Character recap

• What do they need?• What’s their bio?• What is the character? Point of view: House

wife? Criminal?• What is their attitude?• What is their personality?• What is their behavior? What actions do they

take? Don’t know? What would you do? • Revelation? What will the character figure out?• Identification. Do you know someone who is this

character? I hope so.

Direction

• Now you have the subject and charcters– How does the story progress?

• Conflicts / questions

• The story needs an ending.– YES! And ending needs to be known up

front.– It doesn’t need to be definite but

somewhere that the story can go too.• With the ending in place, YOU

choose how to get there.

Scenes

• Scenes are in what drives the story forward.– They are what the audience remembers

the most• Scenes need place and time• Each scene needs a new CAMERA

position– CAMERA is always capitalized in

screenplays and in can be thought of the same way as in machinima

Scenes

• Each scene is ONE element of the story.– rarely more and is the purpose of the scene.

• Dialog and action sometimes mix into one scene

• Dialog scenes should achieve their purpose in THREE minutes. – For a full scale movie.– Machinimas it needs to be done faster or

must include less dialog scenes.

To make a scene

• Take the non-obvious approach.– Have a character smile when angry– Have a Tank go Haywire in the

background of a serious conversation.• Don’t use Flashbacks

– If you can’t explain something to the audience by why of actions then there is a problem.

• Purpose->where->when->context->content

To make a scene

• Example: For comedies, your characters must believe what they are doing– Don’t play for laughs. “Exaggerated

seriousness”

• Scenes don’t need to be complete – With a good transition jumping forward

or out of the scene is fine. – regardless there is a beginning, middle

and end to every scene.

The rest of it

• So you have:– the beginning, ending, initial conflicts,

the revilation, and your characters

• Now to get the rest.• Use post-it notes

– write a scene on each note.– string them together to form the

script.

The rest of it

• The number of scenes doesn’t matter.– Make sure they have purpose.– Trust your story to tell you how many.– Fit a questionable one in.

• It’s easier to do reshoots in a machinima.– But it’s always better to fit a scene in

now.– You can edit later.

The rest of it

• Have the characters act not react. – put them in a hostel situation, how would

they coup.

• Each scene needs a place and a purpose– In the layout, needs scenery and time period

too.

• Spread the post-its out. – Rework them. – Try something new. – Sleep on it and come back.

• What ever it takes for you to know your story, characters and how it will best be laid out.

Form

• It’s the writers job to tell the director what to shoot, not how to shoot it

Teamwork

• Writer, researcher, typist, editor• Need to define roles, need to

discuss, need to figure out tasks• Basic teamwork skills apply

Dialog

• Dialog must be seen as information that is given to the audience, even though it is between the characters

• Can be used for:– Conversation– Info as to time and place– Info on action, what has happened– Actual enactments, confessions– Info about characters