Screenplay

A screenplay refers to a written document that sets out the actions, the dialogue and, in a sense, the setting.

This generic definition serves as a starting point for understanding all the types of scripts that exist and their unique characteristics.

Types of script by their literary genre:

Stage play script

This type of script contains both the actions and the dialogue as well as the technical needs for staging the work. One of its characteristics is that it has many parentheses serving as notes to detail those needs of set design, wardrobe, sound and lighting

Elements of a stage play script

The most essential elements of a stage play script are:

• The act, with a unitary sense, is made up of several scenes. It corresponds to the main divisions of the work, such as the beginning, the middle and the ending.
• The scene makes up the core of the dramatic action; it usually takes place in the same physical location and with the involvement of the same characters.
• The speeches are the characters’ own dialogues; depending on the speakers, they can be monologues or dialogues.
• The tableau is the very part of the act made up of the same set design

Film scripts

The screenplay differs in some respects from the stage play script. Despite sharing the main characteristics of the script as a literary document, the film script contains less information about technical needs such as set design, wardrobe, lighting… as well as having a somewhat different format and structure.

How to turn a good script into a screenplay (Film)

Format of a film script

The most notable characteristics regarding the format of film scripts are:

• They are divided into sequences or scenes; a sequence is a fragment of the story that takes place in the same place and time.
• All film scripts are written in the Courier New typeface, at size 12. This is because it’s the most suitable format for trying to extrapolate one page of script to one minute of film footage.

TV series script

TV series scripts are very similar to film scripts; below we tell you how you can tell them apart.

Differences between a television and a film script

The main difference, from which the rest derive, is obviously the length of the work. A film script lasts approximately between one and three hours, whereas a TV script is made up of several episodes of between 20 minutes and one hour.

This characteristic means that the ways of expressing things and conveying them to the viewer from the script are different. Mainly, the development of the story and the characters has to be much faster in films.

Which is more complicated to write? There’s no single answer; each has its own difficulty, since they are different ways of telling a story.

Getting the viewer to empathise with the characters in a short period of time is a difficult job; on the other hand, maintaining interest throughout an entire series is no easy task.

Types of script by their form:

There are three types of script according to their form and their intent:

Literary script

This type refers to those mentioned above; they are the scripts in which the story is told in a linear way and without a high level of technical content for its filming or staging.

Shooting script

The purpose of this script is to convey concisely to the entire production crew how something is to be staged and filmed. This script indicates the shot sizes as well as the framings, the lenses to be used, image filters or movements.

Storyboard

This type of script is very similar to the shooting script; it contains less data regarding lenses or filters but, in exchange, contains a pictorial representation of the sequences — that is, drawings that represent the different shots the director wants to film.

History of the screenplay

Cinema begins when the Lumière brothers created the cinematograph (not to be confused with the cinematographer as an audiovisual profession) in 1895, a device capable of capturing images and then projecting them.

At first, the recordings didn’t have any kind of guide, not even when films with a narrative development, such as dramas or comedies, began to be made.

Directors communicated what they saw and carried out the filming and editing from the images in their heads.

Thomas Harper Ince, one of the great producers of the early days of cinema, introduced in 1912 the process of writing a well-detailed script, at both a literary and technical level, into his productions to optimise them.

The writing of both the shooting script and the literary script is vitally important to minimise costs and obtain a result in line with what’s expected.

Many directors were still reluctant to write such documents — for example, Charles Chaplin, who was very individualistic in the making of his films. This tendency faded over the course of the 1930s along with the arrival of direct sound in cinema.

The arrival of sound caused a major restructuring within cinema; all professionals had to reinvent themselves and all the rules of production and filmmaking changed.

The arrival of dialogue was the key point needed for scripts to become mandatory within the process of making a film.

Rhythm in the narrative structure of a script

To recap, the script is a written document detailing the story, the characters’ actions and dialogues, and the spaces and times.

The rhythm of the script refers to how the actions unfold within it, their progression through the different acts and the use of turning points.

The story within a script

The first thing to bear in mind is the story, since it’s what’s trying to be conveyed in the first place. To understand the story, it’s necessary to understand the following concepts:

• The plot is the set of events ordered chronologically. This plot is made up of three parts:
  • The beginning, where the characters and their context are presented.
  • The middle, preceded by a conflict that complicates the character’s usual development and their world. In this stage the characters will try to resolve the conflict.
  • The ending is the stage in which that conflict is resolved.
• The turning points or inflection points are those points at which the plot takes on a new storyline; they coincide with the internal stage changes of the script detailed above.
• The conflict is the turning point that starts the story; until then the script merely presents the characters, their personality and their environment. The conflict is what generates an evolution both in the characters and in the plot, since it moves those characters out of the world they are used to living in. You could say that the conflict is the unmoved mover of the story.
• The actions are the units of movement of the characters.
• The text refers to what the characters say.
• The subtext is what the characters say indirectly — that is, without using dialogue.

Characters

Characters are fictional beings created by an author who take part in the development of a story; these characters must be complete — that is, they must have a personality consistent with their context and their background.

Characters can be very varied and different; to label them we can use different categories such as:

Function

According to their importance we can distinguish two types of characters:

• The main characters are those who make the plot evolve and control the story; these characters evolve — that is, they go from a point A to a point B throughout the story. There are two types of main characters. The protagonists are those the story focuses on — that is, they are the ones who move the story itself. These can be heroes, characters who believe in and defend the values of society, or antiheroes, characters who believe in the values of society but not in the system or how it works. The latter don’t process the need for the existence of an antagonist in the script.
• The antagonists are those characters who stand in the protagonist’s way and hinder their goal, supporting and reinforcing the script’s own conflict. It’s for this reason that stories with an antihero-style protagonist don’t require an antagonist for the development of the story.
• The supporting characters, also called cast characters in the world of cinema, have the function of supporting both the protagonists and the antagonists. Each supporting character has their own story within the narrative, called subplots.

Composition

According to their composition we can distinguish two types of characters:

• Round characters: They are very complex characters with a convoluted personality and many nuances. This type of character usually has significant internal conflicts and tends to have a very marked evolution throughout the plot.
• Flat characters: They are characters with little depth; they don’t have very marked traits or a notable personality. Throughout the plot they don’t usually present any kind of evolution in personality or in performance

Movement

Regarding the character’s internal movement we could define two types:

• Dynamic characters are defined by their constant evolution; they are characters who never stop changing throughout the story. This is precisely what makes them unfinished characters — that is, to understand their view of the world we must evolve along with them and the plot.
• Static characters usually conform to socially established models, so they’re easy to get to know through the narrator or the plot itself; this type of character doesn’t respond to evolution but remains flat throughout the story.

Archetypes and stereotypes

An archetype is a character model that coexists in the collective unconscious — that is, it responds to structures mentally pre-established by society.

A stereotype is a socially accepted idea; it gives the character aspects that society sees as correct and immutable, like the character itself.

Introducing a character in a script

Introducing the character is vitally important for a greater understanding of them, as well as achieving greater empathy in the viewer. There are different ways to introduce characters, almost as many as there are characters, but they all respond to the same intention.

The research process for writing a script

To write a script, the research work is essential. Before trying to create a story, we must educate ourselves and later study specifically how people live and what the worlds we want to set our script in are like.

The research process depends a lot on each screenwriter and each specific project; it’s interesting to investigate different methods of researching and to look for inspiration to create stories.

In general terms we could define the research process for writing a script in the following phases:

• Searching for inspiration: In this part of the process we’ll simply try to observe the world and the people around us. There are very simple exercises, such as going to disparate places to observe people and imagine their lives, conflicts, personalities… what their homes are like, their wardrobes, and so on. In short, in this phase you have to open your eyes, ears and mind to let the information enter our imagination organically.
• General research: Once the genre and theme of the work have been determined, it’s time to sketch out the story and research in a general way the types of people who tend to come together in our target audience. To do this we’ll look for information about the world surrounding those people.
• Specific research: This process consists of delving into the previously studied worlds, looking for more specific people and moving away from the statistics. Trying to live alongside them and understand their schedules, their personalities and their way of seeing the world. If we’re not able to empathise with our character, it’s hard to create arcs and developments in our plot.

Differences between series and film scripts

TV series scripts have evolved a lot over the years. Series have taken on unparalleled importance in recent times thanks to streaming platforms (Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime…) on which you choose when and where to watch those series.

This is why the most marked differences between television and film scripts have gradually faded away.

Previously, one of the main causes of the differentiation between these script formats was the advertising breaks; television series and their scripts were derived from theatre or radio ones due to this characteristic of interrupting acts.

Today the main difference between a series and a film is its length and its consequences.

Where do the good ideas for writing series scripts come from

Inspiration for any kind of artistic expression is based on the observation of reality.

The first step to be able to create is to perceive; imagination is a mental process of relating pre-established concepts and structures. This is why the best way to find good ideas is to open your eyes and be attentive to what surrounds us.

If you’re interested in learning more about the research process for writing a script, here you can find a guide to writing a script.

Series script formats

There are many television formats, but the most relevant are:

Prime time

Prime time refers to the time slot in which the most people are connected to television in a given territory.

Television channels constantly analyse the metrics extrapolated from television usage to schedule specific series for this format.

News programme

News programmes are those television programmes reserved for information and current affairs of the world, or more specific aspects of it.

This type of programme has led prime-time slots for decades, being the cornerstone of many television channels.

Sitcom

Sitcoms, also called situation comedies, are television series with very specific characteristics:

• Low budget — this isn’t a defining characteristic, but most sitcoms have a reduced budget.
• Canned laughter — the use of the extra-diegetic sound of laughter as a guide for the viewer of when a gag takes place.
• Studio filming — they tend to use recurring sets.
• Use of a single camera — usually a single camera is used in the filming of these series.
• As for the scripts, this type of programme still maintains the act interruptions mentioned earlier, which is why they still keep the classic television script format.

Miniseries

The miniseries is a format that has become very fashionable lately. This is due to streaming platforms and how easy the format is to binge-watch.

They are usually television fiction series with few episodes of between thirty minutes and one hour of footage.

The type of script used for miniseries is the same as the film one, understanding that a miniseries corresponds approximately to a film trilogy.

TV movie

The TV movie is a television format that classically consisted of footage of between sixty or seventy minutes; nowadays we can find TV movies of two episodes.

What differentiates it from a film is its planning. They usually lack wide shots and overuse medium shots and close-ups; they’re also identified by the absence of tracking shots or camera movements.

Regarding the script, it’s worth noting that they are formats backed by everyday or ordinary stories — that is, it’s a very naturalistic kind of fiction.

Web series

Web series are very similar to television series or fiction series. As we mentioned before, these differences are fading away over the years.

Theoretically speaking, a web series must be written with the aim of presenting it on the internet solely and exclusively, which is why the script contains certain characteristics that differentiate it from the rest.

Genres of television series scripts.

The most representative television genres are:

Comedy

Television comedies are analogous to soap operas in the sense that they aren’t self-contained — that is, they maintain a story throughout all the episodes.

Its main characteristic is obviously its humorous tone.

Drama

Drama is characterised by the solemn treatment, far from comedy, of serious and momentous situations.

It’s important not to confuse drama with tragedy, since tragedy always ends with the death of some of the protagonists.

In this genre the scripts have to focus heavily on the depth of the characters, and it’s important to let their emotions and feelings come to the surface.

Dramedy

Dramedies are hybrids of dramas and comedies — that is, they share formal aspects of both genres.

In dramas the protagonists never use comedy, much less repeatedly; however, in dramedies we can find the protagonists in humorous situations or with comic undertones.

Another issue is the running time: dramas usually last about forty minutes per episode and a comedy about twenty minutes.

A dramedy can last either twenty minutes or forty or fifty per episode.

Horror

Very similar to horror in films, horror series have gained strength and relevance as a television genre.

Their characteristics are generic: they are scripts with the intention of generating fear, anguish, repulsion, etc. in the viewer, generally through imaginary, fantastical or supernatural situations.

Science fiction

Like horror, science fiction series scripts differ little from those of films.

It’s a genre that mixes technology and possible futures and social advances together with fiction.

There are great exponents of this type of series, such as Black Mirror, Electric Dreams, Years and Years…