Screenplay Writing

Writing the Short Film

What is the rule of thumb for the length of a movie/ number of pages of the script?
~Feature film screenplays = 120 pages (2 hours) / Short screenplay = 1 minute - 40 minutes [1 page = 1 minute of screenplay]
What are the major ways that short films differ from feature films?
~based on situation not story
~no elaborate plot structure

Conceiving Our Story

What is the "Dramatic Moment" in the film?
~"Papa, papa, why do you drink?" And his father slurringly answers, "Because of Mama."
What are the major conflicts/ questions in "Because of Mama?
~How did Papa become an alcoholic? What emotions does he feel?
~Where is Mama? Why did she leave? Who is she? What does she expect of her boy and papa?
~Who will the boy end up pleasing? Will he be torn between pleasing papa and mama? Who will he grow to be?

Determining the Structure

The writer claims that for a short screenplay "a good story needs to have an archetypal storyline and a big idea." Why does he state this, and do you agree?
~The writer states this becuz he believes, in his experience, that to make a good story you have to have these two elements that will create a sense of conflict and plot development short enough to make a good short screenplay. I agree with this statement to a certain point, depending on what your view of a "big idea" is. The writer might not think a big idea is writing about a lost dog, but when you add conflict and well developed characters you get a good story.

Discovering/Crafting Images

What is exposition, and how did the writers decide to handle it in the example they give?
~Writing which exposes what character are thinking, explain why they are thinking it, or writing that gives the reader a peek into the characters' backstory and workings of their mind.
~The writers couldn't verbally express thru the son how he was feeling about his father's drinking and mother's demands, becuz the son is a character of few words. Therefore they send a visual message to the audience..."When the boy gets home and sits down to practice, we see that he is wearing his father's hockey uniform and his own skates. The vision is powerful: he'd rather be playing hockey, but he's being a dutiful son and practicing cello, as he promised his mother."

Writing Scenes. Beginnings, Middles, Ends / Tips for Writing Engaging Scenes

What are the three things you read in these sections that you found the most interesting/ helpful and that you will implement.
~1) To have a strong beginning, you need to know your ending.
~2) In a short narrative the relationship between a film's beginning, resolution, and end should come full circle, whatever elements you lay out as essential in the beginning must be apparent in the resolution and the end.
~3) A good scene has a clear purpose.

Exercises- Do exercise #1