The Page
The screenplay is a unique yet very precise form, which uses a simple framework, but to erect it well is quite difficult. The screenwriter doesn’t have the luxury to write without limits. Readers are always looking for any excuse not to read your script, so never give the reader a reason to toss your script in the recycling pile because you haven’t written it in proper form. The screenwriter’s job is to tell an engaging story that keeps the reader turning pages.
Not only do you attack each scene as late as is
possible, you attack the entire story the same way.
- William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade
Goldman is absolutely right. Start late. Get out early. Every scene. Every sequence. Waste no time. Use the least amount of words possible while still applying the Three C’s: Clear, Concise, and Creative. Make sure every word you write is necessary. Look to maximize white space and avoid common pitfalls such as ‘I’ pages, block pages, and writing camera instructions.
Of course, the writer needs an original voice to tell a memorable story with interesting characters in a believable plot, but if it’s not in the right form, it might as well be written in Sanskrit. Simply put, if you’re going to do it, do it right.
The writer is the first director of the script. That is to say that the writer has already seen the movie in his or her mind’s eye, scene by scene, shot by shot.
But because the writer has seen the film so vividly, down to the smallest of details, one of the pitfalls the novice screenwriter often falls prey to is the assumption that he or she needs to write in the camera instructions so the director, cinematographer, editor, and others can see how the movie should be filmed.
Read more: Describe the Shot
Not only do you attack each scene as late as is possible, you attack the entire story the same way.- William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade Remember, writing a feature film script has a very specific structure, with acts, sequences, plot points, scenes, etc. And all of these elements follow a defined form, in which our cinematic story must be told - a visual story between 90 and 120 pages. That’s not a lot of pages. So we don’t have time to discover our way. We must know it. And we must be economical as we go: start our story as late as we can, begin each scene at the last possible moment, get out of scenes as early as we can. Use spacing on the page for emphasis, pacing, and rhythm. Limit your description paragraphs to three or four lines. Long description paragraphs are too thick, overwhelming , hard to read, and tend to lack the correct dramatic emphasis. The more white space on the page, the better.
Remember, writing a feature film script has a very specific structure, with acts, sequences, plot points, scenes, etc. And all of these elements follow a defined form, in which our cinematic story must be told - a visual story between 90 and 120 pages.
That’s not a lot of pages.
So we don’t have time to discover our way. We must know it. And we must be economical as we go: start our story as late as we can, begin each scene at the last possible moment, get out of scenes as early as we can.
Use spacing on the page for emphasis, pacing, and rhythm. Limit your description paragraphs to three or four lines.
Long description paragraphs are too thick, overwhelming, hard to read, and tend to lack the correct dramatic emphasis. The more white space on the page, the better.
Not only do you attack each scene as late as is possible, you attack the entire story the same way.- William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade.
Remember, writing a feature film script has a very specific structure, with acts, sequences, plot points, scenes, etc.
Read more: Script Economy
In screenwriting, the art of the white space is less art and more artifice. White space on the page is a clever and practical way to get the reader to turn pages: fast and furious.
The screenwriter must start scenes as late as possible and get out early. The less words that can be used to accomplish each scene without losing the voice of the writer, the better. It’s simple: less words means less reading. And if there is one absolute in Hollywood, it is that NOBODY READS.
That fact alone creates quite a conundrum for the screenwriter. Nobody reads? The truth is that when a new spec screenplay comes into an agency or production company or whereever, it’s first stop is definitely not straight to a producer’s or agent’s desk. A director certainly won’t read it. And actors, forget about it. But there has to be somebody who reads it, right?
Readers read. And who are readers? They are the secretaries, the assistants, the interns. They are the undervalued and underpaid (and sometimes unpaid) life-line of Hollywood.
The first thing a reader does is flip to the last page. If the script is more than 120 pages, it goes right in the trash. Next, the reader looks at form. Wrong form, right in the trash. Then the reader flips through the script, looking for block pages and ‘I’ pages. Too many of those, you got it, right in the trash. And now, assuming the script has made it this far, the reader reads. Of course, a good screenplay must have engaging and interesting characters, a good story concept, a clear and structured plot, and original voice in the writing, but it also must have plenty of white space.
A good screenwriter writes concise action that is broken up with short dialogue because he is conscious of the white space on the page and works hard at manifest it - lots of it.
“It was a fast read.” That is one of the best compliments a screenwriter can receive. Because a fast read almost always equates to a good script, and most importantly a ‘recommend’ from the reader. And these ‘recommended’ scripts that have made it through the appropriate channels from reader, to junior agents, to assistants of the assistants that are the screenplays that do end up on the desks of producers, directors, and A-list stars.
There are a lot of keys to locking up a great script, and the art of the white space is one of them.
In screenwriting, the art of the white space is less art and more artifice. White space on the page is a clever and practical way to get the reader to turn pages: fast and furious.
Read more: White Space
The “I” Page: There’s nothing worse than a plethora of “I” pages, that is, pages that are top to bottom dialogue. When this happens, the page literally looks like an “I” because dialogue is margined to fill a narrower column. This creates a lot of white space on the right and left of the page, but it also screams amateur. A screenplay is a visual story, not just a stage play. If you want to write characters that talk, talk, talk their way through a scene, you should be writing for the stage, not the movies.
The “block” page: Another mistake occurs at the opposite end of the spectrum with what is called the “block” page. When a writer fills a page with only visual action paragraphs (usually quite long) and no dialogue, the page literally looks like a block of text. The read, therefore, becomes a slower, thicker, more labor-intensive experience. In order to avoid this, dialogue needs to be inserted to break up all the action, hence, one of the reasons the one-liner has become synonymous with action films.
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