From Screenwriters Toolkit
Two people are in bed. A siren or alarm is heard. Or the phone rings. Or a doorbell.
WRITE THE SCENE.
Ask yourself:
Place ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances or extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances.
Download the PDF: In The Bedroom Exercise
From Screenwriters Toolkit
1) Choose two businesses at random. Move two characters from Point A to
Point B by whatever means you invent. Invent a good reason for the
journey. Reveal that intent skillfully. If it’s huge, understate it. If it’s trivial,
exaggerate.
2) Pick one of the following topics and write a dialogue scene between those
two characters, exploring and disputing the topic fully.
As in every good scene, use the interchange not only to explore the issue,
but in doing so, reveal who the characters are, individually and in their
relationship to each other.
3) Orchestrate part 2 into part 1 and write a sequence of scenes.
Dowload the PDF: Tarantino Exercise
Using the given script, write one scene that features a character that is off screen while the rest of the movie is going on.
For example, Rocky and Adrian have a scene together. Adrian leaves and we follow Rocky for a few scenes. Then we meet up with Adrian again. What did Adrian do in the meantime? Who would she talk to?
This is a chance to write with existing characters. You don’t have to do much world building. You’re focusing on writing character, but also the craft of formatting action, dialogue, description, phone calls, etc.
Download the PDF: Fill in the Gaps exercise
Download the Rocky screenplay: rocky-1976.pdf
From Dr. Format:
Two articles on Flashbacks.
Basic Flashback Formatting
https://www.keepwriting.com/tsc/flashback.htm
5 Unusual Flashback Situations
https://scriptmag.com/screenplays/ask-dr-format-formatting-5-common-flashback-situations?oly_enc_id=0684G9277956A7U
What are themes in movies and TV series, and how can you use them in your stories?
In this article from Screencraft.org, Ken Miyamoto writes about the importance of theme and the way a good theme triggers empathy and catharsis.
Read more at the link below:
What does a screenplay for an animated feature look like? Not that different from live action! Generally, animation scripts have more description of imagery, even camera directions. Studio Binder has a collection of sample scripts on their website.
Visit the site here:
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/animation-scripts/
What a treasure trove of pitch and bible documents! Sometimes writing is writing ABOUT writing. See what many TV show producers and writers have put together in the past on the Shore Scripts website.
Visit the site here:
https://www.shorescripts.com/tv-series-bibles/
Part of writing is producing sales copy for your work! How can you summarize your story in just a page? Check out this article from Screencraft. Includes a sample summary of Jurassic Park.
Read the full article here:
https://screencraft.org/blog/how-to-write-an-effective-one-page-pitch/
The Story Breakdown blog has some in-depth articles on screenwriting. Here’s one that analyzes all the ways a film can begin.
Read the full article here:
https://www.storybreakdown.com/writing-great-opening-scenes/
The “Writers Write” blog shared these negative and positive traits to think of when designing your characters. I’ll include the lists here, but follow the link to see how to implement these traits.
Read the full article here:
https://www.writerswrite.co.za/a-fabulous-resource-for-writers-350-character-traits/
