Production Diary: Screenplay

Writer’s Block: First Draft

Writer’s Block: Final Draft

In the redraft of my screenplay, I decided to cut down on the amount of narration as I deemed some of The Student’s internal dialogue unnecessary. I also presented The Student as slightly more sarcastic and self-aware in the final draft, which can be seen particularly during the window scene.

Production Diary: Research into screenplay conventions

The screenplay which I will soon write for my film must be formatted in a specific manner, consisting of six main elements.

Elements of a Screenplay

Scene Heading

Also known as the slug line, the scene heading is written in all capitals and is accompanied by INT (interior) or EXT (exterior) respectively. Alongside this, the scene heading purpose is to also give a brief description of the location or setting, as well as the time of day.

Action

Action describes anything that is able to be seen or heard. Any sound effects of importance must be written in block capitals.

Characters

The names of characters belong on a separate line in all capitals. Any character who appears off-screen or any voiceover should be accompanied by (O.S.) or (V.O.) respectively.

Parenthesis

Parenthesis (or brackets) provide contextual information or act as a stage direction for dialogue delivery. These should be used sparingly as to not reduce the readability of the screenplay.

Dialogue

Dialogue is formatted as blocks offset from all other text and is centralised on the page. Any overlapping dialogue is written in a block parallel to the main dialogue block.

Transition

Transitions mark the change from one scene to another, perhaps denoting a shift in time or place. This effectively marks any visual cues on the screenplay, but these should also be used sparingly.

An example of a correctly formatted screenplay

Production Diary: Component 3 Overview

The third component of the A-Level Film Studies course is a production-based unit worth 30% of the qualification. This entails an entirely independent filmmaking project, involving the creation of a short film with a duration between four and five minutes. The coursework process will be entirely documented in a series of blog posts referred to as the Production Diary, this post being the first of many. The short film must align with one of the four briefs established by the exam board, listed below:

• A narrative which has a distinct genre.
• A narrative which has parallel stories.
• A non-linear narrative.
• A narrator.

The creative process of the making of the short film can be clearly divided into six ‘elements’ of production:

• Element 1 – Research
• Element 2 – Pre-production
• Element 3 – Production
• Element 4 – Post-production
• Element 5 – Evaluative Analysis
• Element 6 – Submission

Research involves the viewing of the Eduqas Short Film Collection, which consists of 18 films that will be viewed in class and will each receive a respective blog post afterwards. During the Evaluative Analysis process, at least three of the 18 films must be credited for imbuing creative inspiration within your own short film.

Pre-production is a lengthy process which occurs after a clear, finalised idea of what the short film will entail has been reached. The mandatory aspects of the pre-production process are listed in bold:

• Production Idea
• Treatment (written in detailed prose, using film-specific language)
• Pitch (filmed verbal delivery of the treatment, followed by discussion)
• Pitch Reflections (subsequent thoughts, audience response, teacher feedback, etc.)
• Action points and preparation possibilities
• Research into screenplay conventions
• Research into storyboarding conventions
• Research into lighting
• Research into equipment – cameras, lenses, etc.
• Location scout
• Casting
• Finalised screenplay, with evidence of drafts and versions
• Filmed rehearsals
• Filmed screenplay read-through
• Storyboards
• Practice shots
• Wardrobe and prop acquisition
• Makeup
• Special effects
• Soundtrack research

Production involves the entire filming process of the film and all aspects of camerawork and editing are assessed. A diverse range of camera shots and editing techniques are encouraged within the production, through the application of the key elements of film form. Performance skills are not assessed.

Post-production is another fairly lengthy process which has the potential to impact the final mark significantly. Through the process of frequent screenings in order to receive invaluable feedback, this process will involve reshoots and rewrites in order to improve the film in the best way possible. New cuts of the film will be edited in LumaFusion.

Evaluative Analysis involves a 1600-1800 word evaluation of the production. It is here that the Eduqas Short Film Collection will be referenced. The evaluative analysis will include:

• The narrative structure of the short film – an analysis of how the narrative features and dramatic qualities of all short films studied are constructed – highlighting key ideas which informed our own production.
• Cinematic influences – an analysis of how audio/visual elements of other professionally produced films or screenplays – including short films -influenced our own short film.
• How our film creates meaning and effect – an analysis of how our production creates meaning and generates responses for the spectator in relation to other professional short films – including at least one of the Eduqas Short Film Collection.

Submission is the final element of the creative process, involving the handing in of three specific documents:

• A cover sheet, completed with the class teacher.
• The final short film itself, uploaded as a .mp4 file.
• The evaluative analysis document, uploaded to the shared OneDrive folder.

Kitchen Sink Drink: Screenplay

Next, I had to write a correctly formatted screenplay using Slugline. Below is my completed screenplay.