Learn Script Writing with Free Lessons & Tips

Writing the Story is fun because it takes you up on a parachute, and you get to play God. If God wants you to get uplifted, he will inspire you to write a story.

It is the first session in the creative writing class, and it is inspired by a master scriptwriter of the Indian Screen: the writer of excellent films like the 'Legend of Bhagat Singh', 'Rajneeti', 'Satyagraha', 'Ghulam', etc.

A story is more potent than morals than truth than you. -Anjum Rajabali.

Why is a story more compelling than

a) Morals.

I remember a textbook called Community Work, from the pre-primary level of school. After every chapter, they had a subtitle in bold, 'Moral of the story'. So it is drummed into our heads, that stories are all about morals. However, in our experience, our Life long and ongoing love affair with mythology, movies and literature,  proves the opposite. Stories take us beyond morality. They make us to the field which is beyond good and evil, where Rumi promised to meet us.

A story can take you from good to bad in moments. A master storyteller, like Alfred Hitchcock, does this so effortlessly in the film, Psycho. A young woman is murdered ruthlessly in the shower by this invalid character called Norman Bates. After she is dead, Norman cleans the mist of all the blood stains. Then he wraps her lifeless body in a carpet and takes it down the stairs in the dark of the night. He puts her in her cars dickie and drives away. He reaches a pond, where he manages to push the car in. And he stands there, watching the car sink slowly in the water. Just as it is about to sink totally below the surface, the car stops falling. We see Normans tense face, and at that moment, all of us have a profoundly immoral thought: the car should sink. And it does.

The point here is not that it is ok to murder and then try to hide proof. The end of a story is that it gives you an experience of Life which you otherwise wouldn't have had. In Psycho, you become the Psycho. You feel what he feels, at least for a moment. The bravest, the most righteous person, can sense fear in a horror movie. And in this, the Story is more potent than morals.

Why is a story more powerful than

b) Truth

All stories, by definition, are false — Ramayan, Mahabharat, and what happened yesterday. When Tulsidas narrated the Ramayan, he exercised his creative license to delete, add and change Valmiki's version at crucial phases of the text.  They all are made from the stuff of the imaginary mind, which itself does not exist. Cinema itself is an illusion of twenty-four still frames projected per second on a massive screen in a dark theatre. Even a documentary film has a perspective of the director on which it heavily depends. On the other side of the spectrum, a movie like Superman is a worldwide hit.

A film should be believable. It need not be realistic. When you buy the tickets of a movie like Superman, you buy into the belief that in the world of Superman which you are entering for the next couple of hours, Superman can and does fly.

The root of all stories is drama. Be it art or commercial, realistic or bizarre,  a film's success depends largely on to what extent the audience brought into the belief in the narrative.

A story like Cinderella is retold across centuries, and to date, its theme ( socially odd couple ) is repeated in every other film.

Mahatma Gandhi, a great exponent of truth, once had an interesting conversation with Birla, his host in Delhi.

'Bapu,' said Birla reverently, 'You have done so much for us. Indians will never forget you.'

'That's not true, and I will be forgotten sooner than you would like to imagine. The only two characters, Indians will never forget are Ram and Krishna.'

So even the father of the nation knew that stories are more powerful than truth.

Why is a story more compelling than

c) You.

A story is always bigger than its characters. However great Bhagat Singh is, his sacrifice is what made him great. Rajesh Khanna became a star because the romance was in the air. Amitabh took over because the excitement gave way to frustration and anger. Angry became the new wave.

A story is more powerful than the writer. Once the producer buys the script, the chord is cut. The text may be written by whoever. A film is always the director's baby.

The script may be adapted from a book, but anyone who has loved a book will never be happy with the film. I am sure Chetan Bhagat wept when he saw three Idiots, which was inspired by his book, Five point someone.

A story is what pulls the audience in the cinema halls. The actors, or the stars, are there to act out the Story.

And the most prominent story writer of all, the mighty, thinks nothing of popping a character he has so lovingly breathed Life into when he loses interest in the sand castle. Savitri was perhaps the only woman who convinced God to give her back her husband. Amitabh's character, in film after film, had to leave the earthly abode. What does not leave us, however, is their Story.

Ek Baar Waqt se, lamha gira Kahin.

Waha dastan mili, lamha kahin Nahin

 

Once time lost a moment. All we count find there was a story.

So the ocean is more potent than the wave.

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The process of making a film is called Film Making. Generally in the sense of films intended for extensive theatrical exhibition. The process involves a number of discrete stages including an initial story, idea, or commission, through screenwriting, shooting, casting, reproduction and sound recording, screening, and editing the finished product before an audience that may result in a film exhibition and release.

It Contains 3 stages
1. Pre-production
2. Production
3. Post-production

Every film or video went through these 3 stages to get the best visuals on screen. And these 3 stages contains many interesting parts and the position to do. Such as Writing casting costume designing set design sound music camera screenplay storyboard etc.so in the next topic we will learn about pre-production in a very simple manner.

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It has been mentioned time and again that script has to be properly formatted so that it can be pitched right while selling to production houses in the film industry. Your script needs this format as it not only expresses your ideas correctly but also inspires a producer to go ahead and make film on your script.

There are five significant points about formatting a script however it is interesting to note that there is no strictly defined or industry accepted standard term for these five parts. Every film industry or every production house can understand this by a separate hypothesis and every producer can refer to it by a different term. But only for the convenience of understanding for the beginners, I have broadly classified a script into the below mentioned five parts-

1. Broad Concept in One sentence or theme of the film:

It is basically defining your script in one strong, interesting and path-breaking sentence. Writing theme helps you a lot in pitching your film to film-makers and selling your script as the first question everyone asks you will be what your script is all about. The power in the first line or sentence that you will speak about concept of the film will create the required interest in the script so that the producer or your prospective client may get inspired to hear the full story or the script of your film.

2. Logline or Synopsis of the film:

Some film producers may refer to it as short summary, synopsis or even one linear of the film. It is mostly written in one paragraph and elaborates the concept or theme of the film as while selling your script the second question to you will be what you actually mean by the line that you have said is the concept of the film. Hence it is better to write elaboration of your theme in ten sentences minimum and read it or explain it when asked to do so. Basically this short summary will also give impetus or second drive required to make your narration engaging and thrilling to filmmakers.

3. Story of the film:

It is 2-5 page narrative and plot of the film however some producers may refer to it as long synopsis, summary or one line story of the film. Essentially story is a brief narrative of the film which does not include dialogues but may include punch lines along with all parts of the story written as an outline. Plot is logically different from story as it is clearly divided into 2, 3 or more acts and defines the flow of narration of the story in the film. Once again vocabulary remains disputable here as well considering story and plot are used interchangeably or may mean just one thing for different producers.

4. Screenplay:

Literally everything you see visually while watching a movie is included in the screenplay which is sometimes also known as the actual script of the film. The major difference is that screenplay will also include the detailed information covering the visual aspects of film but script (being a much simpler version of it), is a text that everyone reads before signing a movie. The imagery and characters of the script do the convincing part to encourage the entire cast and crew. When they all agree to do the film your script is then modified into a screenplay.

5. Dialogue:

It is a conversation between two or more people in the film including the character talking to his own-self and a voiceover in a movie is also known as dialogue. Interestingly Bollywood and all other Indian film industries have a clear distinction here as they use separate dialogue and screenplay writers who can either be the same person or completely different from original scriptwriter.

I believe that the variety of terms used in screenwriting is not critical here. You are good to go simply by knowing different terms and understanding how they are referred by different producers. The most important objective is to understand the idea behind these five separate parts of the script and what exactly each of these five parts should constitute. Hence I will elaborate each of these parts with their significance to your script in my subsequent blogs. So, Happy reading.

 

 

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Writing is everything, the be all and end all of film making.

While beginning a script, approach the film through the character. Theme can come later.

Once a character is created, it weaves the story by itself. The writer just has to follow the character. This happens when the matrix opens itself and shows you the film.

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Hi Naina, To become script writer you dont need to be an avid reader. Trust me. That's the truth. How to write a story can not be taught. Courses wont help much. You need to learn it yourself. Yet there are ways to understand the basic methods of generating ideas and developing them into stories. If by script writing you refer to writing for feature films or short films, they have a way to go about it in terms of understanding the structure and developing 'plot'. Do not read books on 'how to become a screenwriter'. It's the worst thing that can happen to you. Do not follow structured syllabus. Writing is a spontaneous process. I have developed my own unique methods of triggering someone to write better and understand the structure of script which can make them write a script on any topic. Contact me to know more. Prathap Screenwriter and Film director read less

I think people are getting confused with script writing :) Please elaborate what do you mean by script ?? is that software industry scripting or film/theater related script you are looking for. If you are looking for automation scripting classes or any other software related scripting then i can help. Let me know. Cheers, Saurabh Thawali read less