Before starting this class, I had some understanding of script writing, and how a script works, but there were definitely still some blurry areas. And even though many of these blurred spots have been cleared out, some still remain. But that’s not a problem with the way that this class is being taught, in fact, it’s not even a problem at all. The predicament, you could say, is that the process of script writing doesn’t adhere to any rules. Anything that would be classified as rules are actually more like guidelines. I’m not saying it means that they’re bullshit, if anything, the opposite. These ‘guidelines’ are actually there to keep the script organized, and in most cases, make it easier to understand. That being said, there’s no doubt that at least 99% of scriptwriters have rebelled against them at some point in their life. What I discovered in the most recent reading that we did, Written for the Screen: The American Motion-Picture Screenplay as Text by Claudia Sternberg, is that script writing is like goo. (I would say that it’s like water, but as I said in the previous blog post, there are still instances where it’s almost essential to adhere to the rules). I found out that there were a lot of ways to write a script, but the key is finding your own style. The main blurred spot I mentioned earlier was that I was a little lost in regards to the formality of a script. In previous projects, I tended to struggle because my writing would fluctuate from extremely formal and instructive, to very informal and casual writing. Reading the text from the Monday week five class talked about different professional scriptwriters who had bent the rules towards their own style, and sometimes, even completely disregarded them. But this didn’t mean that they were bad scripts. What matters when finding your own style is your ability to translate the pacing of the scene, the crescendos and the diminuendos onto paper. One of the examples given was an excerpt from the 1992 Western film, Unforgiven, in which the scriptwriter had used onomatopoeia to describe the actions:

“LITTLE BILL is about to squeeze the trigger when…

BLAM!… MUNNY shoots him and…

BLAM!… LITTLE BILL shoots just as he is hit in the chest and…

BLAM! BLAM!… FATTY fires wildly and…

MUNNY is aiming too and BLAM!”

Even though the word ‘blam’ isn’t exactly formal, based on the context of the scene, the readers understand what’s going on; there is a shootout between three characters. The sudden cuts from descriptiveness to onomatopoeia accent the abruptness and loudness of the gunshots.

This whole blog post is completely just me reflecting on and noting down every brainwave that passes through my head, and probably doesn’t make too much sense to a foreign reader, so, here’s a quick summary.

The main problem that I had when it came to script writing was that I had no idea about the formality of a script. I didn’t know where the line was between what we could and couldn’t do. The reading from the week five Monday class showed me that there isn’t actually a distinct line between the two. I found out that scriptwriting isn’t about following a structure or formality, but instead, it’s about it’s about being able to translate how you want the scene to pace out onto paper and being clear with what you’re writing.