Writing for Film?

In class 1, Week 1, everyone went around the room and discussed their knowledge of script writing, and also what they intended to learn/gain from this course. The vast majority, including myself, stated that we know very little about script writing. To elaborate, I have for so long loved seeing the scripts to some of my favourite films. Reading the script beyond just the dialogue is fascinating. It’s similar to the notion of reading a book then seeing the film adaptation. I first discovered this fascination seeing parts of the script to Django Unchained, a film written by the genius Quentin Tarantino. Seen below is an excerpt that makes me laugh every time.

 

For whatever reason it totally makes sense. Anyway, I digress.

From this class, I would love to gain an understanding of how to write scripts. You’d expect a typical answer to be something like “I can see myself doing this in the future” however I selected this course out of pure fascination and wanting to know how the masterminds like Tarantino do it. I LOVE to write. I know how to write, and i’d love to see some of my writing turned into short scripts and videos.

The studio prompt we have been given is “What is lost and found if we disassemble the conventional relationship between screenwriting and filmmaking?”  I think what this is trying to ask, is when writing scripts, what can be lost or gained in translation to the creation of the actual adaptation film. For example, this week we were asked to write a short story, and when turning that story into a script, the perspective and details of what the character was doing had to be changed and added.

There is so much about this course that I won’t understand when we first learn about it. I don’t mind that at all though. It’s exciting to start something from the very beginning and gain an understanding about a different perspective to film.