SCREENWRITING TIPS

By PANJA SHRAVA
Email: [email protected]
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Your Screenplay Planning

• IDE
➢ Can get ideas from surroundings, family, friends or
from reading books on interested topic

• PLOT and STOR

➢ Plot is Character’s physical journey by doing Actio
➢ Story is Character’s emotional journey by giving
reaction
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• THEM
➢ Theme is defined in ‘Single Word’ or ‘Short Phrase’ ,
related to Protagonist flaw like lack of self-confidence,
stubbornness etc

• Compelling CHARACTER
➢ Different Characters can be
Protagonis
Antagonis
Supporting character
Archetype
Extras, Bit Players
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Your Screenplay Planning Contd..

➢ Protagonist : Hero of the story and attributes ar
❖ Age , Name, Goal, Physical description, Flaw, Archetype, Back-story
(if needed) of which Physical description and Flaw are most
important
➢ Antagonist : Person working actively against Protagonist
❖ Antagonist need not be disclosed from the beginning
❖ Antagonist has a flaw and audience should dislike hi
➢ Supporting Characters : They could be
❖ Friends of Protagonis
❖ Pawns of Antagonis
❖ Their existence should have a reason by advancing the plot pla
t

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• ARCHETYPE
➢ It is about what the character cares, fears, present
themselves, motivates from et
➢ Character can have more than one archetype of
which one archetype must be dominan

• EXTRAS/BIT PLAYER
➢ These are the characters who have one or two lines or
no lines
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 Structuring the Screenplay

• LOGLIN
➢ One or Two sentence description of the story which includes – Protagonist. Antagonist,
Action, Inciting incident/Goal/Stak
➢ Most commonly used Logline Formulas
1. Inciting Incident + Protagonist + Action + Antagonist {E.g. : Pirates of Caribbean –
Blacksmith Will Turner(Protagonist) teams up with Jack Sparrow(Action) to save his
love(Inciting incident) from Jack’s former pirate allies who are now
undead(Antagonist)}
2. Protagonist + Action + Antagonist + Goal + Stake {E.g. : Avengers – A team of
superheroes(Protagonist) must learn to work together and face(Action) meddlesome
demigod(Antagonist) to stop his alien army(Goal) from taking over the
world(Stake )}

• PITC
➢ It is a little longer description of the story, may be a paragraph but not revealing all the
elements of the stor
➢ Reveal only essential elements of the plot
➢ It can start with logline
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Structuring the Screenplay Contd.

• STRUCTUR
➢ Structure is like a template which helps in enhancing
the creativity and keeping track of your writin
➢ Traditional way of writing a story structure is 3 Act
structure
❖ Act 1 – Hook/Inciting Incident, Back Story, Trigger/
Turning Poin
❖ Act 2 – Crisis, Struggle, Realizatio
❖ Act 3 – Plan, Climax, Resolution
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 Structuring the Screenplay Contd.

❖ Act 1
Hook/Inciting Incident – Get viewers attention and make them intereste
Back Story – About the character and understand his flaw, goal, situation, which
can be in form of flashbacks or dialogue
Trigger/Turning Point – A moment that sets Protagonist on a journey with their
fla
❖ Act 2
Crisis – Goes into crisis due to the flaw, takes an action but it does not hel
Struggle – Series of bad things happening to Protagonist and make situation wors
Realization – Understands and realizes the flaw and decides to chang
❖ Act 3
Plan – It is the actual plot and it may or may not work first but works late
Climax – Protagonist defeats Antagonist and Antagonist may be punished or died
as you wis
Resolution – Journey is over and loose ends are tied up
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Structuring the Screenplay

Structuring the Screenplay Contd.
➢ 4-Act and 5-Act structures are also commonly used nowaday
➢ 4-Act structure : (E.g. Titanic, Avatar
❖ Act 1 – Introduce Characters/Situatio
- Inciting Inciden
- Protagonist goal and Turning Point
❖ Act 2a – Protagonist begins journe
- Faces Obstacles/Conflict
- End with a mini-midpoin
❖ Act 2b – Protagonist continues to achieve goal in a new wa
- Another mini-midpoint and Dark moment
- End with Turning Point
❖ Act 3 – Tension rises in audienc
- Clima
- Resolution
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Structuring the Screenplay Contd.

➢ 4-Act Structure
Structuring the Screenplay Contd.
➢ 4-Act Structure
Structuring the Screenplay Contd.
● 5-Act Structure
Structuring the Screenplay
• Other Types of Screenplay Structures [Ref : Screencraft.org]
1. Real-Time Structur
2. Multiple Timeline Structur
3. Roshomon Structur
4. Reverse Chronological Structur
5. Circular Structur
6. Hyperlink Structur
7. Oneiric Structur
8. Fabula/Syuzhet Structur
9. Non-Linear Structure
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Structuring the Screenplay

Real-Time Structure (Quiet Place
✓ In this structure, the story goes uninterrupte
✓ There are no time-jumps, flashbacks or break
✓ Every moment matters and is importan
✓ In this type, the tension within the story is elevate

Multiple Timeline Structure (C/O Kancherapalem

✓ This is a complicated structure where few linear stories are blended
togethe
✓ It gives the sense that in the universe all life is connecte
✓ Connection between them is shared emotions, theme, message
✓ This structure enables writers to go beyond conventional
storytelling
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Structuring the Screenplay

Roshomon Structure (Devudu Chesina Manushulu
✓ This is about telling the same story in different points of view
✓ Every detail has to be taken care to relate with each perspective
✓ Writers can add more creativity into the screenplay
✓ It educates audience that there is always another side to same story

Reverse Chronological Structure (Upendra’s A, Manu

✓ This is a very difficult structure to build
✓ The beginning of the story becomes the end and the story starts with the
end or near to end
✓ Even though while telling the story from the end, the story should be
compelling and the beginning should create tension and curiosity to the
audience
)

Structuring the Screenplay

Circular Structure (Back to the Future, Avengers End Game
✓ In this structure, the story ends where it has started and it starts
from where it has ended
✓ Time Travel stories are more relevant to this type of structure
✓ Characters travel forward or backward in time, affecting future or
past events

Hyperlink Structure (Contagion, Virus

✓ This structure works on domino effect where one domino falls on
another causing it to fall and the next, the next
✓ It consists of different linear stories where each story is hyperlinked
with another
✓ Even if one character or storyline is removed, the overall story
would not work
)

Structuring the Screenplay

Oneiric Structure (One Nenokkadine
✓ This is a unique structure where the real world and dream world
become one as the movie forward
✓ Basically the storytelling is done exploring the structure of human
consciousness, dreams and memorie

Fabula/Syuzhet Structure (KGF, Forrest Gump

✓ ‘Fabula’ and ‘Syuzhet’ are the words originated in Russia
✓ ‘Fabula’ means the meat of the story and ‘Syuzhet’ means narration
of the stor
✓ In this type structure, mostly the story starts with an end and goes
into past with a flashback and narrated with an voiceover
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Structuring the Screenplay

Non-Linear Structure (Basha
✓ In this structure, the movie jumps backward, forward, sideway
✓ This challenges the readers to remember the scenes and pick the
story back up immediately

Spec Script Vs Production Script

• SPEC SCRIP
❖ It is basically putting down your idea on a paper and
showcasing that your are capable of writing
❖ Writing story without any contract and later sell it in open
market
❖ It should not contain any reference to camera angles

● ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF SPEC SCRIP

❖ Concept
❖ Moments
❖ Conflicts/Crisis and Plan
❖ Simple Formatting
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Spec Script Vs Production Script

Contd.
• PRODUCTION SCRIP
❖ Production script is also called as Shooting script
❖ Spec script turns into Production script when it is paid and going into production
❖ It includes camera angles, scene numbers and a complete finished version that can
be used by crew
❖ It is a combined effort of Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Costume Designer and
Sound Director

● ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF PRODUCTION SCRIP

❖ Camera angles/directions
❖ Information on Lighting, Costumes
❖ Properties to be used
❖ Sound effects
❖ Color Psychology of characters
❖ Characters Physiology and Psychology
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Camera Angles
Camera Angles Contd.
Camera Angles Contd.
Color Psychology
Lighting Techniques
Lighting Techniques Contd.
Lighting Techniques Contd.
Scene Props
Character Physiology & Psychology
Character Sociology
Top Film Festivals
● Top 11 US Film Festivals
➢ Sundance Film Festival
➢ Tribeca Film Festival
➢ Austin Film Festival
➢ Telluride Film Festival
➢ New York Film Festival
➢ Chicago International Film Festival
➢ Palm Springs International Film Festival
➢ Atlanta Film Festival
➢ Santa Barbara International Film Festival
➢ Nantucket Film Festival
➢ Slamdance Film Festival
Top Film Festivals
● Top International Film Festivals
➢ Cannes International Film Festival
➢ Deauville Festival du Cinema Americaine
➢ Berlinal
➢ Venice International Film Festival
➢ Toronto International film Festival
➢ Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival
➢ Indian International Film Festival
➢ Busan International Film Festival
➢ Raindance Film Festival
➢ Calgary International Film Festival
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THANK YOU
ALL THE BEST & HAVE FUN!!!