Writing a Script

Some people are more comfortable writing in something like a script format, although it’s a very difficult form to get right, and even more difficult to read, because it places many demands upon the reader, and most readers would much rather see a story with most of the hard work already done for them. Very few readers actually enjoy reading scripts, unless they're very familiar with the conventions used, and most such people are former actors, well-accustomed to fleshing out a rôle extemporaneously. That's why one rarely finds them on the bookstands in supermarkets or airports.

What a Script is:

A playscript is a highly-condensed technical vehicle for setting out the bare bones of a story, and is meant to be interpreted by an entire team of auxiliary story-tellers, including a director, a set designer, costume designers, usually multiple actors (except in the special case of a one-person show), and in some cases musical and special effects designers. In the case of a script meant to be performed in the ‘legitimate theatre,’ there will usually be slightly more supporting crew than there are actors. In the case of a script meant to be performed in front of a camera, these numbers of off-screen personnel may grow to hundreds, or even thousands, of support crew and ‘extras’ who either work to shape the story or contribute to the creative contributions of others in any of several manners.

What a Script isn’t:

A playscript is not a finished product, at least insofar as its intended audience is concerned. The setting is usually only suggested, as are the motivations and actions of the characters, usually with a dozen words or so, if that. In short, it’s no more a ‘story’ than a list of players and the appellations of particular playing strategies is a football game. The actors, in combination with the director, who has overall artistic control of the film, usually work together to flesh out the script into an actual performance, aided by many other hands and minds who help to produce the finished product that one actually sees.

Script Formats

There are two primary script formats. The first is the highly condensed version one often sees in works that are very familiar, and so have many volumes of supporting documents which allow the sophisticated reader to easily visualise the play as it might be performed, or even undertake a textual and/or historical analysis of the text as it’s been performed in the past:

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

ACT I

SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.

FRANCISCO at his post. Enter to him BERNARDO

BERNARDO

Who’s there?

FRANCISCO

Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.

BERNARDO

Long live the king!

FRANCISCO

Bernardo?

BERNARDO

He.

FRANCISCO

You come most carefully upon your hour.

BERNARDO

’Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRANCISCO

For this relief much thanks: ’tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

…

Note: This particular format is more of a mnemonic device than an actual script, and depends upon the reader to supply most of the missing context, either from memory or from their own imagination, and is quite often used because it doesn’t take up all that much room, and so is less expensive to publish in book or pamphlet formats than real script formats designed for working use, which are carefully-constructed in such manner that one page of script is approximately one minute of the play as performed in ‘real life.’

The other reason it’s used is because it avoids copyright constraints, since under the copyright laws of most nations a performance of any work otherwise well within the public domain is itself a copyrighted independent creation, and so protected. The record (or performance description) of such a work is copyright in the year of its first publication or performance as well.

For consideration as a script in the professional world, though, the requirements are much more stringent, and take up considerably more room.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

By William Shakespeare

Opening Montage

Ext. Wide shot of a medieval castle in Denmark with clouds skidding across a moonlit sky. It's winter, but the trees are in bud, and there stands a solitary figure, FRANCISCO, heavily cloaked against the chill, who is on guard upon the highest rampart as the camera zooms in on his face. He's obviously frightened as his eyes dart from one side to the other.

BERNARDO
(Off Camera, shouting.)

Who’s there?

FRANCISCO
(Startled, shouting.)

Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.

BERNARDO
(Rushing toward Francisco, spear in hand, shouting.)

Long live the king!

FRANCISCO
(Relieved, now speaking more quietly.)

Bernardo?

BERNARDO
(Also reassured, now strolling towards his friend at leisure.)

He.

FRANCISCO
(Rolling his eyes.)

You come most carefully upon your hour.

BERNARDO
(Smiling.)

’Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRANCISCO
(Embraces Bernardo, claps him on the back.)

For this relief much thanks: ’tis bitter cold,
And I am sick at heart.

…

This is just a start, of course, and as the script is developed more detail will be added, and many different scripts focusing on different crafts will be prepared, each carefully plotting out the exact details of every scene from the separate viewpoints of the director, the actors, the craft people involved, even outside contractors who may have some rôle to play in the final production, until every second (literally) of screen and off-screen (or stage and off-stage) time is accounted for and explained in detail.

It's quite a lot of work, much more difficult than a mere story.