Low-budget filmmaking tip #204
Before you write a script, it doesn’t hurt to also write down a little explanatory copy for each character. It’s important to know — for each person — who they are now, who they want to be, and what’s preventing them from achieving that.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #186
If you read through your entire script out loud, chances are excellent that every single place you stumbled on the dialogue can be cut without hurting the story. Unless you’ll be breathing-for-effect, don’t write dialogue bigger than a single breath can handle.
A lot of people make the mistake of solving things by throwing more dialogue into the script. When we do so, we are buying into the false idea that “writing” is only what the actors say.
I saw the same thing in comics — people seemed to believe that the writer was the person who wrote the words in the word balloons.
It simply never occurs to them that a comic’s writing is the whole story.
Same as all those award-winning animated shorts. All those adorable little shorts of birds on telephone wires, or nudging each other on branches, or kids in sandboxes — all of those were written. Yet no dialogue.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #168
In your genre script, you don’t have to worry about explaining each and every little detail. If it’s sci-fi, for example, we are willing to accept jetpacks. In fantasy, we are willing to accept spells. But please avoid contradicting reality too much. People are smarter than you think and when you blatantly contradict common sense, you’re gonna honk ‘em off.
Seducing people into a willing suspension of disbelief is easy. They’re already willing to go there if they’re watching a sci-fi movie. Keeping them there is actually pretty easy, too. But once you contradict what they know, you’re hosed.
For example, if I had a sci-fi movie where people are flying around, there’s got to be some kind of reason for it, however far-fetched. They can be wearing itty-bitty jetpacks and the audience will buy it, but if they can just fly, it makes no sense.
Contradicting yourself is even more problematic. For example, say you established that someone could, with proper training (“with proper training” is one of those tools, by the way, to allow us to accept that people can do extraordinary things), learn how to manipulate a mystical energy field and do really cool things and fight with laser swords and so forth. Then, say, two movies later, you declare it’s only possible because they are unusual and have lots of some sort of gizmo in their blood. That’s contradicting your own rules. That’s a killer.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #165
It’s easy to think you don’t need a script, or that a script is a pain to deal with, or that writing is easy. None of that is true. Although we sometimes joke that “the script practically writes itself,” recognize that this is tongue in cheek. Writing is hard work. A lot of delicate and careful elements go into each script, and everything — characters, settings, props, mood, motivations, and more — must balance carefully. It’s a craft.
This is not to say that the other elements of filmmaking aren’t crafts, but the script is the first and lowest-level document. Everything has to come from the script at some point. Every character, every setting, every description, everything.
The script is the blueprint.
It takes a lot of work to make a good story’s underpinnings invisible.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #141
Storytelling and dialogue are not the same thing. If no one gets the story, it’s not because there isn’t enough dialogue — it’s because the story doesn’t make sense. In fact, if you think you might need more dialogue, you probably need less.
There are always exceptions, but they are so rare, if you think you might be one of them, bet against that horse.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #131
It’s okay to run a script by a buddy or two, but don’t go overboard. n number of reviewers will give you 2^n opinions. Only run it by people from whom you expect reasonably critical analysis, and more importantly, a desire to have it be better!
Low-budget filmmaking tip #127
Never underestimate the audience — they are smarter than you think, and they will get the joke.
One of my instructors, Cynthia Whitcomb, brings this up in every class, and every single time I’ve been unsure, I’ve run with it and sure enough, the audience does get the joke. Every time.
And, every time I didn’t run with it, and added “explanation” of the joke, when it finally showed to an audience, it fell flat.
It’s like punning. Punning only works if you let the audience know you’ve told a pun, and the typical reaction is not laughter, but groans. Avoid a groaning audience.
Not everyone will get the joke, but someone will and they’ll explain it. By dumbing it down or over-making the gag, the only thing that’s going to happen is that the people who had to have it explained are going to feel dumb and the people who caught it the first time are going to feel insulted.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #98
You don’t need fancy software to write a script — any word processor will do. The thing to remember is that no matter how much you spend on software and learning curve time, you’re basically producing a document that’s supposed to look like it came out of a 1920′s typewriter.
I have met people who are sure they’ll write great scripts now that they have Such-And-So scriptwriting software.
It’s not hard at all to find script formatting guides. I pretty much do it each time I start a new script (although Celtx works pretty well for me, and it’s free).
Low-budget filmmaking tip #79
Please don’t ever have a character say “We’ve got company” to announce the arrival of monsters, bad guys, or other undesirables. You can do better. Likewise, “Bingo!” should probably never be used outside of the actual bingo parlor context.
One of the things I try very hard to do with every script I write is to speak all the dialogue out loud. If something sounds funny, it’s outta’ here!
One of the first things to go is repeated use of each other’s names.
I noticed in a script I wrote recently that neither of the two characters even once called each other by name. At first, I thought that was a little weird, until I read it a few times and realized that names were pretty much unnecessary — it was just two people talking in the woods.
I could live a long and happy life and never hear a character say “I got a bad feeling about this” unless it was the setup for a punchline such as “Well, yeah, there’s one of those spiny fish swimming into your urethra — that explains your bad feeling.”
I would actually be amused if a bingo parlor were in a movie, but no one said bingo. Then one of the musing characters would muse “Something just seems to be missing.” She would keep musing until later, in a different location, just as the other characters are working out something complicated, she’d yell out “Bingo!” and they would all ask and she would explain “That’s what was missing from the bingo parlor! Someone shouting Bingo!” They would stare blankly at her, and then she would say “Okay, so what are we talking about, again?”
Although I think “spiny pee fish” would be an awesome name for an avant garde Scottish soft rock band.
Low-budget filmmaking tip #77
Always know what emotion you want your audience to feel, for every character, for every scene, and at the end of the movie. This is your compass, and as long as you follow it, you’ll always stay on track. If you don’t have compass, you’ll just wander around.