Screenwriting

Description

Screenwriting, also known as scriptwriting, encompasses the creative process of crafting scripts for various media formats, including feature films, television shows, and video games. This skill is frequently exercised by freelance film professionals who specialize in developing compelling narratives and engaging dialogue. Everything in screenwriting revolves around the visual. After all, film, tv and video games are all visual mediums and the scripts that tell these stories need to externalize a character’s internal motivations. It’s a wholly unique process completely independent from writing novels, poems or essays, especially when it comes to the extremely specific format that screenwriting requires.

 Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature movies, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession. Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, developing the narrative, writing the script, screenplay, dialogues and delivering it in the required format to development executives. Screenwriters therefore have great influence over the creative direction and emotional impact of the screenplay and, arguably, of the finished film. Screenwriters either pitch original ideas to producers in the hope that they will be optioned or sold; or are commissioned by a producer to create a screenplay from a concept, true story, existing screen work or literary work such as a novel, poem, play, comic book, or short story.

 Screenplay,  written text that provides the basis for a film production. Screenplays usually include not only the dialogue spoken by the characters but also a shot-by-shot outline of the film’s action. Screenplays may be adapted from novels or stage plays or developed from original ideas suggested by the screenwriters or their collaborators. They generally pass through multiple revisions and screenwriters are called on to incorporate suggestions from directors, producers and others involved in the filmmaking process. Early drafts often include only brief suggestions for planned shots but by the date of production a screenplay may evolve into a detailed shooting script, in which action and gestures are explicitly stated.

 A screenplay can be an original piece, or based on a true story or previously written piece, like a novel, stage play or newspaper article. At its heart, a screenplay is a blueprint for the film it will one day become. Professionals on the set including the producer, director, set designer and actors all translate the screenwriter's vision using their individual talents. Since the creation of a film is ultimately a collaborative art the screenwriter must be aware of each person's role and as such, the script should reflect the writer's knowledge.

The nature of the screenplay is the same as it has always been: A screenplay is a story told with pictures in dialogue and description and placed within the context of dramatic structure. It is the art of visual storytelling. Screenwriting is no longer an abstraction; it’s a distinct language, a fairly wide-ranging job, and a very explicit document that helps turn ideas into viewable, enjoyable, and emotional pieces of visual storytelling.