screen writers

1. RE # 6 and #7: Most screenplays are written with thee acts in mind. Although the words “ACT I” or "ACT II" are not written on pages, as in stage plays, but screenwriters do structure the story one act at a time.

In Act I, the most important for a writer is to 1) introduce all main characters + 2) show the main conflict between them.

In Act II, a writer must 1) develop the conflict (it’ll get worse, then better, then worse again, much worse etc.) + 2) give a climax of the story (= clash of everything and everyone; usually presented as a biggest event in the story: a chase, a court scene, a wedding, etc.)

In Act III, a script will have a resolution of the main conflict, with a happy ending or with an unhappy, tragic one. Sometimes a movie can have an “unclear ending,” with an open question, i.e. we’ll never know “what’s next?”. European movies like to do it…

2. We need to briefly discuss how many people can be in a writer’s team (for budget purposes of a producer). Most often it’s just one writer. But in very big studio productions, studio execs and producers might hire several writers with different "talents": one writer to develop a plot (a series of interesting events in a certain order), another writer to develop interesting characters and the third one will write a good dialog for those characters. Plus a secretary for those writers and a research assistant. So, a writer’s team might be 3-5 people.

3. Finally, about WGA: Writer’s Guild of America is a professional union that is designed to protect writers’ interests, such creative rights, salaries, schedule, benefits etc. Remember a strike of Hollywood writers a couple of years ago that paralyzed many major productions for several months?

Now, MOVING ON to the topic of “DIRECTOR".

My questions for the topic:

a. Who is a real author of the movie: a writer, a producer, actors, a cinematographer or a director?

b. Everything is important for a director: from a script format to trailers and posters. But there are two major responsibilities of a director, what are they?

c. Know names of shots, such as CU (close-up), WS (wide shot) etc. (see in the required text and double check with the weblinks)

d. Know names of camera movements: PAN, TILT, TRACKING, ZOOM, DOLLY, HANDHELD, STEADICAM…

e. What is DGA?

f. There are several professionals hired for Director’s team:

Director. S/he has all kinds of responsibilities and tasks but the main ones are, as we discussed already, a. dealing with actors (auditioning, hiring, rehearsing, directing while shooting) and b. the vision (director’s treatment, storyboards, shotlist, various explanations to main creative department heads: Production Designer, Director of Photography, Editor, Composer etc.)
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