Film Courage: If we take novel writing…so are we going to be spending a lot of detail
on setting a world but if we’re doing a screenplay how much are we really paying attention
to the where, the setting, the scenes?
Because won’t some of that be fleshed out when the actual film starts and the director
storyboards or whatever?
Naomi Beaty, Writer, Screenwriting Teacher and Consultant: Yes, I think it is important
to pay attention to the where of your story right?
Because every choice that you make in your screenplay should be a deliberate one.
If you’ve chosen a setting there should have been some reasoning behind that.
You’re not going to set your love story about working with incarcerated writers, you’re
not going to set that in a juvenile detention center.
Film Courage: No.
Naomi: You want it to be in a very specific type of prison to inform that world.
So I think you should pay attention to the where.
If we’re talking about the process of actually conveying that on page.
I think the trick of screenwriting is to be as concise as possible but as evocative as
possible in those few words.
That’s the trick of conveying it on the page is being deliberate about your choice
and then conveying it as specifically as possible so you can get as much out of your choice
as you can.
Does that make sense?
Film Courage: It does, so fade in: If we’re talking about this hypothetical library how
much am I telling?
Naomi: So early in your screenplay because you’re just introducing us to the world
of your story you will probably take a little more time to convey where we are, the feel
and the tone of where we are and maybe the important characteristics of that setting.
As your script progresses you will probably need to describe less both because we’ve
probably seen a lot of these locations and then also because you want your story to move
fast.
So as you go further along in the screenplay, you’ll probably spend less time establishing
locations then you did in the very beginning when you were trying to establish the world
and create that world in our minds so we could live in it for the duration of your story.
Now that said I think that there is also value in knowing which moments in your screenplay
should breath and when you have a moment that you sort of need to give space to that might
be when you bring us into the world for a little bit for a little bit longer for some
extra detail or telling us what is going on in that scene or something like that.
Does that make sense?
Film Courage: It does.
Is that the same if we’re doing a character description in the beginning?
If we use this hypothetical librarian [a story idea mentioned in an earlier part of this
interview], she’s age 35, straight blond hair, maybe a little dark under the eyes from
staying up all night reading.
Naomi: So there is a lot of emphasis put on those character introductions right?
I have two minds about this.
I think that people get caught up in writing like the perfect character introduction.
I think that they are important because the first time we meet your character we want
to give us a sense of who they are concisely and evocatively but I’ve seen some character
introductions that are a little too long that maybe stop the story in order to give us a
lot of information about the character the moment we meet them which if you’re reading
a script it can really pull you out if you are forced to stop the scene and meet this
person.
That feels like it interrupts the flow of the story right.
I think the trick of writing character introduction again is the same with all screenwriting which
is be as concise as you can but as evocative as you can and what you’re trying to convey
when you introduce the character is give us that defining quality about them, that essence
of the character that is going to be important to the story.
So physical descriptions might not be as useful to us because the blond hair might never come
into play in the story.
But it might be useful to know that she’s overworked or that she is burning the midnight
oil or that might be important to the story and the situation that she finds herself in
so stuff like that could be useful and you just have to determine what is the most defining
quality about this character that I need my reader to understand right now as I introduce
them