Chapter 4 Storytelling with Light 157your mind? Can you see an event taking place here? Who is
involved?- Text – Have you been inspired, moved, or provoked by a
story you have read? What was it about that story that stays
with you the most? A detail or event from a story can incite
us to think of an original response to its themes, events, and
other storytelling elements (setting, characters, style, and
so forth). For this exercise, generating an original story is
recommended. Adaptations will be discussed as an option
later in the book.
E. Preparations for Script Writing – Once you have generated ideas,
it is helpful to determine the characters and create descriptions as
we have done in Units 2 and 3. Next, it can be useful to devise a
narrative structure for the stories. - What is the initial setting of the story? How do we establish
the situation of the central character or characters? - What is the character trying to accomplish?
- What complicates or hinders the achievement of that desire?
- As the basic elements of the story are established, a series of
actions can begin to take shape. What actions do we witness
in the course of the story?
F. Script Writing – Return to the screenplay format introduction in
Chapter 3 for guidelines. You should produce a screenplay of four
to ten pages for this assignment. Remember that one page of script
is roughly equivalent to one minute of screen time, but if there is
little dialogue on the page, this tends to stretch out the screen time.
Th us, a script with signifi cant body copy will most likely produce a
fi lm longer than the actual number of pages.
G. Revising – It is essential to rewrite your script to refi ne your writing
and fully develop the potential of the blueprint for your fi lm. - First, obtain feedback from appropriate readers, such as
te achers or collaborators. When getting responses to your
script, elicit views on the following issues, whether in writing
or in discussion:
a. Does the beginning of the script make you want to
continue the story to fi nd out what happens?
b. What do you fi nd interesting about the characters?
c. How do you visualize the characters? If you do not have a
clear impression of the characters, why is this the case?
d. Are you surprised by any of the events of the script? If
not, why?
e. Do you fi nd yourself visualizing the events of the story
clearly?
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