"Don't Panic!"

– or, how to read a screenplay

 

In a scene from the pen of the immortal Douglas Adams, we are presented with this image:

 

"Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys

outside who want to talk to us about this

script for Hamlet they've worked out."

 

Adams’ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (London 1981) explains that the situation of the monkeys with movie ambitions is merely temporary, and is one of the unavoidable results arising from using The Improbability Drive to travel through space. 

For the rest of us coming to the daunting precipice of reading a filmscript, the best advice is: Don't  Panic! Just hug your intergalactic traveling towel closer to you and take a deep breath. Put the kettle on, and we will get through this together.

If in the past you have avoided cracking into a juicy script because you figured it was too complex to read, or too intricate, or – I don’t know, too this or that – we really ought to examine this feeling more closely. Call it, aversion therapy.  

Like any work, the best approach is the basic one: start at the top left of the page, read to the right and down, and at the end, close the book or switch off your screen. There, that does not sound toooooo scary, does it...?

That being said, there are JUST a few abbreviations that you need to familiarize yourself with. Let's look at them in the order in which you are most likely to see them.

All script scenes open with a scene heading. This is formulaic and contains basic setting information.

 

– INT. means interior

– EXT. means exterior

 

So a scene heading may look like this: INT. SPACESHIP – NIGHT

Here our imagination paints a setting for us to build details on. We know we are inside, in a sort of room, and it is pretty dark outside.

So, I can hear you asking, what will follow...? Details. We can add layers to the basic scene-heading scaffold of our imaginations with what follows. For example, the beginning of a script would look like this:

 

INT. SPACESHIP – NIGHT

Manic lights blink a frenzied orange, pink and violet on a control panel.

Smoke billows from a gaping hole where dials and levers used to be, and

which now lay shattered on the gleaming floor.

 

WOW, you see? We start right off. Fun, huh? Makes you want to know what the heck is going on, but wait, there's more info to follow. The next bit of description should establish exactly where we are and who, if anybody, is in the scene. So, continuing on:

 

The control room of the intergalactic cargo ship Betty White is awash

with panicked crewmembers. Each wears a French maid's uniform in bright

neon shades of chartreuse, and carries a feather duster of tiny proportions.

CAPTAIN NOSTROMO commands from his Louis XVI armchair and barks orders that

only further confuse his crew. Pulling back, the windows of the ship come

into view and reveal an armada of alien spacecraft firing on the Betty White. 

 

There. Quite a set-up, right? Can you see it? I bet you can!

So, what's next? Lines! Someone has to say something. And it would look like this:

 

CAPTAIN NOSTROMO

Damn it! I said get more dusting spray. Now!

 

CREWMEMBER 1

But, Captain Nostromo – we are out of

Lemon Pledge.

 

Ok, so shocking a predicament would likely make the captain do something physical. Let's say, he rises from his seat. How would that look?

Like this:

 

Captain Nostromo rises from his seat. He grabs Crewmember 1 by the ruff,

and roughly shakes the panicked person to his senses. 

 

CAPTAIN NOSTROMO

I know that! Use the orange-oil mix instead.

 

CREWMEMBER 1

(relieved; smiling)

Oh, yeah.

 

So, that little bit of stage directing in the parenthesis is information on how a person should deliver his or her line. It is called a 'wryly,' and in this example, the wryly tells us Crewmember 1 is glad Captain Nostromo is on the ball.

But, I hear you asking, where is our villain? Every movie must have a 'bad guy.' Let's see how he will enter the scene.

 

Suddenly Captain Nostromo has a presentiment of evil lurking in the ship’s vicinity. He lets the crewmember loose and looks around expectantly. A BUZZING SOUND rings in his ears, and CRACKLES resolve into the voice of a menacing “CHEW, CHEW, CHEW.”

 

BUNNYWILLIGERS

(O.S.)

Well, Captain Nostromo. We meet again.

 

The Betty White's monitors flicker to life. On the screen appears the hideous face and bloated body of a giant, evil dust bunny – BUNNYWILLIGERS.

 

Ok, so when sounds are heard, but the viewer cannot see what is making them, the auditory directions appear in all bold-caps. If these noises are exact, such as words, then they’re placed in quotation marks. In this scene, when our evil dust bunny first speaks, we likewise cannot see him, so the abbreviation O.S. is used to indicate his presence 'off screen.' Also please note, the first time a character appears in a scene, their name is in all-caps and bolded; this is so an actor scanning the script can easily see when and where they enter. After they have been introduced, the name appears in regular form for the rest of the scene.  

Anyway, getting back to the action, we can now see Captain Nostromo has a history with Bunnywilligers. If it is, let's say, a very personal relationship, the captain may launch into a private moment of thought. How would this look?

Like this:

 

CAPTAIN NOSTROMO

(V.O.)

Bunnywilligers, I knew you'd come hopping back to me.

Can't get enough of the way I sweep your cobblestones, eh?

 

 

Wow. Looks like the two fellas have a steamy past indeed! But as the Captain does not want to say this out loud, the abbreviation V.O. means 'voice over.' Presumably in this situation, we are looking at the captain's stoic face while hearing his private thoughts.

The only other abbreviation you will regularly encounter is(CONT'D). This is used after the name of a character to show that he or she is still speaking, even after a break for a description or some other reason. So for example, following our Captain's private thoughts from above, the next part of the script would look like this:

 

CAPTAIN NOSTROMO (CONT'D)

(to Bunnywillikers)

God, how I've missed you, you nasty, filthy,

dirty so-and-so.

 

And my friends, that is about it. I know, you can hardly believe it would be that easy – easy enough for a monkey like yours truly to write one – so now you have no excuse to demure from cracking into a juicy screenplay. Other terms like ‘SERIES OF SHOTS’ or ‘MONTAGE’ should be familiar from your movie-viewing experiences in the past. Remember to try and visualize everything. A good filmscript unfolds before you without much effort. Try reading one; you never know what wonderful things await you.    

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

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