Including illustrations with your screenplay
I know it’s a big no-no to include drawings or images in your screenplay, but is it ever okay in certain circumstances?
For example: I’m writing a script where the town that the story is set in is integral to the plot. A fight breaks out there in key sections of the town’s layout and it is all very well co-ordinated.
In this case, is it possible to include a small map of the town’s layout?
I’ve tried describing the town and its layout in detail, but it ends up at over 3 pages…and that’s condensed. Surely a small map could help the reader better understand the details of the action scenes?
–Matt
I recently read the first few books of THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, and sighed with nostalgic longing at the map on page two which shows the layout of the little town. The author/illustrators had gotten it just right. I immediately flashed-back to my sunbeam days of youth, as an eager young reader flipping to the map to figure out what route Bobby would take to get to the Old Mill.
Cut to the present. I’m going to stick to my guns and say it’s never okay to include drawings with a screenplay. For as often as screenwriting is compared to architecture, there’s one crucial difference: it’s not really architecture. With clever descriptions, the screenwriter gets to evoke the feeling of a small town, with its lazy cobblestone streets and general store on the corner. But you’re not allowed to literally draw the map.
I know that for something like a fight sequence, a schematic might make life a lot easier, but words are all you get. Focus on the emotion and story moments of the fight, not the logistics, and everyone will be better served.
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July 16th, 2004 at 12:12 pm
As I recall, the spec script for Se7en had a drawing in it. You could probably get away with it, if it’s in like half a page length box.
You could always just ask the agent or producer you’re sending it to if you could slip the visual aid page in there.
July 16th, 2004 at 4:08 pm
There’s an exception to every rule, but as a reader at a studio’s animation department (of all places) even we draw the line at how artwork should be packaged with a script (no pun intended on the “draw the line” remark). A script is a script. Artwork is artwork. Save the artwork for the pitch, especially if it’s original artwork. Submitting artwork just gives the decision-makers another thing to say “no” to… Trust me, if they like the underlying material, you’ll have plenty of chances to show them the artwork — and it’s always nice to have something new to present down the line.
July 19th, 2004 at 12:22 am
There is always the story of Frank Miller. He wrote Sin City. Wich is adapted from his graphic novel of the same title. The screenplay to that whould most likly be the same/similar to the picture book.
December 29th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Anything can be pioneered. I’m a firm believer in the idea that every screenwriter should be the first to do something. Something that MAKES SENSE… so much sense that when people see it, they applaud. But the secret hidden rule of rule-breaking is: Make sure, for miles beyond certainty, that everyone in the room knows, that you don’t HAVE to do it. That you’re so far beyond NEEDING to do this, that you’re just “dancing”. If you know the consensus will be, “Oh, now he’s just showing off.” You’ve found your thing. But if you’re still asking questions about it… its probably not. Its the difference between a guy who’s lazy, and the guy who’s discovered the next plateau. He’s ninjesque. He’s an INNOVATOR. He’s Stringfellow Hawk and he uses his lightsaber more often than Jesus!
I’d think twice before deciding that pictures is your thing. You can probably do better… and break a much wider rule than that. Challenge yourself… and you’ll find yourself breaking rules they haven’t though of saying are rules yet.
-Synthian
March 12th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Also, Mr. August includes a symbol in the GO script (a depiction of the Skip Back button on a CD player). This is sorta different, but it does work in his script because it gets right to the heart of the thing he’s decribing and no time is lost while reading. There could’ve been something like, “They pressed the button that skips back to the last track…” or something clunky.
Or wonky.
Point is, I think that’s a bit different because it’s not imposing a visual on the readers (including the director) for something the writer has imagined and wants just like it’s drawn in the script…It’s a visual that helps the reader associate with a well-known object as quickly as possible so we can keep reading.