Do i have to write the courtroom scene?
I am writing a screenplay that has a court room sequence. Since I find it hard to write lawyer lingo, I figured that I could write the sequence in a voice over and have the actors do their thing as I write it out or as the director sees fit.
–Scott
I hate to burst your bubble, but those lengthy courtroom sequences every week on "Law and Order" — the ones where Sam Waterston cleverly gets the witness to screw up on the stand — someone actually has to write all of those. Every word, every comma. Waterston is a talented actor, but he doesn’t come up with a single thing he says. Neither does the director. It’s all in the script, and it’s really, really hard to write.
The same holds true for every line spoken in every movie you’ve ever seen, with the exception of a few improvised comedies and Dogma experiments.
If you find it impossibly difficult to write lawyer lingo, I can think of a few options:
- restructure the story so you don’t need the courtroom stuff
at all,
- get someone to help you, or
- tell a different story, one without lawyers.
Using copyrighted material in a short
I’m a screenwriting student at The University of Texas. Several classmates of mine have obtained representation, and gone on to sell scripts, by writing shorts that other classmates made and showed at festivals and special alumni screenings. I’ve written and made one of my own, but it includes a total of twenty seconds of copyrighted footage taken from three major motion pictures. I don’t have permission to use any of the footage, but I don’t want to cut it unless I have absolutely no other choice. If I have no intention to sell my short, or win money at festivals, and only intend it to get someone to look at my other work, do I have to cut the 20 seconds?
–Scott
First off, I’m a big believer in copyright, without which the American film industry could never exist. Copyright law allows companies to feel secure investing millions of dollars in movies, knowing that if someone tries to steal the finished product, the U.S. and other governments will step in.
That said, just do it. Especially with a short film, the consequences for trampling someone else’s copyright are not that dire. Since you’re a student, and probably broke, it’s not like 20th Century Fox is going to sue you for your life’s savings.
A friend of mine wrote the short film ERNEST AND BERTRAM, which was a very funny version of THE CHILDREN’S HOUR, featuring Ernie and Bert from Sesame Street. Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), the makers of Sesame Street, went ballistic, largely because it portrayed Ernie and Bert as closeted gay lovers.
Long story short, the film played at a bunch of film festivals, and got good notice for the filmmakers, who eventually had to sign something with CTW that promised the movie would never be publicly exhibited again. Which is a shame, because it’s very good. But everyone knew going in that there was a risk, and it was definitely worth it.
Copyright-wise, that’s pretty much the worst-case scenario for a short film. So I say try it. Just make the best short you can.
Transitions
Ordinarily, the scripts I tend to write are by nature shooting scripts. In all probability its due to the fact that I know that I’m going to be the one directing them, so they’re very "CUT TO" and "FADE TO" heavy. However, I’ve recently been entertaining the idea of entering a few in screenwriting contests and most of the feedback I’ve received from peers has been that shooting scripts are often dismissed as being "unprofessional." Have you found this to be the case? If so, what sorts of things need to be avoided and why?
–Richard
It’s truly a matter of personal style. I’ll explain how I approach it, but you should know that there is not one right answer.
I use "CUT TO:" when it’s meant to be an especially blunt transition. The classic and bad example is when a character says, "I will never, ever get on a train." CUT TO: He’s on a train. (This is a situation where some writers use, "SMASH CUT TO:", but that’s always seemed tacky to me, like a cymbal crash.)
CUT TO: is also helpful when you’re finishing up a series of short scenes in one location, and then need to make it clear to the reader that you’re jumping to a new place and time.
Overuse of fades can feel like the writer is trying to "direct from the page," generally a no-no. One or two in a script won’t raise any hackles. Fifteen will. So be judicious.
To live and die in LA
In your opinion, does a feature scriptwriter need to live in the Los Angeles area to be fairly active in the business and sell work?
–K. Strom
Yes. As much as I want to believe that a fledgling screenwriter in Scranton, PA, can take the industry by storm, the majority of writers working in studio feature films live and work in Los Angeles, at least in the early stages of their career.
Could you do it in London? Sure. New York? Probably. Could you just commute back and forth to LA, spending most of your time somewhere else? Maybe.
The real question is should you, K. Strom, move from wherever you live to Los Angeles? That’s the $1000 question, and one that’s been raised at least half a dozen times in the three years I’ve been writing this column. Basically, if your life’s dream is to become a giant Hollywood screenwriter, then you need to live in Hollywood. If you have different goals — indie films, for example — your options are much more open.
Courier 12 pt. font
Recently, I’ve begun buying published screenplays, and many of them seem to be written in Times or Times New Roman. Furthermore, the action in those scripts is italicized. Is that just for publishing purposes, or are scripts better written in Times (New Roman)? This is just something that’s been bugging me.
–Zach
"Real" scripts are still written in Courier, for no better reason than that’s how it’s always been. Publishers sometimes change the typeface to Times in order to make it more readable by the mass audience, but I honestly think it’s worse, particularly when action is italicized. (Italics are a holdover from published plays, where this is the norm. But plays have a lot less scene direction than movies.)
Several companies have recently started publishing screenplays that directly reproduce the original formating (one is Wheelhouse Books). If you have the choice, always pick the Courier version. It’s more like the original script, and it will hopefully convince publishers to give up their reformatting.
How long is a scene?
I’m about 50 pages into my first screenplay, a family film. For research, I decided to watch at least a dozen children’s movies, and I started with the current blockbuster HARRY POTTER. I was fascinated by the pacing. Virtually every scene (there are one or three exceptions) is only 1 - 3 minutes long, with most coming in just under two minutes. That seems very short. Comparatively, my writing is averaging 2 - 5 minutes per scene. Should I be concerned? Is it possible anymore for a children’s movie to be marketable if it doesn’t run at a breakneck pace?
–Barb
First, kudos on doing the experiment. You taught yourself something that no instructor could ever beat into you: movie scenes are short. Much shorter than you would think.
If you were to expand your research to include other genres, you’d find that most scenes in most movies are no more than three minutes long, which means no more than three pages of script.
It’s not an iron-clad rule; scenes can be twenty minutes long. But it’s a very useful rule of thumb. If I get to the third page of a scene I’m writing, I automatically stop and re-examine it to figure out:
- why it’s so long,
and
- whether it really needs to be.
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