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Do I have to write the courtroom scene?

September 10, 2003 QandA, Words on the page

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:

  1. restructure the story so you don’t need the courtroom stuff
    at all,

  2. get someone to help you, or
  3. tell a different story, one without
    lawyers.

Related Posts

  1. Got the story, but I can’t write
  2. Writer/director disagreements
  3. Film festival contacts

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