Screenwriting Research

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MADELINE DIMAGGIO'S HOW TO WRITE FOR TELEVISION


Reading this book was really helpful for me at the beginning of writing my script. It provides lots of information for someone starting in script writing. One sections talks about establishing your location and making sure that your description is a 'visual backdrop' and gives a good picture of the location. The book also mentions that the scriptwriter creates the location and a director decides how to shoot it, choosing the camera angles and movements.
DiMaggio writes about characters and how it's important to have intense and developed characters as they take you through the script. Once you have your structure, the characters should take you the rest of the way through; which not only opens up the story visually but develops other aspects of the script. I think this is important as characters need to develop and change in order to keep an audience interested in the story.

 
SYD FIELD - SCREENPLAY THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCREENWRITING

The Foundations of Screenwriting is not only a very interesting read but also contains lots of useful information. From this book, I learnt that it is essential to introduce your story from the beginning as 'a screenplay is a whole, and exists in direct relationship to its parts.' Setting up a story in the first ten pages is essential to grab the readers attention, it must tell them what is going on but remembering that a screenplay is telling a story through pictures meaning it must show them visually.
A sequence is a series of scenes connected by one idea with a definite beginning, middle and end. The book describes a sequence as the backbone of a story and the thing that holds it together. A sequence should move the story along while revealing information about the characters. This helped when I was writing my script as I learned that not only does my story need to develop but the audience must learn new things about my characters along the way. 

FREDDIE GAFFNEY - ON SCREENWRITING 

On screenwriting talks a lot about the plot and the story and the different between them. Gaffney describes the story as the unpicking of an event or series of events to identify the most significant elements. 'Plot is the way of telling the story from the beginning to the end. This definition help me to define the plot and story and when it came to writing out my plan for my script I know how to describe the story and the plot.

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