Writer Questions

What changes had to be made from the original book to the screen play?

• Making larger roles for the female characters s in the film 
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• They made larger female characters for the film because back when the book was written it was a sexist time, which means that it was a time when people still viewed men as better than women. It was also written by a man meaning that it was a very one sided view of the importance of men over women.

• Taking out (omitting) certain characters in the film look at this site for help
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• When they were making The Lord Of The Rings they had to shorten the book into a acceptable size for a film, meaning that they had to cut out some characters from the film that were in the book. This was because they only wanted characters in the film that contributed to the film directly, rather than having all the side characters that are in the book but don't play a massive part to the main plot. For example, Tom Bombadil.

• Writing an exposition (what has happened before the film starts) scene for the beginning of the film
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• The exposition is a part of the film before the story begins that explains us how we got to that point of time, this is useful because it shows the audience what has happened and were the story is continuing from.

• Working with the actors as characters to create some parts of the script. 
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• The script writers don't have to write the entire script. They can tell the actors to go away and research their character, so if someone was to be a dwarf in the film, they would go away and research how a dwarf talks and how they act and talk. That way the actors know how they are supposed to talk and act when they are in front of the camera.

Script Writing Notes

Script Terminology

Slugline - A piece of information that tells the reader whether the event is outside or inside

Action Description - The action description is the description of what is happening at the time that the characters say what they are saying. This tends to be in a non bold font that can be written before or after the characters have spoken.

Dialogue - Dialogue is what the chracters of the script are saying, whether it be the narrator or the actors they both have dialogue to say. This is placed after the characters name on the script.

 

Commisioning Editors

Commision editors actively look for better and new writers for the script, they also look at the treatments and bring people foward for the work.

Producers

 The producers essentially do all the work, they have to make sure that everything is on time and ready when needed and is withing their budget so that they don't go over. They are essentially responsable for most of what happens when making a film.

Director

The Director has overall creative control of the situation, they say what they want and they try and get that just how they see it, they have a lot of control over how the film will turn out and how the final product will look when it is finished.

Script Editors

The scripot editors do exactly what their name should suggest, they edit the script, they have control over the dialogue throughout the production.

Agents (Film and TV)

Agents actively seek work and represent artists, they are constantly looking for places for them to work, whether it be TV work or film.

Writers

The writers would often write how they wanted the story to go and how they are going to transition and tell the story in a way that the audience can understand, they would also often ask other people on the set to tell them what they thought and other ideas that they could use to put in the story. This meant that not everything is written entirely by the writer but a large amount of it is and some of it comes from other people on the set, such as, Actors.