Screenwriting is about telling a story visually. In other words a story is never told in a film, but showed visually.
How Many Pages Make a Screenplay?
An average film screenplay is written in 100 pages, maximum 120 pages and minimum 90 pages. This is because each page of screenplay roughly translates into one minute of show time. Although this conversion is not perfect, it is generally used as a criterion to write a screenplay. The screenplay text divides into three acts.
Act One - The Introduction
Act One averages the first 25 pages of a screenplay. It focuses on introduction, where the lead characters are introduced, the protagonist, antagonist and other characters slowly take shape. This is the getting to know you section, where the genre and style of the film is established.
The opening is one of the most important parts of Act One. A good opening ensures that the audience invests curiosity in the film. The filmmaker hopes to garner some investments from the audience: curiosity, admiration, empathy, sympathy are a few of them. Once the audience blindly invests, then the expectations are high. Now the challenge is to maintain the momentum. Otherwise boredom hits the audience and they walk out of the theater. So the goal of the writer is to catch the imagination of audience.
Usually at the end of Act One or the beginning of Act Two, an event that propels the story forward is introduced, a catalyst that gives a new direction for the flow of story.
Act Two - Goal of the Protagonist
Act Two establishes the goal of the protagonist. Of course, the protagonist is not going to have an easy ride to reach the goal. If the protagonist walks freely to the goal, without having to smash bad guys or romance a blonde girl on the way, most of us would rather sit at home than plunk down our money at our favorite iMax theater. Conflicts and hurdles add spice to the narration.
Who creates hurdles and conflicts? The antagonist. A well-defined antagonistic character is a must for any good screenplay. The antagonist need not always be a character, sometimes fate or bad luck can also do the job of an antagonist. As long as it is well-defined and logically acceptable to the audience any unfavorable situation can play the role of an antagonist.
Act Two pulls the story forward for another 50 pages. The focus of Act Two is to maintain momentum and stay on track. As the story evolves there will be a tendency to get off track from the pursuit of the protagonist. The job of the writer is to resist that tendency and stay on the track. Focusing on the goal of the protagonist is the key.
Act Three - Approaching the THE END
The last 25 pages makes Act Three. Here the story comes to the end. Usually a few pages before the end the film reaches climax.
Two Major Turning Points
Although the entire film is smeared with small twists and turns, two major turning points are conspicuous. The first turning point usually comes up somewhere between 20 and 30 pages. This turning point provides a new direction to the story. The second turning point usually comes a few pages before the climax.
Refer to the quick view chart in the figure or go to the following youtube videos for further reading. This chart can also be used as a template to start putting ideas together to begin the screenwriting process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyqQRplsL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4yyJ1DZNqQ
Gangadharan Sajithlal - I am a biomedical researcher, currently working on cancer biology. My previous research areas include molecular changes in diabetes, DNA ...
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