How to write your own screenplay?

1. Screenwriting
Format
By Sajid R. Peña

2. WHAT IS A SCREENPLAY?
The script of a movie, including acting instructions and
scene directions.

3. REMEMBER: Film is a VISUAL medium.
You don't tell your audience your story, you SHOW them.
You must learn to write a screenplay VISUALLY.
Write what they will SEE and what they will HEAR.
It MUST be written in present tense.

4. You might love your characters and know what they are
thinking, but the discipline of screenplay writing is how to
show it on a screen.
When it happens, it may be just done with a look, often
improvised on the movie set.
So just write the pictures, sounds, and speeches, and leave
the rest for the filmmakers.

5. Key terms in
Screenwriting

6. SCENE
Screenplays are divided into scenes.
A scene can be defined as a unit of dramatic action which
takes place in a specific location in continuous time.

7. SCENE HEADING
(Also called SLUG LINE)
EXT. MARTHA’S HOUSE. NIGHT: This tells us whether the
scene is inside or outside, where it is and whether it’s day
or night.
INT. JACK’S CAR. HIGH STREET. DAY: If more
information about the location is needed it can go from the
general to the specific or vice versa,

8. SCENE DIRECTION
(Also called Action)
Always written in the present tense, this contains
descriptions of the characters’ actions and events relevant
to the story. Characters’ names are usually capitalised.
JACK notices MARTHA standing
at the side of the road. He slams
the brakes on and the car screeches
to a halt.

9. CHARACTER CUE
The name of the character who speaks.
Always capitalised and centred above their speech.
MANG LITO
Ben, check mo nga yung rooftop,
parang may napansin akong bata.
Ben, oy...Ben...

10. Actor Direction
(Also called Parenthetical)
In brackets under the character’s name, used to describe
the way, or to whom, they speak.
SOPHIE
(pa-sarkastiko)
Trish, ang ganda naman ng bag mo.
Mukhang original, from Divisoria
ba yan?

11. DIALOGUE
What the characters say.
It moves the story forward.
It is subtle and clever.
It is witty or comic.

12. It moves the story
forward.
“always move the story forward, always move the
story forward.”
*EXPOSITION AND *BACKSTORY
How I could move the story forward and at the
same time deliver backstory?

13. *Move The Story Forward
The gist of the always-move-the-story-forward adage is that
the writer can never waste the audience’s time with
pointless or irrelevant scenes or beats.
In this sense, it’s totally possible to move the story forward
while delivering backstory as long as the backstory is
relevant to the scene or character.

14. Purpose of Exposition
Teach the audience about a character and his or her
world: is the story world quaint and peaceful or scary
and violent?
Did all the relatives of the main characters die of old
age or were they shot during a bank hold-up? Think
Batman. How did Bruce’s parents die?

15. Purpose of Exposition
Allow the audience to connect with a character by
learning more about his or her traumas and pains:
dissatisfaction is something that everyone feels sooner or
later. Whether we are unhappy with our careers, love
life, level of education, what have you, everyone is
unhappy with an aspect of their lives.
Remember Luke Skywalker in the beginning of Star Wars: A
New Hope (1977)? The adventurer in Luke has his hands
tied due to his obligations in the farm, although he really
wants to travel and explore. Many of us have been in
Luke’s shoes at some point in our lives. So here we are
watching this sci-fi about intergalactic wars, and we
understand exactly what the main character is feeling.
That’s a connection.

16. Purpose of Exposition
Inform the audience of a specific fear or skill a
character possess: this is a kind of foreshadowing that
reveals a trait that will be relevant as the story unfolds:
Indiana Jones is afraid of snakes, Romeo and Juliet
discuss death, Ripley can operate a powerloader, etc

17. *Exposition Through Dialogue
*Exposition Through Mise En Scene
*Exposition Through Text
*Exposition Through Narration
*Exposition Through Flashback
*Exposition Through Music

18. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
RED: “The first night’s the toughest, no doubt about it. They
march you in naked as the day you were born, skin burning
and half blind from that delousing shit they throw on you,
and when they put you in that cell… and those bars slam
home… that’s when you know it’s for real. A whole life
blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the
time in the world to think about it.”
THE PIANO
ADA: “The voice you hear is not my speaking voice – but
my mind’s voice. I have not spoken since I was six years
old. No one knows why. Not even me.”

19. *Exposition Through Dialogue
*Exposition Through Mise En Scene
*Exposition Through Text
*Exposition Through Narration
*Exposition Through Flashback
*Exposition Through Music

20. It is subtle and clever.
In The Exorcist (1973), right before the exorcism is performed,
the mother of the possessed girl, tries to relax Father Merrin by
giving him tea.
Then she asks, “Would you like some bourbon in that, father?”
Father Merrin sighs and answers, “Well, my doctor says I
shouldn’t.” He pauses and continues, “But thank God my will is
weak.” Notice that the first part of Father Merrin’s reply is really a
“no,” but the second part is interpreted as a “yes.”
The dialogue is clever and unique because it reveals two things
about Father Merrin: (1) he is weak, and (2) he’s afraid of the
exorcism he’s about to conduct.

21. It is witty or comic.
In a scene from Thelma & Louise (1991), Thelma (Geena
Davis) delights on how cute JD’s butt is and then she
contrasts it with her husband’s: “Daryl doesn’t have a cute
butt like that. You could park a car in the shadow of his
ass.”
This dialogue is funny, but more importantly it sheds light
on Thelma’s character and the animosity towards her
husband. Furthermore, her remark also establishes that
she’s attracted to JD, which foreshadows the affair they
experience later in the movie.

22. 17 INT. BRENNAN HOUSE – FOYER
JOHN
(tries to push past)
She didn't do anything!
DETECTIVE QUINN
I will only –
JOHN
(tries again)
She didn't do anything!
DETECTIVE QUINN
Put him in cuffs.
The uniform pushes him up against the wall and cuffs his wrists. John
watches as his child cries, his wife is led out in handcuffs and the
house is torn apart. Cut to BLACK.

23. 18 INT. BRENNAN HOUSE -- NIGHT
LUKE (O.S.)
Daddy!... DADDY!!
A light comes on. John steps out of his bedroom and enters his
son's room.
JOHN (O.S.)
It's okay. Just a bad dream.
He comes back out carrying Luke, now SIX YEARS-OLD.
19 EXT. PITTSBURGH -- DAY 20
The "T," the city's fast-moving trolley, rises up from underground
and we CRANE UP to see the city.
JOHN (O.S.)
But Sam's your friend, right?

24. 21 EXT. ALLEGHENY COUNTY JAIL -- DAY 21
Tilt down from a passing T-Train to find John and Luke, walking
toward the huge, modern Allegheny County Jail.
LUKE
Not at lunch.
JOHN
Does he take your food?
LUKE
No.
JOHN
Did he say something mean?
(Luke nods)
About Mommy?

25. LUKE
Yeah.
JOHN
Did you hit him?
LUKE
Yeah.
JOHN
Good. Where did you hit him?
LUKE
Near the swings.
JOHN
Wow. I bet that hurt.
LUKE
Yeah.

26. Read the following short story
A girl and her father were driving along a country road on their way
home when they saw a young girl hitchhiking. They stopped and picked
her up and she got in the back seat. She told the girl and her father that
she lived in a house about five miles up the road. She didn’t say
anything after that but just turned to watch out the window. When the
father saw the house he drove up to it and turned around to tell the girl
they had arrived – but she wasn’t there. Both he and his daughter were
really mystified and decided to knock on the door and tell the people
what had happened. They told him they had once had a daughter who
answered the description of the girl they supposedly had picked up, but
she had disappeared some years ago and had last been seen
hitchhiking on this very road. Today would have been her birthday.

27. Construct a short screenplay based on
the story making sure you use standard
screenplay format.
This should include:
● More than one scene
● Screen directions
● Dialogue

28. NEED HELP?
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR WANT A
PROFESSIONAL HELP WITH YOUR SCRIPT.
PLEASE EMAIL ME AT shadowshooter@outlook.com