Showing posts with label IMSDb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IMSDb. Show all posts

Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Totally Scripted! Part one.



As a reader, scripts can be very satisfying to read. Even as a standalone without having seen the film or with the intention of seeing it. The actual script is very visual as the purpose of a script is to show what the viewer sees, not what the director envisages. What is written in a script is exactly what is shown on the screen.

For example, if the screenwriter wanted to have a close up on a dagger dripping with blood, the script would say this:

Dagger drips with blood.

It would not say:

The camera does a close up on a dagger dripping with blood so that the viewer can see how gruesome the murderer was.

Putting what the writer wants the viewer/producer/director to feel in the script is pointless because this does not translate onto screen. There is no way for the writer to tell the viewer that they are meant to feel horrified by the gruesome murder, unless they see images on the screen that make them feel that way (or unless they are watching the directors commentary). The viewer cannot know that the murder was meant to be gruesome until the images they see on the screen evokes that sense of feeling in them.

Scripts are good to read because they use concise, minimal language. If as a reader, you get annoyed by texts bogged down by descriptions, and you do not like reading books that have the quality of a best-seller, you should read movie scripts. Hundreds of scripts can be downloaded for free on-line from IMSDb and other sites that offer a free script library.