“Film Script”
WHAT’S ON FOR TODAY AND WHY:
Today, students will be creating a script which will lead them into eventually creating their final film assignment. Students will be introduced to a sample script and given the class time to create one based on the example. To create a film script takes a lot of work, and students must understand that even when they do generate a final copy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will stay that way. Sometimes, during filming the director realizes that he needs to add or delete certain things, so the film script then needs to be adjusted accordingly. The benefit of writing a film script is that it gets the students thinking and evaluating what they would like to incorporate into their movie. They will be synthesizing all the information from and about the novel. They will connect this novel to their own personal experiences and give their films a meaning based on what the novel has taught them. Students will be inspired to explore themes of average adolescents and apply these themes through the use of technology. Students will be writing dialogue and prose based to a similar way the author utilizes the language in her novel. Students will be critically thinking and using their minds to come up with creative plots and interactions among the characters.
WHAT TO DO:
Students will be given an example of what a film the teacher’s Film Script looked like before filming. Students will then view a film that was based on the pitch and the script provided to them in the past two days. Students will comment on the recording, background music, lighting, dress, actions, words, camera movements. They will be able to view all the things that they need to know for their own recording of the film. Students will then realize that the script that I had provided them, does not match the film completely. At that point, I will explain to the students how directors sometimes feel the need to change words and scenes in order to capture their desired affects.
Students will then be given the rest of the period to write their scripts. For homework, they will be required to share their googledoc with me, so that I may approve it, and they may begin shooting their films. Before I approve it, I will be looking that the students are staying on task and conveying the ideas that I have asked them to in order to connect the novel’s themes to the film.
HOW DID IT GO?
Did the students participate in the discussion of the script and the teacher’s movie preview? Did the students participate in their script writing and were excited to convey their own ideas and interpretations? Are the students eager to begin doing their projects?
Sample Film Script inspired by Hemingway’s A Very Short Story
Scene One
ESTABLISHING SHOT
Late at night and a taxi cab pulls up to a house. The music is sort of loud and is playing a slow jam by Ne-Yo. The cab stops at the end of the driveway and a young man exits the cab. As the cab pulls away, the music FADES OUT. The house has two stories and the young man and one roommate rents out the basement level. The house is blue with some white window frames but generally there is little to no window treatment. There is white iron railing outside the front steps and it is a little rusted. The yard needs to be mowed and there is a screen door in front of the main white door. The house needs a good fixing up and it looks as if the resident is putting off cleaning it up.
MEDIUM SHOT
A young man, around the early 20's, stumbles at the front door. He is looking for his keys but they fall out of his pocket. After a frustrating moment, he finds them on the ground and recklessly opens the front door. The house is dimly lit and relatively messy. In the inside of the house, there is a coat rack to the left of the front door and a railing on the wall that has some leftover mail and other unnecessary clutter. The young man is dressed casually in jeans, sneakers and a shirt with a light-weight but warm jacket. He struggles to put the keys on the wall shelf and to put his coat on the rack. He trips over a cardboard box that he had forgot was on the carpeted stairs. He pauses, looks at the box, and decides to sit down on the stairs.
CAMERA ZOOMS IN ON THE BOX
The box looks like it has been around a while, probably having endured the move from home to college and from college to this basement rental. It is small enough to carry but big enough to have to carry it awkwardly.
MEDIUM SHOT
The young man looks quizzically at the box, like he's confused it was still around and wonders what he had put into the box a long time ago. He begins to open the box and finds memoralbelia from high school. There are a few old movie stubs, and a beer can from the first alcoholic drink he had as an adolescent, Frankenstein, a football jersey to his prospective school and a baseball glove and hat from his high school team. Then, he finds pictures of a girl. There a few pictures of her with her friends, several love letters and loving cards, and a brochure about Stony Brook University. He pauses looking at the pictures, one in particular of just the girl. CAMERA SHOT FADES OUT
Scene Two
CAMERA FADES IN ON ESTABLISHING SHOT, ESTABLISHING SHOT
There are three girls, about early
20's, sitting at a table in a dimly lit restaurant. The girls are all
well dressed and look put together. Its loud inside and the girls are laughing,
chatting, and eating. The one in the corner is particularly happy. She is
always smiling and talking with her hands. The camera zooms in on the girls
hand and on her ring finger. We see an engagement ring and then the camera
zooms out on the three girls and they begin an audible conversation:
Katy (the girl with the ring): I can't believe this happened, I didn't
expect to get engaged so early in my life, but we are happy and I cant picture
being with anyone else, but him.
Jess(Yelena): I am so happy for you. I always knew you were going to end
up together.
Jess and another girl (in unison): details.
Jess: yes, how did he do it? where did he propose?
Katy begins discussing how her boyfriend proposed to her and the camera
moves in on Jess and zooms in, the sound of the conversation fades out, she is
smiling and keeps looking at her own hand. The sound comes back and Jess
returns her mind and herself to the table.
Jess: I remember the day you guys met, it was love at first sight, for
the both of you. (They all laugh)
Katy: Do you girls remember our first boyfriends? I will never forget my
first love, even now that I have Tom, I still think about my first real
boyfriend from time to time. Jess do you? You guys were so in love in High
School.
Jess looks as if she suddenly became upset and starts discussing the
situation that occurred between her and her long lost love.
Jess: Well, when I went away to college, we began clashing all the
time, arguing about everything, not seeing each other all the time, everything
just fell apart. The spark was no longer there, and we saw everything so differently
from each other. Eventually, I went to study abroad in France, which really
tore us up.
Katy: Do you ever think of him anymore?
Jess: Well I thought I was in love with him when we were young,
but what did I know about love back in High School. But it was in France, that
I left my heart! Thibaut is so different from the rest of the guys, especially
the American ones. He is so charming and knows how to talk to a girl.
The camera then fades and zooms in on Jess and Thibaut in front of a restaurant
holding each other and laughing. There is a french song playing in the
background and they look like they are in love and happy. The music then fades
and the camera is back on the table with the girls chatting.
Jess: We just had the "spark." College and traveling has
changed so much about me, and Nick is, well, still Nick. He is still stuck in
the High School mentality and he has not progressed anywhere. I actually have
not seen him since I wrote him that letter telling that there has been someone
else, but I hear stories from our mutual friends that he is the same way he was
when we broke up, if not worse.
The camera then fades out and the song "The Sweetest Goodbye" by
Marron 5 is playing in the background as the scene comes to a close.
Scene Three
The Marron 5 song is still playing, but fading out slowly. The camera opens
up with Nick walking over away from the stairs and entering his apartment. He
looks angry, annoyed, and sad at the same time.
Nick waltzes over to the
couch, turns the television on and flips to the Food Network. After a few
moments, he takes out his phone and depressingly dials a number for a girl,
"babe".
Nick: Hey babe..what's going on, wanna come over, watch a movie, hang
for a little while?
The scene fades out with Nick watching the Travel Channel. The camera zooms
in on the tv show, and then slowly fades out.
