Books and Scripts - What's the Difference?
Hello everyone! Great to see you all again. I hope the day is going well.
I want to discuss the differences I've found in writing books and writing screenplays. Not that I'm a professional in either of these art forms, but I've been dabbling with scripts for a few months now, so I thought I'd share what I've discovered so far.
The first thing is the type of writing. That much should be a little obvious. Books are written in a paragraph form (for the most part), and screenplays are written in script format. Which is heavy-dialogue and short descriptions.
Books and short stories are made so that the reader can imagine everything that's going on in their head. The author must describe all of the detail that is important to give the reader an image of what's happening since they're only looking at words on a page. There are paragraphs moving the story along from one piece of information to the next. And, the book is all that you get really when it comes to getting information. If you don't understand how to picture something it's more or less the author's fault for not describing it well enough with their words.
Scripts, on the other hand, are wildly different. Their made for the director, cinematographer, and actors to take what's on the page and work with it. A script is a layout of a movie. The descriptions are only as specific as they need to be, and that also varies between movies, TVs, and plays. A simple character description can be something like: Mike, twenty-two, blue collared-shirt and jeans, tall. Very simple, and that can be more specific if the script is written for a certain actor or actress to play the role. If you have no one in mind you just put a vague description there for casting to work with. Another thing is moving the camera and scenes. A lot of CUT TO between scenes, or camera angles. Every scene switch gets its own scene descriptor. INTERIOR NIGHT CLUB-NIGHT, and then a small description of the scenery if needed.
The script writer has to put in only as much description as needed, but it's mostly dialogue. That's the main difference between scripts and books. Scripts are usually full of heavy dialogue because they're for a visual medium. The dialogue is what moves the story. That's the difficulty. Finding dialogue that easily flows the story along, but also sounds natural. If it doesn't sound natural then the characters don't connect with the audience. There are a lot of things to consider with scripts: the director getting the right camera shots, the actors portraying their character the way its written, there's an easy flow of story, and even when the music fades in and out sometimes. It can be the most complicated, and also the easiest thing in the world. It just depends on your story.
That goes for both books and scripts, I guess. The story dictates the difficulty level. How much extra detail needs to be put in. I can't say which I prefer; but I am enjoying scripts. Mostly because it's been collaborative and that can be challenging but fun. It's just different than what I'm used to. Anyway, I think I'll call this post finished for now. Let me know what you all think about this amateur advice.
See you all tomorrow. Buh-bye.
I want to discuss the differences I've found in writing books and writing screenplays. Not that I'm a professional in either of these art forms, but I've been dabbling with scripts for a few months now, so I thought I'd share what I've discovered so far.
The first thing is the type of writing. That much should be a little obvious. Books are written in a paragraph form (for the most part), and screenplays are written in script format. Which is heavy-dialogue and short descriptions.
Books and short stories are made so that the reader can imagine everything that's going on in their head. The author must describe all of the detail that is important to give the reader an image of what's happening since they're only looking at words on a page. There are paragraphs moving the story along from one piece of information to the next. And, the book is all that you get really when it comes to getting information. If you don't understand how to picture something it's more or less the author's fault for not describing it well enough with their words.
Scripts, on the other hand, are wildly different. Their made for the director, cinematographer, and actors to take what's on the page and work with it. A script is a layout of a movie. The descriptions are only as specific as they need to be, and that also varies between movies, TVs, and plays. A simple character description can be something like: Mike, twenty-two, blue collared-shirt and jeans, tall. Very simple, and that can be more specific if the script is written for a certain actor or actress to play the role. If you have no one in mind you just put a vague description there for casting to work with. Another thing is moving the camera and scenes. A lot of CUT TO between scenes, or camera angles. Every scene switch gets its own scene descriptor. INTERIOR NIGHT CLUB-NIGHT, and then a small description of the scenery if needed.
The script writer has to put in only as much description as needed, but it's mostly dialogue. That's the main difference between scripts and books. Scripts are usually full of heavy dialogue because they're for a visual medium. The dialogue is what moves the story. That's the difficulty. Finding dialogue that easily flows the story along, but also sounds natural. If it doesn't sound natural then the characters don't connect with the audience. There are a lot of things to consider with scripts: the director getting the right camera shots, the actors portraying their character the way its written, there's an easy flow of story, and even when the music fades in and out sometimes. It can be the most complicated, and also the easiest thing in the world. It just depends on your story.
That goes for both books and scripts, I guess. The story dictates the difficulty level. How much extra detail needs to be put in. I can't say which I prefer; but I am enjoying scripts. Mostly because it's been collaborative and that can be challenging but fun. It's just different than what I'm used to. Anyway, I think I'll call this post finished for now. Let me know what you all think about this amateur advice.
See you all tomorrow. Buh-bye.
Comments
Post a Comment