Open forum Q&A
Several questions from the most recent Open Forum that can be handled pretty quickly, so I lumped them together:
From Julien:
Is it OK to reference to a particular movie in a script if this movie is of great importance in the story ?
Yes, with a caveat. If your script has a character watching a scene from an actual movie, then you get into rights issues. For example in Wall-E, there are some scenes that include visual references to the movie Hello Dolly! The scene in which that movie is introduced reads like this:
Wally motors down the center aisle.
Flicks on an ancient BETAMAX PLAYER.
Jury-rigged to an iPod.
Pushes in a cassette labeled “Hello Dolly!”
The image is very poor quality.
Actors sing and dance to Put On Your Sunday Clothes (POYSC).
The same song Wally worked to.
WALLY
(hums POYSC)
Because the movie Wall-E shows actual images from the movie Hello Dolly! means that somewhere along the line, Disney / Pixar had to negotiate some sort of rights fee arrangement with 20th Century Fox who produced Hello Dolly! Also presumably for the song “Put On Your Sunday Clothes.”
Rights issues, both the hassle of getting clearance and the cost involved, are the basis why you typically shouldn’t include a specific song in a script. In general, the same would be true of including a specific movie scene on a TV, in a movie theater, etc.
However in Wall-E, the movie Hello Dolly! plays a significant thematic function: Both inspiring and epitomizing for Wally what he yearns for most — companionship. Therefore definitely worth including in the actual script.
So if, as you say, the movie is of “great importance in the story,” then go ahead and include it.
BTW, if all you’re doing in your script is have a character mention a movie, there’s no rights fee issue at all.
From Lisa:
Scott — I have a formatting question that I came across just this morning.
I have a scene where two characters enter a dining hall. They speak with each other then one character wanders across the room and it cuts back and forth between the two characters’ conversations with others.
How should the sluglines read?
INT. BANQUET HALL ENTRANCE — DAY and INT. BANQUET HALL BUFFET TABLE? Should it identify their exact locations in the room or what? Or is just a sort of pseudo-slug AT ENTRANCE and AT TABLE?
If I identify the movement in the exposition, it can become confusing for the reader, I think, in addition to being a general no-no, right?
I’d recommend using secondary slugs. For example:
INT. BANQUET HALL — DAY
Brett and Iris sashay in, arm in arm. They survey the room. Spot their targets. Brett heads off toward Nina. Iris a beeline for Roger.
BRETT AND NINA
As he hands her a glass of champagne —
BRETT
So we meet again.
NINA
Champagne this time. Much preferred
to the pistol you served up last night.
BRETT
You’re still alive. Time to celebrate,
don’t you think?
IRIS AND ROGER
As they clink glasses of champagne —
ROGER
Why do I get the feeling you’re scoping
out this place?
IRIS
Why do I get the feeling you’re scoping
out my ass?
Establish the scene’s primary location with a primary slugline, then use secondary slugs to ‘move’ the action within the primary location.
Two questions from Channing Ellison:
I have two questions:
1) Should a screenplay for a musical be 120 pages, no matter how long the songs are?
and
2) I’m writing an action move and the characters use parkour/freerunning moves to move through obstacles and in fights. I wanted to know should I give an in-depth description of what the character is doing (ie: JOHN SMITH runs towards the car, jumps, kicks his legs out, places his palms on the hood of the car, and lands on the ground.), or would the name of the specifc move the character is doing be enough? (ie: JOHN SMITH runs towards the car and dash vaults over the hood)
Re musicals: Honestly, I don’t know. I checked around the Web to find scripts from musicals, but couldn’t find any for Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Across the Universe, etc. If you can find scripts from musicals, that would likely give you the best overall sense per how they handle song-lyrics in script pages as well as page count.
BTW, there’s been some ‘shrinkage’ in script page count over the last decade or so. It varies from genre to genre, but most scripts I read clock in between 100–110 pages.
Re action description: You must assume that a script reader will not be familiar with Parkour moves. So two thoughts come to mind. First, insert a page after the title page and before P. 1 of your script in which you write something like:
The characters in this script use “parkour moves.”
“Parkour is a physical discipline of French origin in which participants run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, as if moving in an emergency situation, using skills such as jumping and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves. The obstacles can be anything in one’s environment, but parkour is often seen practiced in urban areas because of many suitable public structures that are accessible to most people, such as buildings and rails.”
Then onto P. 1. The second thought is the first scene where the reader will encounter characters doing Parkour moves, be fairly specific as to what is happening re the action. That is, specify some of the elements that denote a Parkour move. Once you’ve established that mode of action, I think you’ll be able to be more general throughout the rest of the script, only getting really specific if and when the moment or move is really special / unique.
You might check out the script for The Matrix and see how the Wachowski brothers describe that slo-mo action stuff. As I recall, their scene description is visual yet lean — good stuff.
Finally from 305Writer:
Question to Scott. When did you know you hand the goods to actually write for a living, what was that moment?
I’m not sure I have an answer for this. I’ve been writing my entire adult life: Sermons, songs, comedy bits, lectures, articles, scripts, even blogging — writing, it seems, is simply what I do.
If I get the subtext of your question right — is there a time when a person has to accept the fact that they are a writer and therefore quit their day job in order to pursue writing — I can’t answer that for you or anyone else. Writing is a freelance gig. So any pre-pro writer has to know whether they have the intestinal fortitude to live through periods of no work as well as lots of work. I’ve read interviews with working screenwriters, one fellow in particular who had I believe 3 movie credits, who still kept up his ‘real’ job — because he never wanted to have to rely on screenwriting for his income.
I guess my answer is you write because you write. And that’s it. Either what you write will translate into revenue or it won’t. But at an existential level, the income is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the writing.
Given that rather poor excuse of an answer, let me turn it around to anyone who happens to read this: What are your thoughts about writing for a living? Is that your dream? Do you think you’ll know if/when that time will be right? Have you thought about what it means to write freelance for a living? Would the pressure of making money crush your writing or perhaps push you to be a better writer?
And I guess the big one: Why do you write?
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