Creating a story board is an important piece of organizing a film.  An additional element of film that can greatly contribute to your project is dialogue.

Taking time to ensure that students have prepared a script for actors will ensure that the film has a constant theme and add to the video that audience members will experience. 

It's easy to feel intimidated by the thought of writing a screenplay. The rules! The formatting! The binding! Don't let the seemingly endless parade of screenwriting elements scare you away from writing your first script.

Here is an example of an extract from a play script. Look at it carefully and note the special layout.

The Bully

Scene: A school playground

Characters: JIM, a first year-pupil

EDDIE, a second-year pupil

(JIM is looking through his bag. EDDIE comes up and pushes him.)

JIM: (angrily) What do you think you're doing?

EDDIE: Oh,sorry, did I hurt you? I was just wondering what you had in that bag.

JIM: What's it to do with you?

EDDIE: I forgot my dinner money today. And I'm hungry.

(EDDIE grabs JIM's lunch and runs off.)

JIM: Hey you, come back!

(Enter the JANITOR.)

JANITOR: What's wrong, son?

Notice the following features of the layout of a play script:

• Title

• Scene: say where and when the scene is set

• Characters: say which characters are in the scene at the start. You should give any information that we need to know about them but keep this brief. This might be their age, occupation or relationship with another character.

For example:

Jean, aged 24

Elizabeth, aged 55, mother of Jean

Bill, a plumber

Any characters who come into a scene after the start of it should be introduced by 'Enter'. Use 'Exit' if the character leaves.

The name of the character who is speaking should be written at the left-hand side of the page (in the margin). It is a good idea to print it in capitals. Then write a colon:

Stage directions should be written in brackets.  

Characters, plot and dialogue

It's not just the layout of a script that's important. You need to think about characters, plot and dialogue.

Characters

In a short script, it's best to limit the number of main characters. Too many characters can be confusing and doesn't give you time to let the characters develop. Stick to less than four.

Your characters should come to life. This is achieved through dialogue.

Plot

Usually a play has a conflict, crisis or problem at its center which needs to be resolved. The characters have to face up to this problem and this is what causes the interest of the play.

The problem at the heart of the play does not need to be particularly unusual or exciting in itself. You could write a short script centered around, for example:

• conflict between a parent and teenager about a bad school report

• conflict between two friends about a boy/girlfriend

• a teenager wrongly accused of stealing.

The success of the plot depends on how well it is handled.

You also need to think about how easy it will be to stage the plot convincingly on stage. Plots which involve spaceships landing, for example, could lead to serious difficulties!

Dialogue

Good dialogue is central to convincing drama. To make it sound realistic you need to read it out loud to hear what it sounds like. You also need to think about your characters to know how they would speak. Ask yourself:

• where does this character come from?

• what age is s/he?

• what kind of person is s/he?

• what mood is s/he in?

• who is s/he talking to?

For example:

• someone from Aberdeen will probably speak differently from a Glaswegian

• a teacher will probably speak differently from a pupil, even though they come from the same area

• your granny probably uses some words which are different from yours

• an angry person is going to speak differently from someone who is calm

It can sometimes be effective to use dialogue to contrast types of speakers (e.g. a posh shop assistant and a shopper with a broad accent). Remember also that people do not always speak in the same way. The words we use, our accent, our tone will differ in different situations.

Above text from bbc.co.uk.bitesize.teaching resources.