script design

my script idea will revolve around a murder mystery spy thriller short film. the film will revolve around a secret spy organization that influences global politics, however one of the members is secretly a violent activist linked to a terrorist organization who is trying to steal data and murder agents in a plan to expose the organization and every single secret it has gathered from the inside. i think this script and generally murder mysteries/spy thrillers are much better suited  as films because films allow to tell a story and also show  action scenes,  which are essentially the two main components both ideas are composed of, therefore i will be using the typical film conventions/techniques.

for this mood board, I added a lot of images and elements reminiscent around the theme of spies and conspiracies as well as murder mysteries. this is because these are the core genres/ideas my script will revolve around: the blending of the spy conspiracy thriller genre and the murder mystery whodunit genre. at this point, I have a slight tonal clash with various more serious and noir images mixed in with more goofy and silly ones. this is because at this point I have not decided what my tone for the script will be, and hoped that through this mood board I could discover what tone I wanted to hit. 

according to the Nashville film institute(https://www.nfi.edu/screenplay-format/)the traditional format for a screenplay goes as such:

12-point Courier Font

• 1.5 inch left margin

• 1-inch right margin (between 0.5 inches and 1.25 inches), ragged

• 1 inch top and bottom margins

• Around 55 lines per page regardless of paper size. This excludes the page number and spaces after it

• Actor parenthetical (wrylies) 3.1 inches from the left side of the page (1.6 from the margin)

• Dialogue speaker names (in all caps) 3.7 inches from the left side of the page (2.2 from the margin)

• Transitions are capitalized (sometimes important props, sounds, and camera movements)

• Dialogue 2.5 inches from the left side of the page (1.5 inches from margin)

• Page numbers: 

• In the top right corner

• Flush to the right margin

• Half-inch from the top of the page

• Numbers should have a period after

• The first page is not numbered

• The title page is not numbered and does not count as page one

• The first page to have a number is the second page of the screenplay (the third sheet of paper including the title page), which is numbered 2

while this list is very extensive and looks complicated, i believe there is a way of simplifying this format into several key points that goes as such:

courier font, size 12
leave margins to both the right and left size blank
scene titles(EXM:EXT. wooded glade - latter) have their own separate line
character name should be its own line, as well as in the middle of the page.
dialogue follows the same convention as character
parenthetical is always next to the name of the character(specifically a space away) in brackets.
capitalise transitions, camera movements, sounds and important props/characters.

with this shorter and more clear list, it is a lot easier to utilize the proper scriptwriting conventions. in fact, this entire site is written in the size 12 courier font! as much as these conventions appear redundant or unnecessary, they are based off of traditional scriptwriting and script structure that the film industry as a whole generally strictly adhere to. if your script is not written in something at the very least resembling this format, it will be instantly tossed away like trash.

area one: area one could be the beginning scene. we could have the main character busily go through several murder cases of important individuals and spies involved with the agency across the world, from the united states to japan. after increasingly growing concern, the character navigates through the busy office(we could establish some character/world building, maybe have some other minor one line characters come up to him about certain things) before the character reaches his boss and grand spy of the agency(aka the person in charge). after a while of waiting , he enters the office and finds out the grand spy has been assassinated! as the alarm bell rings the main character is detained by several guards and we cut to the title card. 

area two:  area two could be a scene right after the beginning. its a time skip to about two or three days after the incident. as the main character toils away in prison frustrated, the temporary grand spy replacement sits at his desk, tapping his pen on the desk. he is a timid and easily stressed man: someone not ideal for the job. he anxiously looks upon the still open and ongoing murder investigations before someone enters the room: extraordinary lawyer and emissary between the spy network and Austria(one of the most prominent murder spots) agent sol enters the scene and sits down. the two have a conversation about the murders, agent sol is a bitter old man who gets angry at the temporary grand spy for this incident while the temporary grand spy assures him that he has been detained. while the two talk, it cuts to the main character spending his time in the prison. at the end of the dialogue the temporary grand spy snaps and starts shouting, exclaiming that the real culprit has been detained and that this is a closed case. as soon as the words closed case leave his mouth, the main character is released on condition that he investigates the case. the only sound or dialogue we hear from the main character at this time are occasional bits here and there and the guard giving him his conditions of release. when it comes to the discussion of tone(as mentioned in mood board), I went with a mix of both, leaning more towards a serious tone. while we have two of the characters arguing about the serious issue going on at headquarters, we also have the main character and a minor side one having a more light-hearted discussion, with the main character being a bit more sarcastic and less serious. not only does this set up a nice contrast, but also the personalities of the important characters that this whole movie would cover if it were a full production.


area three: area three could cover a scene around near the beginning of the third act. this would be the scene where the mystery is about to be unfolded and revealed, but obviously there's got to be more than one thing going on. perhaps while one of the other characters is currently on the case, another(perhaps the main character) could be chasing someone down(someone who he suspects to be the killer)and the mystery unravels at essentially the same time as the main character catches on to the suspect he believes to be the killer. the twist at the end could be that the main character was completely wrong, at least according to the second character that solves the case. this could fuel the conflict in the third act: who are we supposed to believe?