THIS WAS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED! Oh my lord, this was so good! I never knew what a God dang screenplay looked like and now i do. Thank you so much, guys!
Yeah I was told by one of my mentors to read screenplays of my favorite movies so I could get a hang of how they're structured and get used to that format
By far, this is the clearest breakdown I've ever seen and I've been writing for 3 years now, and have gone to the New York Film Academy for this skill. This can cater to experienced screenwriters as well, this was great spotting for me.
I've never heard of (into phone) being used as a character parenthetical, I've only ever seen and used it as a dialogue parenthetical. Also, a little tip I've learned about transitions, from John Jarrell (writer of Romeo Must Die, etc, and his book "Tough Love Screenwriting"). He told me if I need to use a transition, rather than wasting a million lines on them, to simply add it onto the action line. For example: EXT. 8TH ST. - NORTH CAMDEN - NIGHT The Corvette rolls forward, revealing -- -- Cedar on his fat ass. Sirens multiply in the air. Bread still playing in the -- CORVETTE as it rolls into the intersection -- HONKKKK! A truck HORN BEEPS, then -- SMACK! -- Rams into it. Metal SCRAPING. Sparks FLYING. THE BUICK rolls forward, pinning Cedar’s foot. He SCREECHES like an eagle as the Buick violently jolts up and down, climbing his body, tires peeling away at his flesh. And just as his SCREAM turns to GURGLING, we SMASH CUT TO: INT. PIDGE’S BUICK - NIGHT Pidge speeds away from the kill site listening to a description of his car announced over his police scanner. OR He BANGS the window with his fist. Nothing. BANGS again -- GLASH! -- A glass shower nearly giving him a fucking heart attack as -- THE OPPOSITE BACK WINDOW is shattered with a pistol grip, by a MASKED MAN. Pistanze cowers behind his arms, covering his eyes as SHARDS OF GLASS try to invade his body. And we SMASH CUT TO -- EXT. 8TH ST. - NORTH CAMDEN - NIGHT
THANK YOU SO MUCH. I needed a quick, to the point, description of formatting, and you guys delivered . Also, i really enjoyed the Film Riot type skits of showing on what you guys were we're talking about.
Omg I'm so excited when I see a new video from you guys!!! Thank you for these down-to-the-details videos!! These things actually take so much time to research and to learn and there're so many different sources on the Internet telling all types of things. Of course we still need to learn more but it's so much easier to have a guidance like this!
i have been looking for a video like this for 2 years now! i'm thrilled to see the upcoming videos, you guys explain things in a very easy way. thanks for the effort!
Writing my first short film script with audio....thank you so much for the help. You've taken me from here, to way the frack up there. Thanks Mike! Great vid btw.
You guys are the best (Y)! So easy to understand and learn! If there is ever an Oscar for Scriptwriting Tutorials, I'd definitely nominate you guys and give u all 5 *****! Thanks a zillion!!!
Base on your teachings, I found out that I am on the right track :) I've been making stories and dialogues in my head, but never had the courage to actually write, until recently, I wrote 3 screenplays already and one is in production.
Okay, this was extremely more helpful than the entire class I took on screenplay writing, which wasn't a bad course and was actually really fun, but I want to ask something important. Although you may not have experience in it, would you say that this is the same format you'd use to make animation screenplay? Just really really curious.
Here's a good one: MEXICAN MAGICIAN (in spanish) I'm going to disappear at the count of three! The audience claps and cheers. MEXICAN MAGICIAN (in spanish) One, Two - PUFF! And he disappeared without a *tres*
The ay you guys use skits to illustrate these lessons is amazing. Even if the video is about something I already know, I still love to watch it because it's so entertaining! And a recommendation for a great resource is the new Amazon Storywriter app. It's FREE and they've resolved the weird copyright shit. It's excellent!
You guys are awesome! Your videos are really helpful. It seems so hard to get straight forward answers when it comes to filmmaking. Keep up the great work!
You say to only describe what happens in the scene, but I enjoy putting occasional little remarks about what the characters are thinking and whatnot; it just makes it flow better for me. Should I not do this? I appreciate advice, but I also want to tell the story the way I want to tell it.
IOwnTheSpire Not part of RJFS but basically you should only put in something that the director can convey or the actor can portray. You can't for example write "John is hungry" because you can't act 'hungry'. An actor will actually have to act out the stuff you wrote so make sure it's actually possible for them to act it out. Plus the people watching the movie can't read minds so if what a character is thinking is important enough to write down then there should be a way for them to actually know what it is.
Paul Barrett To add on to your point, "Joey is hungry" also is not ideal to write because you want to avoid using passive language in the action lines. In general, a good script has as few uses of the words "is" and "are" as possible.
+IOwnTheSpire I've decided to add behaviours into my scripts. Such as....John appears pensive. It is a visible behaviour that can be acted and it also makes it easier to read the story in the script. e.g. John puts down the letter. John appears pensive.
Here's another trick you can use to guide the editor: split columns when using splitscreen. That way, you can discuss each section of frame individually without hodgepodge.
Thank you 8:33 I know exactly how I want to shoot a scene I was going to intercut but I knew there had to be a way of writing it without writing the slug lines over and over almost didnt watch this because I know the basics but I guess I didn't THANK YOU life saver
Trelby and Dramaqueen seem to be really good free screenwriting softwares. Trelby is open-sourced, lightweight, and very basic, free screenwriting software (imports and exports to popular formats except celtx I think?), meant specifically for screenplay formatting only. It's not available for Mac yet tho. Dramaqueen on the other hand is a more about story development, which is why it also advertised to novelists as well as scriptwriters. DramaQueen FREE version supports story writing and screenplay formatting but lets you try out all of its features in ALL of its versions during the test period when you first download DramaQueen. _"[A]fter the test period expires, the software automatically transforms into DramaQueen FREE which is usable for an unlimited time."_ It's "100% cross platform" too.
Fantastic execution! Great presentation, funny, informative! If you guys did a HUGE lesson on writing (ie, Screenwriter's Bible) and it was for a fee, I'd imagine a lot of people would sign up!
Over years of study (online) I came to the understanding that SLASH CUT and SMASH CUT referred to the mechanics of editing-e.g. a slash-cut meant celluloid film overlaid and both cut at one long-thin-angle looking like a dividing line moving across the screen e.g. a stylized INTERCUT... Smash-cut, I assumed, would be like a ppt-reveal: film-on-film-smashed-to-cut... And did you know that one of our 50 States invented this technique, connect-to-cut, (humor).
Yo RJFS, when you are saying INT or EXT, is that where you film it or where the scene is set? For instance, if you have a scene set in the desert, but you film it in a studio, would you call it INT or EXT?
Hey :) So I have minimal knowledge on this subject but I think the writer himself/herself wouldn't have an idea about such a thing and that sort of a decision would be taken by the director. So ideally, at this stage I'm guessing you would still refer to it as en EXT scene. hope I could help!
This was so useful, thank you! Can you go over when and when NOT to use "continuous?" I tend to overuse it I think. A professor recently told me that it's sort of archaic and nobody uses it anymore but I'm so used to it! Thanks!
Hatts off to the team of RJFM for sharing the knowledge of filmmaking and it had been very useful for me , can you upload some sample of script writing
Rjfs guys you are great I owe you a lot. every time I follow you and I could learn lot of stuff about film making because of you guys. thank you, thank you, finally Lauren I love you mam.
Adelyn Tan - This is different than your scenario, but In my script, I have a character who is a priest, named Father Christy, who is also a hitman/ganglord, who the gang refer to as Risk. What I do for this is, in the beginning, I call him Father Christy, until the reveal is made that he's part of this gang, and then I start labeling him as Risk. The moment the transition is made, I label his name as Risk (Father Christy). Or when you first meet someone and haven't revealed their name yet, call them MAN, then when you reveal the name, label it as MAN (BILLY), then after that, just BILLY.
***** Another twist: Two characters -- say, JOHN and MARSHA -- switch bodies. There's some stuff before they switch bodies, and after they switch back. Would you switch the character IDs to reflect which character is talking, or keep the character names "with the bodies" and add character parentheticals to indicate who's talking: MARSHA (as John) Whoa, what just happened? JOHN (as Marsha) I... I think we just switched bodies. MARSHA (as John) I think you're right. I don't remember having boobs before. JOHN (as Marsha) And I certainly would've noticed if I was carrying one of _these_ around. But I'm not sure that's clear, because MARSHA (as John) could mean the character Marsha is speaking in John's body.EDIT: I have no idea what's wrong with the damn formatting in RUclips, or how to fix it. Sorry.
Another important formatting rule for dialogue parentheticals, is that they're conventionally written as adjectives, not adverbs (e.g. angry, not angrily; gentle, not gently).
THIS WAS EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED! Oh my lord, this was so good! I never knew what a God dang screenplay looked like and now i do. Thank you so much, guys!
Isaac Thefallenapple You should read some screenplays, there are plenty of them online for free.
Vexed Films Good idea. Thanks.
Yeah I was told by one of my mentors to read screenplays of my favorite movies so I could get a hang of how they're structured and get used to that format
I absolutely adore your teaching style - You can have your audience learning while simultaneously laughing.
By far, this is the clearest breakdown I've ever seen and I've been writing for 3 years now, and have gone to the New York Film Academy for this skill. This can cater to experienced screenwriters as well, this was great spotting for me.
This channel is seriously the best. So helpful.
That screenplay should win an oscar. It was so moving and well written.
I cannot put into words how helpful this video is. THANK YOU!
Easily the best formatting tutorial out there - clear, concise, and easy to follow and understand. The added humor was a nice touch :p
I've never heard of (into phone) being used as a character parenthetical, I've only ever seen and used it as a dialogue parenthetical. Also, a little tip I've learned about transitions, from John Jarrell (writer of Romeo Must Die, etc, and his book "Tough Love Screenwriting"). He told me if I need to use a transition, rather than wasting a million lines on them, to simply add it onto the action line. For example:
EXT. 8TH ST. - NORTH CAMDEN - NIGHT
The Corvette rolls forward, revealing --
-- Cedar on his fat ass. Sirens multiply in the air. Bread still playing in the --
CORVETTE
as it rolls into the intersection --
HONKKKK! A truck HORN BEEPS, then -- SMACK! -- Rams into it. Metal SCRAPING. Sparks FLYING.
THE BUICK
rolls forward, pinning Cedar’s foot. He SCREECHES like an eagle as the Buick violently jolts up and down, climbing his body, tires peeling away at his flesh. And just as his SCREAM turns to GURGLING, we SMASH CUT TO:
INT. PIDGE’S BUICK - NIGHT
Pidge speeds away from the kill site listening to a description of his car announced over his police scanner.
OR
He BANGS the window with his fist. Nothing. BANGS again --
GLASH! -- A glass shower nearly giving him a fucking heart attack as --
THE OPPOSITE BACK WINDOW
is shattered with a pistol grip, by a MASKED MAN.
Pistanze cowers behind his arms, covering his eyes as SHARDS OF GLASS try to invade his body. And we SMASH CUT TO --
EXT. 8TH ST. - NORTH CAMDEN - NIGHT
Phao! Use transition as "therefore" is the biggest thing i got from this, really great way to teach the basics.
THUMBS UP
THANK YOU SO MUCH. I needed a quick, to the point, description of formatting, and you guys delivered . Also, i really enjoyed the Film Riot type skits of showing on what you guys were we're talking about.
This might be the most important video I've seen and watched the most in my three years (so far) of film school
This was thE MOST HELPFUL SCREENPLAY VIDEO OF ALL TIME!
'Yeah, Mike said he could make me do whatever I want.' Priceless!
This is pure gold right here. I feel like I should be paying for this. LOL
Omg I'm so excited when I see a new video from you guys!!! Thank you for these down-to-the-details videos!! These things actually take so much time to research and to learn and there're so many different sources on the Internet telling all types of things. Of course we still need to learn more but it's so much easier to have a guidance like this!
I can't figure out what it is but there's something about this guy that is incredibly likeable. He would make an awesome teacher
i have been looking for a video like this for 2 years now! i'm thrilled to see the upcoming videos, you guys explain things in a very easy way. thanks for the effort!
Well done.
Writing my first short film script with audio....thank you so much for the help. You've taken me from here, to way the frack up there. Thanks Mike! Great vid btw.
why are you guys this incredibly good? Thanks for this, as I have noted a couple of things I have been doing incorrectly to date.
You guys are the best (Y)! So easy to understand and learn! If there is ever an Oscar for Scriptwriting Tutorials, I'd definitely nominate you guys and give u all 5 *****! Thanks a zillion!!!
I was just assigned to watch this in class; can’t believe rocket jump’s gone this far
This video really helped me write my screenplay script for school! Thanks !
Great video, thats how all the tutorials should be: simple, to the point and fun!
Base on your teachings, I found out that I am on the right track :) I've been making stories and dialogues in my head, but never had the courage to actually write, until recently, I wrote 3 screenplays already and one is in production.
This by far, 100%, no doubt my favourite tutorial on the whole websphere!
Really clarifying. Thanks
Okay, this was extremely more helpful than the entire class I took on screenplay writing, which wasn't a bad course and was actually really fun, but I want to ask something important. Although you may not have experience in it, would you say that this is the same format you'd use to make animation screenplay? Just really really curious.
***** Thank you kindly for replying and offering help! This is most helpful!! C:
I have the same question. What did they say? Their comment was removed.
@@cesarangeles1204 Yeah, it is. Exactly the same.
Note to self: Stop replying to year-old comments.
*Steel Beam* Haha thank you anyways. I ended up using it for my animation that year
That was amazing. You guys are awesome
It took my teacher two classes at my college to do what you did in ten minutes
"DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIRE, HARRY?!" Someone forgot to add the *calmly* to that line in the script.
you are genius dude
.
too much information with simple explaining
Here's a good one:
MEXICAN MAGICIAN
(in spanish)
I'm going to disappear at the count
of three!
The audience claps and cheers.
MEXICAN MAGICIAN
(in spanish)
One, Two -
PUFF!
And he disappeared without a *tres*
Nice
Yo no comprendo, lo siento
Might be the most satisfying RUclips trip ever
I'm on the right track. This guy knows his stuff. Very basic. Very accurate!👍
This guys voice is so soothing.
this dude's voice is so soothing.. more educational videos with Mike!
This was my favorite video you guys have ever done. Absolutely perfect. Well done :)
The ay you guys use skits to illustrate these lessons is amazing. Even if the video is about something I already know, I still love to watch it because it's so entertaining!
And a recommendation for a great resource is the new Amazon Storywriter app. It's FREE and they've resolved the weird copyright shit. It's excellent!
You guys went above and beyond what I was looking for. LOVED IT!!! I'll definitely be watching more of your vids :D
Awesome how Brian explains it! He has an awesome and nice voice for this! Hope to see him again in the next videos :)
You guys are awesome! Your videos are really helpful. It seems so hard to get straight forward answers when it comes to filmmaking. Keep up the great work!
Wow I'm a visual person! Thank you for showing and showing how to right at the same time!!
This is so helpful. I often find myself coming back to this.
You guys are awesome, I learned a lot from you guys. Thanks a lot
Being forced to watch this for Film Studies. You summarized what my teacher couldn't and added in a fart joke. 8/10
I have no idea how I got here, but i liked it!
You guys are awesome and make me want to pick up my old projects!
I am glad that I found this channel
These videos are seriously the best youtube teaching videos for filmmaking. Sometimes even better than filmriot (sorry)!
Great video! Awesome how you put everything together to explain things.
You say to only describe what happens in the scene, but I enjoy putting occasional little remarks about what the characters are thinking and whatnot; it just makes it flow better for me. Should I not do this? I appreciate advice, but I also want to tell the story the way I want to tell it.
IOwnTheSpire Not part of RJFS but basically you should only put in something that the director can convey or the actor can portray. You can't for example write "John is hungry" because you can't act 'hungry'. An actor will actually have to act out the stuff you wrote so make sure it's actually possible for them to act it out.
Plus the people watching the movie can't read minds so if what a character is thinking is important enough to write down then there should be a way for them to actually know what it is.
Paul Barrett To add on to your point, "Joey is hungry" also is not ideal to write because you want to avoid using passive language in the action lines. In general, a good script has as few uses of the words "is" and "are" as possible.
+IOwnTheSpire I've decided to add behaviours into my scripts. Such as....John appears pensive. It is a visible behaviour that can be acted and it also makes it easier to read the story in the script. e.g. John puts down the letter. John appears pensive.
+Paul Barrett John clutches his grumbling stomach.
Of the dozen script formatting videos I've watched - this one is the best. (I am still a little confused on 'continuous' however...
Super informative, brief and to the point!
This is the most helpful video ever, thank you!
Here's another trick you can use to guide the editor: split columns when using splitscreen. That way, you can discuss each section of frame individually without hodgepodge.
Thank you 8:33 I know exactly how I want to shoot a scene I was going to intercut but I knew there had to be a way of writing it without writing the slug lines over and over almost didnt watch this because I know the basics but I guess I didn't THANK YOU life saver
I know there's no "right" answer, but how do prefer to write montages?
Ol
Lovin' the Holy Diver wallpaper background at the end of the video! Dio is awesome!
Woah. Thank you so much RJFS. Always wanted a guide like this
Trelby and Dramaqueen seem to be really good free screenwriting softwares.
Trelby is open-sourced, lightweight, and very basic, free screenwriting software (imports and exports to popular formats except celtx I think?), meant specifically for screenplay formatting only. It's not available for Mac
yet tho.
Dramaqueen on the other hand is a more about story development, which is why it also advertised to novelists as well as scriptwriters. DramaQueen FREE version supports story writing and screenplay formatting but lets you try out all of its features in ALL of its versions during the test period when you first download DramaQueen. _"[A]fter the test period expires, the software automatically transforms into DramaQueen FREE which is usable for an unlimited time."_ It's "100% cross platform" too.
i was looking for the laugh emoji after watching this, awesome work broski
Just brilliant way to explain things! Thank You guys!
I just recently subscribed to you guys, and I'm extremely happy I did! Thanks for all the info!
Just finished a book and want to turn it in a movie - thank you for this tutorial. Paul Harms
Fantastic execution! Great presentation, funny, informative! If you guys did a HUGE lesson on writing (ie, Screenwriter's Bible) and it was for a fee, I'd imagine a lot of people would sign up!
Extremely helpful, thanks again RJFS!
I love the way he says "and gets milk out of the fridge."
This was really helpful and very informative! Thanks so much for putting it together!
thank you guys soo much this is exactly what ive been looking for ,now illl be able to organize my story the right way
Over years of study (online) I came to the understanding that SLASH CUT and SMASH CUT referred to the mechanics of editing-e.g. a slash-cut meant celluloid film overlaid and both cut at one long-thin-angle looking like a dividing line moving across the screen e.g. a stylized INTERCUT... Smash-cut, I assumed, would be like a ppt-reveal: film-on-film-smashed-to-cut... And did you know that one of our 50 States invented this technique, connect-to-cut, (humor).
Danny carried this video
#unbiase
Brian Firenzi is my hero!
I love you guys so much you make everything look so easy
Yay, finally a video that didn't make me feel like I have been doing it wrong. Good video though!
JOEY
(in spanish)
''i want 3 taco's''
[Narrator]
And that wraps it up
I see what you did there
Nicely done. Congrats on a great channel!
Thank you so much for this. I will absolutely be using this in the future.
Thanks so much for this! I've been wanting to know how to write some of this stuff, it really helped
That was awesome and I learned a lot in those few minutes.
Yo RJFS, when you are saying INT or EXT, is that where you film it or where the scene is set?
For instance, if you have a scene set in the desert, but you film it in a studio, would you call it INT or EXT?
J. Haller Productions Refers to where the scene is set
Hey :) So I have minimal knowledge on this subject but I think the writer himself/herself wouldn't have an idea about such a thing and that sort of a decision would be taken by the director. So ideally, at this stage I'm guessing you would still refer to it as en EXT scene. hope I could help!
Ive wanted this fir months ....thanks alot
YOU ARE THE BIGGEST LIFESAVER EVERRRRRRR
Hey, it's me a guy from the future! This was fantastic.
THIS IS WONDERFUL MY GAAAAAAWD THANK YOU
This was very helpful. Great video
This was so useful, thank you! Can you go over when and when NOT to use "continuous?" I tend to overuse it I think. A professor recently told me that it's sort of archaic and nobody uses it anymore but I'm so used to it! Thanks!
Man, you guys helped me so much. Thank you!
Wow this video is very instructive and funny, thanks RocketJump Film school
This was so good! well done.
insightful and entertaining! great stuff, thanks!
awesome explanation.. looks like this is a spec script format.. will be helpful if you could share similar one for shoot script format as well.
Hatts off to the team of RJFM for sharing the knowledge of filmmaking and it had been very useful for me , can you upload some sample of script writing
Rjfs guys you are great I owe you a lot. every time I follow you and I could learn lot of stuff about film making because of you guys. thank you, thank you, finally Lauren I love you mam.
This is a brilliant way to explain it.
This is Exactly what I needed it showed everything and he explained everything so well now I understand now let’s go write a script 😬😬😬 Action!
Tips on labeling camera gears ! Thank you !
what if the character has an alias? (like maybe hulk/bruce banner or batman/bruce wayne) would you put both names in the character ID?
Adelyn Tan - This is different than your scenario, but In my script, I have a character who is a priest, named Father Christy, who is also a hitman/ganglord, who the gang refer to as Risk. What I do for this is, in the beginning, I call him Father Christy, until the reveal is made that he's part of this gang, and then I start labeling him as Risk. The moment the transition is made, I label his name as Risk (Father Christy). Or when you first meet someone and haven't revealed their name yet, call them MAN, then when you reveal the name, label it as MAN (BILLY), then after that, just BILLY.
***** Another twist: Two characters -- say, JOHN and MARSHA -- switch bodies. There's some stuff before they switch bodies, and after they switch back. Would you switch the character IDs to reflect which character is talking, or keep the character names "with the bodies" and add character parentheticals to indicate who's talking: MARSHA (as John) Whoa, what just happened? JOHN (as Marsha) I... I think we just switched bodies. MARSHA (as John) I think you're right. I don't remember having boobs before. JOHN (as Marsha) And I certainly would've noticed if I was carrying one of _these_ around. But I'm not sure that's clear, because MARSHA (as John) could mean the character Marsha is speaking in John's body.EDIT: I have no idea what's wrong with the damn formatting in RUclips, or how to fix it. Sorry.
***** Just wondering, what if a character has a nickname as opposed to an alias? For example, Constance or Connie for short, or something like that.
I see what ya did there ;)
Falcy Chead Best thing to do would be to read the script of another movie like this. I have The Change Up script, if you want it.
Another important formatting rule for dialogue parentheticals, is that they're conventionally written as adjectives, not adverbs (e.g. angry, not angrily; gentle, not gently).
Tutorial beautifully done . Thank you
Simple and superb explanation..😉😉