Screenwriting - Why Turning a Book Into a Movie Is Tougher Than Turning a Movie Into a Book

One of my screenwriting Twitter followers asked me the question: Which is harder-turning a book into a screenplay or turning a screenplay into a book? Without any hesitation, I responded that it' s much more difficult to turn a book into a movie.

For one thing, you have much less room to tell the story when screenwriting. A novel can be 80,000 - 100,000 words and more, and take up hundreds of pages. A screenplay must, with very few exceptions, run 90 - 120 pages, with lots of white space on the pages. Average word count is somewhere around 20,000 - 25,000 words.

The reason there is a strict page count when screenwriting is that the rule of thumb when shooting a movie is that one screenplay page equals one minute of time on the screen. It doesn't always work out that way but you still need to be very careful with your page count.

Screenwriting - Why Turning a Book Into a Movie Is Tougher Than Turning a Movie Into a Book

So you can see the problem from the outset. Books have much more room to develop their stories and themes. They can spend a lot of time describing a scene or a character, and delve deeply into their backstory. Although it is important to keep an eye on page count because of production costs and marketing, novels have less exacting word counts.

Novels can be more flexible. They allow the writer to spend time on what interests them most. Novels also allow authors to have fun with the language, to show off their poetic flair, if they want to. For many people, including me, part of the joy of reading a great novel is the writing style of some of my favorite authors.

Novels can reveal what a character is thinking. In a screenplay, you can only write what can be seen and heard on the screen. Sure, there can be voice overs, but most producers and directors prefer not to use them unless they feel it is absolutely necessary for the story.

Screenwriting must be minimalist. Character descriptions tend to be very general, in order to allow for more casting options. Also, movie dialogue must be much shorter. Every sentence and every word must move the story forward in some way.

Novels have room for several subplots. The majority of movies only have one or two, if any. There's simply not enough time for them to develop in about 90 minutes.

Another reason that the screenwriting process is so demanding is that the audience only has a quick moment to get all they can form each scene. When people read a book, they can go back a few pages if something is not clear. People can't do that in a movie theater.

In novels, words tell us the story. In movies, images, along with dialogue, tell the story, but images are preeminent.

On the other hand, for the reasons already mentioned, turning a screenplay into a book is a much easier process. The writer can use all those ideas, characters and subplots he or she had to discard because of limited space and time constraints. They can have more fun with the language and more easily reveal the thoughts, emotions and motivations of their characters. If your novel is a few thousand words more than your editor asked for, you can probably get away with it. But if a screenplay is too short or long, it gets thrown away without even being read.

One challenge that a screenwriter may encounter when turning a screenplay into a book is that they now have to be more specific with details of locations and the visual appearance of their characters. So, although writing a novel is not easy, it is easier that writing a screenplay.

Screenwriting - Why Turning a Book Into a Movie Is Tougher Than Turning a Movie Into a Book
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Danek S. Kaus is a produced screenwriter of an award-winning feature film. He has two movies in development and three more of his screenplays have been optioned. Check out his his screenwriting site for more article on screenwriting. You can also ask for his Free Ebook screenwriting for authors

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Comedy Play Scripts

Comedy play scripts have the ability to bring laughter, joy, and entertainment to viewers. Be it for the stage, television or the movies, scripts of this genre invariably have a happy ending, leaving the audience feeling pleasantly satisfied long after they leave their seats. It is exactly this attribute that has added to the popularity of comedy play scripts. Greater importance is bestowed upon comical shows because people in the grip of turbulent times welcome a pleasant change in the form of humor and mirth. They can shed their worries for a while and relax mentally as they watch the amusement light heatedly. Comedies act as a restorative tonic that drenches viewers with joy and a sense of exhilaration. Writing a comedy script requires an equal ratio of a flair for creative writing and an inborn ability to regale others through wit and humor. Conflating the two, comedy play scripts have become a favorite of the masses worldwide.

Comedy play scripts vary based on their intended medium. When written for the movies or the TV, they are always written in the present tense and follow punctilious formatting style, without mentioning any detailed instructions for the actors, directors or the crew to follow. Writing for the stage is less formal with hardly any stringent rules to be adhered to, making it a lot less taxing for the author. Precedence is given to verbosity in stage play scripts unlike funny movies where the visual effect is of predominant importance. Generally, comedy play scripts are short, crisp and frivolous. The sight of characters falling over, slipshod way of dressing, misinterpreting words, situations going berserk, solecism through exchange of places, ludicrous remarks, etc. all add to the vivacity of the show. Funny scripts are imbued with inane idiocies that elicit laughter from spectators.

For most writers, comedy play scripts are difficult to write because the sense of humor should be versatile and change to keep viewers' interest. A good comedy script can be very lucrative for the writer, director, and producer. This is because comedy scripts have a high repeat value; people wants to see the movie again and again, which make them more profitable. Before you write a sitcom, you should learn the basics of script writing within this genre. Sitcoms writers must learn the art of constructing a story, writing funny dialogues, and developing hilarious characters. Hiring a comedy script ghostwriter to edit or build upon your ideas can be quite helpful.

Comedy Play Scripts

Comedy Play Scripts
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Script Analysis - Where the Wild Things Are - Archetypes and Emotional-Symbolic Screenplay Structure

Script Analysis: WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't yet seen "Where The Wild Things Are," you may want to check it out before you read this article. Let's set aside the question right now of whether or not Where The Wild Things Are is a good movie. Let's set aside the question of whether you liked it or not (or were a little bit embarrassed for liking it as much as you did).

And if you feel like you wasted your twelve bucks on a movie in which essentially nothing happens, let's set that aside too. Love it or hate it, Wild Things is a movie worth studying, because of the bold and unique ways it is structured to reflect its authors' premise, both in its most wonderful, and its most problematic elements.

Script Analysis - Where the Wild Things Are - Archetypes and Emotional-Symbolic Screenplay Structure

PREMISE? WHAT PREMISE?

Wild things is governed by a simple idea-- or at least a strong suggestion-- that we are seeing the whole world through the perspective of a young boy-- as he works out his rage over his isolated life (and more importantly, his parents divorce) by playing with a bunch of stuffed animals in his room.

The writer-director team of Jonze and Eggers make a very strong (and very risky) decision that nothing in the world of the Wild Things is going to exist outside what a boy Max's age could reasonably imagine. This is embodied in every element of the film:

In the dialogue and actions of the Wild Things (who reason and dream and play and rage and even accept the impossible just like children). In a plot limited to events that a moderately intelligent child could be expected to dream up--more interested in reflecting the way children play (with exaggerated simplicity, loose ends, and non-linear and non-sensical elements) than it is with telling a linear narrative story.

In the production design-- which looks a lot more like what a child like Max might think was "cool and magical" than what we've come to expect from the grown up Hollywood minds that bring us movies like Harry Potter or Pan's Labyrinth. In Where the Wild Things Are, boats to magic lands show up out of nowhere, Wild Things instantly accept little boys as Kings, and torn off arms drip sand and not blood. We are in a little boys world of stuffed animals, and if things seem cheesy, overly simple, or just plain goofy, it's because they're supposed to.

Because of these choices, the experience of Where The Wild Things Are completely violates almost everything we've come to expect in a Hollywood movie. We come expecting magic and spectacle, and are given only the simplest special effects. We come expecting a smooth ride, that's safe for kids, and fun for adults, and instead are taken on a chaotic journey that floats along the impetuous currents of Max's joy and rage. We come expecting a "well-made" film, and instead experience the inner world of a child at play.

STRUCTURE? WHAT STRUCTURE?

Most Hollywood movies are built around simple structural rules. If a character shows up at the beginning of the movie pretending to be King, the movie isn't over until he's learned what it is to be a real King. If a character shows up at the beginning of the movie in a land where a bunch of otherwise lovely creatures are filled with rage and misery, the movie isn't over until he's healed their pain (and his own) and found a way to bring them peace.

As you probably noticed, Wild Things doesn't play by these rules. Max doesn't heal the Wild Things. Max doesn't learn how to be a good King. Max doesn't even "finish" the story. Rather, he leaves abruptly (if reluctantly) abdicating his crown like a child called inside for dinner.

For the most part, nothing happens in Wild Things. And yet, from a character perspective, so much happens. The difference is that unlike almost every other Hollywood film of its genre, Wild Things builds its structure not linearly and logically, but emotionally and symbolically, through the use of archetypes.

WHAT THE HECK IS AN ARCHETYPE?

Archetypes are an idea derived from the work of psychologist Carl Jung, and later seized upon by Joseph Campbell and a slew of his disciples as they sought to better understand story. You could spend years studying the different ways different critics, professors, and authors of screenwriting books have described and categorized archetypes.

Fortunately, you don't have to.

Your job as a writer is not to categorize or memorize archetypes, but to understand them. And understanding them begins with this simple concept:

An archetype is a character who embodies some repressed element of your main character's psyche, and exists structurally in your movie to force your character to deal with that repressed element. All movies have archetypes. Big Hollywood movies. Tiny independent movies. Broad Comedies. Serious Dramas.

Even big dumb action movies. They all have archetypes. They have to. Otherwise, your main character would never have to deal with the repressed elements in his or her psyche, and wouldn't have to go through the story. The difference is that within Wild Things, instead of existing in a traditional linear plot, these archetypes exist within an emotional and symbolic one.

THE NORMAL WORLD

One of the truly remarkable things about Where The Wild Things Are is how quickly screenwriters Jonze & Eggers establish all of the real world emotional and symbolic elements that will comprise the structure of Max's mythical journey. His isolation and loneliness. His emotional and physical pain. His feelings of betrayal by his sister and his mother. HIs feelings of being left behind as his mother and sister build relationships with new people that he doesn't like or understand. His shame at being out of control. And most importantly, his violent and destructive reactions to those feelings.

These emotional elements have symbolic counterparts: The Snowball Fight That Ends In Tears. The Destroyed Fort. The Heart He Made For His Sister (which he destroys when he trashes her room). And the moment in which he Bites His Mother after seeing her with her new boyfriend.

THE EMOTIONAL/SYMBOLIC WORLD OF THE WILD THINGS

On a metaphorical level, Max's journey in the world of the Wild Things is quite simply an attempt of a child's mind to make sense of his own destructive rage. Each emotional and symbolic element of the normal world has its Wild Things World equivalent, creating a system of metaphorical mirrors through which Max ultimately can see himself and his world more clearly (as he self soothes his way through the guilt and trauma).

The Wild Things bite, just as Max bit his mother. The Wild Things destroy their homes, Just as Max destroyed his sister's room. Max attempts connect with the Wild Things by building a fort and throwing dirt clods, just as he once built a snow fort and threw snow balls at his sister's friends. The connections are simple, giving the movie the clarity and through line it needs to take the audience along for the journey. But also complex, honoring the complexity of Max's pyschology, as he navigates the complexities of his parents divorce and his feelings about it, by navigating his relationships with one archetypal Wild Thing after another.

CAROL: The loving, but violent father, with whom Max's mother no longer wants to live despite Max's love for him, and whose behavior Max is emulating in his own.

KW: The perfect mother figure, who "inexplicably" no longer wants to live with Carol, and is instead enamored with "boyfriends" Bob and Terry, the owls that neither Max nor KW can understand.

JUDITH: The embodiment of his jealousy and discontentment-- who feels like it's Max's job to make her feel better, just as Max wants his mother to do for him.

Even Max himself is an archetype: the quintessential Jungian "Hero". The developing Ego that wishes to be King of his own world.

Over the course of the story, by interacting with his archetypes and attempting to do for them what he wishes to do for himself, Max develops empathy and understanding that prepares him to return to his new world. He is forced to confront who his father really is, who his mother really is, and even who he really is. He is forced to confront the consequences of his choices, and the terrifying idea that he may not be in control, that he may not be King, that he may, in fact, just be a "boy, pretending to be a wolf, pretending to be a king" and that in fact Kings may not exist at all.

It ends with the gift of a heart that Max has made. Not coincidentally, it looks a lot like the one he once made for his sister, and destroyed at the beginning of the movie. Linearly, not a darn thing happens. But metaphorically, emotionally, and symbolically, Max undergoes a profound change. He must, otherwise he wouldn't need to go through the story.

THE WRITER'S JOURNEY

On an archetypal level, Max's journey echoes the journey of every writer. We must reduce ourselves to children, allow ourselves to play, breathe life into our own archetypes through the words and actions of our characters, create metaphorical and symbolic equivalents for the confusing and contradictory events of our own lives, and ultimately create a structure that forces us to unearth our own repressed emotions, and takes us, and our main characters, on a journey that changes us both forever.

Though your own work may not be as structurally radical as that of Where The Wild Things Are, if a movie in which so little happens can create such a profound journey for its main character, imagine what exploring these emotional, archetypal, and symbolic elements could do for your own work.

Script Analysis - Where the Wild Things Are - Archetypes and Emotional-Symbolic Screenplay Structure
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Have a question about screenwriting?
Ask award-winning screenwriter Jacob Krueger, and your question could be featured in an article like this one. You can email Jacob at jake@screenwritersmind.com. For more information about screenwriting, or to find out more about Jacob's screenwriting classes in the New York City Area, please visit his website: http://www.screenwritersmind.com.

Copyright (C) Jacob Krueger 2009

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How to Write a Movie Script - Screenwriting Tips to Get You Started

So you want to be a screenwriter, but where do you start? What tools and resources are necessary to learn to be a screenwriter? Do I have to spend a lot of money to get started? These are all common questions, which I will answer in this article.

Easy tips on how to write a movie script:

1) Read as many screenplays as you can. Learn the format and language of how screenplays are constructed. For instance, screenplays are always written in the present tense and often use minimal description to set scenes and create atmosphere. The rule of thumb is: never write more detail than you need.

How to Write a Movie Script - Screenwriting Tips to Get You Started

2) Use computer software to format your scripts. To succeed in Hollywood, you have to use proper screenplay formatting. People who work in the industry are used to screenplays following an accepted format and layout. If yours does not, you are out of the ball game before it has even started. If you've got the money to spend (0-200), I suggest Movie Magic Screenwriter as the software of choice. In my opinion, it FAR SURPASSES the competition. If your budget is tight, there are also many low-cost software options available (under 0), as well as free templates that plug into MS Word.

3) Learn to outline your stories. You can do this on a computer, or you can use the "traditional" method of breaking down your screen story through the use of index (3x5) cards. Either method will allow you to move your scenes about and find the proper flow of your story. During this process, you may discover "miracles" that will take your story to the next level... or you may find out that that "precious" scene you've been thinking about is not even needed!

4) Purchase some screenwriting books to help you learn the process of storytelling and how to structure your story. William Goldman, screenwriter extraordinaire, is famous for saying that screenplays are, "Structure, structure, structure." Movies don't have time to meander like novels. They need to be tightly constructed, with no flab. There are some great books on the market. Hit your local bookstore to familiarize yourself with a few. One of my favorites on how to write a commercial screenplay is Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT!

How to Write a Movie Script - Screenwriting Tips to Get You Started
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For more killer FREE tips on scriptwriting, go to Screenwriting Tips. Sign up to receive FREE SCREENPLAYS that you can use to learn how to Write a Movie Script and become a successful screenwriter.

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Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies

To the novice, film and video editing sounds like one of those completely technical subjects, only possibly interesting to people with very logical and pragmatic minds, much like engineers. Visions of darkrooms and sterile-looking studios filled with all types of inexplicable mechanical equipment, where rolls of film negatives are poured over and scrutinized by serious-looking people, then diced, sliced and spliced back together, somewhat completes the overall mental picture. Clinical, stark, precise. But in actuality, film and video editing is much more than celluloid or electronic image surgery. In fact, it's quite the opposite.

Think of it this way; someone shoots a video of your favorite cousin's wedding. The end product is a nice, mostly continuous documentation of the event, with abrupt starts and stops here and there when the main activity changes or moves to a different area or location that necessitates a different "shot". The end result is a compilation of pictures and sound that is considerably better and hopefully more memorable and satisfying than still photographs, but still leaves a lot to be desired.

However, if the same raw video was placed into the hands of a skilled editor, the end result would be quite different. The resulting piece would tell the story of the culmination of your cousin's three-year romance, as narrated by several key family members. It would capture and convey to the viewing audience the couple's wedding day emotions of love, and joy and appreciation for one another and family, anticipation of the new life the couple intends to create together, a bit of sadness for the life they are forever leaving behind, and so on. In other words, in the hands of a skilled editor, the video becomes a "story" with a beginning, middle and end; a cohesive synopsis of the couple's romance. A day in the life...

Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies

What most people not in the film or video industry don't realize is that film and video editing is an art form. Editing is arguably the most important element of film or video production. It is in the editing, the art of arranging pictures and dialog and sounds, that a finished film product is able to communicate a story first envisioned by its writer, and subsequently by a director and producer to its intended audience. Days, weeks even months of shots captured on film or video must be studied, interpreted analyzed and finally distilled into a story lasting a fraction of the time it took to capture it all.

People outside the film making industry have little or no idea about "post production" and the crucial part it plays in the production of a film or video work. It is because of the significant importance of this phase of film and video production that the process takes an extended amount of time to complete.

Much more that cutting and splicing pieces of cellophane together or merely arranging video sequence, editing is a wonderful blend of technical knowledge and skill combined with an artist's creativity and craftsmanship. It is moving, adding, deleting, juxtaposing, scenes, sounds, and images to develop film shots and video clips into a certain context, create specific imagery and timing, evoke particular emotion, create specific imagery and mold them into a story.

Film editing as a craft began in the late 1890's in the very earliest days of motion pictures. In the intervening years between then and now, anyone interested in learning about film or video editing, usually attended college courses or one of a number of reputable film schools to learn the craft.

In his book, "The Technique Of Film And Video Editing", considered one of the best teaching and training tools for directors , Ken Dancyger highlights the history of film editing from its origins. He speaks specifically about the editing of great cinematographers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, taking a detailed look at the fundamental principles of film and video editing. He discusses ideas, practices and styles and choices for editors in the context of theory, the history of film and video editing, and practice. He also discusses new technology and the impact it has in terms of the art of editing.

One of the greatest changes to film and video editing occurred with the introduction of computer editing. Hand cutting and splicing of film, as well as the more complicated, mechanical and "linear" process of video editing, became tedious and outdated with the advent of computer editing in the early 1990's. Editing on computers gave rise to a whole new creativity prized by film editors, as well as lower costs and much more efficiency in terms of video editing.

Whether for film or video, the editing process occurs in three basic steps. These include capture, the editing process itself, and putting the product in a distributable form. During the capture phase, the actual "shots" or picture images are compiled into a format from which they can be edited. During the actual editing process, the collection of shots are organized in a desired sequence and sound is added through "sound mixing" until they form a comprehensive storyline. Once this has been accomplished, the film or video is finalized in the desired format whether film or high-quality video for distribution.

As technology continues to advance, the ways in which film and video are edited will continue to develop and progress. As it stands today, computers and user friend video editing software as well as the Internet have opened the doors to editing so that it is available to not only professional film and video editors. Now students of film and video and film making novices, as well as journalists, writers and the general public have unprecedented access to video editing tools. Several popular video editing programs make film and video editing possible for professionals as well as novice editors, including Avid Express Pro, Adobe Premier Pro, Sony Vegas, Final Cut Pro and Apple Final Cut Studio 2.

With today's technology and the advantage of personal computers, digital camera equipment and the availability of knowledge from new and increasingly powerful software programs, almost anyone with the desire, can learn film and video editing, produce commercial products and even feature movies from their home or personal studio.

Film and Video Editing May Be the Most Important Part of Making Movies
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Adam Fulford enjoys writing articles and screenplays [http://www.agoldenmedia.com/writing/] and has a production company to produce original documentaries [http://www.agoldenmedia.com/producing/2008/01/wheelchair-dancing-first-choreography.php] and dramas.

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Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft

The initial idea:

a) Once you know the apotheosis - the seminal insight the hero has - then you can build your story up to and beyond that point. Knowing the hero's apotheosis allows you to decide what the hero's restrictions will be and how to overcome them (atonement with the father). Knowing the hero's apotheosis allows you to decide the hero's inner resolve and actions upon the enlightenment (ultimate boon).

b) Writing about what you know gives you the insights and intimacy that will add richness and differentiate your work; writing about what you don't know is a good idea if the topic inspires you enough to sustain you through the research until you do become insightful and intimate with your subject; your passion with the idea must sustain you through the long hours of writing and the arduous process of selling your work; people have much more applicable tacit knowledge than they realise, for example, your experience of office politics could contribute to a story set in the White House.

Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft

Use the broad Hero's Journey to expand your idea into a broad step outline. Here characters and situations will begin to emerge. Flesh out multiple ideas to increase the certainty of committing to an appropriate one.

Use the detailed Hero's Journey to expand your idea into a detailed step outline. Start a file with the relevant number of sections and begin collecting research (newspaper clippings etc) that will add value to each stage of your step outline. Build the step outline until characters and situations have distinct form and substance.

Write out each stage of your story in a few paragraphs. If you use the detailed Hero's Journey then you will have anywhere between 51 and 106 paragraphs. Here, write first and edit later (separate creative from critical thinking). If you need input from other people, do not show them the whole story - simply show them a stage at a time and give or take options for improvement - this way their help will be more useful and they can avoid having to be diplomatic or nice.

Do the above until you have a coherent story. You know you have a coherent story when you can list each sequence and know its purpose. This is a useful method of analysing plot at a glance.

You will get to a point when you need to write out each stage fully in screenplay form (format), explore the situations and characters within and their dialogue. Allow each stage to occupy its natural length and space. Good (free) screenwriting software and examples of screenwriting form can be found at BBC Writers Room. Professionals use Final Draft. Do not rush to this stage - ensure that your story is well developed beforehand - once you commit words in screenplay form, the emotional attachment to them and resistance to critical evaluation both increase. With a well developed story in hand, it is not unusual for it to (almost) effortlessly roll out in screenplay form.

Allow yourself time to incubate on your work so far. You have written a significant amount of your screenplay but now you want to be able to judge its logic and the scene quality from a distance.

The words-on-paper first draft:

If you have written less than a full screenplay, then write out each stage more fully in screenplay form and make each stage richer. Try and make each stage a story and an event in its own right. You will instantly know what to do with some stages but will still need to incubate until you achieve insight with others. Your focus should be on the quality of each stage rather than length. It is better to add extra sequences than unnaturally expand stages in order to reach length (some more backstory, for example, or examine the detailed Hero's Journey for more ideas). The more screenplays you complete, the easier it becomes to push a story out to the required length (between 113-120 pages).

If your problem is cutting down material, then you have to learn brevity. Given that the total length of a screenplay should be no more than 120 pages, decide how long each section should be and reduce each stage to that length, making sure that you retain value. Dividing 120 by the number of stages in your story is a useful benchmark, but often some stages are naturally longer than others, for example, in the Hero's Journey, it is not unusual for the Road of Trials to be longer than the Apotheosis.

Another period of incubation will be required until you are able to review your work objectively. Rewriting, cutting and pasting etc will be required. You will move onto second and third drafts.

You will begin to explore selling opportunities, whilst continuing to polish your work and moving onto another story. If you have existing credibility within the industry, you will explore selling opportunities at the idea or treatment stage. Decision makers do read work so the higher the quality, the more likelihood of it being pushed further. But how long do you wait? How many times do you incubate and rewrite? Will it ever be perfect? Your decision.

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The 188 stage Hero's Journey and the FREE 17 stage Hero's Journey and other story structure templates can be found at http://www.managing-creativity.com/

You can also receive a regular, free newsletter by entering your email address at this site.

Kal Bishop, MBA

**********************************

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author's name and site URL are retained.

Screenwriting Process - Ten Steps to a First Draft
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Kal Bishop is a management consultant based in London, UK. His specialities include Knowledge Management and Creativity and Innovation Management. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached at www.managing-creativity.com

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