Scripting thoughts

It's kind of weird writing the script for "Gerlado in Stockholm." It's all mostly monologue but putting the dialogue down on paper, however simple, always helps me to visualise the shots better. I tend to work in Acts, scenes and shots. Now, I've no idea what constitutes an "Act" but to me it's basically chunks.

So I've got my story split into four chunks: Pre-credits chunk, Shed interior, Interlude,Shed exterior and End Credits. I label these Acts/chunks as A, B, C, D and E. I've written a rough script but it's enabled me to start tagging the scenes and shots. So, in the pre-credits sequence I have shot A00 - Forest Chase, then A10 - Arrive at Shed. You'll notice that the shot numbering goes up in tens. This means I can insert shots if necessary later.

Acts is easy and shots is easy, but what defines a scene. Well, in Muvizu it's easy to think of a scene as a collection of 4 shots because you only can have 4 camera cuts in each Muvizu clip. When I'm script-writing I tend to gather dialogue or paragraphs into 4-shot groups and call them scenes. I'll then create a Muvizu set file and each set file will therefore contain one scene.

Here's a section of the script:

A: Pre-credits

A00

Black screen. Fade in: “This was made by Barry Sheridan” Fade out

A10

Crash cut. Camera following Geraldo as he runs through forest. Something unseen is chasing him. We can hear growls

A20

Black screen. Fade in “It’s set in the Other World”

A30

Crash cut. Geraldo running through forest

A40

Black screen. Fade in “And it’s called, ‘Geraldo in Stockholm’

A50

Start low in trees. Geraldo tears past from right to left and disappears into foliage again. Camer begins to rise. It clears the trees and shows a terribly bleak landscape. Camera rests with the shed in frame. Dramatic music

B: Shed Interior. All dialogue comes from (spoiler -removed)