Friday, 27 November 2015

PreProduction Unit- Research- Do I Script Shots?

Something I have been investigating a lot recently is the scripting of shots in scripts. I have previously been told that it is not my responsibility to think of particular shots when I am acting as a screenplay writer, and I agree with this statement as it is down to the Director/ Cinematographer (in the case of this project- Charlie) to come up with the kind of shots they think would be best for the film.
However, during my script investigation, where I would look for the scripts of famous movies online, I discovered that there were some scripts where the writers had actually chosen to write about the shots that were being used. For example, the extract here is from the script for the 2004 version of "Dawn of the Dead", written by James Gunn;
Source.

In this segment, James Gunn has decided to script the showing of the Skull X-Ray through the use of a close-up. One can assume that the xray is originally viewed extremely close, making it difficult to know what it is, and the camera pulling back is what reveals it. This therefore makes the kind of shot used an important thing to script, so that the director knows what is happening.
I also came across this website which explains under what circumstances a screenwriter should script a shot.

From this I have learned that scripting shots should only be used when the viewer's attention is being put on something that might not be particularly obvious when using another kind of shot. For example, in my own second draft for "Inoculum", there is a scene where Douglas is sat reading a news article about how birds have been dying in Kent, some dropping from the sky half rotten.

In the scene, I wanted the viewer to see the headline, and I felt that this would be best to be shown through the use of a close-up.

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