The description of actions follows immediately after the heading of the scene - the "Place and Time" field in any scenario program - and precedes the first replica of the created scene. It is unacceptable to start a scene with a replica without marking with at least one line who is involved in the scene and what is happening.
Instruction manual
1
Lord of the verbs
Be accurate in describing the actions of your characters, looking for the most successful words, depict, and not just fix.
Instead of “going” - it goes, approaches, approaches, leaves, rushes, steps.
Instead of “looking, ” it stares, stares, squint, casts a look, looks closely, watches, studies, watches, scans with a look, looks around, looks around, and so on.
Use verbs to create portraits of characters as boldly as replicas. These are your characters, and no one knows better than you what they do and how they do it.
2
Four line rule
Another name for this principle is "Get Rid of Blackness."
Break the description of actions into paragraphs of no more than four lines each, if your character’s single trip lasted a couple of pages.
In a text editor, this can be done by setting the indent after the paragraph in the settings, or using blank lines.
And in the script program, just press Enter to turn the “black sheet” into a structured and easy to read text.
Frank Darabont, creating a pilot episode of The Walking Dead, indented every second line. In addition, he interrupted multi-page descriptions of actions with short lines expressing the emotions of the protagonist.
Rick Grimes was forced to get to know a new world full of zombies. Dozens of pages are filled with descriptions of how he got out of the hospital and tried to understand what happened while he was in a coma.
"DOUBLE DOORS at the end of the corridor. Caption:" Cafeteria."
The door is locked by a heavy bar on this side. The door handles are twisted by chains with a padlock.
The inscriptions in paint are obviously made in a hurry. On the left door: "Do not open!" And on the right: "Inside the dead!"
Rick approaches, slowly, carefully pushing the door.
The doors begin to move, as if someone is pushing them from the other side. The crossbar creaks, the chains are pulled.
Rick recoils, looking horrified at:
Fingers protrude through the gap between the doors: deathly pale, writhing, looking."
3
How to describe emotions? Imagine!
Jack London wrote his Hearts of Three at the same time as the film was shot.
Sometimes, according to him, the screenwriter Charles Goddard was even ahead of the writer, and they had to go back and coordinate the storylines.
So, Jack London admitted that he envied Goddard, who, unlike writers, did not need to look for hundreds of words to describe in detail the emotional experiences and motives of the characters. It was enough for him to decide what he wants to see on the screen and indicate in the author's remark to the actor "Depict joy / sadness / surprise." One magic word - portray!
Today, even the showrunner of a major TV project cannot use this magic word and directly contact the actor in the author’s remark of the script. And Shonda Rimes, and Joss Whedon, and Jane Espenson themselves have to "portray" the necessary emotions - all the same verbs, which for the screenwriter - an artisan tool.
But the principle remains the same:
Transmit emotions by action, not definition.
An image, not a description.
Sometimes descriptions may be needed, but if it is possible to avoid them and recreate the scene through verbs and adverbs of the mode of action, take this opportunity.
Instead of “experiencing fear, ” he recoils in fear, shudders, covers his face with his hands, trembles, or “freezes and listens”.
Instead of “rejoicing in anticipation of victory” - “smiles and rubs his hands” or “looks pleased and relaxed”. After all, your characters, like real people, differ from each other and experience and express the same emotions in different ways.
