Screenwriting has developed over a century as a writing system for films. In the early 1900s, one of the first American screenwriters was paid $15 per scene. Now, popular screenplays can earn writers millions of dollars. Screenplays have a standard format including typeface, font size, and tab settings to indicate scene elements. This allows about a minute of screen time per page. Screenplays focus on action and dialogue with the action in present tense and dialogue in lines spoken by characters. They use prose to describe visuals and codified notations for transitions and emphasis. The common three-act structure introduces characters and situations in the set up, brings conflicts to light in the confrontation, and resolves conflicts in the resolution

1. Screenwriting By Michael Gellert

2. The Screenplay Encyclopedia Britannica defines a screenplay as a “written text that provides the basis for a film production (screenplay).” Screenwriting is a writing system that has developed for longer than a century. In the year 1900, Roy McCardell, a New York journalist and one of America’s first screenwriters, was hired to write ten scenarios for fifteen dollars a scene. More than a century later, one can see the increased appreciation for screenwriting with films such as ‘Basic Instinct’ and ‘Panic Room’ bringing their screenwriters three million dollars a screenplay (Screenwriter’s salary).

3. Roy McCardell

4. Screenplay Format Many screenplays are adaptations of other written work. Whether adapted or created, screenplays have a certain format in which the work must be structured. The standard format of a modern screenplay includes both the interaction of typeface and font, along with the tab settings of the scene elements. Due to the unique screenplay format, a page of a screenplay usually means a minute of screen-time. Difference in format occurs only from the country of origin. Screenplays from America are always US letter size, but European screenplays are always in A4 paper size (Script).

5. Most Expensive Screenplays

6. Screenplay Grammar Screenplays are largely focused on the action and dialogue. The action is written in the present, while the dialogues are the lines the characters are speaking at the time of conflict. The two aspects of a screenplay’s grammar are that of prose focus and codified notation of certain technical or dramatic elements. A prose focuses on the audible and visual aspects on the screen. The purpose of the prose is to provide an explanation where clarity is compromised. Codified notation should explain scene transitions, changes in the narrative, sound effects, and place emphasis on the important objects and characters (Script).

7. Try and Write a Screenplay

8. The Three-Act Structure The most common act structure used in film is that of the three-act structure developed. Characters and situations are introduced in the first act known as the ‘set up.’ Screenwriters have found that the ‘set up’ must gain the viewers interest. The ‘confrontation’ is when the all the dramatic values are brought to light. The ‘Resolution’ is the final act, and as such attempts to solve the conflict between ‘Protagonist’ and ‘Antagonist. (Act structure).

9. Aristotle