This document discusses the creative process of scriptwriting. It explains that the scriptwriter writes the foundation for the film and that every film or TV program falls under a specific genre that sells to audiences. Some current popular genres include horror, romance, comedy, and fantasy. A good story has compelling characters, conflict, and something at stake that characters want or are working towards. An effective scriptwriter comes up with big story concepts or "what if" scenarios and translates them into a workable storyline outline that follows a plot pattern and considers elements like scene count and character development. Creativity is an essential skill for scriptwriters to generate new ideas and stories.

1. The Creative Process
SCRIPTWRITING – Seymour B. Sanchez

2. The Scriptwriter
• The scriptwriter writes the script that provides
the foundation for the film

3. Why Write?
• No script, no film
• Good directors are once/also good writers.
• A very accessible discipline
• Very fulfilling
• Some circles consider it as equally important
as the Director
• Yes, it can make you rich.

4. Film and Television
• Both are VISUAL media.
• Each has a story to tell (whether logical or
illogical).
• Every film and TV program falls under a
specific GENRE (comedy, action, drama or
horror, etc.).
• Genres sell the tickets. Producers buy genres
and the approach at each genre.

5. Producers Buy Genres
• Current trends in film:
- Horror
- Romance
- Comedy
- Fantasy

6. Stereotypical Genres
Romance
Mystery
Disaster
Thriller/ Psychological
Thriller
Fantasy/ Adventure
Horror
Sci-fi
Melodrama/
Drama
Action
Comedy

7. Sample Sub-Genres
• Boy Meets Girl
• Rite of Passage
• Coming of Age
• Unrequited Love
• Dysfunctional Family
• Gay and Lesbian
• Road Trip
• Swashbuckling hero

8. Genre Elements
• Romance – Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy
Gets Girl, Misunderstanding alienates Boy and
Girl, Rival for Girl throws out Misinformation,
Last Minute Reveal of the Truth leading to
Joyful Reunion
• Horror Story – Series of Grizzly and Inventive
Murders, The Evil Gradually Closes in on the
Heroes, Scary Isolated Location, Massive
Rainstorm with Lightning and Thunder

9. Plot-driven or Character-driven
• Each progresses via the story (plot-driven,
2012) or the characters (character-driven, The
Queen, Hannibal)
• Everything starts with a script; every script
starts with a concept

10. Big Story/Concept
• What is a concept? A concept is an idea for a
movie. Period.

11. Sample Concepts
• A superhero creature who has all the strengths
of a vampire and none of its weaknesses,
except for the thirst for blood
• What if a boy wishes that for a whole day, his
father wouldn’t tell a lie
• A bride rises from coma and embarks on a
roaring rampage of revenge
• Husband and wife. Man is an assassin, and so
is the wife. But they do not know each other’s
secret identity

12. Where do concepts come from?

13. Concepts come from:
• Another movie
• News item/court case
• Someone’s story/real life
• Memoir/diary
• Comics/graphic novel
• Book/novel
• Neighbor’s problems
• A dream
• An experience/MRT ride to Cubao
• From one’s own creative impulses

14. Scriptwriter as Creative Animal
Ergo, a scriptwriter is a creative animal.
He conceives, he creates, he re-creates, he
alters what is already created.

15. Creativity
• Can it be taught? Yes.
• Can it be acquired? Yes, why not?
• Creativity, like a third eye, is present in all
living, rational beings.

16. Creativity
• In scriptwriting, it is simply telling a story that
is previously non-existent. He starts from a
germ of an idea, and ends up with a larger
than life story.
A detective. A pet detective
An alien. An alien for a stepmother.
A robot. A robot with scissors instead
of hands

17. Creative Exercise: What if?
• Create a cinematic character from a common
person/ object/ other worldly things
• A nun. A nun with hidden tattoos.
• A postman. A postman who can’t read
nor write
• An angel.
• A neighbor.
• A stewardess.

18. Creativity
• In scriptwriting, it is when you
rationalize/justify something that is previously
unheard of, unacceptable or objectionable

19. Translating the Big Story Idea
into a Workable Story

20. What Makes a Good Story?

21. What makes a good story?
• Stories with characters that you are passionate
about, whether heroes (love them) or villains
(hate them)

22. What makes a good story?
There is something at stake
• Something someone wants (the car in
Dude, Where’s my Car?)
• Something someone wants for the good
of mankind (nuke, the asteroid in
Armageddon)
• Something desired by many characters
(the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings)

23. What makes a good story?
There are always obstacles:
CONFLICT – the heart of drama
Someone wants something and people and
things keep getting in the way. It can be
physical or emotional

24. Premise
• The “What If?” of a story
• The beginning, the building block

25. Plot
• A scheme, plan, or method to execute the
premise
• The execution of the story
• It is how we get from the beginning, through
the middle, and on to the end

26. Sample Plot Patterns
• Rags to Riches/Cinderella Story
• Journey movie
• Revenge/Vengeance Story
• Road movie
• Rites of passage
• Ugly duckling
• Triangle Story
• Boy meets boy/girl, boy gets boy/girl, or vice versa
• Romeo and Juliet
• Ship of fools
• Whodunit

27. Storyline/Sentence Outline

28. Storyline/Sentence Outline
• A sequence by sequence account of the entire
story/script

29. Why Write the Outline
• It provides you with an overview of the script
• It gives you a good grasp on the structure
• It enables you to develop and improve the
story

30. Take these into consideration:
• Number of scenes/locations
• The running time
• The number of characters and size of each
character
• Commercials (for TV)
• Film structure (three-act or four-act)