This document provides guidance on writing a movie script in three parts: 1. Outline the story with a basic narrative flow that focuses on dramatic conflict within a realistic length. 2. Write the script in three acts that introduce characters and conflict in Act 1, present obstacles in Act 2, and resolve the story in Act 3. 3. Develop scenes and dialogue to advance the story, then refine the script through revisions and feedback.

1. WRITING SCRIPT
Dr. J. JANARDHAN

2. WRITING THE SCRIPT
OUTLINE YOUR STORY
• Begin with a basic flow of your narrative.
• Focus on the conflict of the story; conflict drives drama.
• Keep length in mind.
• A long screenplay doesn’t have a realistic chance
• Can’t be reduced into less than two hours of screen time

3. WRITING THE SCRIPT
Write in three acts
• The pillars of a screenplay are the Three Acts
• Act One: This is the set-up for the story.
• Introduce the world and the characters
• Set the tone/genre of the story (comedy, action, romance, etc.)
• Introduce your protagonist
• Begin exploring the conflict that will drive the story
• Act One is typically 30 pages. For comedies, 24 pages

4. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Act two:
• This act is the main portion of the story
• The protagonist will encounter obstacles on the path
• Subplots are typically introduced in the second act
• The protagonist should be showing signs of change
• Act Two is typically 60 pages.

5. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Act three:
• The story reaches its resolution
• The third act contains the twist of the story, and ends with
the final confrontation of the objective
• The third act is much faster-paced and condensed

6. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Add sequences:
• Sequences are parts of the story
• They have a beginning, middle, and end
• A typical sequence will be about 10 to 15 pages in length
• Sequences operate with a separate tension from the main
story, (Okkadu Movie)

7. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Start writing scenes:
• Scenes are the events of your movie
• They take place in specific locations and always serve to
drive story forward
• Scenes that serve no purpose will stick out in the
audience’s mind as flaws, and will drag the story down.

8. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Begin writing dialogue:
• Once you have scenes, you will have characters interacting
• Each character needs to have its own distinct voice
• Dialogue should be focused on moving the story forward
and developing characters
• Realistic dialogue is not necessarily good dialogue
• Read your dialogue aloud

9. WRITING THE SCRIPT
• Cut away the dead weight:
• Look for weak links, distractions, or anything that drags.
• Show finished work to a few friends-get a variety of opinions.
• Revise your work as many times as necessary.

10. FORMATTING THE SCRIPT
• Set the page alignments
• Add the page numbers on top right corner
• The title page does not get numbered
• script that require specific formatting
• There are several different parts of the script that require
specific formatting : Scene Heading, Action, Character
Name, Dialogue

12. THANK YOU