UNIT 19 - LEARNING AIM A
SCRIPTWIRITNG REPORT ESSAY
WHAT IS A SCRIPT?
A script is an amount of content that incorporates text that can be used for certain purposes, for example; a TV show, a Film, a Game. It allows those included in the production of the media product to know what's being said, who's saying it and what's going on in each scene.
A script can come in different formats some for example made for video games may have just speech as there is no physical acting in the video games only voice acting. However, in a script for a film there may be stage directions incorporated so that the camera crew know how to film, and actors know when to change either pose or facial expressions
There are several processes that go into the creation of a script, these include; first making a logline (a brief description of what happens in the media product). next is coming up with the characters that will voice your lines you write in your script. After that you must plot and outline your story, mapping out each scene and deciding who says what, what facial expressions or emotions must be displayed and how the camera might move in each scene. Finally, after you’ve broken it down into each scene and decided what happens, now you can write your first draft followed by any tweaks and changes to any imperfections or parts that could be improved.
ROLES/RESPONSIBILIES THAT COME WITH SCRIPTWRITING:
Being a scriptwriter means that you are becoming one of the most important people withing the production of your media product. As for this role you hold in production, this means that you must work around legal and ethical considerations of scriptwriting to make sure your product doesn’t get in any legal trouble as well as any social trouble. With this you must follow the legal duties of being a scriptwriter, for example following copyright laws, creative comms licenses, watershed laws etc. In addition, you would be encouraged to follow some ethical duties so that you don’t offend your viewers, for example blasphemy law, libel, obscenity etc.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SCRIPTWRITERS IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY:
HOW TO GET WORK AS A SCRIPTWRITER:
There are many ways someone who is a scriptwriter can obtain work. This can be done through their own private work or through a commissioning body allowing them to get paid. The most common way people end up becoming a scriptwriter/ screenwriter nowadays is through being hired as a writer most commonly for script rewrites in an already running studio/ production. However, there are multiple was people can get work as a scriptwriter, for example:
A FREELANCER: Freelancing is the most common type of work any individual script writer does. Those who haven’t worked in a media organization before usually start freelancing. Selling a ‘Spec’ is a good way of obtaining work as a script writer if you’ve already done some media production before or are an up-and-coming script writer. This is where they spend hours writing different scripts with different genres, storylines, characters etc. hoping that a studio or organization will come across their work or could pitch their work to the organization and if interested will end up hiring that screenwriter/or paying a sum of money for ownership or partial ownership over your work. However, this type of way to obtain work is very competitive and has such little success rate. There are currently 57 MILLION freelancers in the US which shows how big of a competitive job it is for a commissioning body to be interested in your work. This means that your work will have to be unique, interesting and have its own individuality, something that makes it stand out from the rest has a good chance of having your work chosen. https://ddiy.co/freelance-statistics/
DEVELOPING A PROJECT: Being hired to develop a project is also another good way of being able to achieve work as a scriptwriter if you are already an experienced scriptwriter or are creative with your ideas. Some studios will already be working on a project and would need to hire creative scriptwriters to be able to tweak their existing script to make it better/ more entertaining. For your work to be acknowledged by a studio, they would have to first like the idea of your work/ work you’ve done in the past, think that your genre of scripts would fit their TV show/ Film / games ambience or have been convinced by your pitch to them about your work.
Sometimes they may be hired to develop someone else's spec, say if the previous script writer didn’t match the requirements of the script that was needed to entice the audience and other times, they may be needed to rewrite a whole new script for the media product, maybe to make a whole new better one. Doing this type of scriptwriting job, however, means that you will be working under a ‘BRIEF’ meaning that the company/ studio has given you certain specifications that you must base your work around. For example, if you’ve been requested to rewrite a script for a horror film that needs a lot of gore you can’t write a script that doesn’t have any gore in it as that doesn’t follow the requirements you’ve been given by the producers or director.
IN PRODUCTION: Being able to obtain work already through production is probably the hardest type of way to obtain work as a scriptwriter as you would have to be an already known scriptwriter to multiple organizations or companies in the media industry. Becoming a scriptwriter in production would mean that a studio or sometimes even actors may request you to work on the script for the media product on hand throughout the whole of the production. This means that you would already have to be known for your good work in the scriptwriting industry already, maybe if you’ve written a well scripted script for a movie that was popular leading it to the studio earning loads of money.
EXAMPLES OF MEDIA SECTORS AND HOW TO GET WORK WITHIN THEM:
TV SCRIPTWRITER:
TV script writers must come up with a spec that is so incredibly rememberable and easy to follow so that when people watch tv they aren't confused or unattracted by the complex story/script. In comparison to video game of film script writers they can have more of a familiar script / idea but tweak it to be more individual however they may follow the same pattern as other video games or scripts. For example, the movie Antz and a bug life. They have a similar story line with similar characters which have quite a similar basis, it being bugs going on a mission. Whereas if you compare Fresh prince of bel ’air’ and Friends they have completely different concepts with completely different story lines.
Usually, people that write films in this type of field are freelancers. They continuously write scripts specifically for Tv for example Tv shows like Sam and kat or victorious. However, a lot of scriptwriters in TV shows end up getting a job in the workplace of production through referencing. If they end up making a good script then when a new TV show needs a script to be written, they may be referenced to thew company due to their previous well written scripts.
VIDEO GAME SCRIPTWRITER:
One main difference between achieving scriptwriting in video games compared to TV shows is that scriptwriting in video games will pick people who've written good scripts for games in the past, basically they will cycle through a bunch of freelancers within the video game genre and find someone who's written a script that follows the basis of their game already not something original and unique which is what producers withing the TV show industry would go for. This means that video game scripts would have to be more generic and specific, not something different and individual. In addition, scriptwriters withing video games would have much less control over what happens to their script in the production of a video game as one would in a TV show as the game will need specific voice lines and sounds needed in the game which might not be included in the script. One cannot simply sell their spec and expect to have control over it as the Project directors have most of the control and they are also in charge of making the conceptual world for the videogame with their team of designers, so the game writer role comes later in the play.
MY CASE STUDY:
ANDY BOROWITZ
ABOUT HIM: Andy Borowitz Is an American writer, comedian, actor and most importantly a screenwriter. He was born on the 4th of January 1958 in Shaker heights, Ohio. Borowitz started getting into TV production as early as 10, where he got interested in comedy by the old classic comedies that stared on tv on a Sunday night. This led him to start writing full on detective novels and parodies. At 13 years old while studying at Shaker heights High School, Borowitz was very into the world of writing. Later, he went on to study playwriting at the University of Harvard, where he ended up writing the show, The Hasty Pudding in the 1980s. During his time at Harvard, he became the President of the Harvard Lampoon an undergraduate society in publication where he there also learnt more about scriptwriting and publishing work of his own.
After graduating from university Borowitz was lucky to be able to be signed with the company Tandem Productions under the producer Bud Yorkin. Andy ended up writing numerous television shows for the company including “The Facts of Life” and “Square pegs”. After getting married to his wife in 1982, Andy and Susan went on to write the sitcom, “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' which ran for 6 seasons and ended up winning the NAACP’s image award for outstanding comedy, one of Borowitz biggest accomplishments.
Later in life Borowitz went on to gain even more fame in 2001 where he published the Borowitz report, a site allowing different news posts to be posted up to 250 words times every weekday. This let some of Borowitz work be presented in big newspapers like the Los Angles times, The Seattle times and the Philadelphia inquirer. He also became a well-known Tv performer through his already increasing fame as a well-known sitcom script writer and news article writer, he eventually joined CNNs American morning team being presented on the program at least 3 times a week. In addition, he had a lot of success in standup comedy due to being a comedic and well-presented tv presenter already he started appearing at major comedy clubs across within America some being Carolines on Broadway, where he hosts a monthly show called Next Week's News.
To this day Andy Borowitz is still known in the television, comedic and news industry as one of the best presenters and scriptwriters and at the age of 64, is still working on more products like his latest one, Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber which was released in 2022.
DEMANDS AND REQUIRMENTS WITHIN SCRIPTWRITING:
Being a scriptwriter, you aren't naturally born with gifts to be able to write the best script in your life, you must learn and develop skills to be a good scriptwriter. For example, to be able to write good scripts you need good advice and criticism from other people to know what you can improve on. There are multiple ways a scriptwriter can improve their scriptwriting skills some of these ways include;
CREATIVITY: Being a screenwriter requires you to have a creative imagination. Without creative imagination the whole story will end up in disaster, your CHARACTERS will be dull, your STORY will be boring and your whole SETTING will be bland. To be a good scriptwriter, you will have to be imaginative so you can write a good script that will engage your audience as well allowing you to create something unique and individual for other creators, a work of your own. Creativity can allow you to portray complex situations, issues, and settings all within your storyline and characters. In addition, creativity can allow you to make a well written distinctive ending which will stick with the audience as the ending is the most important part!
PERCISTENCE/ SELF-DISIPLINE: With being a scriptwriter a lot of patience and persistence comes with the role Aswell. To be successful you will need to continuously produce work if you’re a new scriptwriter to the industry however even if you are experienced in the art, you will also need a lot of patience as it may be a while before you get signed to a studio for your next wok on a script. Along with patience and persistence comes a lot of self-discipline. This means you must be taking your job seriously practicing your writing. Many successful writers have a lot of self-discipline an end up practicing o writing something every day whether it be different types of genres or lengths so by setting a regular goal for yourself, you may find that your writing, creativity and grammar all improve if you have a daily habit. You may also write with many time restraints practicing and getting yourself into the habit of timing yourself so you can reach deadlines on time.
PROFESIONALISM: Being a scriptwriter means you're one of the most important people in the production of your film/tv show/game which means you will be meeting a lot of important people that will work toward your finished product for example, producers, actors and network executives, that will support and publicize your work. Being the scriptwriter means you will have to make a good impression as you are the one basically making the whole story line of the movie, YOU ARE THE MOVIES BRAIN! So, you will need to make a good impression on professionals in the industry. With this you will need good communication skills to get your ideas and points across to convince your clients/ coworkers, confidence goes a long way, trusting in yourself knowing your ideas are good, asking for advice and taking criticism and speaking to professionals about your production and lastly, you must be punctual. To get good work done you can't be turning up to work late or meetings with professionals, you will look unserious and unprofessional.
HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT?
For different sectors in scriptwriting different skills would be more useful than others, some occupations require more of a type of skill than others. For example, being a scriptwriter for a Tv show or film may require a lot more dramatical teamwork skills as while writing your script you will have to write how the actor may express his feelings, their positioning on stage etc compared to a video game script writer where they won't have to have as much dramatical and teamwork skills as they are only writing the lines of the voice actors not their positioning, acting and expressions.
For a TV scriptwriter, the writer may need to think more out of the box and be more creative as they are coming up with the story, characters, emotions, acting, setting. This means creativity is a must when it comes to writing the script for a Film or TV show especially if you must rewrite another script. You will also have to think more about characters development which genially means thar you will have to think about the story and plot first. Meaning that you must have flow, since you're writing your story first you need to write your dialogue around your story and plot.
If you compare this to a video game script writer, you won't need to be as creative as you would be following a requirement. The requirement would probably be given by an important person within the production of the game, for example the producer or director, meaning that you would have to follow the order of the storyline without changing much as there would already be a structure you would have to follow. However, you would need a lot of communication skills as you would have to talk to editor and producers and voice actors about lines how the emotion would have to be displayed in voices, any sound effects at certain points.
LEGAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SCRIPTWRITERS IN THE MEDIA INDUSTRY
LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS:
When scriptwriting, you need to consider some legal rules when creating work to protect your work without having any repercussions and setbacks if you don’t follow the law. When scriptwriting is of the upmost importance to follow the law especially if you’re working on a big project for a big company as if you break the law withing online production the outcome will be a major inconvenience. Some of the big laws that scriptwriters will have to abide by are the following:
COPYRIGHT: Following copyright means that you must respect other people's work no matter what. You already gain copyright automatically however some people chose to state who made it or when their work was published. Copyright stops people from taking other people's work and using it for their own purpose so as a scriptwriter you must bear in mind ideas that have already been used before. For example, if writing for a film, you wouldn’t want to include someone Elses work which is well known for instance a well-known line, character or story as you could run the risk of your studio getting sued. This would be catastrophic as if your production made a lot of money using someone else's original work then your studio could lose a lot of money and you could potentially lose your job which wouldn't be a good reference when looking for new work.
WATERSHED: Watershed is the law where if your work is broadcasted on any social platform either online or on TV which includes any infelicitous content for kids, the legal requirement is that you must wait till after 9pm to be able to have your work publicized as young children are requested to not be up or usually not up after 9pm so then if your work is not suitable for kids it won't be exposed to then so as a scriptwriter you won't gain oppression from the public and end up with law suits for exposing inappropriate activity to minors for example sex scenes.
OBSCENITY: Following the obscenity law as a scriptwriter is a must do otherwise you may get your content of production motorized or maybe even banned in some countries. This is because the contents of your product may include things that the law see as ‘obscene’ and inappropriate to people within society. This could be due sexual content, violence, intoxicates etc.
EXAMPLE OF A MOVIE THAT WERE PROSECUTED FOR NOT
FOLLOWING LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
A prime example of this is screenwriter and produce James Cameron and one of his most iconic movies in the film industry,” AVATAR”, a 2009 science fiction film about these humanoid blue creatures called Na’vi who live on a planet called pandora which humans explore and abuse for natural goods, which then a couple human/Na’vi hybrids called avatars end up battling to save the planet.
Turns out James Cameron took a liking to a small artist’s work called William Roger Dean which looked very similar to the make belief world which the Na’vi live in, PANDORA as well as some of the creatures that stared in the film. This led to the artist trying to get some of the earnings the movie made by suing James Cameron and the studio production. Luckly for James he won the court case and wasn’t charged with any copyright however the judge did say the shots from avatar and Deans work looked somewhat similar however the judge states that the artist tried to make James's shots and his work look more similar.
Despite all that this is a clear example of how taking inspiration and ideas from other people work which if not referenced could land you in a lot of legal trouble ending in a very big inconvenience and a lot of money lost, even in some cases jail time!
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Ethical considerations in scriptwriting are just as important as legal considerations in scriptwriting however ethical considerations aren't enhanced by law and can cause jail time and penalties on the other hand if you don’t follow some ethical considerations, you may receive a lot of hate and whiplash from the public eye about your film, game or tv show. This is because ethical considerations allow the public to enjoy entertainment without being insulted or offended. Some ethical considerations are of the following:
CENSORSHIP: Censorship is conducted by the BBFC which is where they give a certificate to the producers of every film that is broadcast to the public, for example movies shown in the cinema or on Netflix. To have your movie shown to the public, you will need to have a certificate given to your movie which needs to be able to reach specific guild lines for it to be deemed suitable for it to be shown to the public. If a movie is too graphic or violent for public viewing, it will need to be tweaked so that it is suitable for the public to watch.
OFFENCIVE CXONTENT: Now within the 21st century there are a lot of social factors you need to think about that you must be careful of when making your script. For example, society have a big view on racism against ethnic minority's so for you to write a script being offensive about ethnic people of include racial slurs, people will get offended by such things and you may receive a lot of hate form the public eye, which may even get some of your work such as such as games, tv shows and films getting banned in certain countries.
DECENTCY: When writing a script even for a movie for over 18s you still must think about decency! You don’t want to have a movie where there's too many sexual scenes or it’s too graphic or uses a lot of offensive language as you must think about a concept that will have people interested. Having a little decency in making adult movies would be recommended as you could have an audience that find such things offensive or indecent like the elderly watching a movie with a bunch of sexual scenes wouldn’t be captivating for them and enjoyable for them or anyone at that. You need to have a balanced mixture of interesting content and indecency when creating certain types of movies or tv shows.
EXAMPLE OF A MOVIE THAT WERE PROSECUTED FOR NOT FOLLIWING ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Here ‘s an example of a TV show that didn't contemplate some ethical considerations. Disney's short movie Santas workshop (1932) had once scene in the animation where Santas working in his workshop on shift with a slide to his left. From this slide drop down toys including two dolls however these dolls have different skin colors. First drops down a white doll which lands elegantly on its feet and proceeds to say the word” mama” which Santa then stamps with an OK and waits for the next doll. A couple seconds later a black doll drops down from the slide right on its face which then after standing up exclaim the term,” Mammy” instead of” mama” which during the time of slavery, the term mammy was used to describe a black nurse whose job was to take care of white children.
Eventually this led to a lot of judgement by viewers calling the short film out as including racist content against black people. This then led Disney to end up taking down the offensive clip from the international version of the short animation which it was accessible in from 40 different countries around the world each year. This shows how the public can have such a big influence on work that’s been produced even if you're not breaking any laws, you can still be penalized which can end up making you lose so much money. Imagine how much money Disney would’ve made from those 40 different countries if it didn’t include that racist clip?
EVALUATION
Throughout this essay I've mentioned a lot about scripts, what links to a script, who makes scripts, what scripts are for and what scripts need to include. As we can see scripts are the foundation of the media industry, without scrips there would be no films, no video games, no Tv shows even to some lengths no YouTube. The world of entertainment wouldn’t be the same as what we knew of it today. However, you can't have a script without a brain to write the scripts, generate ideas etc. so scriptwriters you could say are the MOST IMPORTANT part of a production. As mentioned, being a scriptwriter, you must have multiple skills to work efficiently. Confidence to be proud and strong in your work, creativity to make yourself unique within the scriptwriting industry, teamwork to work well with a range of people within a studio production having that much of an important role brings a lot onto your plate.
Now being a scriptwriter, you need to find work first, if you’re trying to become someone like James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Charlie Kauffman and many more then you need to find yourself work as quick as possible. Try the different methods mentioned earlier in the essay or take inspiration from people like Andy Borowitz freelancing or sending out your own individual work to studios and companies and if your good enough maybe you can bag yourself a job within the script writing industry and become the person to write the script to the next Hollywood banger.
One must remember though if you do become a script writer or are an aspiring scriptwriter you don’t want to end up gaining jail time or having a bad name as you didn’t want to follow legal or ethical considerations. These are two very important sectors to screenwriting. If you want to be original or make a good script without landing yourself with 5 years imprisonment as you copied another person's work then you better follow legal considerations like copyright and watershed now you might get lucky and are able to get away with it somehow like the creators of family guy (they always seem to walk out of production unscathed) however like family guy you have to be careful with the type of content you include to your script as if you don’t follow ethical considerations you may find yourself with a lot of hate from the public for offensive content and indecency in your production.
Although writing scripts comes with a lot of requirements and casualties it is very much an interesting, worthy and rewarding job for the blood, sweat and tears you put into your endless hours of writing.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
All the helpful information I used.
References:
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Don't Do It Yourself. 2022. 55 Freelance Statistics [Updated for 2022]. [online] Available at: <https://ddiy.co/freelance-statistics/> [Accessed 23 September 2022].
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Nast, C., 2022. Andy Borowitz. [online] The New Yorker. Available at: <https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/andy-borowitz> [Accessed 23 September 2022].
Roe, C., 2022. Screenwriting 101: 7 Basic Steps to Writing a Screenplay - Pond5 Blog. [online] Pond5 Blog. Available at: <https://blog.pond5.com/9419-screenwriting-101-7-basic-steps-to-writing-a-screenplay/> [Accessed 23 September 2022].
Stahl, J., 2022. For Christmas in Sweden, No More Racist Donald Duck Cartoons. [online] Slate Magazine. Available at: <https://slate.com/culture/2012/12/disney-removes-racist-christmas-cartoon-from-swedish-tradition-of-kalle-anka.html> [Accessed 23 September 2022].
Work created by Sebastian Dawkins and finished 22/09/22
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