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Workshop on Screenplay Writing
dramatic pattern, socio-political-economical-cultural setting, language of cinema, a peculiar way of story telling (which is absolutely
different than all traditional art forms) and so on so forth.
Before attempting to write a screenplay, one has to take into account all these issues in order to achieve the satisfaction of writing a
perfect screenplay.
A workshop on screenplay writing attempts to create an awareness of the many factors, and strives to set the standards for every
aspiring screenplay writer to achieve near perfection.
The Workshop will focus on the following 9 points:
1) What is a Screenplay?
A screenplay is not just series of scenes, which has description and dialogue. It is neither a novel nor a play. It is a structure of its own
kind that holds a story in place and provides an individual dramatic pattern which narrates rather ‘tells’ a story in its own ‘language’. This
language has its own grammar through which a screenplay emerges.
2) The Subject or Content: (a) Idea (b) Story with B/M/E
The subject or content conveys what’s a film about. In the beginning it can be in a form of an idea or a complete story with B/M/E.
- a. One comes across a subject or content with just an idea, a thought, a news item in media, an incident, a work of literature, a
play etc. But that’s just an idea, a germ of a story. It needs to be developed into a full fledged story for a film.
- b. A story should have Beginning, Middle and End. If it does not have this form than it needs to be developed into one. A story
should also have a conflict and characters and wider possibilities of various kinds.
3) Nature of a story: (a) Theme driven (b) Character driven
- (a) In a theme driven story the theme takes a center place and leads the story forward.
(b) In a character driven story the character takes a center place and leads the story forward.
4) Scene & Sequence:
A scene can be of any duration and nature, which is conveying a particular happening in a story at a particular time with all necessary
details. It should be a complete story by itself. It has to have a possibility to merge with scenes on both sides as a prefix or an affix. A
scene is mix of several shots. A sequence is a group of scenes and such several sequences makes a screenplay. A shot, a scene and
a sequence should be created in such a manner that each is focused around one particular point. That keeps a story focused and
precise with intense drama.
5) Creating & Developing Characters:
Every character has to be created and developed in totality, by taking into account their significance in the story, irrespective of the length.
Every character has to be created and developed taking into account their socio-political-economical-regional-psychological
background, as that determines their action-reaction in a story.
6) Three Act Structure:
A story telling has a structure which has 3 acts:
- Act I: The Setup
Act II: The Confrontation
Act III: The Resolution
7) Adoption/ (Adaptation):
Sometime a story is adopted from a short story, a novel or a play for a film. In this case it is important to understand the different nature
of art forms (literature, play and film). Though each of them tells a story, yet their way of story telling is completely different from each
other. And therefore it is absolutely necessary to understand their uniqueness before attempting to adapt it to another medium. Very
often people say that one particular short story/ novel/ play is like a complete film script, which is not true. It can only be close to a film
script. While making a film out of such work, one has to restructure it to suit the needs of the film medium.
8) Writing a Screenplay:
Now this is a RIGHT time one should begin writing a screenplay, finally.
9) Draft…More Drafts:
Drafts after drafts, that’s what makes a perfect screenplay.
During the workshop clippings from several films from world over will be screened on DVD, as a support of issues being dealt. This
helps the participants to a great extent in understanding the process of screenplay writing completely. There will be few practical
sessions where participants will be made to WRITE a screenplay, in order to instill a confidence in them.
List of films (some are in parts) that are shown in workshop:
- 1) Mugal-E-Azam - Dir : K.Asif
2) Do Bigha Zamin Bimal Roy
3) Deewar Yash Chopra
4) Shakti Yash Chopra
5) Anand Hrishikesh Mukherji
6) Pather Panchali Satyajit Ray
7) Bicycle Thieves Vitorio DeSica
8) Children of Heaven Majid Majidi
9) Duel Steven Spielberg
10) Mr.& Mrs. Iyer Aparna Sen
Workshop on Screenplay Writing is conceived and conducted by
- Ashok Rane
& organized by
California Arts Association (CalAA)
and
Indian Film Academy
A/101, Sahaniwas
Off C.D.Deshmukh Garden
Mulund (E)
Mumbai –400081 India
www.ifacinema.com
director@ifacinema.com
ashma52@yahoo.com
Ph +91 22 56028247
+91 0 9821109605
ASHOK RANE, the Director of IFA - Indian Film Academy, in one of the noted Film Critics, a Film Academician, Researcher and Writer.
He has been in film journalism for the last three decades. In this tenure of thirty years he has been writing extensively on Indian and
World cinema. He has been attending Film Festivals not only in India but all over the world. This academician has watched and studied
films made all over the world, right from the first film of the world made by the Lumiere Brothers of France in 1895.
As a missionary of good cinema, as he is fondly known, he has been actively participating in film society movement for the last twenty-
five years.
Ashok Rane is regularly attending Indian Film Festivals since 1984. He has been invited as Film Critic to the Berlin International Film
Festival since 1996 and so far he has attended the same seven times. He was also invited to the Locarno Film Festival (Switzerland) in
1999 and Sundance and Asian Film Festival (Orlando) in USA in 2002. He was a member of FIPRESCI ( The Federation Internationale
de la Presse Cinematographique) Jury for Moscow International Film Festival - 2003.
He has visited various Film Institutions, Film Schools, Film Archives, Studios in Berlin, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Bern, Zurich, New
York, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hollywood and Moscow. He has visited several major art galleries and also Science
Institutes in almost all these cities.
While individually conducting Film Appreciation Courses he has also been a member of the visiting faculty for Film Technique,
Appreciation, Criticism and Aesthetics at the University of Mumbai and other renowned Institutes such as Xavier's' Institute of
Communication, S.N.D.T. University and many more.
He has also successfully tried his hand in creative writing, Television serials and Radio Programs.
'Cinemachi Chittarkatha', 'Chitra Manatla', 'Anubhav', 'Chitrapat Ek Pravas' and the compilation of his most popular column in the largest
circulating Marathi Daily 'Loksatta', 'Sakkhe Sobti' are few of his popular published works. ‘Sakhkhe Sobti ‘ was awarded Kokan Marathi
Vangmay Purskar in 2004. He has recently edited a book ‘ Views & Thoughts on Scriptwriting ‘ focusing writing for Indian cinema, which
is first of its kind.
He received the first National Award for his book 'Cinemachi Chittarkatha' in 1996 and the second one for Best Film Critic in 2002.
Though being a hard core film lover, Ashok Rane has great admiration for Theatre, Literature, Music, and Painting.
The Indian Film Academy (IFA) has been formed to reintroduce Indian cinema to the film lovers of world over in its right
perspective and also to make conscious efforts to enlighten people about the role of cinema in our society. IFA does this by conducting
various courses, workshops, seminars, series of lectures on various topics, publishing an annual issue of ifa Cinema, books on Indian
cinema and producing series of documentaries. The first issue of ifa Cinema which dealt with the best of Indian cinema was published
in 7th Mumbai International Film Festival last year. The book ‘ Views & Thoughts on Scriptwriting ‘, the first of its kind in context with
Indian cinema, was released by renowned filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar at the concluding function of recently held 8 Days Workshop
on Scriptwriting. IFA has produced a documentary ‘ Singing In Cinema ‘ , the first in the series of documentaries on various aspects of
Indian cinema, which has been received very well by film lovers and media as well. This documentary discusses all the aspects of song
and dance format of Indian cinema. IFA, Indian Film Academy, is the brainchild of Mr. Ashok Rane.
At IFA we eat Cinema, drink Cinema, and breathe Cinema...
© California Arts Association 2006