Scripts filmmakers

This book is primarily intended for film and video students or independent video- and filmmakers who are faced with the necessity of writing a short narrative script. For our purposes, we consider a short film to be one of 30 minutes or less, as films longer than that usually need a secondary, or minor, plot-line to sustain audience interest and, in addition, are much less likely to be eligible for festivals or suitable to be shown as "portfolio" work. 

Two questions often prove major stumbling blocks for film and video students, as well as for filmmakers who have never written a narrative script. What, specifically, do I write about How, specifically, do I write about it In screenwriting, general ideas are of little or no use when you sit down at a desk to write, and it is often difficult for those who are not "natural" writers (in the way one may be a "natural" cinematographer or director) to come up with fruitful story ideas. Yet, as anyone experienced in the arts knows, learning a skill is a process, and that process has to start somewhere. 

Don t go out and buy a commercial screenwriting software program these are designed specifically for dramatic feature films and serve that function well, but they re of little use for documentaries. Most documentary filmmakers seem to use Word or WordPerfect (files cross these platforms without much difficulty), using them to create scripts that are formatted in either one or two columns. 

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