Firstly I'd like to say "Hi!" to you all as this is my first time here.
I have tried to complete a few very amateur films in the past, but fell very short early on into production because I was unprepared for how hard it really is to make something that you actually want to complete (I'm sure many of you know this situation). Anyway...
I was hoping to make things as simple as possible by creating a five minute film, with no audio except for a music piece. Because there is no dialogue and no sound effects, which many scripts are based around, I've come to a dilemma very early on. How would it best to "script" this?
Should I just write a string of sentences of what's happening, or should I focus of the composition of the shots.... I'm in a position where I don't know which route I should take. I mean, should I even completely forget about writing and just storyboarding the entire thing?
If any of you have made "silent" (in a way) films in the past I'd greatly appreciate your views, though all comments are welcome of course.
Thanks!
I would definitely write out the script, as you want to give your actors a sense of the story. Storyboarding is a great idea, too, in addition to the script.
Hi solonia. The problem I felt with writing the script is I don't know the best way to approach it. As the actors will only have a series of "actions" to perform, no speech, I don't know how to write it in a script-like fashion. Any ideas?
Hey SavageMonkey, I've never tried anything like this so I don't know if there's a more professional approach, but it strikes me that an effective way to do this would be a prose narrative piece from the perspective of the camera. That is, if you are only looking for something to give the actors a feel for what they should be doing/ what the film will feel like. Of course you'll want a storyboard for your use, as well as the DP and camera operator, if you're having others help with that... but as far as conveying what you want out of the film to the people working on it, I'd just go with something like:
Black. Tones of gray emerge as we slolwy fade in to a blurry landscape, filling the frame, a topography in grayscale that hovers before us only momentarily before rushing into focus. In a blink, we have a closeup of a face. Female, young, looking toward a light coming somewhere from behind the camera. We hear someone call "Ellie" and her vision shifts, just before we cut to a long shot (Ellie's POV) of a living room wall. In the right third we have a easy chair, the middle a lamp on a small table with a portrait above it (the light source and what Ellie was looking at, respectively). The left third opens into a narrow kitchen, and standing at the end, cloaked in darkness from the opening at the other end, our speaker. He moves toward the camera, footsteps clicking against the tile, and as he draws nearer to the light the shadows fall away to reveal...
Anyway, I just typed that up, yours may need heavier emphasis on blocking/ sound/ whatever but you get the idea. Whatever you choose, good luck.
You can also download old silent movie scripts off the internet and see how they wrote theirs.
The following link is the script of the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu: ?url? http://www.geocities.com/emruf1/nosferatu.html?/url?
Thank you DeLorean, I think I will write it out the way you've described. It seems the best way for the film I'm intending to do.
And Paradox, I REALLY hadn't thought about checking the scripts to the old silent movies. I feel really stupid for not thinking of this earlier :), it's such a good idea for learning.
Thanks again to you both!
Wow, I'm glad I could help. Be sure to let us know when the film comes out, I'd really like to see it.
;-), I'll definitely drop you a line if that happens. I do hope that happens. Hope! 😀
