Screenwriting 101: The Basics

Hello, everyone, it appears you have stumbled upon a present that leads to a very bright future in screenwriting. To begin with, my name is Nikki and I'll be helping you inspiring future screenwriters to help not only teach you how to write a decant screenplay, but also help you touch it up and get it sold as well. So let's get going, shall we?

The Plot
First things first, the plot. What is a plot? A plot consists of the main events that occur in a movie in an organized sequence. Okay, so let's say you have a plot in mind. Good. Now you need to build off of that plot. Who is the main character? What do they want? How are they going to get it? The plot helps you decide what is going to stand in the way between the character and their goal. Those are called "obstacles." The plot of the story should be broken down into a 3 act structure, including a crisis or turning point in the story either at the end of Act I or somewhere in the beginning or middle of Act II. But no later. And based on what genre your movie will be will decide the number of pages. Remember: one page equals one minute in a movie. So if you have a script with over 120 pages, the movie will be 2 hours long (2 hours=120 minutes). A typical screenplay is between 90-130 pages. So make it short, sweet, and to the point.

Obstacles
Every movie consists of obstacles that prevent the protagonist (the person or persons the movie follows) from getting what they want. For example, in the movie Schindler's List directed by Stephan Speilberg and written by Thomas Keneally, the main protagonist Oskar Schindler wants to save the Jews from the horrors of the Holocaust. Throughout the movie, his objectives include that, for one, he's part of the Nazi party himself. Two, he was very self absorbed and also a womanizer. How does that make it an obstacle? He accidentally kisses a Jew. Which, at the time, was strict taboo. It almost blows his goal and sets him back a way from what he wants: to save the Jews. So yes, internal conflicts COULD be an obstacle. But I wouldn't recommend that. It's fine to throw it in now and then, but just stick to having physical obstacles. It's easier.

Characters
Now that we have plot and obstacles out of the way, now we can get to the characters. The characters are one of the most important factors of the story. Without them, we wouldn't have a story to begin with. The characters could be animals, people, robots, anything you really want. But no one likes a character that is unrealistic. Everyone loves to write a character that is perfect in their eyes but, really, where's the fun in that if the character in question is drop dead beautiful, intelligent, and always seems to have all of the answers. Fun? Sure. For the first few minutes. Then it gets boring. We want to see what makes them human. They're drop dead gorgeous? Maybe they had plastic surgery to hide the metal interior within their body and they can't let anyone know about it? Intelligent? How did they get that intelligence? Maybe they obtained such information from events that occurred throughout their life? Or just happen to always get lucky? What happens if that luck disappears? Like in Slumdog Billianare when Jamal goes onto Who Wants to be a Billionare and happens to get them all right because of his past. No character is perfect. Lucky? Sure. But even luck runs out sometimes. Keep it as real as possible. The more you do, the more you'll get from your audience.

The 8 Steps
Now that you have your most important ingredients, now is the time to get to the Eight Steps. The Eight Steps is followed in EVERY movie, no matter what. The Eight Steps allows you to figure out who your character is, what they want, and how they're going to get it.
Step 1: Two sentence synopsis.
This is where you write what your story about in two sentences or less. No more. If you give a long ass description of your story to a producer or whoever your pitching to, most likely they won't listen to it for very long. So keep it short, sweet, and to the point.

Step 2: Who's your protagonist and what's their status quo?
Name your character and their status quo. Status quo literally means "the state in which" in Latin. But in another sense it's what existing state or affair your character is in. So let's say your character is like Homer Simpson. A lazy, cowardly, good for nothing guy. His status quo is that he's a lazy, cowardly, good for nothing of a guy. That's how he always is. So thus, it never changes. In movies, your character can go through a major character arch where he goes from a lazy good for nothing to a hard working somebody. But you don't have to. You're character doesn't have to entirely learn something or go through many changes, but that doesn't mean you should make every character like that. That's boring and almost no one doesn't at least learn SOMETHING about themselves. So be rational.

Step 3: What does your protagonist want?
Let's say their name is Lenny and they want a piece of the most delicious pie in the world. Okay. Good. This helps you understand your character and their desire. Their desire could be an object or an emotional prize. But don't be vague. The more vague you are, the more you're going to have a hard time writing an award selling script. This should also be the end of Act I.

Step 4: The first obstacle.
The first obstacle is the portal to your story. Once the character finds conflict in getting what they want, it opens up the doorway to all kinds of possibilities for your movie. And it allows your character to begin their emotional journey.

Step 5: The second obstacle.
Each obstacle should get harder every time. None of them should be easier than the other. The more difficult the better. But don't make it so hard that it's impossible to get out of, unless, you want to kill of your character. Then sure. Go for it!

Step 6: The third obstacle.
I'm just listing there, cause the minimum should be at least three. But you can have countless of obstacles as you want. Just not too much where the movie drags on. Obstacles can be big or small depending on the situation. It's really all up to you.

Step 7: How is the protagonist in the opposite place from #3?
By this step, your character should be opposite of where they want to be. Farthest from getting to what they want. Why? Because that's what the obstacles are for. Every hero or character comes to a point in the story where they are farthest from what they want. For example, in a superhero movie, the hero has a rise where he gets all this attention and happiness, but suddenly it's stripped away from him and he's public enemy number one. Back to being just scum. It discourages him/her and makes em want to crawl under a rock and die, but they are suddenly motivated by someone or thing and they try even harder to overcome their obstacles to get to what they want. The girl, the treasure, the respect of one's parent, etc. In every story the protagonist needs to have a highest and lowest point in order to build up the climax and come to an ending. This should also be the end of Act II.

Step 8: How is your protagonist's journey resolved? How has (s)he grown/changed?
By the time the movie is coming to it's end, your character should be close to finishing what they started. Their journey. Now is the time where you ask yourself, "how am I going to resolve this? How has my character changed?" Like I said before, your character doesn't HAVE to change. They don't need to have a huge character arch. Some characters are just selfish douchebags that can't and won't ever understand the morals of earning something. But the movie still needs to be resolved. In The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, Spongebob and Patrick go on a journey to save the princess of King Neptune. They wrap up their journey by rescuing the princess and the characters learn that they don't have to have beards or sweet pimped up burger cars to be real men. The ending can be simple and clear or complicated but make sure the audience doesn't leave utterly confused. You do want people talking about your film but not in a way where other people don't go and see it. After all, the public's word is the most crucial.

Anyone can write a story and screenplay when they have a decent plot, well built characters, strong obstacles, and follow the 8 steps. Of course you don't have to, but if you want to have a screenplay that actually gets somewhere, I recommend you do. Otherwise no one is going to want to see a movie that is just made up of random things. Funny? Maybe. But it's not going to be great. And the chances it is are very, very slim. No go out, you future screenwriters and get writing! Who knows? Maybe you'll think up the next Oscar award winning screenplay? Anything can happen.