Screenplay

For our thriller opening, we have to write our very own screenplay and so I decided to look the role of screenplays in the production of thriller films.

A screenplay is the script of a film, including acting instructions and scene directions. Within pre-production, screenplay comes before the storyboard as it's hard to draw up a storyboard without knowing what the film is about. The screenplay helps to get the 'green light' from production companies, the storyboard comes after this and one is made for everyone on set.

Writing a screenplay:

- Include location, setting and time of day.

- Include details of where the camera is in each scene.

- Introduce key characters and include a short description of who they are/what they look like.

- Include key dialogue between characters between and details of their actions and expressions.

Jaws
 I studied the opening of the 1975 Steven Spielberg film of 'Jaws'. The screenplay was written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb.This showed me how important screenplays are in creating the desired effect on screen, however, despite their importance, they can also be subject to change as evident in 'Jaws', things can be added to create more tension or removed to save time.

This is only the first page of the screenplay and there is already so many details about the setting, cuts, sound and lighting. It's clear that the sound is a key aspect in the creation of tension and suspense during this scene even when there's no sound at all. The use of 'EXT' and 'INT' are frequent throughout the whole screenplay, these are shortened terms for exterior (outside) and interior (inside). Also, the number on the left hand side of the page shows the scene number so everyone on set knows about each different cut and when they change.

This whole section of the screenplay was cut out completely to save time and shorten the overall length of the film, the director of the film may have also believed this scene was unnecessary or irrelevant for the plot development.

This scene doesn't happen exactly as planned in he screenplay but it does still happen unlike the scene before. As this scene would have been done by the stunt co-ordinators rather than Susan Backlinie, the original 'Chrissie', they would have decided how they were to do this scene rather than the screenwriters.


Below is the clip of the opening scene to jaws along with a link to the original screenplay to show comparisons.


'Jaws' original screenplay.