One of the key ones is that I'm inclined to drop the first season down to three episodes. The reason being is that the treatment for episode three feels like a really good cliffhanger ending. Anima shows up, Devon and Deus' burgeoning relationship looks to be over before it began, Mel and Urge hook up and Andrena thinks she's close to exposing the Numina's motives.
This feels like a great point to leave off and get the fans begging for more. I'm holding off on episode four now just to see how the first three scripts develop.
Another interesting development from the treatments is the creation of a seventh character - Carey. This character had been in the back of my mind when I was initially conceiving the show. He's a nice everyday guy, a researcher of some kind, who has an on again, off again relationship with Andrena. I found that he kind of worked his way into the story as I wrote it, being the guy that Andrena can turn to because Mel and Devon are too wrapped up in the Numina.
In a way he's the compass for Andrena and the others. When they overlook something obvious, he guides them to look at it. He spots the things that they ignore and he plays a bit more of a sceptic role. He challenges the Numina to prove they are supernatural and he suspects certain things about Deus and Urge's relationship to each other.
So now it is time to start writing scripts. I'm happy with the treatments and the outline they have given me. The first few episodes are strong, in my opinion, and have suitable structure.
But what do I need to know before I start writing a script?
Two excellent resources I'd recommend are The Guerilla Filmmaker's Handbook by Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe; and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Screenwriting by Skip Press.
Both of these books provide invaluable advice regarding scripts. There are certain conventions and format rules that are used in the professional industry - and it is well worth learning these conventions. It is also worth noting that film and television do have slightly different rules - but these can be overlooked.
Now obviously you don't want to be pissing around with too much formatting while you are writing. There are two ways to tackle this. One is to just write normally and apply formatting afterwards. I personally find this a bothersome method and a poorly advised process to follow. I would not recommend it and I would question the wisdom of anyone who did especially when there are so many excellent programs out that for screenwriting that do all the work for you and let you just get straight into writing.
The best, I feel, is Celtx, which is not only an industry standard application, but also a free one. You can also buy a support application for iPad and iPhone that allows you to write on these devices and sync the scripts up on a server to download to your computer - which means you can take your scripts anywhere and update them on the fly. Very useful when making changes mid shoot or when you suddenly are inspired regarding a scene while out and about.
Some professionals will pooh pooh the idea of trying to write a script on their iPhone, but I managed to write 70 pages of my revised Winding City script in exactly this way during lunch breaks. The Celtx app is extremely intuitive and easy to use. I find it makes writing anywhere hugely easy and removes one of the greatest obstacles of writing - time. If you can write anywhere there is no excuse for not having the time to write - and because it syncs up with my iPad and laptop, I am always up to date on the script and even if I just add a single line - all my copies get updated with that change. An excellent way to manage one of the more difficult parts of the process.
So now that I have my treatments, my scriptwriting application and an idea of characters - it's time to go to it and start writing the script.
There is no fixed way to do it, but the key thing when diving into a new script is to make sure the first scene has a punch to it. This doesn't need to be an obvious action scene, but it needs to grab the audience to get them watching straight away. There are all manner of methods to do this. James Bond, for example tends to start of In Media Res - in the middle of the action with all manner of things going on. Vampire Diaries usually starts with some standard action which suddenly reveals that something you had thought you understood was in fact something different. Glee tends to have some kind of funny quip that suggests the theme of the episode to come.
Your first scene is a tricky one because it sets the tone for the entire episode. My thought is that I will be starting with a funny argument between Mel and Andrena. It should tell us a little about the two characters, be witty and it will end with Devon showing up followed by Deus. When Deus appears, Devon is going to say "I think he's God" at which point we'll go to the titles.
Now this scene could take 2-3 minutes to run if I'm not careful. That's half of the episode, as I plan to make each episode 7 minutes long. So I'll be starting the argument In Media Res and keep it to maybe two lines each and a line from Devon before Deus shows up. In total, I expect the scene to be about a page long - which is roughly a minute of screen time. This is an acceptable length of time, I feel. The titles should not be longer than 30 seconds. We then can have a 2-3 minutes sequence of Devon, Mel, Andrena and eventually Carey dealing with Deus' arrival. A minute of Devon and Deus. A minute of Devon, Mel, Andrena and Carey. A minute of Deus and Anima. That should bring me to seven minutes and will cover the entire first episode treatment.
It is vital to plan these things - not so that you stick to the plan, but so that you have a roadmap of what you are trying to achieve and to keep you from wandering off course too much. It is too easy in this kind of set up to milk a 5-6 minute comedy debate that really doesn't move the story along and - while funny - drags things out. In webshows you need to get to the point and be punchy with each scene to keep viewers watching. In a way, a minute in a web show can feel like a really long time - especially if there are lag issues.
It's important to keep things moving.
Next - Scripting Part 2: Writing Episode One
Conan
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