How Much Directing should be included in a video script?

One of the accusations often aimed at scriptwriters is the charge of directing on paper. This is in the strictest of production worlds where writers write, directors direct, editors edit, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. To overwrite the camera angles and the movements or to embellish the video side of the script with detailed descriptions is a no-no. Many directors consider it a sort of heresy - the writer inflicting his or her vision upon the project.

I received this criticism in a friendly manner rather early in my career when an imported director from Los Angeles came to my studio office with my script in hand.

"You direct, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded.

"Good script," he started with a compliment. "Although I'm used to seeing screen directions like LONG SHOT - CITY, you tell me what lens to use, how high off the ground the camera should be and the street corner to shoot it from."

It was, of course, a good-natured exaggeration, but I got the point.

"Do it your way," I said magnanimously.

And he did, very nicely, too.

Did I change the way I wrote scripts? Not as much as you might think. Frankly, I think directing on paper is an excellent way to create, especially for those just learning the craft of writing for the screen. After many years of practice, I've learned to adapt my style to whatever the production circumstances might be. If I'm writing for someone else to direct, I'll do it his or her way. If I'm writing a show I'll direct, I'll direct on paper. If you're relatively new to video production, I recommend it as an excellent way to hone both your writing and your production skills.

Many inexperienced scriptwriters are print-oriented and tend to think primarily in words rather than in images. If you are using a split-script format, you may then spend hours editing the narrative and the dialog side of the page and dismiss the video side with only a vague idea of a picture. In a worse-case scenario, you'll have a meandering sound track that doesn't quite go together with what is on the screen. A scriptwriter has to be aware that images and sound must have a harmony. You don't write the sound track and try to find pictures to illustrate . . . or at least you shouldn't. You learn to create sights and sounds simultaneously.

I started out in the industry as a writer-director-editor. In Hollywood, many of these jobs are separate, but in the corporate-industrial field of video production, many of us have such hyphenated duties. I construct a script, scene by scene, picturing each in my mind as I intend it to be on the screen. The actual production may occur a couple or three months after I finish the script, so my screen details are important reminders to me as to what I had in mind when I was totally immersed in the creation of the scenario.

Although I'm not constrained by these screen directions, I am reacquainting myself with my thought processes and able to put on my director's hat with a great degree of confidence. Quite often, I will make some significant changes as I direct, adapting to circumstances and inspirations, but the core of my production is right there on the pages of my script. Another reason for ample description in the screen direction is that I'm writing primarily for my clients and not necessarily for the production personnel. I plead guilty to writing somewhat dramatic scene descriptions that will evoke the visual mood of the program. Since the images are more powerful than the narrative words, I want the client to clearly see the scenes on the script as I do. If a few adjectives added to the picture portion of the script will help the client visualize the production, I'll put them in.