If you've ever dreamed about making a movie, your first question is going to be how to make a screenplay. The screenplay is essentially just the script of the movie — but it's not always as straightforward as it sounds. The screenplay tells your actors what dialogue to say, gives them essential stage directions, and hints how to play their characters.
But screenplays are more than scribbling out the story. They have a very specific format to them, precisely because they need to be easy for anyone to follow. This doesn't just mean actors, though; if you're trying to get your movie made, it also could mean donors, investors, or even studio executives! As "small time" operators, indie filmmakers and videographers know that they have to go that extra mile to inspire confidence in their abilities. Clients, studio execs, actors…everyone is skeptical of you when you don't yet have a big-time name behind you.
That's exactly why the screenplay is so important. If you want a movie to get shot, you need every advantage on your side and the biggest asset you can have is the confidence of the people working by your side. There's a reason that screenplays have such a formalized, standard structure. It's because they're the quick and easy way to tell the pros from the amateurs, the people who take a few minutes to learn proper procedure so that things can run smoothly and the people who leap in half-cocked. We asked Jennifer Albright, a graduate of UCLA School of Film, to share all the rules and best practices for formatting a screenplay.
Screenplay Writing: How to Format a Screenplay is the free report from Videomaker that will show you how to create a screenplay that looks like a screenplay.
