Screenplay | Songbird

Experiment 2: Screenplay

For my second experiment, I wanted to try to create a screenplay of the opening scene of the story that I’ve chosen as my artifact of origin. I decided to use this scene because it’s pretty distinct from the rest of the book in that it takes place seven years before the actual novel begins. I also have reworked this scene since I originally drafted the story, so I know it’s the one that I like best at the moment. That being said, I would definitely not say that the scene as it exists in the draft is final by any means, I would like to go back and rewrite it someday when I finally get the chance to edit the rest of the book as well, as aside from this scene it’s all in the first-draft stage. The entire screenplay of this short scene will make up the “sample” part of this experiment; the “final project” for this experiment would be turning this scene into an actual film scene of some type.

Genre Research

I have never written a screenplay before, and because I was working with a pre-existing plot that I could visualize pretty clearly as a cinematic scene without too much adaptation, the main research that I did was in regard to the formatting of the screenplay itself. I learned about everything from the specific font that should be used for screenplays to the different indentations that are used for lines of dialogue. Below are some of the specific terminology that I learned and will be able to use in my own screenplay scene.

Slugline: A slugline is used to tell the person reading the script where the scene is taking place. It includes information such as whether the scene is taking place indoors or outdoors, the specific location, and the time of day, as well as the season and weather if notable. Sluglines also indicate whether or not the scene is continued from a previous scene or if it’s a flashback.
Subheaders: Like sluglines, but indicate a move to a different location or time within the same scene.
Action Lines: Action lines come after sluglines and describe the actions of the characters in the scene. Unlike in a novel or short story, these are straight-to-the-point and are just descriptive enough to help actors and directors create the scene, but no internal thoughts of the characters are included in action lines--only what would be visible on screen.
Extensions: Extensions go after a character name (before the lines of dialogue) and are enclosed in parentheses to explain how the line is heard by the audience. For example, if the voice comes from off screen or if it is a voiceover line.
Parentheticals: Similar to extensions, but tell the actor how to deliver the lines.
Chyrons: Chyrons are text that appears on screen, like titles.

There were many other terms that I also learned about while researching, but I decided to make note of only the ones that I thought I’d be likely to use in my experiment: for instance, I learned about how to indicate a montage in a screenplay, but since I already knew the scene I was writing wouldn’t include one, I didn’t take notes on it.

I also own a copy of the screenplay of one of my favorite movies, Hugo (which, like the screenplay sample I’ll be creating for this experiment, is based on a book--The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.) Reading this screenplay was especially helpful to me because I’m very familiar with the movie itself, and so I was able to read the way that things like tone of voice, sound effects, and all of the different settings were described while also being able to visualize the way these things look and sound in the film itself.

Sketch

As mentioned above, this screenplay is an adaptation of the opening chapter of a story I’ve written. However, I plan to change/adapt it considerably when translating it to the screenplay format. I know that giving descriptions of the setting will be important, because the director of the film or television show would need to know how to arrange the set. I also think that giving specific actions, directions for how lines are to be delivered, and descriptions of costumes will be super important.

I will also just be using a standard word processing program to write my screenplay--if I was to create an actual screenplay, I would use a software intended for screenwriting.

Artifact of Origin Source Text (optional reading, added for context)

Below, I’ve included the prologue/opening scene that I decided to adapt. I wanted to include it here because I thought that the translation of it from a prose piece to a screenplay was really interesting, especially in the amount of content that needed to be added in the screenplay for such a short scene when I wrote it for the book.

June 12th, 1998

The tourist guidebook that they gave out at the visitor’s center described Cedar Island as the “jewel in the crown” of vacationing spots in the northern lakes, and today, from his crow’s-nest perch in the branches of the elm that leaned precariously over his roof, Elijah could understand where the words had come from. Emerald rows of birch and evergreen tangled their way down the bluff to the edge of the sapphire lakeshore, dotted along the way with specks of amethyst lilacs. Surely, there could be no better view anywhere else than from South Lynn Street in June.

Rather than the verandaed summer houses with enough bedrooms to sleep many more bodies than just the families of the Chicago bankers that owned them, South Lynn was lined with one-story homes that had vegetable gardens instead of landscaping, tree swings instead of playscapes. But where they forewent central air for breezes through open windows, they also traded stiff social circles for neighborly relationships, barefoot runs through patchy backyards, the sense that the fences that divided their yards were only there for logistics, not privacy.

“Elijah!” a voice called from below, high and sweet, followed by the sound of a screen door banging back against its frame. Elijah smiled, pulling himself back against the bark of the tree trunk, listening to his mother’s footsteps on the dry earth below. “E-liii-jah!” she called again, singing his name out like it had more syllables than just three. He covered his mouth with the palm of his hand to keep from laughing and giving himself away.

“Oh, well, I guess I’ll have to eat all of this watermelon myself,” she continued, teasingly. He looked down to where she stood at the base of the tree, very purposefully not looking up even as she aimed her voice upwards, a tray of red fruit in her arms. Her long, dirty-blonde hair strung wildly down her back, pulled up around her ears with golden butterfly clips.

He climbed down, feeling for the worn spots in the branches with his bare feet. Only when he reached the lowest limb did he make a sound, leaping into the grasses below with a laugh, falling backward lightly as fabric tangled around his ankles. His mother turned, feigning surprise. “Oh!” she said. “Thank goodness you’re here! I was getting worried.” She offered her hand to him, and he let her pull him up, let her lead him to the splintery picnic table beneath the canopy, let her give him first pick of the ruby triangles even as the neighborhood kids came swarming to the fruit like flies to a carcass. Sat there, red drops dripping onto his lap, watched her loop her ankle around Anna’s from next door under the table as he looked down to wipe them away. Listened to them scold Anna’s son, Noah, for wrestling with another boy for the last piece, laughed as he defended himself to deaf ears. Felt a warm arm be flung around his narrow shoulders as he was pulled in as backup. Grinned at his pout when he refused.

Hours later, still under the trees, everyone else since gone home, lying on their backs as the sun crept downward and flooded the backyard in a pool of golden liquor. Doing something that they had done for years, just the two of them, calling back to the birds that perched in the branches above, mocking their calls. Elijah asked what he did every time: “Don’t you think that we’re bothering them?”

And his mother said, as she always had, “No, baby, I think they’re glad to hear from us.” She ran her fingers through his hair, the fine strands sliding between her fingers. “Any songbird would be glad to have you as a friend.”

Reflection

Overall, I think that this experiment was extremely helpful to me as I worked to further develop the world that my story takes place in! I had a lot of fun working to clearly develop the setting and create different ways of speaking for the different characters in the piece. However, this piece was difficult to workshop in the breakout rooms because of the length of it and the unconventional medium (it just takes a long time to read, which we didn’t really have time for), so I would like to have someone who is familiar with the way that screenplays function give me feedback on it in the future, since this in the first time I’ve written one.