Screenplay

A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show, or video game (as opposed to a stage play) by screenwriters."[1] With the advent of sound film, dialogue quickly dominated scripts, with what had been specific instructions for the filmmaker initially regressed to a list of master shots.[1] Andrew Kenneth Gay argues that this shift has raised the status of directors as auteurs and lowered the profile of screenwriters.[1] The format is structured so that (as a ballpark estimate) one page equates to roughly one minute of screen time, though this often bears little resemblance to the runtime of the final production.The action is written in the present tense and is limited to what can be heard or seen by the audience, for example descriptions of settings, character movements, or sound effects.Occasionally they are reduced to half-size to make a small book which is convenient to read or put in a pocket; this is generally for use by the director or production crew during shooting.[6] Authors can register works with the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) Registry,[7] and even television formats using the FRAPA's system.Motion picture screenplays intended for submission to mainstream studios, whether in the US or elsewhere in the world, are expected to conform to a standard typographical style known widely as the studio format which stipulates how elements of the screenplay such as scene headings, action, transitions, dialogue, character names, shots and parenthetical matter should be presented on the page, as well as font size and line spacing.The Nicholl Fellowship, a screenwriting competition run under the auspices of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has a guide to screenplay format.The content is usually invented solely by the screenwriter, though spec screenplays can also be based on established works or real people and events.[12] For American TV shows, the format rules for hour-long dramas and single-camera sitcoms are essentially the same as for motion pictures.Creating reality show formats involves storytelling structure similar to screenwriting, but much more condensed and boiled down to specific plot points or actions related to the overall concept and story.