Film Courage: How is screenplay structure different from outlining a screenplay?
Writer/Instructor and Script Consultant Shannan E. Johnson (The Professional Pen): I actually don’t think it’s different at all. Your structure should be there from the beginning and if you’re outlining from the beginning you should be able to follow your structure there. To me the biggest difference is in my opinion I look at a beat sheet like one-liners of your biggest moments and then I look at an outline of fleshing that out so that now you know exactly what’s happening in every single scene, not necessarily just those big beats. Even though for some people that’s all they need. But now you start to see the connecting beats that get you from the large beats to the next large beats and then the screenplay is actually the creative part of writing out the scene. That’s how I explain it to my students. Some people don’t make beat sheets. Some people just make outlines. Some people don’t make outlines and they just make beat sheets and some people just write the screenplay. You have to figure out what’s best for your process. In my opinion you want to do some work before you get to that screenplay because the white page is intimidating and if you don’t know where you’re going it will eat you alive! So just like with your Google maps you’ve got to put in the address and know what you’re following even if you decide Okay, I’m going to shut it off now. I kind of know where I’m going. I don’t have to keep looking at my GPS. Great, same thing for your beat sheet or your…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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About Shannan:
After grad school I became a junior creative executive at NBCUniversal at the Syfy Channel. I was there for the rebrand. Remember Sci Fi? Yeah, not really. Anywho, it was my job to help writers and producers take their ideas from pitch to production. I co-exec’d on Alphas, Being Human, Haven, Sanctuary, Warehouse 13, and more Syfy dramedies. This is how I honed my skill in all stages of the screenwriting process…(read more here).
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