Learning and Writing your First Television screenplay!
Hello Readers!
What an exciting week this week!
SpaceX has finally launched the first manned launch vehicle, the Dragon capsule aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. For the first time NASA is doing manned space launches in over 9 years from the USA again. Why is it so exciting? Well, for one the space craft is entirely new, the uniforms, or should I say pressure suits look futuristic, are slimmed down and are fully functional and minimalist designed and NASA is now focusing on the missions instead of on the hardware which means more progress as more Partners like SpaceX come on board to provide launch services within the USA. Being Canadian doesn’t matter, this is big news worldwide for the simple fact that the space race means all-around benefits to humanity. Lower cost access to space is a good thing.
I watched for over 4 hours on Wednesday and several hours on Saturday for the actual launch. The First launch was scrubbed and a lot of people were disappointed but the weather finally cleared and the launch went forward. What can I say other than its safety first! With this new launch vehicle a lot at stake it makes sense to play by the rules here.
WHATS NEW?
I will speak frankly… It’s been a while since I have communicated with anyone. I haven’t put out much in terms of content and not feeling too badly about not doing it as I needed personal time. It’s been rough but others have had it worse and I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. Locked in this terrible pandemic situation for months and hearing daily about the world’s issues, death, and then personally dealing with family health issues, isolation, and depression have dampened my spirits somewhat. Like the rest of you out there, I am striving to turn things around however and I have realized that things will get better and although much like SpaceX and NASA’s recent stumbling block on the launchpad due to weather and then launch successfully, Things will get better and there are better days ahead! NASA and SpaceX proved it. Life must go on.
But this article is an education, writing and sharing piece.. so let me get to it!
ARTICLE PURPOSE
Have you ever thought about writing a television or movie script? how it was done? how hard it might be or even what you would write about?
Well, I did about 2 years ago now. I wanted to understand this art form and try my hand at it.
I will over the course of several articles take a look at the writing process and structure tools I used to accomplish this so that I can share with you my method. And no, I am not a professional screenwriter… yet…
So, I am sharing with you the culmination of over a year of work on a screenplay that I worked on from 2018 to 2019 (a year on and off) before the pandemic hit. As this was my first television screenplay, I set out to create one from one of my favorite Sci-Fi franchise and come up with a good educational example and share my experiences writing it here on my blog to showcase and provide some education and insight into the process I used.
Yes, that Sci-Fi franchise is Star Trek. I love sci-fi and I love my Trek.
I will admit however, I sat on this script for a while not sure when or if I would even show it to anyone but now seemed like the right time to share with everyone during this pandemic. Hopefully it provides some education or contribution in some way.
Due to copyright law, this script will never be produced or filmed unless the copyright holder wants to. The intent here was for proof of concept to show myself I could do it and for educational reasons. It is a derivative work of ViacomCBS copyright but is being used for educational purposes which under fair use is a valid reason to release it. Therefore it can’t be considered Canon. My goal is not to become a television head writer or move to LA.. I am not making any money here, its simply an exercise. I am a major fan and love creating new worlds and ideas and since this was my first script, my goal was to understand and figure out the television writing process and create a method so I could use those skills and write more effectively at my own projects in the future. I am sharing this script today with you for free to read (but not steal).
The structure I use in creating the script is actually my own collected and adapted structure from templates all ready available on the internet. The screenwriting structure once you understand how to write a hollywood screenplay is pretty universal just with different names for things. In my case, I have a TEASER plus Five ACTS (will talk about this in a later article).
I should mention that the script was created for educational purposes and wasn’t intended to violate any copyright law, in case anyone from CBS or Paramount or Viacom is watching and getting upset. This was created as an educational tool of which I am sharing.
THE IDEA OR CONCEPT
When I started thinking about Star Trek as a topic, in some ways made things easier to create a story but in some ways, it made things very difficult. Star Trek is not an easy thing to write for. There are a lot of universe rules, doctrine to follow, technobabble, and hardcore terms and specs that if you break, audiences will never forgive you. In some ways, writing this as my first attempt was not a good example and I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who isn’t a true fan of the show. It is not all bad however, writing what you love is why we get into this in the first place and can be a great educational experience because it forces you to be at your best. For that reason, I choose to write my pilot. For the challenge.
I wanted to create a star trek that other fans might love, something that was different and newer but still really familiar to the 50 years history of Trek. Much of the Trek you see on television or film today went through a lot of changes and turmoil behind the scenes on the business side which is why it is the way it is today. Not saying any of the newer treks are bad just that there are fundamental reasons why shows sort of end up looking and sounding the way they do and i now have a great appreciation for what work goes into all of it. Budgets, ratings, and business also affect a lot of things. That being said, writers have to take these things into account as well while writing. For example in my story, the ship is basically 3 ships in one however cleverly i’m saying that set wise, the three bridges could be almost identical with minor set dressing changes. Producers love those types of writing ideas as they are cost savings.
However, we are only at the beginning of our screenplay writing method. The beginning of the writing experience ,which is the most “fun” part of writing, coming up with a “cool” or unique scene, character, idea, or situation is pure creativity. Some of you may already have an idea! What’s the first step?
THE FIRST WRITING STEP – THE LOG LINE
In my process I like to start with a logline. What is a log line? It’s basically a short sentence that includes the Who what when and how of the core of your story.
The formula that I used can go a long way to getting you through thinking about what your story is actually about:
Who (Protagonist or Antagonist) + What Do they want (a situation, scenario or goal) + Obstacle (what is in their way and how do they plan to overcome) + Where does the story take place
For example, one of the loglines I wrote is:
In the aftermath of the Romulan system’s star exploding, Star Fleet has to keep a constant vigil along the neutral zone while the newly built USS Falcon responds to threats.
Once you have a general decent working logline you start to see your story have a point of reference as to what your story is about.
The next step is brainstorming more of your ideas about the who, what, when, and how. I usually do brainstorming either before the logline or after depending on how my ideas take shape. The logline however focuses my thoughts on what the story is about.
SECOND STEP – BRAINSTORMING OUT YOUR IDEA
In this step, the fun begins trying to flesh out more of your story and objects and characters you may have already been thinking about. Who will be your protagonist? What obstacles and challenges will he or she face?
In my story, I had to create an entire Starfleet vessel and choose a time period in which I wanted to focus on. I also had to think about a beginning, middle, and end to my story or in this case the episode. I had to think about my protagonist and what his inner and outer journey might be. The ship had to function, be something somewhat new but familiar and also provide the actors and storytelling in ways that haven’t really been done before. At least that was the initial thought.
Once you have your logline figured out, you can do more brainstorming about your story.
THE SOFTWARE
The software I use is called Final Draft. This article will not be going into any details about how to use final draft or the proper script writing format. There are plenty of other resources on how to format a screenplay available online already. There are other software available to write screenplays however i choose Final Draft because it was the industry standard and because it’s relatively easy to use and has all of the formatting rules and tools within the software.
THE SCRIPT
At this point i’d like to share my actual script so that you can enjoy and learn from it. I will point out that my first draft isn’t perfect, there may even be spelling or grammatical errors within as this script is being revised.
Example Script <– Click here to open Script!
I hope you enjoy it. I had a lot of fun writing it.
Until next article!
