Step 1: Forgery with Fletcher and Roiland
Topic · 1 minute
Precious (Drama)
Among the many cinematic tools in the screenwriter’s tool box is the voice over (V.O.).
Robert McKee recommends against it, but Charlie Kaufman aptly pulls the rug from under this opinion in ADAPTATION. It’s a powerful technique if used properly.
First of all, note how V.O. is written in the screenplay, then ask yourself why the writer decided to use it here.
The introduction of the character of Precious happened before this scrippet, in Scene 1. But somehow we get a good feel for her character in these pages, even without having read that opening description.
How is this achieved?
You will see that the dialogue contains the numbers 111 and 122, the way you would normally write numerals for eas of read.
However, to keep numbers roughly in line with the page-per-minute rule, we spell out numerals in words: one hundred and eleven, or one twenty-two.
The description of Mr. Wicher is capitalised, which is not according to convention. Typically, you should also give your characters an age, so we can properly visualise them. Feel free to correct this in your copy, and give Mr. Wicher’s the age of your choice.
Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
This RICK AND MORTY script has the episode title “Love Pandemic” at the top of the page, but this was later changed to Rick Potion #9, in a nod to the song Love Potion #9.
Did you know…
“Love Potion #9″ is one of only a very few songs in history that had a feature film adapted from it.
Also, did you know you can learn structure just from studying RICK AND MORTY?
Episodes are short, fast and may seem pretty insane at first sight. But on a story technical level, they are hyper-traditional. If you’re familiar with Dan Harmon’s Story Circle, you know he’s really doing a 22-minute version of The Hero’s Journey.
These two pages will show you something about the length of scenes, the pacing of jokes, and how characters are differentiated through dialogue.
If you’re familiar with the show, you may also notice that some standard RICK AND MORTY tropes are NOT included in the script.