Unit 19 Learning Aim A

UNIT 19 LEARNING AIM A

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Description automatically generated Script writing is the process of writing stories in the screen play, for example they write for films, televisions, video games and web series. It allows you to create the main concept of your production in a written form. Things you may see included in a script writing is such things such as expression, actions, and dialogue of the characters in the screenplay. However it should go to say that there are many distinct roles to scriptwriting, this goes for the following such as producing themes and ideas or develop plots and characters, as in one big project there can be many scriptwriters on board to work together. The reasoning lots of different role in scriptwriting is to be as effictently as possible by getting different scriptwriters strengths in distinct roles to make certain parts to be the most productive.

Obtaining work as a scriptwriter

Freelance writer - One of the options is being a freelance writer, this is where you are a self-employed actor who writes articles, scripts, and other contents for a living. For example, an independent journalist who makes reports on stories they have discovered makes his content and then sells his work to the highest bidder on who wants his content. Obviously, it will need to be high quality content to make the most amount of money.

Directors – The Director is essentially given the responsibility to bring about a unified vision within the finished product and help everyone in the project to achieve an ultimate actualisation on what needs to be done. They must plan how the script should be shown on screen and find creative ways to project it the way they want it to. To be hired as a director you either have two options, first possibility is become a great writer and write a cohesive story which you can present to the producers, the other reliable option is to make a short of your featured film, this will help you get attention from the producers as they would like to see the window on what the feature could be like, this will also give you social proof that you meet the requirements for a director.

Script editors – Script editors have the responsibility of to examine and scrutinize in the scriptwriter process, to identify things needed to be improved on. They do not necessarily fix the problem but only inform them about the problem. This helps developing the script and strength it.

Media sectors

Film sector - Screenwriters get hired when an agent pitches the writer's script to a certain film company then they choose the screenwriter. The film firm will normally hire the same writer to make changes including rewrites or polishes to the story or writing sequels prequels (with additional payment). 

With films you have much less time, which means writers have less freedom to develop the characters and their respective arcs. And not only that, in film writers do not get the luxury of a much larger cast, where many different stories and arcs can spawn off (unless they get their own spin off films, Han Solo).

Tv Sector - TV shows have multiple episodes and potentially multiple seasons. Each episode and season need to be unique and different so that audience engagement is maintained. This means that scriptwriters need to create a script for each individual episode and have a broad script for each season. Scriptwriters for tv shows have much more time to plan how characters will develop, especially with multiple seasons.

Differing Demands

The different demands go by the following Film sector you need to have pitch for an agent to show a film company so you will need to develop characters, plots and storyboard. Whereas Tv sector scriptwriters are expected to create a script for each individual episode and have a broad script for each season, this can be beneficial as tv sector scriptwriters have more time to develop their characters.

James Cameron

The scriptwriter of the biggest movie ever made, Avatar. However, he also created other massive movies as well. The following Titanic, Terminator-Salvation, Terminator Dark Fate and Rambo. James Cameron was born on August 16, 1954, in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada. He was a science fiction fan but grew up to become one of the most talented visionary filmmakers in Hollywood. He initially pursued science as a student in California State university. His creative side took over and he left to follow his cinematic dream. In 1980 was hired as a production manager, and the following year he made his directional debut with Piranha II: The spawning. Unfortunately, the movie came at an overwhelming amount of dislike and rated 15/100.

However, James Cameron by in the future in 1984, made his own material which resulted the creation Terminator in 1984. This movie made an actor who know as today to be Arnold Schwarzenegger extremely famous as the movie became a hit in the Hollywood industry. This was his first successful movie and many more followed up including the famous Avatar that gross pay over £2.8 billion and has been claimed to have the highest gross pay film. Since this movie was the most successful movie made by James Cameron, he has decided to continue this project of the Avatar.

In the upcoming year Avatar, the way of water is coming out in 2022, the following years will include Avatar 3 in year 2024, Avatar 4 in year 2026 and Avatar 5 in 2028. The budget of Avatar the way of the water is 250 million dollars. The film has taken quite a while to make the follow up due to extreme heavy amounts of CGI that went into the movie, causing great difficulty to manage in brief time frame.

Demands and requirements

Agent Representation

Agent representations job is to represent the writers work and ensure that the work finds a way to the right publisher. You may think you why you would need an Agent representation which can be true in some cases. However, for the majority Agent representations have an effective way of building the writers reputations as the agent often has multiple connections to well-known community and organisation to allow your work to be seen by companies that has good reputations. Furthermore, these agents are known for other factors as well such as essential putting a high-quality piece tag on the writer's work as having an agent representation alone indicates high quality work. Lastly it can be beneficial to have an agent negotiating and informing you on complicated construal agreements and your subsidiary rights that can allow your royalty payment successful with no hassle. (Royalty payment is when the writer gets part of the sale money made.

Communication

Communication is a key requirement to ensure that you can have a successful pitch towards industry's as it will allows you to show off your ideas and show what you as a writer can offer to them, this can help you to get more opportunities to other industry's as you portrayed your work which can intrigue them as well. Communication is highly preferred by your audience as they would like to hear from yourself on what is going on with your future projects and can indicate that writer is open for critiques.

Time management

Time management is another essential ability to have as you need to have good time management for you to allow to hit your project deadlines. As this is to ensure good relationships with your agents and producers, however if the deadline is not reached this causes multiple problems. First of is your relationship with the producers can become unsteady as they are going to be less likely to take you as a scriptwriter again if you can't meet the deadlines. This delay on your deadline causes troubles for your entire team as they cannot start working without your script piece, so production falls behind and money is lost.

Also, it is important for you as a writer as you can lose interest in old work that you left behind.

Legal & Ethical considerations

Copyright is a way of claiming ownership of your work, to show others that they cannot copy your idea. It gives you full ownership on how your work is distributed, copied, adapted and displayed. You have last even after your death by 70 years and can be extended when family member renews the copyright claim. Just in case of copyright situation it is recommended to have a copyright claim clearly shown on your work and have dates and time on when you originally had it made to make complication easier to handle if needed.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism has similar links to copyright; however, plagiarism is when you claim someone else's work as your own. So therefore, scriptwriters must be careful on what they write as they can be punished for imitation of someone else's work. In another case you could plagiarise, but you will need to give copyrighter royalties.

Libel

Libel is to portray something falsely that can damage someone or somethings reputations. To avoid this is to do furrow research on the project you're trying to release. To ensure the things you are publishing, or portraying is factual and evidential, often writers can see running into this obstacle when your movie has something that involves religion as you need to accurate as you don’t want to falsely spread a statement.

This can be seen in an incredibly famous Disney movie Mulan (1998); this was damaging to both sides of the country Mongolia and China. As one of the issues was that they portrayed the Chinese as weak and skinny that was helpless against the huge, beastlike Mongols. Both sides had things that were not portrayed correctly on as some of the Mongolian things were not portrayed to some likings and was inaccurate same goes for the Chinas.

Censorship

Censorship is hugely important as you need know what's appropriate and what you are projecting, this typically resolves around sex, violence and drugs. So therefore, you need to know what is proper for you audience type and that your content is shown in their intended form. There are many guidelines on what you can and cannot show on games, tv and films.

This is especially important as you do not want to show the younger audience violence, sex scenes and drugs. As they may take influence in them, which is why these guidelines are reinforced. Reasons were experimented by Albert Bandura and to learn more here.

Watershed

Watershed is where after 9 pm more adult aimed programs and content are allowed to be portrayed without being restrained as much. So, if a scriptwriter writes a show that is primarily targeted to the adult audience due to sex scenes, violence or drugs you would typically see it after 9pm when it is watershed.

Racial Discrimination

Your content should be appropriate in ways that do not offend any specific group or religion, this was more of a thing in the past but still happens time to time. For example, The Ducktators (1942) was seen as an extremely racist Disney movie, where Disney deliberately portrayed the Japanese with slanted eyes, bucked teeth and over blown accents showing a very stereotypical. This can also be shown in other Disney films such as Fantasia (1940) where a character named sunflower was seen as the lower character and not treated equal and was used by the white centaurs, while Disney over exaggerated black feature that people really did not like.

Bias

There is huge bias still in the movie industry so it is best to keep in mind that you should represent different races, gender and religion as it must be impartial and fair to all of people.

Conclusion

In scriptwriting has lots of distinct roles that can all be partially done in diverse ways but at some point, they all need to follow some specific guidelines and rules as it is needed for ethical reasons and protections for the younger audience. They also have very specific demands and requirements needed to be successful in scriptwriting such as good time management and agent representation. As these key factors are going to beneficial for you as a scriptwriter and for the companies to allow new talent to work with them. Specifically, a good Agent representation can be beneficial in many ways such as to have an agent negotiating and informing you on complicated construal agreements and your subsidiary rights that can allow your royalty payment to be successful to your most desired out of your work.