In the following article, learn how to use your eyes to write a good script. It can be one for a short film, a series, or a movie, but I assure you, these tips will save you a lot of headaches, you will write fascinating scripts.
The important thing is that you learn to use your eyes, that is, to observe those situations of everyday life that can serve as inspiration.
If at the beginning it doesn’t work out as you expected, don’t despair! Do not miss the tips we offer you today in this post Continue reading!
Learn to use your eyes, it will be of great help to you
Whether it’s a script for a short film, a series, a play or a movie, these tips can save you a lot of headaches and help you write more attractive scripts.
As they say, it’s all in the eye of the beholder, and if we learn to use our eyes, we will see how this can help us when writing our script.
What does it mean to use your eyes to write a script?
It means, mainly, two things, firstly, to use your eyes to observe those situations of everyday life that can serve as inspiration, and secondly, it means to observe attentively when we are in front of a work of art that pleases us, and when we do not like it, too!
Using your eyes may sound like a stereotypical phrase, which is said to make us pay attention to everything around us, but this will not necessarily be useful for writing.
When observing a scene, whether in your daily life or in an audiovisual presentation, you will not be able to pay attention to EVERYTHING, you will always decide to focus on particular aspects, perhaps on the environments that make up the scene, or the voices of the protagonists, their costumes, or even the framing.
It is always a good idea to keep a notebook or notebook of ideas, and write down what catches our attention, because we can use it later in our work.
How to use your eyes in everyday life
In our daily life, we can find many moments and events that will serve us for our scripts, it can be a beautiful sunset, a hectic conversation we overhear in the street or, why not, even an accident.
Keep in mind that it is not enough to simply look at a scene and consider that we would like to include a similar scene in our story, but we must pay attention to the small details, the minimum elements that make it up. We have to put our idea notebooks to good use!
For example, I observe a conversation at the bus stop. What am I observing? How many people are involved in the discussion? How are they dressed? How do they move? Do they gesture as they speak? In what tone of voice do they speak to each other? Also observe the environment.
What time of day is it? What is the lighting like at that bus stop? How are the people acting in the background of the scene I’m interested in? All these little details can provide us with a wealth of material to write our scripts.
The more attention we pay to all these details that make up what we see every day, the more real our characters, their dialogues and their lives will be.
Use your eyes, but also your ears.
Many times, besides using our eyes, we must learn to use our ears, when watching an audiovisual piece, such as a film, a short film, a series, etc. This is something fundamental, in the audiovisual arts, we have work teams, destined to choose the costumes of the characters, the colors that will compose the images that we will see, the different shots that will make up the scenes, the dialogues that will be said, and the situations that will appear there.
In case it is a play that pleases you, think about what strikes you. What makes the scene so pleasing to you? Is it the way the characters are described? Is it the background of the scene? The music perhaps?
In this kind of productions, there are usually specialized crews behind those elements, so study them, and observe them, but, as we have already said, not only with your eyes, but also listen to the tones of voice, the ambient noises, even the silences.
In case you don’t like the play, notice it too! This may sound a bit strange, but there is a lot to learn, even from the things we don’t like, if you didn’t like a particular work, you can also observe the reasons why you didn’t like it.
Pay attention to those reasons, too, you can write them down to avoid making the same mistakes, or simply, to do something different, maybe even, these notes will save you in moments of trouble, where nothing seems to work.
It is possible that you are repeating a scene that you have already seen and did not like, but by studying them and being attentive to them, you can avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Don’t get discouraged!
It is common that many times we fail to note or pay attention in detail to the elements of a scene that has caught our attention, but do not despair! Even if you were able to notice very few details, because of the short time the scene you saw, or because you were not comfortable enough to do so, surely something of that moment will have stayed with you.
You don’t have to know specifically what it was that caught your attention or what resonated in your head, it is possible that you have not had the opportunity to study in depth everything you saw this week (all the characters you saw on your way to work, or the chapters of your TV series that you were watching on your way back from college), but that is not a problem, because you will see that, with practice, you will need less and less time to analyze scenes and moments.
The important thing is to be attentive, at least a little bit, every time you watch and hear, that level of attention, even if it is lower sometimes than others, will make you grow a lot as a scriptwriter.
For that reason, all the strategies you will read on the internet, in writing courses, or in interviews with great writers and screenwriters are, in short, strategies that seek to improve your writing.
None of that will happen if you are under too much pressure, and you get frustrated for not being able to accomplish all your goals, be patient, remember that writing is not something simple, and that it takes time to learn it, in fact, you never stop learning it.
What we say here about your eyes, and the importance of an attentive use of them to improve as a screenwriter, is just another strategy, but it will not work if you pretend to observe attentively and take note of absolutely everything you see.
Logically, there will be times when you will be more distracted or busy, and you will not be able to do it, but, as you do it a little more each time, you will see how your results improve.
Conclusion
As we observed during the course of the article, it is important that you learn to use your eyes to write a great script. Use everyday situations to use your eyes, to see the different ranges of possibilities that are presented to you.
Don’t get discouraged or frustrated, and just as we ask you to use your eyes, use your ears as well, I assure you it will be a great help. Open your eyes. Success and see you next time!
