Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Formatting for a visual medium: Screenplay or transcripts?

+0
−0

I have a specific way of writing when it comes to describing things in a visual medium, like video games, movies, or shows. I'm not a prose writer; I always wanted to write for visual media, not novels or short stories. I've been working on a hypothetical animated show. I doubt I would ever actually get to make an animated show with a dedicated team, but on the off-chance that I become happy enough with my work to at least approach someone, I want to give the right impression.

I've looked into screenplays and I have to say, it's absolutely not my style. I'm just not used to writing this way, so I have to force myself to rewrite a lot to get it in the right format. The way I write things is more like a transcript, example here.

I know screenplays are the professional standard if you were to approach a studio, for example, but my hypothetical animated show would be a lot smaller in scale, more like a Machinima series (R.I.P) done by a few people who do this as a hobby and/or earn something on the side, specifically 3D animators. In my example, it would be one guy I would approach, specifically with a two minute short and the first episode.

If you're a hobbyist and the people you want to approach are also hobbyists (in the sense that they are independent), is a screenplay really necessary? Or would most people be happy with a transcript style "screenplay"? Would a screenplay maybe even be overblown and actually turn off "non-professional" people?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/41597. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

1 answer

+0
−0

Every genre has its own style and professional standards. There may be multiple standards for subsets of a genre as well. They don't exist to make your task difficult, even though the learning process can drive you crazy. They exist for consistency and utility.

What you call a "transcript" style is actually very similar to finished scripts that comic book writers use. In that case, you'd give more description for the artist (not the reader) and break the story up page by page, panel by panel.

A script for live action is not going to be the same as one for animation. The level of description, settings, art style, etc will be very different. The underlying screenplay format may be the same or similar though.

TheNovelFactory is correct; your next step is to ask the people you want to work with. The point of formatting is to make it useful for the person you're giving it to. So ask them what is the most useful. Your "transcript" style is an earlier step before a full screenplay, and it may be what they want, if they will be deciding much of the visuals.

That said, go learn the proper formats. Yes, it's very awkward to write in a way you're not used to, but it's something you need to learn, even if you never write it that way. If your scripts will be turned into full screenplays by someone else, you'll need to understand screenplay format so you can give enough information for this to happen. Eventually, you will be comfortable doing it yourself.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »