Script analyse

Radio script - THE TRIAL OF JOSEPH KNIGHT BY MAY SUMBWANYAMBE

1.  KNIGHT(V.O)

 My name is Joseph Knight, I was born in

1753. I was taken from Cape Coast Castle
to Jamaica in 1760 by a Captain ‘John
Knight’ on a ship called The Phoenix.

The (V.O) stands for voice over like he is narrating over sound, music or dialogue. Other ways the script indicates how the voice should sound is like, (OFF) which means the actor should speak away from the microphone. Also (D) means the voice should be distorted like they are speaking on a phone or radio. Then (LOW) indicates the actor should be whispering. And (CLOSE) Indicates the actor should be close to the microphone to give an intimate feel to the dialogue.

Methods of speaking are effective as they can tell a lot when it comes to dialogue, for example (LOW) tells the voice actor to whisper. Whispering would add more drama and suspense cause the audience knows there will be repercussions if someone hears them.

SCENE 1. A BUSY COURT ROOM.

AS JOHN SWINTON ENTERS THE COURT, ALL
STAND.



1. CLERK: Silence in the court!

THE COURT QUIETENS.
SWINTON SITS DOWN AND SO DO THOSE
ASSEMBLED IN THE COURTS. A BEAT PASSES IN
SILENCE, WE HEAR A FEW WHISPERS FROM
THOSE EAGERLY AWAITING SWINTON’S WORDS,
THE FEELING OF GREAT ANTICIPATION AMONGST
A LARGE GROUP OF ASSEMBLED PEOPLE...

There are sounds which you will hear in the background while people talk/in-between people talking. A foley artist will make the sounds to go into the background for whats happening in the scene. So for this scene you will most likely hear people all rise as Swinton enters, then here them sit back down.

Foley is very effective in radio as it would be pretty mundane if all you could hear is dialogue. Foley helps set a scene and picture whats going on in a scene just from sound.

SCENE 2. THE PRIVATE STUDY

KNIGHT IS SAT BY A WOODEN TABLE, READING
A BOOK. ENTER ANNIE SHE PULLS UP A CHAIR
NEXT TO HIM.

3. ANNIE What are you reading Joseph Knight?

KNIGHT DOESN’T RESPOND, SO...

4. ANNIE Sir William Blackstone? Sounds fancy.

KNIGHT CONTINUES IGNORING ANNIE.

5. ANNIE What does it say? That page?

6. ANNIE Jesus Joseph, there’s more to life than
just books you know?

In the script it tells us that Knight is ignoring Annie. In the the finished product you'd just hear silence each time Annie is ignored. The layout of the script is like this as normally there would be stage directions but since its all audio based, the script tells us when there is silence.


Radio is more focused on sound and dialogue. Foley artists will be used, silence is used, and voice effects like voice overs and off screen. This will be very effective for radio as it tells a story without seeing what's going on but makes you able to picture what's happening in scene.

Video game script - Life is Strange

It is raining heavily. The forest and the lighthouse pathway are lit up momentarily by lightning flashes. Max is lying on the ground with her eyes closed. She slowly opens her eyes and starts to look around.

This is setting the scene for what the player will be seeing in the opening of the game. It tells us the name of the character you will play as and what her current setting.

Max: (thinking) Where am I? What's happening? [gets up] I'm trapped in a storm? How did I get here? And where is "here"?

(thinking) Tells us that the character is thinking to herself, and not speaking. [gets up] This tells us what the character is doing in the scene.

Later on in the game.

Max takes a selfie with her camera.

Mr. Jefferson: Shh, I believe Max has taken what you kids call a "selfie"... A dumb word for a wonderful photographic tradition. And Max...has a gift. Of course, as you all know, the photo portrait has been popular since the early 1800's. Your generation was not the first to use images for selfie-expression. Sorry. I couldn't resist. The point remains that the portraiture has always been a vital aspect of art, and photography, for as long as it's been around. Now Max, since you've captured our interest and clearly want to join the conversation, can you please tell us the name of the process that gave birth to the first self-portraits?

When asked questions you can reply with different answers which will alter the story, and how other characters will react towards the player.

Choice 1 - Max: You're asking me? Let me think... Um... 

Each reply will have a different outcome, and you will receive a different set of dialogue affecting the story. This is a flowchart each option in a dialogue should branch out to lead to affect the story next, constantly branching out each decision made.

Choice 2 - Max: I did know! But I kinda forgot.

Master scene script - Peaky Blinders

6. INT. SHELBY HOME, PARLOUR - CONTINUOUS - DAY 1 - 18:11 1/7
   Thomas breezes through a hallway and a parlour decorated with brass and fancy floral crockery. The Shelby home is compact, a typical terrace, but we might notice a surfeit of brass and flowery ornamentation around the place. The Shelbys are cash rich but without conventional good taste. The home is decorated like a gypsy caravan, or a boatman’s barge with lots of roses, elephants and castles.
   We might glance a photograph of three brothers in military uniform, smiling (this is Arthur, Tommy, and John - all in Warwickshire Yeomanry uniform, with a freshly dug trench behind them).
   Thomas tosses his coat aside and passes through a small kitchen, where a young boy (FINN, 10, Thomas’s youngest brother) is smoking a cigarette into the flames of a coal fire. A rabbit roasts on a spit. Finn hides the cigarette and calls out as Thomas passes...
   
   FINN
    Arthur’s mad as hell.
   
   THOMAS
   What does a ten year old know about hell?
   
   FINN
   I’m eleven Sunday.

23. 1/25  FLASHBACK - EXT. CHARLIE’S YARD - NIGHT X - 22:00 1/25
    By gas light and fire light, through drizzle, we see Charlie, Curly and Thomas using crow bars to prize the crate open. We move close. Thomas pulls down a box and forces it open. We see dull metal, a barrel, a roll of machine gun shells...
    
    THOMAS (OOV)
    They must’ve taken it from the proofing bay instead of the export bay.
    
    We come close to Thomas’s face as he reacts to the sight of the contents of the box. Curly steps into the light...

The slug line is composed of 3 parts, interior vs exterior, location, and time of day. For example 

INT. BEDROOM - NIGHT

OOV Stands for Out Of View which means you can't see Thomas in the scene, but you can hear him. EXT. Stands for exterior showing that this scene is recorded outside. INT. Stands for interior which shows that the scene is recorded inside of a building, Shelby's Home.

Dialogue blocks, also known as speeches, are composed of three parts: the characters name, wryly, and dialogue. Character names are written in upper case, wrylies are written in lower case inside parenthesis, and then dialogue is written in normal sentence case.
The purpose of a wryly shows how a line should be said. Wrylies should only be used if the subtext of the dialogue is not clear. They should be kept to a minimum.

It is a customary assumption in the movie industry to believe that 1 page of screenplay equals 1 minute of time on screen. Since an average film is 120 minutes, the average script should be roughly 120 pages long.

In a master scene script only what is seen and heard should be written. What the character is feeling/thinking shouldn't be written.


Shooting script example

The shooting script will show what the camera will do to capture the scene. For example in the script camera 2 will pan behind camera 1, and then capture both the camera and the presenter.

The shooting script includes camera, lighting, and sound. It will tell what the people behind the camera need to do to make the scene look as best as possible when captured.

The difference between the scripts

Radio is focused on using dialogue and sound to tell a story. They will use different effects for voice like voice overs, and distortions in different situations. Radio won't need a shooting script as it doesn't need camera to record the production.

Video game scripts use a flowchart system and will branch off as the player makes decisions for their character. This will cause different outcomes in the game causing their to be different scripts for the character to say in scenes. Their will be lighting, sound, and camera movements in the scene however it will be animated and not recorded using a camera.

Master scene script is the dialogue and it will set the scene. In the script it will tell you the time, location, and if it is interior or exterior. It doesn't have the sound or lighting in the script like the other scripts will.

Shooting script is sound, lighting, and camera. This script will be made after the shooting script, and tries to capture the dialogue in the best way possible. The script doesn't tell the story but tries to capture the story.

Considerations when script writing

You have to make sure you have all information required like if the scene is interior or exterior, the time of day, and the location it's being filmed. You have to make sure you put the name next to the person speaking, and also how they are speaking. For example if it's a voiceover then (V.O) needs to be next to the dialogue. Slug lines and character names in dialogue must be in capital letters. The font should always be courier and in size 12. Then also footers at the bottom right of the page should say (CONTINUED) when moving from one page to the next, then the next page should say (CONT.) on the top left of the page.

Video game scripts should branch out based on the players decisions. For example, evil decisions should cause people to like you less in game, and you will receive a negative dialogue because of your decision. However, if you make good decisions people will speak to you in positive dialogue. Here is an example of this happening in the game Fallout 3.

Use of language to engage or persuade audience

The hypordermic needle model suggests that the media injects a message into us, and this shapes our responses. This would suggest that their is a motive when script writing. Script writers might be trying to make the audience think a certain way politically. This wouldn't be allowed in the BBC as it has to follow bias laws.

Use of conventions to develop structure and narrative

Propp argues that there is 8 characters:

1. The villain
2. The hero
3. The donor
4. The helper
5. The princess
6. Her father
7. The dispatcher
8. The false hero

Props also argues that there are 31 functions in the structure of script writing which  include events such as:

• The hero is prohibited from doing something
• The villain learns something about the victim
• The villain is punished, etc.

For example it works with Star Wars

The villain - The Emperor/Darth Vader

The hero -  Luke Skywalker

The donor - Obi-Wan/Yoda

The helper - Han-Solo

The princess - Princess Leia

Her father - Darth Vader

The dispatcher - R2-D2

The false hero - Darth Vader can be seen as a false hero as he used to be a good guy until he became a Sith. He could also be seen as a false villain since he kills The Emperor

Tordorov also said that stories start with 'equilibrium', and then a 'disequilibrium' occurs, and then back to a 'new equilibrium'.