The topic this weekend is stage directions - those pesky descriptions in scripts between the dialogue.
A number of years ago there was an organization in New York that held
weekly screenplay readings. Writers submitted their drafts and if yours
was selected they provided a venue, an audio tape of your reading,
publicity, and help with the casting. I entered a screenplay and it was
selected.
One of the services they provided was a guy who would go through your
screenplay and thin out stage directions. Now I was a little offended
at that. I prided myself on being very spare with my stage directions.
I didn’t want some skeesix trimming my direction. They said that his
cuts were only suggestions and I could use any or all or none of them.
In that case, I said “fine.” I thought, “Good luck to this guy finding trims. There’s not an excess word.”
A week later a script arrived and I was floored. With a black sharpie
he hacked and slashed and must’ve cut at least half of my stage
direction. I was now pissed. Who the fuck does this clown think he is?
Then I started going through his suggested cuts. Yeah, that’s a good
trim… right, I don’t really need that… uh huh, that is somewhat
redundant… etc. When I got to the end of the script I realized I had
kept 90% of his changes.
It was a humbling but very important lesson. Now when I write
screenplays I try to be super economical when writing stage directions.
And then I go back and take what I call my Edward Scissorhands pass and
cut out a lot more.
For that New York screenplay reading I got the great Dan Ingram
(longtime DJ on WABC and voice of a trillion national commercials) to
read the stage directions. And for me it was the best part of the
reading. There were times I wasn’t even paying that much attention to
the dialog. I kept thinking, “Oh wow! Dan Ingram is reading my words!”
Great words like “he enters” and “Interior: Hotel Room – Day” but
still!
You may be saying, “Yeah, making all those cuts are fine when someone
has to read everything aloud, but what about when someone is just
reading the script? Wouldn’t more detail and description help convey
your visuals? No, and here’s why: People hate to read stage
direction. Especially a lot of it. So the less you have the better
your chances that the reader will read it at all. You want to be
descriptive? Write a novel.
Just think of the Academy Awards and what it’s like when they stop to
read the Price-Waterhouse vote tabulation disclaimer. Now imagine them
doing that after every presenter. That’s a screenplay with too
much stage direction.
Less is MORE.
10 comments :
I loved it when Ted Baxter on MTM would read his cue card directions on the air: "And now here's Wally with the sports. Point to Wally!"
Enter laughing. If someone has already posted this, I apologize [giggles].
I also imagine that fewer stage directions enables the director the freedom to become more involved, and hopefully create a better production without being hamstrung by playwright directions.
That being said, “Interior: Hotel Room – Day” affected me deeply, and I'll be sharing it with everyone I know.
When I've written specs before, I've been under the knowledge that it's best to keep your script as bare and basic as possible, especially when it comes to stage or even technical direction; if your spec is selected, the rest of that stuff is for one of the staff writers or even the director themselves to worry about when they rewrite your script anyway.
"Exit pursued by a bear" ("The Winter's Tale") might be Shakespeare's second-best-known line after "To be or not to be."
As someone who does a lot of theater, some authors like to put jokes or bits in the stage directions. I know people don't like reading them too much but you shouldn't outright ignore them. I'm always amazed at people at auditions who ignore some funny piece of business (sometimes a main joke or a big part of the scene you're playing) because they've only read the dialogue.
It must be a small list - those as adept in calling out stage directions as calling a Sam Horn homer.
Mike typing on his phone keyboard
Thanks for the tips, Ken.
He carefully checks his comment for errors and then pushes the "publish" button.
Mike waits patiently for criticism of his comment.
End scene
M.B.
@Mike Bloodworth
Mike ponders whether to put in stage direction about proving he's human.
Mike has an "a-ha" moment realizing this is a test of whether he's understood Ken's point.
Mike refrains from adding it.
Mike looks forward to making fun of Breadbaker adding stage directions that can't be played on stage.
As someone who has never written a script, "Interior: Hotel Room - Day" left me wondering why this isn't too sparse? I can think of a thousand different hotel rooms - from "Hot l Baltimore" to the suite in "Pretty Woman." Each would impact on a scene. Just wondering. Ir would the room type simply be self-evident by the dialogue?
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