Lucy Sher - Scriptwriting and Production

Lucy Sher’s lecture was an interesting one and a few things she said stuck with me. She focused more on the development side and reminded me that film making is a collaborative process and that being a scriptwriter means you have to work with a number of different people.

I remember her mentioning that it is a good idea to read your scripts out loud, something I have never done and surprisingly never considered. However after contemplating the thought I realised that this would be helpful in visualising scenes and giving the characters an actual voice which gives a better view of the scene that is being written.  This not only made me think about me reading my own scripts but also giving my script to others to act out so I myself can visually see how I want the scene to look. It will also give me a great insight into which lines work and which don’t.

Something else that stood out to me is her mentioning of a “universal conflict” within the script, meaning a conflict which everyone can relate to. This got me thinking about scripts I have written and whether they have conflicts within them that a mass audience can relate to. Niki (2013) talks about this idea of universality.

"You want to write a story about a couple of bachelors who fear commitment. This is a universal theme, but we've also seen it hundreds of times. Now give the concept a twist by having the bachelors display their party-on attitude in a unique way, and you end up with The Wedding Crashers, a fresh and successful comedy written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher."

Not only does she mention using a universal theme but also says that scriptwriters should be creative with the themes so we don’t end up with something stale and clichéd. Instead we twist what we already have creating a new take on an already universal theme leading to a truly original script. This idea of a “universal conflict” can also be crucial when selling a script as a producer is more likely to buy something that appeals to a wide array of people rather than a script that only appeals to a very niche market.

Niki, A., 2013. Screenwriting concepts tips [online]. Boston: LifeTips. Available from: http://screenplay.lifetips.com//cat/64967/screenwriting-concepts/index.html [Accessed 3 December 2013].