How to Appreciate The Screenplay

The movie was fantastic, the actors were brilliant, the director’s an Ace. But it all starts on a piece of paper. And even before that as a figment of a writer’s thoughts. The magic happens pre shoot. The director can make or break a film is true but he cant move a muscle till he has a script in his hands. And thats where screenwriter comes in.

One might appreciate the tremendous talent and patience required off a writer for writing scripts. I firmly believe that although films are a visual medium and the story needs to be told and heard that way, reading a film script has its own little charm. When you read a script, for the duration of your read, you are the director. Your mind’s eye might be seeing things just as freshly as the director had envisaged and played them out for screen. For me reading a film script is a great excercise to enjoy and better understand the other films.

if you are looking in to script-reading as an educational excercise then you may want to try reading the various drafts of the same movie. This helps you understand why and where the changes may have been made. You may even realize why it was necessary and whether the change delivered the script for the better or not.

There are quite a few sited online that house several movie scripts which you can easily download and read.

www.imdsb.com is a great place to start. So go on browse through the site, find a movie that you ve loved watching and try giving the script a read. It might surprise you how much you may enjoy it.