Screenwriter Steeve Coombes

Monday 26th September 2016

Today writer, Steve Coombes, came into the studios and spoke to us about scriptwriting. Steve Coombes has written for shows such as 'Lovejoy' 'Hustle' and 'Outlaws'.  Steve gave us many tips, rules and general information that we may not have known about, for example loglines, treatments and bibles. He gave us some 'golden' rules to go by (although there may be an odd exception of breaking one here and there). We also looked at 2 versions of the same script 'American beauty'.

A screenplay is anything thats has a plan to it and is also fiction. The most important part with screenplays is structure.

The rules were:

Screenplays will tell the story not at a viewers pace but rather that the viewer has to find the writers pace. An audience must know and feel that the story is going somewhere and be driven there. The usage of time must also be good in a screenplay otherwise the audience will be lost, you have to get straight into it with the action and conflict.

A lot can be said with just showing and not actually saying and a tip was 'need to know' - only tell what the audience needs to know at the time. We were also told how a screenplay is a bit like a joke;  every scene is to be thought of with a 'set up, distraction and punchline'. Knowing your ending as you're taking the audience on a journey and then finally 'count moments' the moments where people want to reenact certain moments from the film/show.

We were told about loglines which are a one sentenced pitch for example ' The Titanic in Space'.  Treatments which is the summary of the story and the shorter the better and no more than 10 pages. Finally the bible which is everything about the series, character development, episodes etc.

To end the session of we looked at two 5 page script versions of 'American Beauty', one was the final draft and the other was an old draft. We had to decide which we though was which and then we watched the clip of the final draft. Steve mentioned about how scripts will go through endless draft amounts and that when writing a script, write something down because then you can change it and rewrite - it is easier to rewrite a script than writing it.

I found the afternoon with Steve to be really useful and I will try and apply the tips he gave into my own work. I already knew about longlines, treatments and bibles but I found that tips like write something and then you can change it has stuck with me as I always find it hard to write a script and keep going with it as if it doesn't go the way I want it the first time I usually give up but next time I hope I will carry on and then just change and rewrite it until I get it where I want it. I will also try and watch some shows he recommended such as 'The Wire'.