Scriptwriting 101

Today began a new course; a course on scriptwriting with Arun Gupta.

Like any course with Arun, this one hits you hard. It all starts at 9:30 am sharp and as the day progresses things just get more and more intense.

He makes us think. At the same time, I have a sneaky feeling that he also gets some pleasure in seeing our blank faces after he asks us something like, "What is the capital of Finland?", "What countries border Afghanistan?", "What are sardines?" and so on.

Sometimes, we even know the answers. I suppose we're just not sure enough to reply.

Coming to scriptwriting. I love writing. Untill now, my forays into the world of the written word have been limited to short stories, fun poetry and this blog. I'd love to write scripts as well. I do feel very comfortable among words. I think it is because they have such consistent usage in terms of meaning that they give ample space for clarity in communication.

And yet words can be misleading to a great extent as well.

I love reading scripts. Thanks to the internet one finds the shooting scripts of ones favourite films. It's good fun reading what was cut out and also to get an idea of what the writer saw as opposed to what the director created.

But there is one gripe - animation has its own language in terms of writing scripts. The technique and treatment definitely varies from the way that live-action is interpreted through the written word.

And that's why I'm glad that Arun didn't start with the terminology, methods and conventions of writing scripts, but chose to focus more on the content.

I hope this course lives up to that promise. For now, I'll get cracking on my next assignment!