Kapitel 11: Scriptmaking

As a foundation of a film, a professional script can make the process of production flow smoothly.

It tempts the management to invest, relieves the producer's burden, guides the plan of the director, and aids the actors in their parts.

Screen description and character actions are necessary depictions of a scene and explain the ongoing behavior of the actor or actress.

Character naming from the main protagonist down to the supporting and background roles.

Dialogues must be written clearly. This includes voice-overs, character monologues, and narrations.

Auxiliary descriptions to further depict the scene and the habits of the character. An example is their coughs, cries, excitements, and poker tells.

There is also the transition of the screens that must be marked out as necessary.

Fade-in, fade-outs, blends, camera angles, close-ups, long shots, lighting, sound design, costumes, and whatnot.

For further meticulousness, there are also scheduling, locations, and the specific time at which they'd be shot.

Alexander got to learn the entire process first-hand. For someone who is used to the comfort of the computer, the heaviness of the typewriter keys was a challenge.

It was disconcerting and is something that his adult fingers and tiny fingers could not get used to.

Fortunately, he was only by the side to advise and Sullivan was doing most of the writing.

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"Grandpa, I can't paint the picture with all these descriptions and sub-shots being distracting." He complained as he saw screenwriting as different from what he imagined. "I thought it was just a dialogue-filled version of a book. What's with all the technicalities?"

As a programmer who can pinpoint the output of coding commands or a combination of commands, making the script was baffling to him, just as how his job baffles other people.

"Well, my writing process is much more geared to a refined script with post-production in hand." Sullivan replied while keeping his attention on the typewriter.

"So, there are other methods?"

"Essentially, yes." Film veteran Creed was ready to enlighten the young Creed protege. "There are simple scripts like the one-pager 'Richlet' I gave you. For most directors, all of that is enough to jump into production and supplement the plot as he films. This is usually for crazy experimental filmmakers or godly ones that can make masterpieces with this method. It is unlikely for the latter kind to exist, though."

"Normal scripts with full dialogues, scene descriptions, and a sequence of acts from the beginning, middle, and end. These are the safer and optimized ones that are standard for most Hollywood or world film productions. These types are evolved from the simple one-pager scripts and one-line scripts."

"When I had the lawyer register for this Home Alone script, I was told that there were about 5 simple scripts that could conflict with our theme. Thankfully, we acted fast and crushed the competition with a more detailed concept."

Alexander wiped off his imaginary sweat when he heard that. The Hughes guy and the other 4 could still have packed some punch

Sullivan did not know of his grandson's guilty conscience and continued with his impartation.

"As for this script I'm typing, I consider it the advanced version of the normal scripts. This is the script that considers all the aspects of pre-production and post-production."

"Storyboarding, scheduling, costume, set design, and all those complicated bits are crammed into sheets of paper. I have even considered the fancy special effects stuff with the cans, blow torch, and pet tarantulas."

"Wow!" Even a layman like Alexander felt impressed at his grandfather's script cramming. "Isn't that incredibly hard to do by yourself?"

"Hoho!" Sullivan's old soul was soothed by his grandson's elevated view of him. "All my time on film sets had been geared toward perfecting this technique. Anyways, this is just a shoddy first draft and everything could be scrapped if it isn't right."

"In a way, it is to familiarize the process and visualize the scenes that need to be taken into account."

Alexander could more or less get an idea of what his old grandpa is trying to convey. In terms of programming, it is better to perfect the outcome first before diving into the jumble of characters and commands.

For games, it isn't enough that you have technical skills. The creative concepts and cores are things that one should tackle in priority.

Sullivan also interjected a piece of essential information. "This was what I know of screenwriting during my time. It has been a decade or so since then, so my words may have been long debunked and renewed by the filmmakers of this time."

"Everybody went high-concept and chasing for blockbusters since Jaws and Star Wars that I frankly don't know much anymore."

"What about factors such as budget and quality, grandpa?" This was something that the boy was hesitant to ask about. To be frank, he chose Home Alone because he read that it broke some records.

He was stupid enough to forget that the first movie reached 18 million dollars to make. It was the quirk of being focused on code and not money expenditure that his previous bosses would trouble themselves with.

"Do we need to find investors?"

"There's no need to find investors when three movies won't be of much trouble to my reserve finances." Sullivan bragged in confidence.

"Did you win the lottery?! Won't it take 100 million to make those movies?" Alexander was surprised. When accounting for his grandfather's total assets when he died, it was only about 4-5 million. And as far as he knows, 3 Home Alone films cost about 100 million dollars.

"If we're frugal, smart enough, and both of us don't balloon the budget with our salaries. We could make 3 movies within 2 million dollars." Sullivan grinned with mischief. "We're from San Fernando Valley and not Hollywood. You will soon realize some people's eagerness to join a non-erotic series of movies."

Alexander's eyes shone at that and now knew where his deviousness was inherited from.

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Eventually, summer vacation was underway and scriptwriting still commenced as usual.

If memory serves Alexander well, the first Home Alone movie had its script finished in 9 days.

The time it took for them to finish the script was more than that because of their familial craziness.

They pooled their minds and creative juices, from Sullivan's experience to Alexander's 2020 civilian movie critic hindsight, to pull off a great feat.