I have always wanted to ask this question. do film directors and the rest of the crew really like it when the script has camera directions? or the script feels controlled? It has been in my mind whenever I'm scripting that i try to visualize how a scene could like, and that really made me to include camera directions. but i would really love to know how it affects the directors, negatively or positively.
or should i leave it for the directors to show their creativity?
I'm developing an action-thriller script so i would really love to hear from Stage 32 members, any advice is highly appreciated.
Fewer camera directions are preferred.
Use your action lines to suggest your visualization of the film. Instead of saying: "CLOSE SHOT - gun in holster " say "[character] spots the gun in a holster around his waist." That suggests a CLOSE SHOT on the gun without explicitly calling for one. Makes the script flow better and easier to read.
Also, you can separate specific lines from larger blocks of text to suggest a switch in camera angles. Three action lines written together might describe a fight scene between two people, meant to be filmed as a MEDIUM SHOT. Then write a separate "paragraph" like this ...
"[character] takes an uppercut to the jaw." ...
Which suggests a closer shot of just that one character getting punched.
These methods allow you to "direct" without using directions.
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ABSOLUTELY NOT! "If someone is interested in your script, get the F out of the way." Screenwriting Professor Marc Lapadula, Yale University
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No!
It’s the writer’s job to tell the story cinematically. That includes showing what’s in the frame, how the camera moves, and editing choices.
Just do it with subtlety.
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Before sending to a Director, expunge ALL camera directions, unless it somehow has to do with plot or character, which is hard to imagine.
thank you so much Erik Gagnon , I appreciate your advice
if I want to direct a reader’s attention to something, I’ll start a new paragraph with a word in all caps, e.g. HIS HANDS shake.
It’s mostly a note to myself, as I write intending to direct, and this reminds me what I was visualizing when it’s time for the shooting script. In this case, it would indicate ECU (extra close up)
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To my own opinion, I think it is good to show all the camera angles, and mostly it usually do by the director, I don't think writer do that much. and that is where storyboards comes in, so most of it were don by the producers or the director of the film