Stories exist in many different forms. For example, movies and television shows are types of stories. To create a movie or TV show, the story has to be made into a script. A script shows everyone involved in making a movie or TV show what should happen. It shows the characters, including what they do and say. It shows how the story is made to be visual – something that can be seen.
In this activity, you will be thinking up a very short story and turning that story into a script that can be recorded with a video camera.
STEPS:
1. Create your story.
· Come up with two characters.
· Name your characters and describe them – How old are they? What do they look like? How do they act?
· Give one or both characters a problem. It should be a very simple problem for this activity.
· Figure out how the characters solve the problem. What fixes it?
· What is the “setting”? Where does this story happen?
· What is the story? A story is all about how the characters get from seeing the problem to fixing the problem. Stories can be broken in to Beginning, Middle, and Ending. The Beginning is how the story starts (the problem pops up), the Middle is what happens to the characters as they try to solve their problem, and the Ending is when they figure out how to fix the problem (the solution).
2. Write your story.
· Use a script format that shows the visual of a story (what we will see in the video) and the audio (what we will hear in the video while we see the visual).
· Use a lot of descriptive words! The script shows the person running the camera what should happen. It also shows the actors what they should be doing and saying. The more descriptive it is, the better!
· See the example in the handout.
Now that you have a script, you can shoot your video!
TIPS & RESOURCES:
See PDF Handouts for an example and a template for planning out the story and writing the script.
By Laurie Ralston