Action Scenes in a Screenplay

 

Action Scenes in a Screenplay

When we think of an action scene, we think of a hard-fighting scene between characters. However, action scenes are much more technical and diverse in nature, think of a car chase, a battle scene in a war movie, or a high-powered chasing scene through a city or on the highway. An action scene is any scene that contains a rapid movement that accomplishes a specific goal that moves the story forward.

In any action scene, there are the typical beginning, middle, and end. First, you introduce the characters that will be in the scene, then you escalate the scene to raise the stakes higher such as making one of them the evil one and another the hero. Will the hero win or lose the scene is the question. Tensions build higher and it’s unclear how the scene will end, but you still have another segment to clarify I they will be victorious or not. In the end scene of this conflict, it is revealed that the true character of the hero is revealed and something that you set up earlier in the script comes into play again and brings the conflict full circle making the viewer elated with the success of the hero character. The best way to explain this is simple. Who is involved in the scene? Answer: Your main character is a hero and an evil villain. What stakes are involved in the scene? Usually, innocent lives are at stake. What stakes are raised in the story? The evil one does something horrible that puts innocent lives in peril. Whether or not the hero wins or loses, what does it reveal about the hero character?  It reveals that the hero of the story will do anything to protect innocent lives and protect the city from peril.

Keep in mind that every action scene must be relevant to the story itself. It is critical that as the writer you keep in mind that your story must be able to move forward to a conclusion with every action scene. You can’t just throw in a Borne Identity crash-and-burn car chase into a romantic comedy storyline. It’s one thing if the crash and burn scene were to reveal that the first responder falls in love with the victim of the crash and watches over them as they heal in the hospital.

Don’t get too involved in the direction of the movie when you create the scene description, that’s the job of the director and stunt coordinator. Just be general in your heading description. This advice is moot if you are writing the script before you write the book, then by all means write out your scene as you plan to describe it in your book as I do. Once the book is done, I go back to the script scrub all the heavy-duty descriptions, and make it more generic.

Let me leave you with one last tip, when you write out your action scenes make sure you include an ebb and flow aspect to the scene. What this means is highs and lows, victories and losses or defeats. You will lose your audience if your hero is only being beaten up and being able to gain the upper hand in between blows. Never include large blocks of speech, this will cause your potential buyer to stop reading and put your script in the trash can. You want them to constantly want to know what happens next. With that type of thinking you’ll win them over and they’ll want to produce your movie. Keep that in mind always while writing, I want the movie to be produced, so get it right the first time out.  You can also keep their attention by including sound effects in my action scene. Don’t be scared to use the words, boom, slap, smashes, click, and crack into the description for the scene. This tells the director that you want to include the click of a weapon being cocked or a boom for an explosion of a fist in the face. Always break your scene up with some form of dialogue between your characters. Whether it be insults or reasonings behind the assault, break it up.

I’m not going to lie to you here, but writing action scenes is very hard work. But with practice, you can improve over time.  Many times you can google a movie for their script online. It might not be the final script, but you can download it or print it out and read it at your leisure to learn how successful writers wrote their award-winning scripts. That was one tip Syd Fields suggested to help his students learn the fine art of writing movie scripts. Go for it and write your own award-winning script.

 

Artist and Author Elizabeth Kilbride is a former political operative, author, scriptwriter, historian, and journalist. business professional, creative artist, and life coach consultant. Ms. Kilbride holds a master’s in criminology and a BS in Business Management she stepped out of the loop for a while but is now back with a powerful opinion and voice in the direction of this country and our economy. As a life coach, she is available to counsel individuals to enjoy their dreams and a better life. Ms. Kilbride loves to travel and photograph her surroundings and is also a gourmet cook who loves to garden and preserve food for the winter months.