Video 2A
Script Format
Exercise – Eight Legged Freaks
|
Objective: To learn how to use DigiScript to format a script in Microsoft Word. Procedure: Open Microsoft Word and go to the FILE pull down menu and select PROJECT GALLERY. Under the CATEGORY section on the right side of the window, select MY TEMPLATES. Select DigiScript. A blank document will come up after this selection. Come back to this web page and COPY and PASTE the lines below from the script Eight Legged Freaks script onto the page. Use the DigiScript buttons to properly format the script. Once you have formatted it, save the file as your LastName_Format.doc and turn it into SchoolLoop. |
|
Use to the DigiScript buttons as follows:
ACTION: Used to describe the narrative action in the script. It describes what the camera is looking at and what actions the actors make. The FIRST time a character is introduced his name must be capitalized and in parenthesis his age is added.
SLUG LINE: This describes the where the action is taking place. It starts with either INT. for interior (indoors), or EXT. or exterior (outdoors); It then lists the location name, followed by a dash, then DAY or NIGHT. You also designate any FADE IN as a slug line. The slug line is capitalized.
CHARACTER: List the character’s name on its own line. It is capitalized. On the next line (no space), you write the dialogue.
DIALOG: Write the words the character speaks. This is followed by a line space.
PARANTHETICAL: a parenthetical is occasionally used in a script to give that actor a specific direction on how they are to say their line. It is place on the line below the dialogue and has parenthesis around it.
ANNOTATION: If you want to make a note to yourself while writing the script you can add an annotation in red letters. These notes are not included on any finished draft of the script and are not to be used on this assignment.
If you want to use this
software at home, you can download the DigiScript
freeware from the site below. (You must
have Microsoft Word on your Windows or Mac computer.) Read the PDF instructions
on how to install it on you home computer. Go to http://www.digiscript.co.uk/
FADE IN:
A rabbit hops across rough terrain.
EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - NIGHT
Three trucks from Chemical Technologies carry barrels of
toxic waste. They pass a sign:
PROSPERITY,
454.
INT. THIRD TRUCK (HIGHWAY, DESERT) - NIGHT
A sleepy trucker called PIG PEN drives the third truck.
Self-Help Tape (V.O.)
I will be self-assured and confident around women.
Pig Pen
I will be self-assured and confident around women.
EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) - NIGHT
The rabbit stops at the edge of the road. The first truck speeds past. Then the second. The rabbit crosses the highway in front of the third.
INT. THIRD TRUCK (HIGHWAY, DESERT) – NIGHT
Self-Help Tape (V.O.)
I will not fear the unexpected.
Pig Pen
I will not fear the unexpected.
The rabbit appears in the road, frozen by headlights.
Pig Pen
Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Pig Pen jams on his brakes and swerves to avoid the bunny.
EXT. HIGHWAY (DESERT) – NIGHT
The truck slews crazily. Missing the bunny by a whisker.
INT. THIRD TRUCK (BRIDGE, DESERT) - NIGHT
Pig Pen sees a bridge ahead. If he doesn’t regain control, he will crash. At the last second, he gets the rig together.
EXT. BRIDGE (DESERT) - THIRD TRUCK - NIGHT
The rim of a wheel tags the curb. One of those toxic waste barrels falls out of the back and plunges to the water below.
EXT. DRAINAGE DITCH - NIGHT
A biohazard warning label is legible as the barrel slips beneath the surface. Glowing toxic waste seeps from a gash in its side. Spreading through the pool like neon ink.
EXT. DRAINAGE DITCH - DAY
The ditch is littered with garbage. The DRONE of INSECTS. No visible traces of toxic waste. A butterfly net sweeps through the air to capture an oversized horsefly.
JOSHUA TAFT (70s), scrutinizes the bug. This old codger is more comfortable studying bugs than socializing with people.
Joshua
Hey, Mike. Check this one out.
MIKE PALMER (12) steps over for a look. The kid is bright and looks up to the old man as a mentor.
Mike
He’s huge!
Joshua
They’ve been like this all week. Must be something extra tasty in the water.
Mike
Like what?
Joshua
Dead coyote. Snake maybe. Back in
the ’
Mike
You ate snake?
Joshua
When you’re thirty klicks out from the nearest firebase, making your way through the jungle, there ain’t time to stop for a cutlet.
As Mike skims his own net over the water, he glimpses a familiar barrel at the bottom of the pool. The brightly colored biohazard warning label is clearly visible.
EXT. ROAD - JOSHUA’S HOUSE - DAY
Two bicycles are parked outside a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
INT. JOSHUA’S HOUSE - DAY
The decor is an odd mix of
Charlie (V.O.)
Charlie, don’t surf!
Joshua
Quiet, bird. We’re working.
Mike and Joshua stand near the spider tanks. A dozen aquariums on low shelves. Each glass tank replicates a specific environment: jungle, desert, cavern, pond, etc.
Joshua
(dims tank lights)
The sun is going down, my nocturnal hunters. It’s time to come out and feed.
Mike watches Joshua deposit bugs into each spider tank.
Mike
Yeah. They’re definitely getting bigger.
Joshua
I’ve calculated a growth factor of twelve percent over the last forty-eight hours. But that seems to be accelerating.
Mike
All from eating these bugs? Maybe I should try some.
Mike pauses at the desert tank, watching a cricket search for food. A trap-door spider pops out of its camouflaged den like a jack-in-the-box. The arachnid yanks the cricket below and replaces the roof in a nanosecond.
Mike looks in another tank where ogre-eyed spitting spiders shoot blasts of paralyzing goo at hapless insects.
Mike
Run, little guys.
Joshua
They can’t outrun the food chain.
Mike
I could get away.
Joshua
Imagine yourself the size of that fly. A scytodes spitter would be as big as a Cadillac. You’d be spider chow, kid.
Mike looks in a tank where jumpers chase fleeing crickets. He moves toward another tank that is covered with a towel.
Mike
Are the new tarantulas in here?
Joshua
Took me forever to get a breeding set of
Chilean reds. I must have bribed every customs agent from Vegas to
Joshua unveils the tank. Dirt floor. Several burrow entrances. Joshua pours in the bugs. A large, male tarantula comes out of a burrow. It pounces on a bug, then wraps its prey in webbing, turning the insect into a mummy-like bundle.
Mike
That is too cool.