Many new screenwriters admit that they struggle with writing clear and concise action description in their screenplays. Screenwriting makes quite a leap from traditional book penmanship, where an author can spend pages describing a new character or scene. They can end up being a beautiful poetic lament.
You just don't have the page space in screenwriting to make lengthy, pretty description. Remember that a page of a screenplay equates to about a minute of screen time. What does that really mean? Quite literally, the sentences making up your action must pretty much describe visual action which plays out as you read them. Any dialogue will also be spoken in real time, such that a page will take a minute of edited film. That's why most scripts land at the 90 to 100 page count, with a generally agreed upper limit of 120 pages (A 2 hour film!).
A lot of screenplays which come across our desks struggle with long action description blocks and over telling with information that just can't be filmed. Screenwriting is an art, and it can be learnt and honed with the right practice exercises. I already have a post on a writing exercise you can do to get you started.
What I propose here is an extension to that writing exercise for learning how to approach action description for screenplays. This exercise tackles the problem some writers might have for translating action to the page.
The following concept is not going to work for every scenario. If you have a character walking the surface of Mars, then what I present here isn't going to help, unless you have a fast spaceship!
Picture the following screenwriting scenario:
You have a story about a computer hacking organization. You envision a scene taking place in a cafe in some remote location in the tropics. The idea is that a HIT MAN catches up to a pair of hackers.
Often the best way to write is from experience and real life. Therefore, for this exercise, I went to a cafe and sat to observe, and overlaid my story idea into the environment. As I imagined the hit man entering, I wondered how best to describe that and provide anticipation.
The cafe was on the floor one above ground level with an outdoor stone staircase leading up to it.
So here's my trick:
I got up from my seat and traced the footsteps the hit man would take if we were filming here. I used my phone to video his walk. I then reached the cafe space and stopped the video filming and sat down. Reviewing the video, I sat with pen in hand and wrote exactly what I saw, whilst keeping brevity in mind.
Here's that video for you to see as an example:
And here is what I came up with in writing:
This really is a simple example. However, as I sat and thought through the story idea, I wondered how best to maintain the anonymity of the Russian approaching the cafe building and how his arrival would play out on screen. This method really helped focus the visuals and enable clear writing. Sitting in the environment of your scene brings authenticity and details you might not otherwise imagine.
I hope that this helps you in your moments of writers block and proves a worthy tool in writing action description in your script!