Dry goods, basic knowledge of screenwriter-technical terms (in Chinese and English)

Technical terms are relative to everyday terms, generally referring to the introduction of proper nouns in a certain industry. Most cases are familiar to professionals in this field, and technical terms are also commonly used in international practice, mainly to reduce the communication cost in the industry. Each line has its own terminology, which is equivalent to slang in the industry.

Let me briefly introduce some simple technical terms related to film and script creation and even the film and television industry. I hope I can also help some friends who have just entered the business or have already entered the business but are not familiar with it (in fact, most of them are screenwriters who have become monks halfway). Maybe it can also help you "push" when you need to push yourself. After all, you don't want people to know that you are an amateur just by some words when talking about drama, do you? In addition, the significance of Chinese-English comparison is to facilitate some friends who need to check English materials and can accurately search keywords. The first column is insufficient or has errors and omissions. I hope you can give me more advice.

A. Basic terms commonly used in drama:

Screenplay (screenplay): A book of screenplays. Needless to say.

Screenwriter: one who writes a script, the author of the script.

People: The people in the story.

Protagonist: the core figure of the story, the person who promotes the development of the story and makes key dramatic decisions in the story.

Secondary characters: people in a story who promote the plot except the protagonist.

Antagonist: a character in a story who hinders the protagonist's progress. It can be a person, an organization, a natural force, or a certain level of the protagonist's heart.

Subject: The values or moral ideas you want to convey through the story.

Genre: a kind of story that contains certain elements or has a fixed routine. There are many ways of classification, such as comedy, tragedy, absurd drama, documentary and so on.

Event: a series of facts triggered by a certain reason, with a specific development process and leading to a certain result. It is the storytelling unit that makes the characters in the script lifelike and interrelated.

Plot: refers to the development process of a series of life events that show the relationship between characters in the script.

Plot point: refers to the turning point in the story, which is the node in the story that unexpectedly turns in another direction. The source of dramatic tension in the plot.

Scene: the time and space where the story happened. Generally speaking, an action that takes place at a time and place is called a scene, also known as a drama.

Scene Title: Each scene is written side by side in a left-aligned format: inside or outside, location and time.

External and internal (external &; Interior): used to mark the title of the scene at the beginning of each scene.

Line: refers to what the characters in the story say.

Subtext: it refers to the potential meaning that exists and is hidden under the surface of the event or dialogue, and it is the potential intention of the characters that the audience feels according to the context.

Dialogue: The words and modality of the characters in the story are the ways to express their emotions and personalities. In addition to the lines, it also includes the mood and expression pause of the characters.

Point of view (POV): People who tell stories are generally divided into subjective and objective points of view.

Background story: refers to the history before the plot begins, usually the past events and emotions that shape the characters.

Story structure: equivalent to the skeleton and blueprint of the script, it is the basis of telling stories according to time, cause and effect and space, and it is the basic support for arranging the plot and time. The common infrastructure is three-act structure and its variants.

Three-act structure: The story is divided into three acts: the beginning, the middle and the end.

Dramatic tension: it is the writer's design of story contradiction and the expectation of drama that the audience feel intentionally in the script.

Developing characters means providing each character you create with a special background, personality, action, taste and action schedule.

Character prototype: the human type summarized by Jungian psychology combined with fairy tales. Every prototype represents some kind of humanity, which is a universal unconscious feature of human beings. It is generally used as a large-scale modeling basis for character setting.

Round characters: people who are completely self-psychologically, and people who have initiative and goals in the story.

Flat personality: refers to a person who lacks spiritual depth and exists for the purpose of preaching.

High concept: refers to the film whose marketing strategy determines and guides creativity. This kind of story is usually simple in structure and rhythm, with fixed routines and the habit of watching movies with the public. The core of the story is as simple as one sentence.

B. the way of story creation:

Character drama: the contradiction and tension of the story are shaped by characters, and the protagonist constantly overcomes the restrictions and obstacles on the way forward. Such stories are called role-driven stories. Like Rain Man.

Drama: The challenges faced by the characters mainly come from external pressure, and the protagonist is forced to get involved in the incident. Such stories are called plot-driven stories. For example, a trip to Busan.

Parallel storytelling: It means that when telling a story, the audience's judgment and imagination are stimulated to participate in the story by compressing the story and switching between several plot lines, and there are multiple narrative viewpoints.

C. Common tools in drama:

Beat table: refers to the plot rhythm table summarized according to the viewing habits in the creation of high-concept movies. For example, how many minutes or pages does the script appear? It is a scientific and effective routine with reasonable plot details and turning points. Professional writers use it to get twice the result with half the effort.

Arc: graphically analyze the plot trend or the growth trajectory and intersection between characters. Methodological writers will adjust the script according to the curve.

Scene card: number the scenes and write a brief summary of each scene on the index card.

Board: a panel for arranging scene cards, which is used to adjust and switch events and scenes. Making good use of storyboards can make every scene and event a more flexible part.

D. terminology of the basic process of drama:

Step 1:

Logline: also known as one-line, it is called "one-sentence plot summary" in jargon. This sentence will imply plot conflict, story main line, audience and even theme. It is the starting point of creativity and the most concentrated essence of the whole script. Many experienced screenwriters will start with the premise of the story. It is also the benchmark for most companies to test the level of screenwriters.

Step two:

Synopsis/handling: At first, it strictly refers to the script without dialogue, but now in the industry, it usually refers to the summary of the story around logline. Summarize the main content of the story with a short summary story. It should be noted that the outline is no longer divided into short outline and simple outline.

Step 3:

Break a story: before writing an outline in detail, find a major turning point in the story, usually a turning point between scenes. Generally, it can be applied to filming.

Step 4:

Character setting: the plan of character background story and the trend of character characteristics in the story. (This step can be flexibly adjusted according to whether the story is character-driven or plot-driven. )

You can generally enter the briefing/proposal stage here.

Step five:

Recommendation: Tell stories, sell ideas and show plans to potential buyers.

Step 6:

Outline: A list of each play that will appear in the script. In fact, it is the perfection of the rhythm table. Each scene is specific to a story line with a beginning and an end. The outline is generally the first payment link in the script development process. After you finish the story outline, you enter the scene outline.

Step 7:

First draft of the script: the first version of the script based on the completed story deconstruction and outline code.

Step 8:

Rewrite: An important revision of a script, including remolding a role and creating a new role or drama.

Step 9:

The second draft of the script: the second version of the script revised after receiving feedback from the producer.

Step 10:

Lock-in: The producer checks and approves the final draft of the outline or script. (It's definitely not that good. I may have to rewrite the n draft countless times, and the project can still get to this point. )

Step 1 1:

Touch-up: A careful revision of a script, usually to make each scene more compact, perfect the dialogue, or adjust it to a shooting book.

Step 12:

Shoot the script: adjust the script to the final script for shooting.

Follow-up is the adjustment and modification according to the actual situation in shooting. Don't say anything about dunning. ...

E. film production and budget terminology

Three stages of film production:

Pre-production: all the activities before shooting, including budgeting, finalizing the cast, modifying the script, exploring location reconnaissance, setting up the scene, compiling the production board (where each scene was shot at that time) and hiring staff. The pre-production stage may take months or even years to arrange everything and let the film start shooting.

Production; From the beginning of camera operation to the completion position of main shooting work. Duration from four weeks to twenty weeks or longer; The average production cycle of movies in large studios is about 80 days.

Post-production; After the production stage is completed, enter the post-production stage. When all the scenes were shot, the editor began to make the film. Then add visual effects, and edit and score the sound. If the actor can't hear the lines clearly or the breath is wrong, he has to record the dialogue again. Post lasts for several months, usually about ten weeks after it is fixed. Only the director can cut first.

Film budget can be divided into "online expenditure" and "offline expenditure"

On-line cost: a "huge sum" project related to whether a film can be made, including the royalties of songbooks and the remuneration of directors, producers, screenwriters and actors.

Offline cost: the cost related to actual production. Factory shed rent, landscaping and service fees (furniture and props), equipment purchase and lease, venue fees, truck fees, employee salaries, living expenses in remote locations, meals, extra legal fees, music and editing fees.

F. Basic terms and functions of commonly used lenses:

Change of focus: A person with sharp focus walks into a group of vague people, which can reveal his uncertainty about the future. If a character moves from a blurred background to a clearly focused foreground, his value or priority can be "clarified".

Low-angle camera: presenting a character from an upward angle will make him/her look powerful. This is also called "hero shooting".

High-angle camera: Looking down at a person can convey that he/she is powerless and insignificant.

Inclined Dutch horn: the horizontal line is inclined, indicating a problem, or a physiological and psychological imbalance.

Over-the-shot: indicates that the character is in a vulnerable state.

Jitter/handheld shooting: It can project the feeling of being in the center of a storm and being submerged, such as in a busy emergency room or a crime scene.

To be continued.