Seasonal movies: This is how to write a good seasonal film

The method or style you use to present, write on, manage and explore every component of a screenplay will determine the type of screenplay it will become.
Some of the components of a screenplay are 
1. Dialogues
2. Actions
3. Ideas, 
4. Story, 
5. Characters
6. Theme, 
7. Conflict, 
8. Settings, 
9. Timing, 
10. Directions and more.

Some screenplays are long while the others are short; this is as a result of the exploration of those components of a screenplay. Exploration simply means;
(i)how much you write on each of the components
(ii)how long you write on the components
(iii)how you sequence and arrange the components
(iv)the manner in which you present the components

Now let's see how to explore the components in order to obtain a good seasonal movie

• DIALOGUES

No doubt, seasonal films are more of dialogue driven films. The characters have more words to speak than more actions to perform. Sometimes these words sound louder than actions. They appear more active than the main actions themselves.
For the dialogues to be more active than the actions, they do not need to be ordinary dialogues. They need to be dialogues that pulse out the heart of the story the film is showcasing.
They need to be dialogues full of 'clash' of words.
The dialogues should be active, intimidating, emotional, impactful, and full of suspense, engaging, intriguing, and most of all showing the way into the story.
The writer can attain these by trying as much as possible to make sure the dialogues of his characters are directly teaching the audience what they need to learn about the theme of the film.

• IDEAS

A seasonal movie has a lot of dimensions; therefore the ideas that yield it must also have a lot of dimensions.
The script writer must brainstorm on a lot of ideas.
He must be exposed to several events. He must go through a lot of life experiences. He must be versatile in knowledge. He must always be ready to evaluate environmental happenings.
Seasonal movies teach a lot of things to its audience; therefore any writer writing a script for a seasonal movie must gather a lot of ideas.
Ideas are the bedrock of any development in script writing. They are borne through the series of imaginations that run through the mind. They form part of the mind, and then wait patiently to be furnished and developed.
All a script writer does is to concentrate these ideas, process them and then transform them into what he wants to write.
The means of concentrating, processing, transforming and developing these ideas into scripts depends on the purpose of the script. If the script is for a seasonal movie, then the ideas should be multidimensional.

• STORY

In a seasonal movie, a particular story is stretched long enough to spread over the whole length of the movie.
This method of stretching involves the infiltration of smaller stories into the big, main umbrella story. This infiltration helps in the elongation of the main story.
In the course of the movie, at a particular time, attention focuses on one of the smaller stories. At another time, attention focuses on another smaller story.
As this goes on, these smaller stories which are integral part of the main story help in manifesting the main story. This could be said that the main story is a function of the integral stories.
Only one particular story alone cannot complete a seasonal film. It has to be elongated.
This is where a script-writer shows his skill in writing a seasonal movie. The script-writer should develop all those lots of ideas into main stories and integral stories.
The integral stories do combine to form the main story; so all the script-writer has to do is to explore them. He has to be writing on them randomly but in a definite manner.
At a particular time he explores a bit of one of them, at another time he explores a bit of another one, and after the third one, he can decide to explore a bit of the first one before going into the fourth one. All he has to do is to be very careful so as not to confuse his audience.
This process of exploration creates all the episodes we have in seasonal films. A collection of a substantial number of episodes makes up the season one of the film. Another collection makes up the season two; and so on.

• THEME

Just like the explanation in the last subheading, there is a big main umbrella theme which has inside it the integral themes.
Both the main theme and the integral themes are in the integral stories that make up the main story.
So as a script writer writes on the integral themes, it helps to drive the main theme which in turn drives both the integral stories and the main story.
Simply put, in writing a seasonal movie, the script writer has to explore many smaller themes that aim at connecting with each other at the end to form the main theme.
All these may sound atomic, but one thing is that you wouldn't know when you would finally complete a whole seasonal movie if you tenaciously write it in this atomic levels.
A theme is the meaning of a story. It is the message a story sends to its audience.
The theme of a story is the main subject of that story. It is the main reason for that story.
A story cannot be a complete story if it has no theme. It is the theme of a story that actually gives it the drive to move on.

• CHARACTERS

For a script-writer to be able to write a seasonal film, he also has to position his characters to help him.
Characters' activities are the main carrier of the story, the theme and many other elements of a screenplay. It's the characters' activities that give an entity to the screenplay or the film.
The circumstances surrounding the characters determine how far they push the screenplay forward.
For a seasonal movie to be feasible, the writer has to make his characters have many internal conflicts.
Apart from the external conflict which is the major conflict in a screenplay, characters should have their own personal problems.
These personal problems if not solved, will never allow them solve the external problem. The process of eliminating internal conflicts in order to face and conquer the external conflicts drags and elongates the screenplay.

• CONFLICT

Similar to the last subheading, for a script-writer to be able to write a seasonal film, he has to build enough internal conflicts around his characters.

• ACTIONS

Every story has its actions. Action accompanies and completes the process of a story. All the activities by the characters are all regarded as actions.
But then there are higher actions apart from the normal actions. These higher actions can be regarded as points of thrills. They are the points of the climax of a particular action. These points are the points the audience look up to. They are the points that create a lot of suspense and intrigues.
In a seasonal film, these points are not supposed to show up always. The script-writer has to regulate them so that he will not run out of them. He has to manage them so that they can last as long as the whole screenplay. But he has to make them pop up within short intervals so that the audience would regularly be hypnotized.
This is to say that the writer has to create enough points of thrills so that he won't run out of them no matter what happens.

• SETTINGS

Since we are dealing with seasonal film, the settings are allowed to change from urban, semi urban, rural, to semi rural. The backgrounds are also allowed to change. Things tend to change as we transit from one small story to another. The writer should just take note of this.


Written by: Winston 'Winny Greazy' Oge

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