Only My Scriptwriting

My Establishing Shots

My Establishing Shots

I have written a lot of blogs about my Establishing Shots. And I have explained them a little from time to time, I think. But I haven’t really explained them too well. It’s about time that I did that. No pun intended. Of course, I have a lot to write about besides my Establishing Shots. But they are a big part of these scripts too.

For every Act, I start out with two Establishing Shots. But that isn’t exactly true. It is a two-scene introduction aka Scene 1 and Scene 1A. Scene 1B is the actual scene for these Acts. But there aren’t just two single paragraphs. The Scene 1 usually only has one single paragraph. There are normally two single paragraphs for Scene 1A.

The Scene Heading for Scene 1 is ‘EXT. THE PLANET OF POULASK – SPACE.’ And the Scene Heading for Scene 1A is ‘EXT./INT. THE WATER OF POULASK – DAY (NIGHT).’ My reason for the second Scene Heading is that there will be two single paragraphs for that Scene Heading. The first one is after we get to Poulask.

My second Scene Heading for this Scene is for after we enter the water there. That’s why I have the Scene Heading like it is. And why I have two single paragraphs in that Establishing Shot. That is how I start each one of my Acts for the scripts in my Water Wars scriptwriting projects. It’s not the only time I use them, though.

It doesn’t happen too often. But I do use Establishing Shots besides the beginning of my Act to introduce a new INT. Scene Heading. If I remember correctly, I did that a lot during my two-part Movie Introduction. Especially, I did it in Part One. I haven’t done it too much in my television scripts so far. If I have done them at all.

That’s enough for ‘My Establish Shots.’ Now it’s time to write about what I have done today. it has been a great day for my writing. Not only did I finish writing Act Four of Episode Two, Not Hiding in Darkness, but I also started writing the Tag Act for this episode. That explains why I have been explaining my Establishing Shots.

Earlier today at work I got thirty-eight single paragraphs written and eleven scenes. Broken down, I did eight scenes to end Act Four and three scenes to start off the Tag Act. That also breaks down to twenty-six single paragraphs to end Act Four and twelve single paragraphs to start the Tag Act. Of course, that includes the three Establishing Shots.

What does that mean for this episode? It means that I only have seventeen more scenes and about fifty-five single paragraphs to end this episode. I should be able to do that tomorrow at work. After all, I usually get about eighteen to twenty-one or twenty-two scenes on a Saturday and about sixty to sixty-five single paragraphs.