Two Things Screenwriters Should Know About Action Lines In A Screenplay by David Wappel
[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: You had a Tweet recently about action lines and it received lots of engagement. Can we start with what action lines are aimed to do?
David Wappel, Screenwriter: Action lines are aimed to accomplish two things:
- Tell you what is happening;
- How we see what is happening.
You can use words to sort of secretly cue your reader into how they should be seeing what is happening.
I think one of the coolest parts of screenwriting is that we can use words to cue in the reader’s brain how they see what is happening even without telling them how they should see what is happening.
Film Courage: Let’s hear an example, so if we were to say…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]