Script

A script is a written document which explains a visual story such as a film or a television program. It includes mainly dialogue with some instructions about how a scene should look and where the action should take place.

A script follows a specific layout. It is usually broken down into scenes (which can be compared to the use of chapters in a book) to break up the story.

A script can go through many drafts as it is refined by the writer/s. This first draft script and second draft script, from The Genie Down Under 2, gives an idea of the changes that can be made to a script.

These drafts are adapted and ultimately result in a final draft called the shooting script. The shooting script is what the director and the crew will use to shoot the film or television program. As the program goes into production, any amendments are printed on different coloured pages which are slotted into the existing shooting script so any changes are obvious to the cast and crew.

When analysing each script look carefully at the characters, dialogue and costume descriptions and note the amendments. Why do you think each of these changes may have been made?

A Release Script or Post Production Script is made from the finished production. It records the characters' dialogue against a time code and there are no descriptions of actions. This is used for marketing purposes when selling the program and for dubbing into other languages.

Storyboard

Directors sometimes use a storyboard to plan how they might film a scene. This is also often done for a difficult or complicated scene or sequence, or one with special effects (SPFX).

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A storyboard looks like a comic strip and shows the key images of the scene in a sequence. Storyboarding allows the film maker to 'see' what the words say in the script. The drawings are rough and show the use of different camera shots such as close-up, mid shots and long shots throughout the scene, and from which angles the audience will be seeing the action.

Director Stephen Johnson (who was directing drama for the first time) began planning ways he might approach the courtroom scene in episode ten, 'The Opal is a Boomerang', in the series The Genie from Down Under 2.

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