We've done a lot with script format recently, so I wanted each group to do a little work with a section from a book set in middle school to start thinking out scenes and how to film them. Here are our choices.
MILO – Section One
By Alan Silberberg
One thing about a new school is they always mess up your name so that by the end of your first week no one has a clue who you really are. To be honest, getting called the wrong name is one thing that I actually like. Bob. Steve. Rick. Those are the kind of names that put you smack in the middle of the Cool Name Club.
When you have a Cool Name Club name, it doesn’t even matter what you look like. You just know you’re destined for great things, like Student Council or the lead in a school play, which hopefully is not a musical because no matter what name you have, you’re still an A-1 Klutz King!
But Milo Cruikshank is not the name of the guy who plays Macbeth. That’s the name of a kid who maybe gets to help out backstage and just gets in the way and probably doesn’t even get his name in the program. Milo Kruikshank is a loser name, which is obviously why it belongs to me.
[Use a series of pictures to show Bob, Steve and Rick, a short close-up of each of the three guys. Remember that Milo's a nerd, so the guys he envisions with the cool names should be dashing, handsome, and twenty times more popular than him.]
__________
MILO – Section Two
By Alan Silberberg
Finally, a boy who I swear smelled like a can of cat food had been rubbed all over his body shows and simply says, “Follow me.” And then he silently leads me down the empty hallway where kids inside classes watch us through their open doors as if I am being escorted to the electric chair.
“You’ll like it here,” Cat Food Boy says as he picks his nose. “Everyone does.”
But what he doesn’t know – what I know too well – is that I’m not like “everyone.” I’m much more of a “no one” kind of guy, so I know right away that the chances of me liking Forest Grove are like a million to zip.
And then, just before we turn the corner to go up to the second floor where my locker is, I see her, the pretty girl from the Pit Stop, sitting perfectly in her front-row chair looking out the door at Cat Food Boy and me. I want to wave, but my arms are too full with all the books they've given me; so I smile instead, and this is how cool she is: she doesn't smile back. Awesome!
[Use point of view to show Milo looking at the girl through the door.]
__________
MILO – Section Three
By Alan Silberberg
“You’re Milo.” This comes from a girl to my left, and since I don’t know her, I decide to play it cool in case she is some sort of spy and wants to steal my locker combination, which luckily for me, I have already forgotten. “You live on my street.” She keeps walking with me, even though I am not doing the double-time quick walk. “Next door, actually. Weird, huh?”
Now, lots of things in life are weird, but the face that this girl lives in a house that happens to be next door to mine just doesn’t hold a candle to something totally weird, like a guy who can hammer nails into his nose. I don’t say any of this to her. I just stop walking and nod and say, “Yeah. Really weird.” And then we both just stand there.
“Okay then,” she says. “See ya around.”
And then she walks off and I am free, and the sweat on my upper lip and I breathe a sigh of relief until I hear the sound of someone running.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you my name. Hillary Alpert," she says, thrusting her hand out at me like it's one of those levers you pull on a slot machine. "Next-door-neighbor-extraordinaire!"
By the time I got home, there was a purple note taped to our front door that read Nice to meet ya, Milo!! And it was signed with her name.
[Since this is a face to face conversation, we will film the scene all the way through TWICE: once facing Milo in an OTS, and once again facing Hillary the same way. This way, we only have to move the camera once instead of going back and forth for every shot.]
__________
MILO – Section Four
By Alan Silberberg
I like October, first of all, because it means September has finally bit the dust, and, second, because the air starts to get cool enough to wear my hooded sweatshirts, which I love because of the fact that they make me feel invisible, like a superpower that goes in effect as soon as I close out the world by popping the hood over my head.
“Being invisible is a wimpy power,” Marshall says.
“Oh, really? Well, you can’t see me, so you don’t know I am laughing in your face!” I say.
“Laser vision. Teleportation. Shape-shifting. Those are real superpowers.” That’s Marshall, and his list always changes, but you get the point.
“Even right now – you can’t see me,” I say, making a weird face at him.
“But I can smell you.” That’s his favorite line. Then we laugh.
[Use OTS for each guy as they talk. We'll film this one in the cafeteria.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section One
By Tom Angleberger
Our teacher, Ms. Nelson, asked Dwight to introduce himself. But he didn’t really want to say much.
I’ve heard that you do something really unique, Dwight,” said Ms. Nelson. “I’ve heard that you do or-i-gam-i.”
“My mom doesn’t want me to do origami at this school,” mumbled Dwight. “I got into trouble at my old school.”
“Dwight,” said Ms. Brendle, “you know that I’ve already talked to your mom about that. You won’t get into trouble for your origami here. In fact, I think it would be great if you would show everyone how to make something. Wouldn’t it be great, class? I’ve heard Dwight knows how to make an origami yoga! Could you teach us how to make an origami yoga, Dwight?”
“It’s Yoda,” he mumbled.
So he did! Mine turned out lopsided, but it still looked like Yoda. Then Ms. Nelson gave us free time to draw faces on our Yodas.
“Class, let’s use our Yoda finger puppets to welcome Dwight into our classroom! Or as Yoda would say, ‘Welcome to our classroom, you are!’”
“Welcome to our classroom, you are!” (said all the students).
[Think about when you want to show the whole class, and when you want to cut to a CU or a MS of an individual person.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section Two
By Tom Angleberger
“Dwight, look at tonight’s homework,” I said. “We’re going to have to copy all those sentences out of the book and fill in the blanks. Nelson makes us write complete sentences for everything.”
“I hate complete sentences,” Dwight said.
“Well, uh, we were hoping your Yoda could help us find a way so we don’t have to do it.”
I don’t want to sound like I’m making fun of Dwight, because I would never do that because he is a great little dude, but if that was supposed to be a Yoda impression, it was a really, really bad one.
“Complete sentences you must write. Patience and discipline you must learn.”
I was like “What? Dude, I though you said you hated complete sentences.”
“I do,” said Dwight.
“You’re not making any sense!” I said.
Then Tyler held up his own origami Yoda and said in a perfect Yoda voice, “Fast and sloppy you may write. Take off points, Nelson does not.”
Neil, this other guy, had been folding a piece of scrap paper into a Yoda and held it up and said, “Many abbreviations you may use. Read the whole thing Nelson does not, hmmm?”
Even McCallie did it! “Write sentences in front of the TV, I do. Thinking is required not.”
So again, not to be mean, but Dwight’s Yoda gave us the lamest advice and the other Yodas all gave good advice. So I don’t really see how Dwight could have solved all of your problems at the old school. But that’s okay, because he’s really great!
[This scene will take place at a group of desks with lots of students talking. Draw a little map before you begin. Who will sit at each desk? You'll need to know when you storyboard.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section Three
By Tom Angleberger
The snot trooper things happened the day before, when Mr. Good Clean Fun did his Holiday Health and Hygiene Hoedown. He did a big thing about not sneezing into your hand when you have a cold.
“Germs don’t make good presents!”
Then he and his monkey puppet, Soapy, demonstrated how to make a Kleenex.
Well, the ironic thing is that while we were watching all this, I had to blow my nose for real!
Anyway, my nose was running, and of course there were no tissues anywhere – except the one Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy were using.
I tried sniffling, but the mucus was past the points of no return. I was pretty tempted to ask Mr. Good Clean Fun if I could borrow Soapy’s used tissue when I saw that Harvey had been very, very quietly folding origami instead of paying attention.
“Hey, can I see it?” I whispered.
He held it up. It was a pretty good snowtrooper, but of course, I wasn’t going to tell him that. Instead, I took it, and, well, let’s just say I didn’t need a Kleenex anymore.
Then he flipped out. I didn’t see it coming until all of a sudden, he’s yelling and EVERYBODY is looking at us and Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy have stopped singing “We Wish You a Merry Mucus” and the teacher’s face is red.
“OUT! All three of you!” he roared. “What on earth are you hardheads doing, anyway?”
“Tommy just blew his nose on my snowtrooper!”
“Correction,” whispered Kellen. “Snot trooper.”
[This one also goes back and forth between the front of the room and the students at their desks. Who will sit where? Map it out.]
__________
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
By Tom Angleberger
[Kellen leans over the sink to wash his hands and gets water on the front of his tan pants.]
“Ugh! Look at my pants, Dwight. You got any ideas?”
“I’m getting the idea that you peed in your pants.”
“No, I didn’t. And I meant do you have any ideas that would help me?”
“No,” he said, and then he held up his Origami Yoda, which was on his finger. “But Yoda might.”
“Whatever,” I said.
Then Dwight did his Yoda voice, which Harvey is right about being totally the worst Yoda impression of all time. I do it a lot better.
But anyway, Yoda said, “All of your pants you must wet.”
“What?”
“I guess,” said Dwight in his normal voice, “he means you need to make all of your pants wet so it doesn’t look like a pee stain anymore. Then he left for class.
I turned on the water and splashed myself all over. My pants and shirt, too. Then I ran to class and got there just before Mr. Howell was shutting the door.
“Should I even ask why you’re all wet, Kellen,” asked Mr. Howell?
“Nope,” I said, and sat down real quick.
Everybody wondered why I was wet, and sure, it was cold and uncomfortable for a while, but the important thing is that I didn’t get sent to the office, I didn’t lose my PlayStation for two weeks, and nobody – including Rhondella – thought I had peed in my pants! That’s when I knew that Origami Yoda is for real, man! He’s totally Jedi wise!
__________
Things to remember as you script.
MILO – Section One
By Alan Silberberg
One thing about a new school is they always mess up your name so that by the end of your first week no one has a clue who you really are. To be honest, getting called the wrong name is one thing that I actually like. Bob. Steve. Rick. Those are the kind of names that put you smack in the middle of the Cool Name Club.
When you have a Cool Name Club name, it doesn’t even matter what you look like. You just know you’re destined for great things, like Student Council or the lead in a school play, which hopefully is not a musical because no matter what name you have, you’re still an A-1 Klutz King!
But Milo Cruikshank is not the name of the guy who plays Macbeth. That’s the name of a kid who maybe gets to help out backstage and just gets in the way and probably doesn’t even get his name in the program. Milo Kruikshank is a loser name, which is obviously why it belongs to me.
[Use a series of pictures to show Bob, Steve and Rick, a short close-up of each of the three guys. Remember that Milo's a nerd, so the guys he envisions with the cool names should be dashing, handsome, and twenty times more popular than him.]
__________
MILO – Section Two
By Alan Silberberg
Finally, a boy who I swear smelled like a can of cat food had been rubbed all over his body shows and simply says, “Follow me.” And then he silently leads me down the empty hallway where kids inside classes watch us through their open doors as if I am being escorted to the electric chair.
“You’ll like it here,” Cat Food Boy says as he picks his nose. “Everyone does.”
But what he doesn’t know – what I know too well – is that I’m not like “everyone.” I’m much more of a “no one” kind of guy, so I know right away that the chances of me liking Forest Grove are like a million to zip.
And then, just before we turn the corner to go up to the second floor where my locker is, I see her, the pretty girl from the Pit Stop, sitting perfectly in her front-row chair looking out the door at Cat Food Boy and me. I want to wave, but my arms are too full with all the books they've given me; so I smile instead, and this is how cool she is: she doesn't smile back. Awesome!
[Use point of view to show Milo looking at the girl through the door.]
__________
MILO – Section Three
By Alan Silberberg
“You’re Milo.” This comes from a girl to my left, and since I don’t know her, I decide to play it cool in case she is some sort of spy and wants to steal my locker combination, which luckily for me, I have already forgotten. “You live on my street.” She keeps walking with me, even though I am not doing the double-time quick walk. “Next door, actually. Weird, huh?”
Now, lots of things in life are weird, but the face that this girl lives in a house that happens to be next door to mine just doesn’t hold a candle to something totally weird, like a guy who can hammer nails into his nose. I don’t say any of this to her. I just stop walking and nod and say, “Yeah. Really weird.” And then we both just stand there.
“Okay then,” she says. “See ya around.”
And then she walks off and I am free, and the sweat on my upper lip and I breathe a sigh of relief until I hear the sound of someone running.
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you my name. Hillary Alpert," she says, thrusting her hand out at me like it's one of those levers you pull on a slot machine. "Next-door-neighbor-extraordinaire!"
By the time I got home, there was a purple note taped to our front door that read Nice to meet ya, Milo!! And it was signed with her name.
[Since this is a face to face conversation, we will film the scene all the way through TWICE: once facing Milo in an OTS, and once again facing Hillary the same way. This way, we only have to move the camera once instead of going back and forth for every shot.]
__________
MILO – Section Four
By Alan Silberberg
I like October, first of all, because it means September has finally bit the dust, and, second, because the air starts to get cool enough to wear my hooded sweatshirts, which I love because of the fact that they make me feel invisible, like a superpower that goes in effect as soon as I close out the world by popping the hood over my head.
“Being invisible is a wimpy power,” Marshall says.
“Oh, really? Well, you can’t see me, so you don’t know I am laughing in your face!” I say.
“Laser vision. Teleportation. Shape-shifting. Those are real superpowers.” That’s Marshall, and his list always changes, but you get the point.
“Even right now – you can’t see me,” I say, making a weird face at him.
“But I can smell you.” That’s his favorite line. Then we laugh.
[Use OTS for each guy as they talk. We'll film this one in the cafeteria.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section One
By Tom Angleberger
Our teacher, Ms. Nelson, asked Dwight to introduce himself. But he didn’t really want to say much.
I’ve heard that you do something really unique, Dwight,” said Ms. Nelson. “I’ve heard that you do or-i-gam-i.”
“My mom doesn’t want me to do origami at this school,” mumbled Dwight. “I got into trouble at my old school.”
“Dwight,” said Ms. Brendle, “you know that I’ve already talked to your mom about that. You won’t get into trouble for your origami here. In fact, I think it would be great if you would show everyone how to make something. Wouldn’t it be great, class? I’ve heard Dwight knows how to make an origami yoga! Could you teach us how to make an origami yoga, Dwight?”
“It’s Yoda,” he mumbled.
So he did! Mine turned out lopsided, but it still looked like Yoda. Then Ms. Nelson gave us free time to draw faces on our Yodas.
“Class, let’s use our Yoda finger puppets to welcome Dwight into our classroom! Or as Yoda would say, ‘Welcome to our classroom, you are!’”
“Welcome to our classroom, you are!” (said all the students).
[Think about when you want to show the whole class, and when you want to cut to a CU or a MS of an individual person.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section Two
By Tom Angleberger
“Dwight, look at tonight’s homework,” I said. “We’re going to have to copy all those sentences out of the book and fill in the blanks. Nelson makes us write complete sentences for everything.”
“I hate complete sentences,” Dwight said.
“Well, uh, we were hoping your Yoda could help us find a way so we don’t have to do it.”
I don’t want to sound like I’m making fun of Dwight, because I would never do that because he is a great little dude, but if that was supposed to be a Yoda impression, it was a really, really bad one.
“Complete sentences you must write. Patience and discipline you must learn.”
I was like “What? Dude, I though you said you hated complete sentences.”
“I do,” said Dwight.
“You’re not making any sense!” I said.
Then Tyler held up his own origami Yoda and said in a perfect Yoda voice, “Fast and sloppy you may write. Take off points, Nelson does not.”
Neil, this other guy, had been folding a piece of scrap paper into a Yoda and held it up and said, “Many abbreviations you may use. Read the whole thing Nelson does not, hmmm?”
Even McCallie did it! “Write sentences in front of the TV, I do. Thinking is required not.”
So again, not to be mean, but Dwight’s Yoda gave us the lamest advice and the other Yodas all gave good advice. So I don’t really see how Dwight could have solved all of your problems at the old school. But that’s okay, because he’s really great!
[This scene will take place at a group of desks with lots of students talking. Draw a little map before you begin. Who will sit at each desk? You'll need to know when you storyboard.]
__________
THE SECRET OF THE FORTUNE WOOKIE – Section Three
By Tom Angleberger
The snot trooper things happened the day before, when Mr. Good Clean Fun did his Holiday Health and Hygiene Hoedown. He did a big thing about not sneezing into your hand when you have a cold.
“Germs don’t make good presents!”
Then he and his monkey puppet, Soapy, demonstrated how to make a Kleenex.
Well, the ironic thing is that while we were watching all this, I had to blow my nose for real!
Anyway, my nose was running, and of course there were no tissues anywhere – except the one Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy were using.
I tried sniffling, but the mucus was past the points of no return. I was pretty tempted to ask Mr. Good Clean Fun if I could borrow Soapy’s used tissue when I saw that Harvey had been very, very quietly folding origami instead of paying attention.
“Hey, can I see it?” I whispered.
He held it up. It was a pretty good snowtrooper, but of course, I wasn’t going to tell him that. Instead, I took it, and, well, let’s just say I didn’t need a Kleenex anymore.
Then he flipped out. I didn’t see it coming until all of a sudden, he’s yelling and EVERYBODY is looking at us and Mr. Good Clean Fun and Soapy have stopped singing “We Wish You a Merry Mucus” and the teacher’s face is red.
“OUT! All three of you!” he roared. “What on earth are you hardheads doing, anyway?”
“Tommy just blew his nose on my snowtrooper!”
“Correction,” whispered Kellen. “Snot trooper.”
[This one also goes back and forth between the front of the room and the students at their desks. Who will sit where? Map it out.]
__________
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
By Tom Angleberger
[Kellen leans over the sink to wash his hands and gets water on the front of his tan pants.]
“Ugh! Look at my pants, Dwight. You got any ideas?”
“I’m getting the idea that you peed in your pants.”
“No, I didn’t. And I meant do you have any ideas that would help me?”
“No,” he said, and then he held up his Origami Yoda, which was on his finger. “But Yoda might.”
“Whatever,” I said.
Then Dwight did his Yoda voice, which Harvey is right about being totally the worst Yoda impression of all time. I do it a lot better.
But anyway, Yoda said, “All of your pants you must wet.”
“What?”
“I guess,” said Dwight in his normal voice, “he means you need to make all of your pants wet so it doesn’t look like a pee stain anymore. Then he left for class.
I turned on the water and splashed myself all over. My pants and shirt, too. Then I ran to class and got there just before Mr. Howell was shutting the door.
“Should I even ask why you’re all wet, Kellen,” asked Mr. Howell?
“Nope,” I said, and sat down real quick.
Everybody wondered why I was wet, and sure, it was cold and uncomfortable for a while, but the important thing is that I didn’t get sent to the office, I didn’t lose my PlayStation for two weeks, and nobody – including Rhondella – thought I had peed in my pants! That’s when I knew that Origami Yoda is for real, man! He’s totally Jedi wise!
__________
Things to remember as you script.
- Copy and paste everything into Microsoft Word. Once you do, immediately press the CENTER TEXT button.
- Break your dialogue down into shots. Since this is a movie, you can probably get rid of phrases like "he said" or "she said," but keep the narration. While you hear it, do you want to see a separate shot of that person, or see what he or she is talking about? You decide.
- Shot Number and the abbreviation come first, then tell us who we see and what they're doing. This line is in bold.
- Press RETURN. The person speaking comes next, in all caps, then space, dash, space, followed by what they say. Put a blank line at the end of each shot, and also if more than one person talks in each shot. Do this as you write. Don't leave the blank lines out, then go back and add them later. Make sure the format is perfect in your current sentence before you move on to the next one.
- Get rid of all the quotation marks, and delete the words you don't need, but otherwise, don't change the text. In the past, some of us have uncapitalized proper nouns and first words. Don't be that guy. Delete the text, or leave it, but in most cases, you don't want to change it.
