#stepoutline

you will also need a step outline

BUILDING YOUR DAMN STEP OUTLINE

The step outline is a very important tool to the scriptwriter once the synopsis is in place.

It is a fairly long document in which you will summarize each of the sequences of your film in a few simple sentences.

Every character appears in the step outline, the side stories are mentioned and so are the decors.

Often, young screenwriters, once their synopsis is written, immediately start writing the screenplay, which they will later regret.

By completely developing the story, without the obstacles that are the dialogues and the descriptions, and by focusing solely on the narrative structure, the ups and downs of the story, the author can focus on the story’s problems and how to solve them.

You will only detail the descriptions of the decors, the secondary characters and work on the dialogues in depth later.

Example; 

“AIRPLANE CABIN - EVENING

It’s Christmas and JOHN MCCLANE is sitting nervously amongst the passengers as the plane comes in to land. The salesman next to him can see he’s anxious and explains that he’s been business travelling for nine years and in that time has found that the best way to get over jet lag is to make fist with your toes ! 

McClane takes it on board and gets his belongings together, inadvertently revealing the butt of his HANDGUN. The salesman looks nervous until McClane explains that he’s a New York DETECTIVE and has been doing it for eleven years.

The scene establishes our protagonist as being “only human” and adds a little light comic relief. The fact that McClane has a sense of humour is important to the audience empathizing with his later reaction to dramatic and potentially hazardous events.”

-Die Hard (1988) Dir: John McTiernan.

Part 1 (pitch) here

Part 2 (synopsis) here

Part 4 (treatment) here

Part 5 (statement of intent) here

Part 6 (script) here