The creative process

This is an often heard term within interviews featuring those involved in a media production. As regards the process used in screenwriting for film and Tv fictional work, and to some extent a solicited novel, a breakdown of its sequence is as follows.
STAGE 1 : Inspiration
Unlike the routine definition within dictionaries, this is equal to an inkling. It can occur at any time or place, but only if you have a sufficient imagination. In particular, a writer has to make a connection between a starting-point and whether its viable for development. A fine example of this founding stage, is the train scene that occurred in the Tv-movie of JK Rowling's life story, as that scene was based upon an interview revelation of when and where she 'exactly' came up with the basis for the globally famous Harry potter novels. For a variation of this, as regards the famous scientist Galileo , historians went onto to call a similar event a eureka moment, which hence is the scientific equivalent to this writers moment.
STAGE 2 : Conceptualisation
The basic or general idea thought up in 'stage 1' above would now need to verbalised in a statement, which is basically a sentence or two. Though a single sentence should really conjure up the gist. This initial write-up acts as a reminder an steering point from which a finished script would have to be based on. It also serves as the 'storyline' - though it may change somewhat by the time the script has been completed. Also, this first line would eventually become the log line for its script within the film industry. Another term for this is a 'tag line', however this has mutated into becoming a slogan-ish variation, so as to be added to a film marketing campaign. The popular website IMDB.com uses this term to appear beneath a films 'storyline' paragraph.
STAGE 3 : Outline
At this stage, at least a semi-professional attitude would surface so as to verbally illustrate 'stage 2'. It would take the form of a paragraph of several lines. Though could be longer if its plot is complicated. An outline is not longer than a page.
* The 'pitch' is a physical interactive process of which the aforementioned 'outline' is delivered as a proposal. But it rarely jumps to this event before the stages below occur.
STAGE 4 : the Treatment
This terms appears in documentaries which re-tell the story behind a famous film production. A lengthy documentary for example was made about the sci-fi hit bladerunner, an thus discussions regarding its pre-scripting mentioned this word. As to what this term means, it refers to work done by a writer to the 'outline' - where it would be expanded to several pages.
STAGE 5 : Draft zero
The 'treatment' is expanded into a set of acts, 5 for a 45 min Tv-episode or 10 for a film/movie, or 2 for a sitcom. When the story has ended, the script is 'complete' - though not 'finished'. In connection to this as a matter of definition, in the 1990s a court-case in the USA between Joan Collins and her publisher, eventually hung over a technical point as to whether a novel she wrote was complete or finished, an so what was the difference, with the publishers copy editor also taking the stand to confirm a manuscripts status as regards what state it was in. Specifically 'draft zero' refers to the very first version of a script, before its even been read-back by its writer. Therefore its 'complete' as it contains a beginning , middle, and end, an hence forms a proper 'story'. Although its not 'finished' by contrast, as little to much extra work may need to be applied to it.
Controversy
It was the aforementioned court-case that contested that if the submitted manuscript was 'finished' when in fact the copy-editor testimony revealed its non-sensical plot details showed it needed to be re-read by its author to rectify errors. Oddly enough the publisher still lost the case, though no novels were since published. This meant the writer, joan collins, had submitted a 'draft 0' and expected the publishers editing staff to 'finish' her manuscript.
STAGE 6 : Draft 1
This is the finished script as regards its status from its writers perspective.
STAGE 7 : intermediate drafts
These are single or multi-writer versions of 'draft-1' In the film business there can be many turning points along a scripts development. The screenplay for the film master and commander experienced a turning point of where the French vessel was originally an American vessel of the U.S navy. The website IMDB mentions this but doesn’t state why change was made - the answer being the attack of the world trade centre pushed a rewrite of whom the films villains would be, with a more USA-friendly outcome being the final drafted version.
STAGE 8 : Final draft
This is the script version that a film studio is happy with, an so from this stage it then gets a green-light for production.
References
stage 1 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308533/
stage 4 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1080585/
stage 5 - http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/joan-collins-wins-lawsuit-against-random-house
stage 7 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/trivia
External links
* Purdue Online Writing Lab
* Harvard student writing guides
* Resources for Writers, from MIT's Online Writing and Communication Center
* Writing Resources, from Princeton's Writing Center
* What Good Writers Know, from Yale's Writing Center
* BBC raw words guide to the writing process BBC raw - skills for everyday life
* CNF's Armchair Guide to Stunt Writing
*

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu