Debbie Moon at 2012-03-08 14:43:38:
This is a really interesting technique. Very effective for action sequences. But I do wonder if a whole script of it would be quite hard to read - it's quite an aggressive and punchy style, isn't it? Mind you, I could see it being a really powerful style for short sections of a script...
Scott at 2012-03-08 16:21:23:
Debbie, that's one of the considerations: Can a script sustain this stylistic choice and that is almost entirely tied to Narrative Voice. If it's an action movie, it works really well. Tomorrow I will feature an excerpt from the script that inspired Stanton to write this way for Wall-E and that is Alien [Walter Hill draft]. But if you're writing a drama, this style may not work so well. There are hybrid approaches. If you read early Shane Black scripts like "The Last Boy Scout," you'll see what I mean. That approach you can use in a wider variety of genres and stories. But the straight haiku style for 100+ pages, you have to be very careful that it works in concert with your Narrative Voice.