How to write for the camera
Screenwriters are constantly reminded that they are not directors. Their job is not to write camera movements. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t ways of communicating particular shots without violating this screenwriting taboo. Over at TriggerStreet, there is a nice article about some great films in which the writers give a clear idea of where a camera might be placed. The article gives four examples and includes the excerpts from the screenplays: Blade Runner, Dark City, Chinatown, and The Long Kiss Goodnight.
One of my favorite shots that was “written into the script” is in Steven Soderbergh’s The Limey. In one scene, Wilson (Terrance Stamp) is thrown out of a warehouse where he was asking too many questions. He picks himself up from ground, dusts himself off, and pulls a gun from the back of his pants. He walks back into the warehouse but the camera stays outside. We hear gunshots and see muzzle flashes in the distance and then a teenage employee runs away. Wilson emerges and shouts after the boy, “Tell him I’m coming.” Writer Lem Dobbs and director Steven Soderbergh discuss the relationship between the screenplay and the finished film all througout a great commentary track on The Limey dvd.
Why would you want to do this?
This is an important question to ask. If you are a writer and not a director, why would you write in a way that implies specific camera movements? Can’t a real director do a better job? The answer is yes, and she will, but she’s not the only person you are writing for. People reading your script will be trying to imagine it on screen. The kind of visual imagination that can turn the printed words into a concrete image of the scene as it might appear in a movie, is rarer than people think. Think of this as giving your readers a little help.