The best way to learn script writing is by reading as many scripts as possible. What I’ve learned by reading scripts is that there doesn’t seem to be any rule book for formatting. Let me rephrase that because maybe “rule” is the wrong word, I think guideline may be better. There doesn’t seem to be any set-in-stone guidelines for script writing, at least not in comics. What makes script writing so interesting is that, more than anything else, what you are trying to accomplish seems simple: you want the artist to read your instructions and visually create this world that you’ve imagined. Ah.. but there is a catch, you can’t be too detailed, you have to get your point across to this artist in such a way that your vision becomes the illustrators vision. On top of all of that, you must realize that the artist will have his or her own style.
With all this in mind, I have found one of Warren Ellis’s actual scripts for the comic book “Fell” which he did with Ben Templesmith some years back. I think you will enjoy how Warren writes. The script is almost conversational, it’s like a letter to the artist. I’m posting a portion of the script here. I am also supplying a link at the end that will allow you to download the whole script in MS Word format.
FELL
1
WARREN ELLIS
FELL © Warren Ellis & Ben Templesmith 2005
PAGE ONE
Pic 1
All the pages are built on a nine-panel grid. Because they scare me. And one of the kinds of establishing shot we’re going to do, I’m going to call the PHOTO ESTABLISH.
Take one whole tier of the nine-pic-grid. On the left hand side of the grid, you have the image itself, in a frame, the size of two pics in the tier. So that’s two thirds of the tier. In the dead space that’s left, we put a yellow post-it note, with something scribbled on it, and that scribbled note is the caption. Imagine the photo’s stuck on a wall, and the post-it note is stuck next to the photo to remind the owner of what it is. Yeah? Okay, me too, but I thought we’d try it. We’ll try other things too.
And this, then, is the first PHOTO ESTABLISH: the most sinister, grey, awful five-floor tenement building you ever saw, under dull daylight.
CAPTION MY NEW HOME. I THINK MAYBE A LOT OF PEOPLE KILLED THEMSELVES HERE.
Pic 2
And from here, we go into the bottom six panels of the grid.
INT. APARTMENT: RICHARD FELL looking out the uncurtained window of the unfurnished apartment, his back to us. I’m trying not to type Flat. Apartment = Flat. Do you say Flat in Australia too? Anyway, he’s standing there, and a withered little woman REALTOR is standing on profile to his side, holding a bunch of keys.
FELL CAN I MOVE MY STUFF IN TONIGHT?
REALTOR GIMME THE MONEY, YOU CAN DO WHAT YOU LIKE WITH IT.
REALTOR IF YOU’RE GONNA SHOOT PORNO, DON’T CLOG THE DRAINS.
Pic 3
Cut to: FELL, locking the door of his new place, APT 5B according to what’s daubed on the door in orange paint. He looks over his shoulder as someone speaks. (NOTE: there’s a paperback in his pocket.)
FROM OFF CLEAR THE WAY, BUDDY. COMING THROUGH.
Pic 4;
Two ambulance men are wheeling a gurney out of a door across the hall, where a sour WOMAN in her fifties stands, smoking. There’s a body on the gurney, but a sheet is pulled over it.
WOMAN HE JUST DROPPED DEAD. REALLY.
Continued over page
Page ONE continued
Pic 5;
Fell walks to the gurney, makes a face.
FELL YOU SMELL THAT?
AMBULANCE GUY WHAT? WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM?
FELL SORRY. DETECTIVE RICHARD FELL, JUST TRANSFERRED IN FROM OVER THE BRIDGE.
Pic 6;
He pulls back the sheet, leaning in and making a face. The guy, also in his fifties, appears to have died in unspeakable agony.
FELL JESUS.
AMBULANCE GUY YEAH. HE DIDN’T GO EASY. SO?
FELL SO I CAN SMELL WHISKY. BUT IT’S NOT…
Pic 7
The wife is defensive, one arm folded across her and the other holding his cigarette up close to her lips. Fell looks across at her, as she stands in her open door.
WIFE HE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC SON OF A BITCH.
WIFE SATAN’S GOING TO BE HUMPING HIM RIGHT IN THE BUNGHOLE FOR THE NEXT MILLION YEARS, YOU MARK MY WORDS.
WIFE I LOVE JESUS.
PAGE TWO
Pic 1;
Over her shoulder: there’s a kitchen counter just inside the door, and there are booze bottles (all wine) and tubes on it. And two big empty bottles of whiskey. I have a ref photo.
(no dialogue)
Pic 2;
She steps behind the door, scowling out at us as she closes it.
WIFE QUIT YOUR NOSING.
FELL (OFF) COME DOWN TO THE STATION LATER SO WE CAN TIDY THIS UP FOR YOU?
WIFE MAYBE. DEVIL COP.
Pic 3;
The ambulance guy grins. Fell, facing us, not sure what just happened, runs his hand through his hair.
FELL DEVIL COP. I AM DEVIL COP NOW.
AMBULANCE GUY YOU WANT TO SNIFF DEAD GUY SOME MORE, OR…?
FELL OH, GOD, I’M SORRY, YEAH, TAKE HIM. TELL THE CORONER TO CALL THE HOMICIDE DESK?
Pic 4;
EXT. APARTMENT: Fell comes out of his front door, towards us – the top of his car in the foreground, he’s walking towards it. On the right of the door (that’s our right, the right-hand part of the panel), we can see part of something we’re going to be seeing a lot of: THE SNOWTOWN TAG.
It’s got to be pretty simple – and you’ll see why later in the script, I don’t want to give it away right now because I want you to have a reader’s experience off this script, first time through. I’m thinking that if you take an X and superimpose a S on top of it, that’s the basis of the tag design.
(no dialogue)
Pic 5;
And he stops (put him on the hard left of the panel), turns his head to look at the tag, which we can now see in full, scrawled on the building’s wall there.
(no dialogue)
Download the full script: Sorry the link has died. I am searching for another but for now the excerpt will have to suffice. I’m sorry.
