Time,Space and Action, are the Aristotelean threesome;prescribed for the writer to come to grips with the classical conventions of drama.How much of this is required fp\or the screen writer,however,depends on dexterity ofthat writer.While it is pertinent for one toensure the unity of time, place and action,it has been discovered that, the parochial limitation of events in a drama to a day and locale,is grossly inadequate,even for the Theatre.These factors in a screenplay, are conversely united an

Proficiency in writing short stories,is a necessary asset for writing a synopsis.Although,the synopsis is not always seen by anybody apart from the writer,it is the guiding light that leads him through the dingy,labyrinthine tunnels of writing the screenplay.In other words,the writer keeps it as a reference point whenever there arises need for inspiration,reassurance,encouragement and direction,in the course of writing.
Writing the synopsis however, cannot be compared with writing the script.This is due to the fact that while the former reveals the story from the beginning,going through the middle,to the end,the latter because of the constraints of AUDIO-VISUAL conventions,varies the progression to achieve the desired impact.
True,all stories have a beginning,go through a middle to get to an end, not all film stories follow that pattern.If they did,they would become commonplace and move no one to PURGATION-EFFECT.
It is impportant that the screenplay writer understands this principle as the basis for any style of writing the synopsis.Language must be pithy,roburst,picturesque,and kaleidoscopic;because the synopsis is the nucleus of the script.Everything that happens in the script,is compressed into the synopsis.
The dilema of the screenplay writer,is borne out of the fact that the synopsis must be written before the script.In my career however,i find it interesting, since writing the synopsis,avails me the opportunity to express my deep feelings about events,places and people in the story-line without inhibition.Most of these hints become useful to me in characterization and scenic description.
To write a useful synopsis,you must allow the information that you have garnered on the theme,to course through your mind freely.Let them guide the flow of events and determine the experiences of characters, without affectations by you.Otherwise the information you have collected will become useless for screenplay-a waste.The era of resolute, decisive direction by the writer must be wilfully suspended.You must observe, once more, the trend of events as connoted or denoted by your information on the theme.

So your theme has blossomed.You must now open your eyes,ears,and sensory perception,and get information.Watch out for events,people,and words that come your way everyday.Through sources like newspapers,magazines,books,radio,TV,Satelite Cable Network,and Internet to mention but a few,you will find characters that are of tremendous benefit to you as a screen writer;it only requires creativity and concentration.
A screen writer does himself a favour when he acquires information on the theme of his screenplay.To every infinitesimal,ordinary thing,you must begin to read relevant extraordinary thematic interpretations.Your opinion,as conditioned by the theme of your screenplay,concerning the information that comes your way,matters.You must put pen to paper.
As you write, sub-themes will prop-up so, be careful not to veer-off,overflogging them.Sub-themes are important to the extent that they help the writer to highlight the theme otherwise,they are distractions.Reading novels and other forms of crative writing and paying particular attention to the treatment of themes,are useful in understanding how to handle sub-themes in the framework of the theme

Once at the level of thought,the theme of your screenplay blossoms-strikes a humanist chord,becomes human enough to arouse human interest,something begins to happen.
You begin to see on the film of your mind, shots adding up into pictures, pictures into compositions,compositions into scenes etc.All with your eyes still shut and you still thinking!
Painstaking as this exercise evidently is,i recommend that all screen writers should engage in seeing with their eyes shut i.e through the film or mirror of their minds.Whatever that means,it is a necessary tool,an inestimable asset.This is due to the fact that, maybe unwarily but definitely not thinking about writing screenplays,PLATO offered a useful hint that what we see, in the real World is not made of the materials that appear,they are products or an extension of another ethereal world;identified as the world of thought or thinking.
This view however,represents the blogger and is not necessarily applicable to all screen writers.I am aware of colleagues who approach screen writing from a basically art for art's sake perspective{screenplay for art's sake if you like);and they include successful hits.There are others too,who like me,pursue screenplay from an art for life's sake angle;which makes it all-encompassing to capture and promote our universal human existence and essence,in a capsule known as film.
Whichever is your view,the art of screenplay writing is a challenge which requires unalloyed commitment to the mining of raw materials for the sustenance of the film industry.

Eyes closed,you can see with your mind as film,a wide range of themes(topics,issues, incidents,etc)All justling,tugging for attention.
However,as an unexposed film in a camera remains blank until the photographer sees an object of interest and decides to squeeze the shutter-trigger,the screen writer must choose from a range of themes that permeate his mind.
Contemplate, then decide resolutely,the theme on which your screenplay dwells(NOTE-i did not say dwell)Interpret the theme until it blossoms into a human question.
To avoid ambiguity,let me illustrate what i mean.You may have observed termites as they co-exist in their colony:the drones,the workers,the queen etc.Your observations remain the experience of termites, until you relate them to the human condiion.
Imagine how it is status-quo in the termite-dom,the queen does nothing,has to be carried from one point to the other.Think!Does this not easily come-off as oppression?Well,that is on a level,the human experience is on another.It is notable in what Karl Marx identified as Bouigoise or Class System,which places people in social classes without consent,unjustly.That is the human condition.Your condition?
How about another level.Study of the history of termites,reveals that,the queen is also related to the other species of termites;in the sense that, she is the oldest member of that colony.In other words,she layed the eggs, that hatched them all.How far you can see on this level,determines the thrust and depth of your screenplay.The drones,the workers,the hewers of wood,the drawers of water,on the one hand,paying back what is due to the queen and the creme de la creme,on the other hand?
well, that is a termite point of view.
Humanly speaking,consider mother-nature,how it is that all men are born equal but not treated so,by the antecedents of our lives.Could you wonder if mother-nature can be said to be a particular human being?Good!Obviously not so,it is a symbolic picture,borne out of relating the experience of termites to that of human beings

Dramas my teacher once told me,are useful for filmmaking but are deficient majorly because of restrictions to the Theatre hall.Think, the last time you saw a play on stage did you for once forget that you were sitted n a hall?THEATRE IS NOT FILM.As a screen writer you must appreciate this,because it will liberate your thought process and set you on the pedestal of writing for the screen.

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If one takes time off to close ones eyes,relax and imagine,perhaps one may not be too far from seing through the film of the mind,things,events,people etc.Films are made of organised thoughts.You Think I Think...but we are not all screen writers.The good news is YOU can be one if YOU THINK

Our thoughts unlike our bodies are limitless.They go from things,places, people,visible and invisible to feelings,hopes,aspirations,achievements and failures.At this level,it matters less if these are true or possible;if it is imaginable,it can be written as screenplay.In fact,the farher from reality,the more profitable.
Human experience for whatever it may be worth is fertile with ideas that can be utilised in developing screenplay ideas.

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While it may not be easy to lay claim to clear thinking in a world that is jam-packed with distractions,the best way to access any idea of a screenplay is to think clearly.

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