Writing cinematically is the heart of great and effective screenwriting. It’s what separates a screenplay from a stage play or novel because in screenwriting, the reader isn’t just following a plot: they’re watching a movie unfold on the page.
There are many different types of industry insiders reading your scripts, including:
- Studio script readers and story analysts
- Interns
- Assistants
- Producers
- Development executives
- Talent (directors and actors)
- Managers
- Agents
Screenplay contest and fellowships readers and judges
Each of those individuals are tasked with finding future projects for a studio, production company, or streamer. You can have an outstanding concept, story, and characters, but if you aren’t presenting those elements in a cinematic way, they’re not going to be able to envision what you have how they need to, which is cinematically.
Here we discuss pro tactics on how you can ensure that you’re writing your cinematic story for the screen to increase your odds of industry insiders seeing your movie as they read. And when they can truly see your script as a movie, as quickly and effortlessly as possible, your odds of getting an offer on your script increase tenfold.
What Entails Writing Cinematically?
Writing cinematically doesn’t mean filling your pages with camera directions. It means creating cinematic images with words fast enough for the reader to be able to instantly translate those words into images they see in their heads, as if a movie is playing in their imagination as they read.
On top of that, the structure and pacing of the script needs to match the experience of watching a movie. Movies have a particular structure and pacing, usually by necessity because of the general guidelines and expectations of limited run times (90-120 minutes on average, which breaks down to 90-120 pages if you use the age-old and surprisingly accurate page to screen minute barometer).
So, screenwriting isn’t just about getting your story on the page. It’s about creating a cinematic experience using an otherwise literary platform.
1. Think in Pictures and Write with Movement
A screenplay is a blueprint for a film, yes. But it’s not a direct instructional manual. It’s not directing the movie using specific camera angles, camera directions, and other technical specifics. Sure, you see that in some Oscar-winning scripts, but usually those are written by auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers who direct their own screenplays.
When you write, you’re not just describing action, you’re building the visual language of your cinematic tale. As you’re writing, ask yourself, “What would I see if I were watching this moment in a theater?”
Showcase actions and reactions that your characters go through to communicate emotions, rather than just writing:
- John is angry.
- Ellie is sad.
- Rick is scared.
- Lisa is panicked.
That’s not cinematic description.
Instead, what do you want the reader (and eventual audience) to see to communicate the core emotion the characters are feeling?
- John sets the phone down and suddenly flips the kitchen table, sending dishes flying.
- Ellie stares down at her cup of coffee, tears starting to stream down her face.
- Rick runs at the sight of the bear, eyes wide in horror.
- Lisa’s hands shake as she frantically looks around the room, not knowing what to do next.
You can be even more specific and visual by creating images that make even more of a visual impact.
- John grabs the steering wheel tight, accelerates, and slams the car into the bumper of the car in front of him in a rage!
- Ellie sits in a running shower, fully clothed as tears stream down her face.
- Rick collapses onto the ground and covers his head with his arms in terror as the bear circles and sniffs him.
- Lisa panics as she struggles to find a weapon, opening drawers frantically as her attacker pounds on the locked door.
Don’t just lay out some scene description to get you through the scene and onto the next. Leave lasting images that help the reader to not just know what’s happening, but to help them feel what those characters are going through.
2. Avoid “Literary” Traps
You can write in a literary way, or in a cinematic way. With screenplays, it must always be cinematic.
Don’t write:
She remembers the smell of her grandmother’s kitchen.
Yes, readers (and later, actors and directors) can interpret that, but it’s always better to give us an image.
She pulls a faded recipe from a drawer, running her finger over the grease-stained ink. She then smells the paper with a nostalgic smile.
The first one is an example of a literary sentence you’d read in a novel. It involves inner thoughts of a character that we can’t see. That’s not cinematic.
In the second one, we’re given an image that shows us that she is remembering her grandmother’s kitchen, instead of telling us. That is cinematic writing.
Keep in mind that while you’re doing this, always avoid overly poetic flourishes that describe feelings. Keep it grounded on the page. And anything that you’re spending time on the page for needs to be to push the story forward. In our above example, if the character remembering the smell of her grandmother’s kitchen isn’t relevant to the story, or the arc of the character, don’t waste your time on it. Every single line of description, scene, and sequence must move your story forward.
3. Write in Beats
Here is where your screenwriting can really be cinematic: by writing in beats.
Writing cinematically often means breaking down a moment into beats. Beats are tiny visual shifts that reveal character, showcase impactful moments, or escalate tension. It’s the closest screenwriters can and should get to actually directing or editing a movie.
If your character finds a letter, don’t just write:
She finds a letter with her name on it and reads it.
Sure, it’s short, sweet, and to the point. But you can be far more effective by creating a cinematic moment.
She pulls the drawer open slowly and notices something is wedged behind a tray.
She digs and finds an envelope. It’s yellowed by age. Torn. As she examines it, she discovers her name written in shaky cursive. She stares at it. Contemplates. And then opens it.
When you read that second example, you see how this scene is going to play out. It’s specific without being overly directed using camera angles and camera directions. This is accomplished by way of using visual beats. If we were to number those beats out, they would look like this:
- She pulls the drawer open.
- She notices something is wedged in the back.
- She digs through the drawer.
- She sees an envelope.
- The envelope is old and torn.
- She examines it.
- Her name is on it.
- She stares at it.
- She contemplates opening it or not.
- She opens it.
That is far, far better than: She finds a letter with her name on it and reads it.
Each beat adds a layer, a pause, a choice, and a reaction. That is cinematic drama.
You don’t need to overwrite. You shouldn’t. Just be specific. Be deliberate. Every moment should mean something, or lead to something that does.
Pro Tip: You can space out those moments that require multiple sentences of scene description to communicate those beats, as we did with a space in between the first and following sentences. Think of it this way: each block of scene description is a visual beat. The first sentence was the visual beat of her opening the drawer and seeing something. The following scene description sentences were about getting to it and the reaction of seeing what it was once she did.
4. Embrace the “Less Is More” Mantra of Scene Description
Let’s step back and remind ourselves that screenwriters need their cinematic scene description to jump up from the page and be easily and quickly translated into the reader’s mind’s eye as quickly as possible so they can see your movie.
Avoid literary prose. Some screenwriters make the mistake of being more interested in prose than just presenting a visual.
INT. PRISON CELL - NIGHT
The dark hallway, made entirely of stone, stretches into a black void. The dripping of water is heard as condensation escapes from in between the stones and into muddy puddles of water on the wet floor.
The only light source comes from the cell block window, the beams of the moon sneaking in between the rusty bars that keep prisoners from their dreams of freedom.
It’s not horrible. A lesser writer would have written more to showcase even more detail. However, you can accomplish the same effect by simply writing:
INT. PRISON CELL - NIGHT
Dark. Wet. Shadows overcome any source of light.
Less is more. You’re not painting a piece of art with every visual moment or beat in a screenplay. That is what novels are for. For screenwriting, it’s more like you’re throwing an effective but quick polaroid at the reader to keep the story moving.
There’s no time for poetic prose and literary detail. The reader needs to know what to envision and then move onto the next.
Picture it this way (pun intended). Think in frames. We’re discussing writing cinematically, right? Well, movies are told in frames. Those frames are played together rapidly for the movie to come to life. If you stay on one frame too long, the movie comes to a halt and the audience is left confused and bored. The momentum of the movie is halted.
That is the same experience a script reader has when a screenwriter spends too much time, too many words, and too much script space describing a single cinematic moment.
- Less is more.
- Embrace short sentences.
- Fragments are your friends.
- Single descriptive words work effectively.
Embrace the “less is more” mantra and you’ll streamline your scripts in amazing cinematic fashion.
5. Don’t Do Other People’s Jobs - Focus on Yours
It’s tempting to describe everything in every scene location. But if you do that, most of it won’t matter in the end. Directors, production designers, and costume departments will ignore most of your details.
It’s not your job to dress a set, dress an actor, or direct the movie through camera angles and camera directions. Only include the details necessary to tell the story and move the story and characters forward.
Don’t clutter the frame with your details. Let the reader focus only on what matters to the momentum of the story. While you shouldn’t direct from the page (“We pan left,” “Camera zooms in”), you can guide the visual experience with how you reveal things.
Instead of writing:
A man stands behind her.
You can make the reader discover that without any need for camera angles or camera directions.
She wipes the condensation off of the mirror. A SHADOW MOVES BEHIND HER.
This is called implied camera. You’re letting the reader feel what the camera might do without calling the angle or camera direction out directly.
It’s not about controlling the lens. It’s about pacing the reveal, building suspense, and suggesting effective camera movement through description.
6. Trust the Reader’s Imagination
When you get down to it, writing cinematically isn’t about writing hundreds of cinematic visuals for the reader. It’s about focusing on the broad strokes necessary for you to tell your story while trusting that the reader and their imagination will do the rest of the work for you.
It’s nearly impossible to fully lay out and communicate what’s in your head, and then expect the reader to see that same vision. However, you can get them as close as possible by writing cinematically. You can give them the heart and core of each and every visual, and then trust them to fill in any gaps. If, for some reason, they can’t do that, it’s out of your control. But most industry insiders reading your script have a wealth of cinematic visuals they’ve seen in movies or read in screenplays, hundreds upon hundreds of them.
Focus on only detailing what needs to be detailed to follow the story, the plot, and the arc of the characters.
7. Write How an Editor Edits
This is a pro tip that is highly suggested and highly effective: learn how to write like a film editor edits.
Writing how an editor edits entails more about the structure of your scenes, where your scenes are placed amongst others, where your characters come into a scene and how they exit the scene, and how scene beats mesh together to create effective and seamless cinematic pacing.
When you’re writing your script, think like an editor.
- Open your script with a cinematic sequence that hooks them.
- Let every scene lead into the next with progressive pacing.
- Don’t always have your characters enter a scene.
- Don’t always have your characters exit a scene.
- Don’t be afraid to cut to a scene where characters are in the middle of an argument, in the middle of a fight, in the middle of a kiss, in the middle of a laugh, etc.
- Have moments of foreshadowing.
- Break up a long scene with another scene and go back and forth between the two.
- When a character is dropping exposition, intercut that with scenes showcasing either what/who is being talked about, or how those elements cause actions and reactions.
Writing how an editor edits is one of the pinnacle talents for screenwriters. It can take time to master, and it’s even hard to explain.
The best way to learn is to simply go watch movies, preferably ones that are similar to your screenplay in tone, genre, atmosphere, and vibe. Watch movies and see how scenes are structured, placed, and edited.
8. If You Can’t See It — Don’t Write It
There’s a caveat with that statement. There are times when you can write something that isn’t someone that can be seen. Instead, certain statements can be visually implied.
- She knows she messed up.
- He can’t get over it.
- It’s time for her to leave.
- He has overstayed his welcome.
- You can write things like this in your script because they imply certain visuals. But you should use them few and far between.
Beyond those caveats, focus on writing what you can see.
Writing cinematically doesn’t mean showing off. It’s all about communicating your story in the language of film.
- Think in shots.
- Think in motion.
- Think in visual cause and effect.
- Think in visual beats.
When you master cinematic writing, you’re not just improving your script; you’re giving the script reader a cinematic experience. In a business where readers need to skim, where executives scroll, and contests, studios, production companies, streamers, management companies, and agencies have stacks of thousands of scripts to go through, writing cinematically is your competitive edge.
Have fun and go write a movie we can see, both on the page and eventually on the screen!