As defined by Wikipedia, Screenwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media. I will start with the most basic thing in screenwriting and that is the "Acts". There are three acts in screenwriting :
1.Set-up : The first act in which you develop the character of your protagonist. Now it is important to discuss here that the protagonist does not simply mean the main male/female lead in your movie.It may be a dog, a cat, a cardboard, a group of people. It can be anything. It depends upon the story you are writing.
2. Confrontation : Once you build the character, the next act is your protagonist's trouble. The protagonist has to face a situation which disturbs the protagonist or any conflict which makes the movie interesting or the viewer binding.
3. Resolution : Finally comes the third act- The third act depicts how the protagonist tries to tackle the situation.Whether or not the problem is solved is not important always. Some writers leave an open ending for their viewers to interpret. Ashghar Farhadi, an Iranian screenwriter & director does it beautifully in many of his movies.
Apart from these Acts, screenwriting can be explained through 4 P's :
1.People : "People" here refers to the characters in your movie. If you are writing a script with "Black & White characters" , that is you want the characters to be judged by the audience just as good or evil, then you have to build the characters accordingly. You will want your audience to root for your protagonists and against your antagonists. A section of writers also use "Colored-characters" characters as they want their audience to change their perceptions at certain points so that everyone doesn't end up picking just one side. R.R.Martin has done the same in "Game of thrones".
2.Plot : To drive a story/movie you need a conflict. That doesn't mean your story needs a villain. That's not a compulsion. Conflicts can be shown and tensions can be created in many ways. A number of films have been made on the complexity of human nature highlighting the internal conflict of mind.
3.Purpose: There should be a purpose of your story/movie. It may be hidden or shown in a very complicated manner as in many of the surreal movies. If the production team is certain about the purpose of creation, the outcome is always satisfying.
4.Place: A suitable location can add depth & Intrigue to your characters and story. It has the potential of visually communicating a great amount of information in a short period of time.When choosing a location take care of the following things:
a)Relevance to the character/scene.
b) Comfort-ability for shooting the scene both for actors and the crew.
c) Space, lighting & noise-level conductive to a good shot.
