Learn Filmmaking with Claude · Phase 1 · Module 1: Story & Writing
Your story is perfect in your head. But a producer, an actor or a cinematographer can’t see inside it. A screenplay is the shared language that puts your film on paper, so everyone reads the same film.
మీ story మీ head లో perfect గా ఉంది. కానీ ఒక producer కి, ఒక actor కి ఎలా చూపిస్తారు? Essay లా రాస్తే ఎవరూ చదవరు.
Your story is perfect in your head. But how will you show it to a producer or an actor? Nobody reads a script written like an essay.
What you’ll learn
- Why scripts are written in a fixed format, not as an essay
- The five elements on every page: scene heading, action, character, parenthetical, dialogue
- How to write action you can see and hear, in present tense
- The 1 page ≈ 1 minute rule and how to use it
- How to turn a story paragraph into a formatted scene
- Using Claude as a script formatter and screenwriter check
- The one part only you can write: silence
The five elements of a screenplay page
| Element | What it does | Rule of thumb |
|---|---|---|
| Scene heading | Where and when | ALL CAPS: INT./EXT. · LOCATION · DAY/NIGHT |
| Action | What we see and hear | Present tense; short paragraphs of 3–4 lines |
| Character | Who speaks | ALL CAPS, directly above the line |
| Parenthetical | How the line is said | Lower case, in brackets, a few words |
| Dialogue | What is spoken | Exactly what is said, nothing else |
Scene heading
Scene heading: ఎక్కడ, ఎప్పుడు. INT – Interior, అంటే లోపల. EXT – Exterior, అంటే బయట. తర్వాత place, day or night. Start a new heading whenever the place or time changes, and name a location the same way every time.
| Weak | Better |
|---|---|
| Raju’s house, evening time | INT. RAJU’S HOUSE – NIGHT |
| On the road | EXT. HIGHWAY – DAY |
| Inside the auto, rainy night | INT. AUTO – NIGHT |
Action lines
Action: screen మీద ఏం కనిపిస్తుందో, ఏం వినిపిస్తుందో అదే రాయాలి. Present tense లో. Feelings కాదు, చూపించగలిగేది మాత్రమే.
| Don’t write | Write what the camera sees |
|---|---|
| Raju is sad. | Raju counts three crumpled notes. Nothing more. |
| He is very tired of his life. | He rubs his eyes, leans his head against the auto’s bar, and doesn’t move. |
| He feels guilty about keeping the ticket. | He slips the ticket into his pocket. Takes it out. Looks at the empty street. |
Character · Parenthetical · Dialogue
Character name: capital letters లో, dialogue పైన. Dialogue: ఆ character మాట్లాడేది. Parenthetical: brackets లో చిన్న direction, ఆ డైలాగు ఎలా అనాలో. Keep lines short, give each character their own voice, use parentheticals sparingly, and read it aloud. Telugu dialogue in Telugu script is perfectly fine.
The 1 page ≈ 1 minute rule
Simple rule: ఒక page కి — minimum ఒక minute screen play time. Because the format is fixed, one properly formatted page plays for roughly one minute. A short film is about 5–8 pages; a feature is 90–120. It’s an estimate, not a law: dialogue-heavy pages play faster, action pages can play slower.
From story to scene: Raju
In Episode 2, the auto driver found a lottery ticket. Now we give him a name, Raju, and turn that moment into one formatted page:
EXT. CITY STREET – NIGHT
A narrow street. Shutters down. A single streetlight hums.
RAJU (40s), lean and tired, sits sideways in his auto.
He counts three crumpled notes. Nothing more.
He reaches back. His fingers find something in the torn
seat — a pink lottery ticket.
RAJU
(whispering)
ఇది ఎవరిదీ?We never wrote “Raju is sad”. The three notes tell the audience everything. Audience కి అర్థమైపోతుంది.
Claude as your script formatter
మీ scene ని normal గా, story లా రాసి ఇవ్వండి. Seconds లో scene heading, action, dialogue — అన్నీ correct place లో వస్తాయి.
Step 1 · Format it
దీన్ని proper screenplay format లోకి మార్చు.
Use standard screenplay format: scene headings (INT./EXT.,
location, DAY/NIGHT), action in present tense, character
names in caps, parentheticals only where needed. Keep
Telugu dialogue in Telugu script. Output in Fountain
format.
[your scene]Step 2 · Screenwriter check
ఈ action lines లో చూపించలేనివి ఏమైనా ఉన్నాయా?
List every line that describes a feeling or thought the
camera can't film, and suggest a visible action to replace
each one. Don't change my dialogue.Step 3 · Length check
Using the 1 page ≈ 1 minute rule, estimate the screen time
of this scene. Which lines could I cut without losing the
story?Tip: Fountain is plain text that screenwriting apps turn into a formatted page. Ask Claude for Fountain and paste the result into your app.
Claude can’t do this part
Format Claude సరిచేయగలదు. కానీ… Script లో మాటలు కాదు, మౌనం కూడా మీరే రాయాలి.
Claude can fix the format. But in a script, you write not just the words but the silence too.
Where a pause lands, the line a character doesn’t say, when a look says more than words: that instinct is yours.
Mee Turn ✍️
మీ story లో ఒక scene ని screenplay format లో రాయండి. Write a scene heading, one action line and one line of dialogue, and post these three lines in the comments of the Episode 4 Reel on @cinmaa.ai.
ప్రతి సినిమా ముందు ఒక page మీద పుడుతుంది. ఈ రోజు మీరు ఆ first page రాయండి.
Free course material (PDF)
The full booklet for this episode, with lessons, examples, Claude prompts and the Mee Turn worksheet. Free to read and download.
Next episode
EP 05 · Dialogue & Subtext: what characters say, and what they really mean.
మళ్ళీ next part లో కలుద్దాం. Follow @cinmaa.ai on Instagram for every new episode. #LearnFilmmakingWithClaude
