The Importance of Details in a Screenplay

It’s often said that a screenplay isn’t a literary text, and that’s true. But a screenplay shouldn’t be cold, analytical, or objective either. While the words in a screenplay aren’t meant to make the reader feel, they must make the reader see what will make them feel. It's the same goal, but not the same medium. And the details are essential to make the reader see, therefore feel.

In fact, what many screenplays lack isn’t the story (it’s rare that it isn’t there) but the depth that relevant details provide. More precisely, the details that carry meaning, inform, reveal, give clues, unsettle, threaten, foreshadow…

Generally, when they’re missing, it’s because the writer thinks “it isn’t necessary” or “it’s obvious”, or because they focus on describing things that aren’t important and end up diluting the story.

Yet these relevant details are indispensable, because what is seen makes the underlying meaning understood. For example:

(Note: this example is deliberately broad-stroked for demonstration purposes, please keep that in mind 😉)

“Jane pauses for a moment on her doorstep before entering her home. She takes a deep breath and decides to put on a relaxed face. She turns the key in the lock and goes in. John is on the sofa, watching a gamer’s stream.

Jane

Good evening John

Without looking at her John smiles and take a few crisps.

John

Good evening, darling”

vs

“Jane pauses for a moment on her doorstep before entering her home. She takes a deep breath and decides to put on a relaxed face. She turns the key in the lock and goes in. John is sitting on a high stool in the middle of the room, facing the door. He is staring at her.

Jane

Good evening John.

John gives a cruel smile.

John

Good evening, darling.”

It is important to note that there are no words such as “angry”, “disappointed”, “threatened”, “afraid”, “moved”, or any other terms that would describe an internal state. The words describe gestures, which in turn reveal the emotion. If needed, you can associate the two: “…angry, she clenches her jaw.”

These descriptive details allow the reader/viewer (producer, director, actor, editor, etc.) to become engaged, to want to know what happens next, to understand the stakes, to set them in motion. Without them, the most important part of the atmosphere, intention, direction of the story, and subtext is lost. The reader gets bored reading/watching a sequence of actions, or imagines a different story from the one the writer intended. And when a key scene arrives, it feels as if it comes out of nowhere.

However, only relevant details should be included. Meaning those that “play” in the current scene or a future one, or that show an evolution (a gleaming electric guitar at the beginning, dusty later; a knowing glance exchanged, etc.).

In other words:

“Remove everything that is not relevant to the story. If in the first act you say that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, then it absolutely must go off in the second or third act. If it’s not meant to be used, it has no business being there.”

Anton Chekhov

The Importance of Details in a Screenplay