Five Tips for Writing Sci-Fi Screenplay

FilmScriptWriting.Com reports:

"Sci-[f]i has a strong cult following, and when it captures the imagination a franchise...can make literally billions of dollars. That is why [s]ci-[f]i scripts are often in mind for a big summer blockbuster. Like all genres there are some specific guides you need to follow and things you need to research. Before planning to write a sci-fi screenplay read through the following points and you’ll have a strong idea of the work you have in front of you...At the centre [sic] of most sci-fi scripts is the concept of good vs. evil and that good will always triumph. This is often focused in on as an evil government, empire or organisation [sic] which is [led] by an evil tyrant who wants to mould [sic] the world in his own image. To combat this force there is always a group of rebels with a leader who is honest and true. These 'total opposites' are often bonded together by a shared characteristic or belief. It could be that they both wish to save the world, [and] they just have a different idea of how to go about it...To write a good sci-fi screenplay you have to have a strong ability to 'world build'. It’s most likely that the world in which your story [takes place] is quite different from the world we live in today. There could be space travel, alien beings, matter transporters and worldwide unity. On the other hand it could be a gloomy [post-nuclear] holocaust future with little food, mutant people and a corrupt government. There’s so many directions you can take this in and details to think about...You might have a race of ignorant, violent and untrustworthy aliens but it can be an interesting twist to have a member of this race be an intelligent thinker who is extremely loyal and a friend of your main protagonist. This can lead to conflict between the leaders of the alien race who see this outsider as an abomination of the species who must be dealt with while the main protagonist might lose confidence in their loyalty after a failed mission...[Sci-fi allows you to] make friends and companions out of types of people/beings that you wouldn’t normally see together...It’s fun to watch [two] opposites interact, the differences of opinion they have and the type of conflict this can create...[T]ry to take into consideration that if you want to sell this screenplay then someone has to pay for it. You can help trim the potential budget of turning your screenplay into a [feature-length] film by using locations more than once, keeping the number of main characters down and not cramming in scene after scene of expensive CGI [computer-generated imagery]...[Y]ou still need to follow the tried and tested guidelines of structure. Hopefully these ideas and concepts will help you in writing your sci-fi script and maybe, just maybe, you’ll come up with the next blockbuster franchise."