Every creator has a journey to go through and having a script is one that remains constant. And Shantanu Rangnekar talks about what his journey looks like.
As creative humans who are always aware of their surroundings and know about things that are relevant in this time and age, creators are never short of ideas. Living a life that expects them to churn out every last bit of creativity, most of these creators have developed their process. Indian actor and creator Shantanu Rangnekar has developed his career on social media which keeps him on his toes. It is impossible for one to not have a smile on their face when scrolling through Shantanu's page. It's his background as an actor that makes his Reels something that all of us enjoy. There is a process that he follows to bring his ideas to the plate and decided to share what the journey of his script looks like.
Shantanu is someone who started off as a folk dancer and then went on to do a commercial play where he found his love for acting. He developed his safe space in theatre and went back to shape shift into someone new to share his stories. He has since worked in a number of movies and plays before making his name on social media. But the thing that not many may know about him is that he was given the National award as Best Child Actor for 'Champion'. He has represented University of Mumbai as an actor and hosted an event in Israel. And then he went on to star in a daily soap on National television along with making appearance in movies and advertisements.
Also Read: Sonali Malhotra loves that content creation does not confine her to just one thing
For anyone who is a part of the entertainment industry knows the importance of having a good script to work with. Scripts are the layout on how things will go about, even though they will be altered as they work on it. Shantanu recognises the importance of putting down his ideas by drafting a clean script. There is a process that everyone follows and he shared his own.
Creative process of executing a script
Rightly said, script writing is a process. A process which starts from the mind and ends on the paper. The first thing anyone should consider while starting to write a script is the concept / thought / idea. Once that is finalized, one should think of the flow. A good concept coupled with a great flow, situations and adding observational learnings into it will lead to a decent script.
Things you keep in mind when writing them down or executing them!
A good concept and flow will not always help in delivering a great script. Concept without flow or vice versa will lead to imbalance. Hence along with concept and flow there are few things which you should keep in mind. Characters, their dialogues, landing punches and puns accurately. These are some of the very important factors to consider while scripting. The process is similar to cooking, you conceptualise a dish, start preparing as per recipe flow and add masalas and ingredients, anything missed or anything added in excess will spoil the taste. As a script writer, we should understand the taste of the audience and serve them with the right content.
Dealing with the things not going as planned
I will not call it a failure, better way to put it is improvisations! When we making videos aligned to a certain scripts, sometimes the output post the shot or the scene does not come out as expected. There is a difference between what’s on paper and what gets actually shot on location in real-time. This is when, to enhance the video, slight changes in scripts are needed. This doesn’t mean we are not achieving the ‘The End’ which the script demands, this means, we are learning something new everyday, every change we make to the script or the actual scene while shooting is a learning. Writing and acting is a continuous process, not to forget the post production part. Music and editing gives the final touch to the product.
Recovering from failure
As I mentioned earlier, it’s a learning, I ensure I do not repeat the same mistake twice and implement the learnings from the earlier experiences. Experiences will always teach you a thing or two but how you implement those learnings is completely in your hands. Every experience we get today helps us enhance the videos tomorrow.
Keeping the audience in mind while planning content
It is very important to understand the pulse of your audience in the field of content. If you are not aligned to your audience and if the relatability factor is low, then your content will never pick up traction. All my scripts and videos are written and created by keeping my audience in the centre. Without the love of the audience and their acceptance for our content, creating reels make no sense. The complete purpose of creating content is to make people laugh, smile and give them something unique in this cluttered world of social media. I believe considering the hustle bustle in everyone’s live, content videos should act like stress buster pills.
About writing for social media as compared to other mediums
There are few things, conceptualisation and a good flow are constant for both short format as well as long format script. But we can play around with characters, characterisation in a short format video for social media needs to be limited but for other mediums, the writer can take the liberty of exploring characters at length. Also, for a short format video, a writer cannot play much with the flow, but on any other medium, the writer can take the viewer on a roller coaster ride. These are major differences with regards to writing for social media Vs any other medium.
Scripts that he's proud of
All my scripts are very close to me as they are my creation. I’ve written them from the ground up. Short format scripts are the most difficult as you’ve to showcase your skills in a very little time. I’m proud of all my scripts, even if a script fails, you should be proud of your attempt. You should be proud that you attempted something new and unique, take learnings and optimise future scripts.
Advice for people
The advice is sample, be original, unique and put lot of thought while coming up with a video. It’s very important to be relevant and relatable to attract eyeballs and engagement. Just be yourself!
What is your favourite kind of content to watch on his page? Let us know in the comments below.
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