The prompt I have chosen is “I learned something in the studio that highlighted my previous experience/lack of previous experience with screenwriting”
The reading for week one by Mckee on description enlightened me on the topic of camera / cinematography related directions within a script (which I later learned, in week two, was a part of the extrafictional voice). I had only ever written scripts for things that I intended to shoot/direct, so including camera directions or notes made sense to me and seemed logical within that context. However Mckee argues that this sort of writing has no place in a screenplay, as it takes the intended reader out of the narrative and reminds them that they are reading a script. This, Mckee says, is because a director would “laugh at” the screenwriter telling them what techniques to use. Mckee even goes so far as to say that a writer should “Eliminate all camera and editing notations.”
I’ve learned that a better way to properly convey film and cinematographic techniques to the intended reader is to simply describe the scene in a way that paints a vivid scene in the readers mind. For example, rather than explicitly stating “close up on X’s hands” one could simply write “X plays with his / her wedding ring”. This obviously means that there will need to be a close up of the hand, without actually stating any sort of camera movement. Not only will this be less likely to come off as telling a director how to do their job, but it also flows better and creates a better image in the mind of the reader.