Screenwriting & Script Editing Services
Graeme Beck has studied dramatic screenwriting extensively and brings this expertise to industrial video and documentary production.
Screenwriting is the most critical aspect of filmmaking, requiring a skill set entirely different from traditional literature. A script must convey complex concepts on paper in a way that shows events unfolding, rather than merely talking about them. Screenwriting is writing for a visual medium, one far more powerful than the written word. Text requires mental translation before concepts are understood; the more complex the subject, the harder the mind has to work. In contrast, images are processed and comprehended almost instantly, bypassing that translation entirely. This is why visual storytelling creates much stronger audience engagement and message retention.
The easiest and most basic method of filmmaking is simply placing images over a voice-over. The next level interweaves voice-over with dynamic action. The highest level of production relies on pure visual narrative: where the audience watches events happen rather than just being told about them. Writing visually is difficult because it requires the screenwriter to do the processing work for the audience, not the other way around.
Although budget constraints typically relegate corporate and industrial filmmaking to the voice-over category, we at Electric Films strive for a more cinematic approach, which separates us from other corporate and industrial filmmakers.
Script Examples by Graeme Beck
Old Film Facts
The first feature film (commercially made film over 1 hour in length) was the 1906 Australian film "The Story of the Kelly Gang."
While earlier short films existed (lasting only a few minutes), this Australian production set the global standard for what a feature film could be, proving audiences would sit through a multi-reel story long before Hollywood or Europe followed suit with their own features in the 1910s.
The largest number of cameras used in a single scene to date was 48 for the sea battle in Ben Hur.
42 Cameras were used in the Chariot Race shooting 53,000 feet of film in a single day.
The most film shot on a Feature Film to date was Howard Hughes' "Hell's Angels" which consumed 2,254,750 feet of film with a continuous running time of 23 days.
The greatest number of known retakes was 342 for the blind flower girl scene in Chaplin's "City Lights." (He was in Love with the young Actress.) Chaplin directing the scene.
Marilyn Monroe did 59 takes in "Some Like it Hot" in which her only line was 'Where's the bourbon.'
Billy Wilder grew frustrated as Monroe struggled with memory and stage fright, eventually resorting to writing the line on slips of paper hidden inside the prop drawers so she could read it. When the scene finally made it into the finished film, her back is turned to the camera, which led many to speculate that Wilder eventually gave up and used a dubbed voice or a different take.
The longest film in post-production was Graeme Beck's "Love Lessons Learned." 23 years in part-time editing.
He is in good company as Brahms took 21 years to write his first Symphony.
The Australian academy award winning film "Happy Feet" would have taken 1 person 4000 years to make.
The shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho involved 70 set ups over seven days for 45 seconds of edited footage.
The most costly news story ever to date was the Centenary Air Race in Melbourne which was transmitted to Britain over 68 hours at a cost of US $30,000 in 1934. ($1,873,400 in 2026). It was shown in 1500 cinemas within 48 hours.
(Each frame had to be printed as a photograph and mounted on a rotating drum and scanned line by line)
"Jurassic Park" cost $90 million dollars to make and $98 million dollars was spent in publicity.
The funeral scene in "Gandhi" contained around 300,000 extras, 94,560 contracted and over 200,000 volunteers.
Featured Documentary: The Prospectors
"A definitive documentary by Graeme Beck exploring the history of prospecting that opened up Australia, driving massive immigration and wealth from the initial gold discoveries in NSW to the massive finds in Western Australia."
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