Easy Online Research for your Screenplay

By Carolyn Kelley

FADE IN:  

INT. EMERGENCY ROOM – DAY. Your screenplay opens with an intense “ER-esque” scene filled with blood, guts and two and a half minutes of non-stop medical jargon. Sadly, your medical terminology knowledge is nonexistent. CUT TO:

INT. COURTROOM – DAY. Your lead character is a brilliant attorney who lectures the court on a complicated legal statute, but unfortunately you don’t speak a word of lawyerese. CUT TO:

EXT. CITY STREET – NIGHT. Three ultra-hip street kids are conversing on the corner. You sit down to write the scene, but quickly realize you spent your entire life in the ‘burbs and would stand a better chance of writing the scene in Japanese than make an attempt at street slang.

Very few writers can get through their screenplays without doing some kind of research. It might be a need for a few quick facts like “What President was in office in 1874?” or “What kind of clothes did people wear in England in 1810?” For some scripts, you may need to do more involved research on a historic legal case or political issues for a debate scene. When you’re working on a challenging scene, research can simplify your writing process and can be the difference between sounding like an expert and hopelessly rambling about something you know absolutely nothing about. If your dad’s a doctor, your brother’s a lawyer and your favorite uncle is a history professor who is willing to answer all your questions, you’ve got it made. If not, here are some great online resources that will help you get through the research and onto to your script.

==> General questions

The Ask Jeeves search engine might be the best place to start to answer your questions or look up facts.

http://www.askjeeves.com

==> Foreign languages

Need a few lines of a foreign language in your script? Try this easy-to-use translation site from AltaVista.

http://babel.altavista.com/

==> Got sports questions?

Official site of Major League Baseball

http://www.mlb.com

Official site of the National Football League

http://www.nfl.com

Official site of the NBA

http://www.nba.com

==> Medical information

Need facts on a specific medical condition? Try these two sites for comprehensive medical information.

WebMD

http://www.webmd.com

Dr. Koop

http://www.drkoop.com

==> Legal questions

Need to look up laws, legal terms or information on the US Courts? The FindLaw website is a valuable resource.

http://dictionary.lp.findlaw.com/

Have a specific legal question? Check out Script Magazine’s legal page and have your questions answered by an attorney or browse the archive of questions.

http://www.scriptmag.com/pages/legal.shtml

This site has a comprehensive glossary of legal terms.

http://www.cc.co.winnebago.il.us/courtinfo_terms.asp?P=C

The National Criminal Justice Reference site is the place to go to research information pertaining to Criminal and Juvenile justice.

http://www.ncjrs.org/

==> Government

Here’s the White House’s list of US Presidents.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/

Need information on US Legislation, politics and the legislative process? Check out Thomas, a searchable website from the US Government created to answer your questions.

http://thomas.loc.gov/

==> Slang

The Slanguage website lists slang terms that are specific to many different cities in the US and several countries around the world.

http://www.slanguage.com

This site is helpful if you need to find drug and addiction related slang.

http://www.addictions.org/slang.htm

Need British Slang? Here are some of the most common phrases.

http://expage.com/page/myghettowebpage

Looking for general slang? Here is a great dictionary site.

http://www.voxcommunications.com/slang11.htm

==> History

Questions on US History? This is a place to start for questions on everything from Medieval history, African-American history and American History.

http://history.about.com/

World History?

http://www.worldhistorycompass.com/

Need to find out what people wore in a specific time?  This is a great site that features a digital history of fashion.

http://alpha.furman.edu/~kgossman/history/

==> Geography

Need to look up a map or geography of a particular region? This map site from National Geographic is the place to go.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/maps/

==> Statistics

Want stats on people, economics and more? Check out the Census Bureau’s home page.

http://www.census.gov/

==> Debating

Have a big debate scene in your script?  This site has everything you’d want to know about debating.

Debate Central

http://debate.uvm.edu/

Carolyn Kelley is a freelance writer and screenwriter based in Cleveland , Ohio . She has studied film and screenwriting at University of Miami and UCLA’s Professional Program in Screenwriting.

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