Uninflected

With the rise of improved camera technology and AI-generated content, there's been a drift in recent years away from the fundamentals of filmmaking. Uninflected is a screenwriting tool that encourages a return to the core idea of uninflected images, juxtaposed.

Cinema is not recorded theatre. It's not illustrated prose. It's a unique medium with its own language, and that language is built on the cut.

The philosophy

Film editor Walter Murch, in his book In the Blink of an Eye, observes that humans are constantly editing their own experience. When you swing your head to look at something, you blink. When we are listening to someone and they pause, we blink. That blink cuts out the motion blur or allows you to process what's being said. Your conscious experience jumps from one moment to the next.

This is how cinema works at its most powerful. We see one image. We see another. Our pattern-recognising brains make the connection. That's where the storytelling happens.

Show, don't tell

It's the oldest advice in writing, but it's particularly crucial for screenwriting. You're not writing a novel. You're creating a blueprint for a visual medium.

Uninflected forces you to think in these terms. One shot at a time. A simple, direct description of what's on screen. No camera directions telling the director how to do their job. No parentheticals telling actors how to deliver lines.

Just: what do we see? What do we hear?

The power of juxtaposition

Place two images side by side and meaning emerges in the viewer's mind. A person looks off screen. Cut to: a clock. We understand they're checking the time, or running late, or waiting for something.

You didn't have to write "She nervously checks the clock, worried about being late." You just showed two things. The viewer made the connection. That's more powerful, more cinematic, and more efficient.

This is what Uninflected helps you do: think in shots, write visually, and trust your audience to make the connections.

How it works

Uninflected's editor is deliberately restrictive. You can't just type freeform prose and hope it looks like a screenplay.

Instead, you build your script from fundamental elements:

• Scene headings - Where and when
• Shots - One moment of visual storytelling
• Actions - What we see happening within the shot
• Dialogue - What we hear characters saying within the shot

The editor has clear visual cues to remind you that you are working in shots. This forces you to think about the rhythm and pacing of your visual storytelling.

Who made this?

Uninflected was created by Andy Coughlan, award-winning short film maker and screenwriter from south east England. He also makes apps for iOS devices and has been known to work for the UK government as a content designer.