You want to avoid any material that only exists to establish, to set up, to explain, and to transition into another scene. Avoid the static “Talking Heads” scenes and the characters telling us directly about themselves. Most of all… SHOW CHARACTER THROUGH ACTION!
A “set piece” is a clever, memorable sequence that captures the style and theme of a movie, often utilizing the central conflict of the story. If done well, it’s a “trailer moment,” as it would most certainly make it into the previews. Think of it in terms of a pitch. When the other party hears […]
Act Three in your screenplay — the final act — is the race to the finish line. It’s a fast-paced, high stakes push toward the climax, which ideally should be a direct confrontation between your Protagonist and your Antagonist.
The Meet The Parents screenplay is a classic example of a well-executed, high concept comedy that uses every dramatic element and beat of the Story Maps method of screenwriting. Well, except one.
The massive hit comedy The Hangover employs a brilliant HOOK in its concept that distinguishes the LOGLINE, which is one of the main dramatic elements in the Basic Story Map. The Hangover was sold on a pitch (there’s actually some controversy over who exactly came up with the idea) and although it’s not my favorite […]
Billy Wilder’s classic film Sunset Boulevard is a perfect example of the Story Maps method of screenwriting. One of the main dramatic elements in the Story Map is the Central Dramatic Question — this forms the spine of the story that keeps the audience waiting for the answer to the meta-mystery of the narrative. Sunset […]
Which screenwriting software do you use to format your screenplay? There’s more options than ever out there. This article in Variety (squint!) talks about the two majors, Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter, as well as the young upstarts like Scripped.com and ScriptWrite, which exist on “the cloud” (the hot phrase right now).
Continued from Page One: Screenwriting Resolutions: Craft Goals If you aspire to get paid for your writing, you will need to balance your craft development with marketing efforts. We writers are often most comfortable alone in front of our laptops, so it’s tough to put ourselves and our work out there. But you have to […]
It’s that time of year again and we’re all making our New Year’s Resolutions. Or are you avoiding them, like me? (In my defense, I’m just now finishing up a writing assignment and I wanted to maintain my focus on that, so suck on that, haters.) Ahem. So…let’s give each other a kick in the […]
I’ve been following this film for years, ever since I covered the source book on the job for Miramax Films and they optioned it. I’ve been in touch with Writer/Producer Leslie Dixon as the project went from turnaround into production, as you can read here , so it’s safe to say I’ve been waiting for […]
It was a bygone era known as the late 90s. I stepped out of the elevator on the 7th floor of the Tribeca Film Center into the lobby of Miramax Films and saw the above poster, beautifully framed, for an upcoming movie named Shakespeare in Love.
Anyone else use the old-fashioned, classic index cards to compile your scene list? Sure, your screenwriting software has a super-cool 3D index card “mode” and you can drag-and-drop those shiny digital cards all you want and the edges will never fray and the ink will never smudge because there’s no edges and no ink. But […]
Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just offering a link to a public website. I’m not advocating the downloading, uploading or sharing of screenplay files! As most of you know, the major studios run campaigns to promote their films for Oscar consideration, i.e., they want the members of the Academy to vote for their movie so […]
I don’t know what wingnut set up a Mediafire library with all of the Black List scripts on it, considering Fox’s $15 million lawsuit against the other Mediafire script library, but somebody did, and can you guess what happened?
(continued from Page One) Here is the full Black List 2010 (the pdf is here): Note: The numbers above the script titles represent the number of votes, thus the higher the number, the higher the placement on the list. Source: Deadline Hollywood
It’s that time again. The infamous Hollywood “Black List” of unproduced screenplays has been released. The official site is here. I just wrote about The Beaver script, which was the winner of the 2008 Black List and will soon be released as a movie directed by Jodie Foster and starring Mel Gibson. Several other titles […]
The Beaver screenplay by Kyle Killen was the top-rated script on the annual Black List of Hollywood screenplays in 2008. The Black List compiles the best screenplays of the year in the major studio market, as voted on by a select group of industry professionals. Click on the image below for the 2008 list (note: […]
This is an interesting story (and comments board) from Deadline Hollywood’s Nellie Andreeva: The Walking Dead Lets Go of Writers; Considers No Writing Staff For Season 2 Writer turnover on series between seasons is commonplace but wholesale overhauls are unusual. What’s more, I hear Darabont is looking to forgo having a writing staff for the […]
The Man is cracking down and blood is running all over the Internets, people. This past week has been nuts in regards to digital entertainment, net neutrality, piracy and screenplay sharing. It all began for me when I received an email from Netflix on 11/22/10 that they were raising their rates. My One DVD at […]
We watched The Wizard of Oz over the weekend in one of its many post-Thanksgiving television airings and I couldn’t help but think “One classic holiday movie down, several more to go!” My list of favs includes A Christmas Story, Die Hard, Christmas Vacation, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and the granddaddy of them all…It’s a […]