If you come to this shoot with me next weekend I can get your name in the credits. Typical film major pick up line #3 (via nicoleblogsthings) ONE TIME when I was halfway through my Masters Degree, I was at a (completely not film related) party, and there was this ONE GUY who was into…

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An Escalation You Can Use: She was Acting

Take a trope character. We’ll use The Distraught Mother for this example. She will weep, insist, fall to pieces. You see a distraught mother, a primal instinct takes over, nothing is important anymore except fixing this problem immediately. Coincidentally, people who get what they want by means of manipulation know this. So do screenwriters. Trope…

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Good writing is remembering detail most people want to forget. Don’t forget things that were painful or embarrassing or silly. Turn them into a story that tells the truth. Paula Danzinger (via videoassocdallas) Live in the heartbreak moments, because thats when people connect to characters (via killtheintern)

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Most of what you think you are conditioned to think. Who profits from what you believe? Follow that money trail for revelatory story.

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amandaonwriting: Writing Quote – Barbara Kingsolver

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STRONG EMOTIONS MAKE STRONG SCRIPTS

When you conceive your story, don’t forget to build in emotion. People watch movies to feel things. It gets no simpler than that. That begins with the writer. We can talk all day about structure and beats and plot points, but if nobody in the script has their heart on the line, then it all…

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INVALUABLE PRACTICAL ADVICE

beyondtheduckpond: Four Lessons Film Editing Taught Me About Screenwriting storyboardresources: Lesson 1: Build In More Images and Actions The page is somewhat forgiving of lengthier dialogue blocks but the editing suite sure is not. There’s probably no better way to see how your dialogue plays than to shoot it and edit it. Most likely, the…

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HOW TO CONFLICT

Never AND. Always OR. Real dramatic conflict gives the protag a choice. This OR That. Success OR Failure. Save the mother OR the child. Capitulate to the antagonist OR get shot. Conflict that has a lot of options is not real conflict. The protagonist is free to save the mother AND the child only after…

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