I’m not prejudiced against young, fit, good-looking white people, they have their own set of specialized problems I can’t relate to, so I wouldn’t presume. But they are only one subset of people. The joy of writing spec scripts for competitions is that you’re not bound by the market. It’s not a prize for the…
Read moreHEART WITH A SIDE OF HEART
Even if you’re the world’s most cynical misanthrope and your story expresses the ultimate futility and pettiness of the human race, you need a heart. You can’t make anyone care about characters who don’t really care. There is a cheap shorthand you should avoid, which is assigning motive. I’m killing him because he killed my…
Read moreRule # 12: Only three types of people tell the truth: kids, drunk people, and anyone who is pissed the fuck off. Richard Pryor (via cool4thought)
Read moreAND IT’S GOING TO BE NON-LINEAR
WHAT IF MY V.O. IS REALLY ENTERTAINING AND I DON’T USE IT AS A CRYSTAL BALL?
CAN MY PROTAG BE PASSIVE IF THE POINT IS THAT HE’S A PASSIVE GUY?
CHEATING ON YOUR PROTAG
Sometimes your protag gives up the fight to be the most interesting person in the script. We’ve all been there. That one supporting character who takes off, not coincidentally when the second act gets a little mushy. It’s not okay for this to happen. It’s unfaithful. Protags sometimes sag under the weight of their goodness…
Read moreMOTIVATION: GO ORGANIC
Trying to hit dramatic beats on certain pages leads to motivation drift. I read a script about a relationship, and on a given page it was time for them to break up, so they had a fight. Except the fight was completely unmotivated and required that the girlfriend end the relationship over an issue that…
Read moreNew York Women in Film & Television: Notes From A Screenreader
New York Women in Film & Television: Notes From A Screenreader nywift: photo via Go Into the Story You need a logline for your screenplay. It is your script’s calling card. You can’t submit to a competition, pitch or write a query without one. A logline reduces an entire screenplay to a single sentence that…
Read moreENDINGS
It’s a good idea to start out with a concrete ending in mind so that you can write towards it, not just thematically, but with the confidence of knowing that no matter how many wrong turns your protag takes, the end will resolve it beautifully. Visualize your ending with a naked heart. It’s a catharsis,…
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