annerocious: The (one) female character is subtly beautiful, even though she is – Without makeup. In old jeans and a ratty tee-shirt. Unaware of it. Covered in mud. Foaming at the mouth. Shedding her bony exoskeleton.
Read moreKnow Your Cliche #1
The (one) female character is subtly beautiful, even though she is – Without makeup. In old jeans and a ratty tee-shirt. Unaware of it. Covered in mud. Foaming at the mouth. Shedding her bony exoskeleton.
Read moreannerocious: ch3000: script readers + everyone i speak to: dont put more than 2 pages of dialogue produced scripts i read: 6 pages of non stop dialogue no action. Snagged. Yes, it’s true that some produced scripts violate rules designed to assist budding screenwriters. The reason for this one is that it’s HARD to write…
Read moreThis is the kind of impact you can have when you are inventive about what you can communicate without using dialogue that explains directly to the reader.
Read moreHow to Rewrite Effectively
Statistically, you should be packing twice as much story into your pages. When you rewrite, look for scenes that accomplish only one thing, for instance, showing that one character doesn’t like another one. Now. Take that scene and snuggle it down into another scene that accomplishes something else, for instance, the protagonist’s final challenge related…
Read moreThe number one note filmmakers get from distributors when trying to sell their films is “Cut ten minutes out of the first act.” (I heard it about the horror feature I produced last year, and the distributors were right.) It’s MUCH easier to cut the pages than it is to cut the footage. michael2h in…
Read moreWhat Happens When a Reader Opens Your Script?
The reader checklist. 1. Page Count. 95-105 looks like fighting weight. 2. Title. Short and punchy breeds optimism. 3. White space on page one. Avoid dense description paragraphs. 4. Opening image. Shun scenes you’ve seen before. Action beats talking. 5. Quick start. An interesting character is already doing something interesting that we can watch.
Read moreWhen the Story Starts on Pg 50
Readers
Are mostly women. Almost entirely. If you get a guy in the first round, you’ll get a woman in the second. Guaranteed. It’s not a matter of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. If you want to succeed in competitions, if you want to succeed without an agent, stop DINGING ON WOMEN. Dinging on women includes ignoring them, making…
Read moreWhat’s wrong with my idea?
annerocious: Statistically, you have a good setup, but you don’t enter your second act with… a) a protagonist who needs something very important b) a force bent on preventing them c) a series of visual conflicts between them that d) culminates in a final, larger conflict that determines the winner
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