thescriptlab: FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN: The Matrix (1999): Lobby Scene Script to Screens are a lot of fun. This is a perfect example of how to use your voice to save page space and let the reader do all the production design and stunt coordinating for you. Which is what we want to do anyway….
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 moreGood ideas are often murdered by better ones. Roddy Doyle (via thescriptlab) If you’re not writing your script with this in mind, you are missing opportunities left and right.
Read moreForgive me if I’m being ignorant here, but I fail to see why you aren’t allowed to create problematic characters or have them in your story. In my experience, some characters don’t ask politely, some characters are amoral. If someone (even a critiquer) finds your writing problematic because it’s not exactly pc or is a trigger for them, why does that mean you have to change it? There’s no way you’ll be able to please everyone, nor should you…
elumish: You are allowed to create problematic characters, and you should, but at the same time, there should be some acknowledgement that they are problematic. For my story, one of the main issues was the fact that the character was supposed to be a fundamentally good person, and he cannot be both a good person…
Read moreFave lines. This is how dialogue is supposed to work. Less telling me what’s going on in the plot, more conflict in character development.
Read morethebluebird: A professional script reader read 300 screenplays for five different studios, all the while tracking the many recurring problems. The infographic he made with the collected data offers a glimpse at where screenwriting goes wrong. It’s back! Except when you write notes, you have to think of really nice ways to say “this is…
Read moreNot that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. Henry David Thoreau (via thescriptlab)
Read moreUseful Confessions #10
In your spec script, inexplicit visual motifs will go unappreciated. As in, making random objects blue to mean they are (bad/pure/tempting, etc.), or that they represent that the character has (changed her mind/grown/believed a lie, etc.) is not a compelling way to communicate your intent to a reader. Spec scripts for competitions should stick to…
Read moreKay Young Women
I cannot begin to express how impressed I am with who you are and who you want to be, and how you are getting there. I’m in awe. You keep protecting and employing and relying on each other and nothing in the world can stop you. You’re fantastic, thoughtful, ethical storytellers and filmmakers. Do not…
Read moreSell the Bite
If there is absolutely nothing else you take away from the blog of a person who reads scripts for money, take this: Move forward and bite. Don’t stop to explain how the ocean works. Or how eating fish to survive works. We get all that. When you rewrite, move forward. And bite. There will be…
Read more