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 moreUseful Confession #9
If you read a script for a movie you love, you will immediately grasp how much of what you experienced was NOT ON THE PAGE. So read a bunch of scripts from movies you love. Screenwriting is not hand-holding and spoon-feeding.
Read moreUseful Confessions #8
Writing for competitions – you have to make something new and interesting happen immediately. Not difficult with this one crazy trick. Make sameness WORK FOR YOU. Take that opening scene that’s so common and obvious and overused and MAKE IT END IN A COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED WAY. Instead of killing that pretty young woman, chase her…
Read moreUSEFUL CONFESSIONS #7
Subtext and misdirection will magically appear in your first draft when you change your mind about your plot halfway through. Exploit the crap out of them.
Read moreUseful Confessions #6
As I sink down to my forehead in a draft, I start pushing the characters around to make the plot work. Always bad. I “cast” the parts with photos tacked up over my computer. I can look at them and focus on “what would they do?” rather than “how can I make the next thing…
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