Thank you for asking. The single biggest issue with spec scripts is that they come from outside the writer. The number one thing a script should include is the writer. The writer should have a grasp of the fundamentals, which are simple to learn, and a fresh take on the material, but at the end…
Read morethescriptlab: 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 moreA FRESH VOICE
If you boil down what makes a script readable, you get one adjective: fresh. It is impossible to overstate that most scripts are like most other scripts, because most writers write what they’ve already seen in exactly the way that they’ve seen it. Stretch yourself as a writer. Be personal. There is an undiscovered country…
Read moreWHAT THE HELL IS SUBTEXT?
Writers of spec screenplays often make the mistake of explaining things to readers, as if there is no other way of being understood. Subtext is the opposite of that. Since the easiest way to demonstrate this is to write two scenes, one with subtext and one without, that is what I did. See if you…
Read moreTHE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY
It is an illusion that a screenplay is a transcription of the movie in your head. It is as impossible to write a movie as it is to write a photograph. It is only possible to write a story. There is no spoon.
Read moreReaders Just Wanna Direct
It can’t be a revolutionary idea, but I’ve never read it in a book or been taught it specifically by any of my outstanding teachers, so I’ll just say it here. Write your spec script to entertain your reader, not as the draft you’re going to shoot. Consider how you read a novel, and how…
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