I read a script last week for a new client. It had good structure, well developed characters and a premise that was a little formulaic, but certainly was good enough to set up the story the the writer was trying to tell, and could draw an audience just with the genre. There was a reasonable …
Category: Structure
Cooking a Screenplay: Learning to Mix the Right Ingredients
When writing coverage for scripts, I quite often find myself writing that all of the ingredients are there for a great script, but they weren’t mixed properly. The script might have strong characters, a solid premise and a an entertaining story, but something about it is missing. Usually it’s due to poor story structure, and …
What’s Your Motivation? It’s Not That Bad of a Question
A lot of times when people make fun of actors, they’ll ask, “What’s my motivation?” in a very effeminate way. It’s a funny way to poke fun at actors by making it look like they can’t think for themselves. However, when you’re writing the script, there is no more important question to ask yourself. The main character’s …
Link to An Article written by David Mamet
This is a really good read for anyone who is struggling with individual scenes. http://www.movieline.com/2010/03/23/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit/
To a Screenplay, Stucture is Like Oxygen
In 1978, the band Sweet put out one of the last of their 13 top-20 hits and the last to reach the top-10. Their hits included notable songs like “Ballroom Blitz”, “Fox on the Run” and “Teenage Rampage”. This particular song was called “Love Is Like Oxygen”, and the chorus went as follows: Love is like …
How Is a Screenplay Like a House?
What kind of a question is that? Other than using the money you get from selling your first script to buy a house, what connection could a script possibly have to a house? Well, they’re more similar than you might think, especially when you consider the interior and the exterior. The most visible and least important …
Three Ways to Turn Dialogue into Action
Yes, it’s been more than 2 weeks since the last post. What can I say other than it’s that time of year. However, I have noticed couple of things about dialogue and action and how to lower the level of one and increase the level of others. I first came upon this when I was doing …
Structure Envy: Why You Need to Overcome Your Frustration With 3-Act Stucture
There is a level of frustration with writers who haven’t yet “made it”. They want to be able to write the stories that they want to write the way they want to write them. They don’t want to conform to the three act structure and they mock and rage against the powers that be and …
Shrinkage: Fitting a Novel Into a Screenplay
Disappointed with one of the Harry Potter movies, a friend of mine asked me why so much material is left out from the books when they’re turned into movies. I aksed him how long the movie was, and he told me 2 hours plus. My response to him was to imagine how long that movie would …
5 Crucial Ways To Improve Your Script Before You Even Start Writing It
Image bu ChrisO Even if you’ve already started writing your script, here are 5 easy things that you can do in order to make it better. First, sum up your movie in one line. Can you tell me what the story is about in a sentence or two? That’s what movie executives will want, and …