Notes from a Screenreader: Luggage Handling
Photo via Go Into the Story. Luggage handling is the awkward moment when characters have to take story time to account for their props. “Henderson! They’ve buried the bomb in the middle of the densest civilian population on the planet!” “Let’s go! I’ll pack the trunks in the jet.” This is an extreme example, obviously,...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Loglines Done Wrong
Photo via Go Into the Story. Loglines are tough. They can lie about your story if you let them. This is how you do Indiana Jones wrong: In World War II, an archaeology professor gets a call about a powerful artifact that changes his life forever. This is Silver Linings Playbook done wrong: A violent...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: To Genre or Not to Genre
Photo via Go Into the Story. A drama screenplay is fine, but it’s sort of like prose in that it is defined by what it isn’t. It’s not funny, scary, sci-fi or action. In competitions, that’s not such a handicap, because you are paying to be read, but neither are you giving yourself all the...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: The Bad Blind Date
Photo via Go Into the Story. You have a blind date. Nothing to go on, just a name. You smile, you shake hands, and then without preamble, your date sits down and launches into a monologue of therapy-grade personal disclosure. They tell you what the weather was like and what they were wearing during an...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Unpackable Hooks
Photo via Go Into the Story. Writer and director Timothy Cooper, an enthusiastically pragmatic teacher of professional screenwriting and past WIFTI Summit panelist, talks about the value of unpackable story concepts, which he defines as “rife with potential to anyone who hears it.” Perfect example: Inception. A team illegally breaks into a sleeper’s dreams to...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: The Same but What Now?
Photo via Go Into the Story. “The same but different” is the magic formula for a winning script. Does it mean anything or is it double speak for “I know it when I see it?” Patterns not formulas: Create familiar emotional patterns in new situations. The same is a recognizable tone with a recognizable build that...
READ MORENotes From a Screenreader: Mamet-ize It
Photo via Go Into the Story. THIS is the supreme last word on screenwriting from David Mamet. It is a memo from Mamet to his writing staff on The Unit, which you may or may not recall ran for 69 episodes between 2006 and 2009. It is glorious, true, funny, useful and brilliant. It’s not long....
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Low Readability
Photo via Go Into the Story. An active voice stands out immediately from the rest of the pile. It’s such a huge advantage to write action lines as if you want to tell a story rather than sketch in the background. INT. LIVING ROOM – DAYTim is sitting at the table, playing solitaire. Molly is...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Bang a Gong
Photo via Go Into the Story. Theme is the beating heart of the screenplay, the proposition about the human condition that your story explores—the big issues. Love. Faith. Resilience. Trust. Power. Courage. All the goosebumpy things. The theme, that single, simple thesis that creates clarity and scope and resonance through the arcs of your story,...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Commuter Blues
Photo via Go Into the Story. You drove 20 miles home in heavy traffic and don’t remember any of it. That’s the dissociation you use to deal with the sameness of your commute. It also happens when you read your script. Your brain fills in what’s supposed to be there and you blow right by your...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: The Wonkavator
Photo via Go Into the Story. Willy Wonka: No, it’s a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways, and slantways, and longways, and backways… A screenplay should not be a Wonkavator, even if it isn’t linear. What you want in a spec script is a ride straight...
READ MORENotes From a Screenreader: ’20 Feet From Stardom’
Photo via Go Into the Story. If you have not seen 20 Feet from Stardom, put it at the top of your to-do list. It won an Oscar, and it is the non plus ultra of setting your inner star loose on the world. A voice is a voice, whether it is raised in song or committed...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Old News
Photo via Go Into the Story. How long ago did you write your script? Does it show? It is impossible to stay convincingly up to the minute with technology and pop culture in a script, but it is possible to blow the dust off by doing a careful read for obsolescence. There’s an app for that....
READ MORENotes From a Screenreader: The Likability Trap
Photo via Go Into the Story. Protagonists need a bigger than life personality. Most spec scripts have protagonists without one. The average protagonist is unobjectionable. They color inside the lines and find a way to get what they want without breaking any rules. That is the likability trap. In an effort to create a sympathetic protagonist,...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Why Now?
Photo via Go Into the Story. To perform well in a competition, your script has to be able to answer the critical question, “Why now?” Successful, readable scripts hinge on an event, the outcome of which has the power to change the life of the protagonist. A showdown, a mountain to climb, a home run to...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Writing IKEA Style
Photo via Go Into the Story. A script, ideally, is one of those 300 square foot IKEA show apartments with every nook and cranny made useful two or three times over. Static placeholder scenes stick out like a farmhouse table. Written to clarify the writer’s thoughts on a single element, it sneaks through rewrites without ever...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Your Tenth Idea
Photo via Go Into the Story. No amount of technique can make up for a weak story. Weak stories are bland and predictable; they treat familiar themes and conflicts in familiar ways. They feel recycled. A fresh and original take on your story does 75% of the work for you. Give or take. To put the...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Meaningful Images
Photo via Go Into the Story. A script is a story that will be told with images. It feels like that goes without saying, but spec scripts are so often crushed under the weight of their own dialogue that it bears repeating. Meaningful images are revealing, memorable, interesting to read, and space saving. To rewrite for...
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